Again - highly thought provoking. I think the bottom line - once you net everything out is that city people - city thinking is different from country people and country living.
The folks running Portland - the people with the power - have sold it out and made millions in the process. Then - they leave. And they leave a mess.
Places like MLK, Alberta, Belmont, 23d street - they become Sodasopa. Then - Sodasopa gets boring and the asshats who live there all run off to Sodasopa 2.
The best line of the video mentioned sustainability. It is easy to get a movement going in Portland - the trick is sustaining it. It really is a matter of ADHD.
Take a town like Boulder CO as something to compare Portland to. A simple rule they made was limiting the height of the buildings. Nothing could be taller than about 33 feet for years. They are close to seeing that change. But - 33 feet is pretty low. And - it has kept the character of the city intact.
I am not suggesting that Portland should have that strict of a limitation
- but we could have kept it a bit lower. The real shift is all of the new construction with super dense office space and living space. The fact is - no one wants to live or work in spaces like that. We are going to see some empty - ****ty looking buildings soon. Let some of these monsters age a little and we will see what happens. Take those ****hole - soviet style block apts and mix it with **** like this -
and you get Portland. The only thing they are missing in the photo above is all the homeless people, drug addicts, derelict vehicle dwellers and potholes.
Meanwhile - the real money moves out to Lake Oswego etc and they have their nice tight little white communities where you won't find a derelict vehicle anywhere. They have all the nice schools - the kids in Portland drink lead in the water. It's all very transparent. And the city allows people to vent about whatever they want so they feel "heard" when they are the puppet masters pulling the strings and living out in whitey town.
So - back to part one of the video. I understand better what was being said. I understand the blacks in that video pining for their own neighborhood and the style they had. The character they have lost. Nice black neighborhoods and communities are rare. We had some in Portland. They are being swallowed.
Here is the thing - we had it pretty good in this country for awhile. I think we have lost sight of what makes happiness. It's not money. That's for sure. It's mostly about work, relationships and freedom.
Well - the cycle will swing around again. Portland will become poor, desolate, deserted in parts. People will need ****ty little nightclubs, haircuts and shoes. White people will move out. Blacks can move back in and re-colonize areas. But - the memberberries are gone. People have to make new memberberries. And that's hard when we allow criminals and douchebags to run the show.
Me? I am winding down on Portland. A long time ago I realized that IT was the new agriculture. That the green pastures of yesteryear now exist on the net. I am a farmer of data and my fields span the world. It really doesn't matter where I live and I grow weary of the new Portland and the people here. I sympathize with the blacks of Portland. But - I also sympathize with everyone else. You can't just attack people for naturally gravitating towards wanting to be with people that are similar - it is natural. And - it makes interesting - diversity when we band together. It is counter-intuitive. IMO- all black neighborhoods are good. All latino areas are good. All white areas are good. All Swedish areas are good. German - etc etc etc. America is a country of immigrants and most of the world is more interesting than what we have. We haven't been around that long. What should for the foundation of our country is in the constitution - we must protect that. Because - without that framework - we are lost. So - the next time you stifle someone else's free speech in the name of freedom - the next time you shut down traffic in the name of peace - the next time you call to take away a persons protection while the law cannot provide protection - remember - you are killing the country and turning it into a tougher - less friendly place.
The fact is that not everyone CAN move where they want. They must have gainful employment. This means strong local business and community. This means creating safe environments for people to walk in and shop. It means having scenery that is nice to look at. Friendly safe people to walk among. Easy rules to create new business cheaply without lots of red tape. No one is going to prosper in an environment where people are getting attacked and offended all the time.
Bottom line - everyone should quit worrying and *****ing and focus on being productive. People are more likely to help others out when they are happy and doing well as opposed to being attacked and made to feel like **** about their success.
OK - that was a rant and I am too tired to edit
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