Portland Mayor announces "I will NOT shut down the Occupation" w00t!

[Rabblevox]

Mayor Sam Adams convened a quick Occupy Portland press conference this morning before heading to the airport for a 10-day business and cultural trip to Asia. Although thanks to handsome man Lars Larson and some other TV reporters asking TV reporter-like questions, things got a bit testy at times. But the mayor stuck to his guns.


He declared himself a "progressive" and repeatedly used the word "discretion" in a message that roughly distills to this: I support Occupy Portland's message and methods, and as long as things stay peaceful and polite in a campsite that's not close to many residents or businesses, I'm not going to clear out Chapman and Lownsdale squares. In fact, he sounded a lot like Randy Leonard, whose bullish support of Occupy I first reported yesterday.


"I know this might frustrate folks," he said, including media, asking about an "end game." "The answer is we're looking at this on a day-to-day basis and the details matter."
Earlier, he said, "I have long held the view that there are national policies that hurt Portlanders and Oregonians, that make it more difficult for hardworking folks to get the kind of employment and educational opportunities they have a right to. That Occupy Portland and Occupy Wall Street have come along is great. It puts a focus and a spotlight on some national policy issues that need to be addressed."

Full story:
http://blogtown.portlandmercury.com/BlogtownPDX/archives/2011/10/20/mayor-sam-adams-lays-it-down-hes-in-no-hurry-to-clear-tents-from-downtown

I'm not overly fond of our Mayor, but I have to give him massive credit for the way he has handled the Portland Occupation so far.

More info on the local Occupation:

www.occupypdx.org

[Skip_In_Boulder]

1. Later, when pressed, he even said

he'd do the same for rabidly homophobic Westboro Baptist Church if they came to town—which I hope they won't now see as in invitation to, you know, actually come to town.)

That might not have been the best thing to say as those nutbags at WBC are liable to see this as an invitation which I'm sure wouldn't be a good fit with OP.

[roguevalley]

7. oregon is awesome. that is all.

[Scuba]

2. ...including media, asking about an "end game."

Yeah, the media loves it when thing get ugly.


Good on the Mayor. Good on the People of Portland.

[Bluenorthwest]

3. Mayor Adams is a good man

Lars Larson is a waste of clean NW air.

[gratuitous]

4. Larson's mad because the Occupiers opened up Main Street

Between Chapman and Lownsdale Squares is Main Street, which is the arterial that comes off of the Hawthorne Bridge as it crosses into downtown. For a couple of weeks, the Occupiers closed Main Street, which was a personal inconvenience to me, but really no big deal. Main Street isn't really the street you want to take to get into very many parking lots or to approach many office buildings. You really want to go north or south of Main to get to the major office buildings downtown. Traffic quickly made the adjustment, with northerly traffic heading off at Second, and everyone else heading south when they got to Third. That's where it became dicey for me personally, as I was worried that some irritated motorist might just decide the fat guy on his bicycle was a good target for his frustration.

Anyway, after the point had been made, and the Occupiers re-opened Main Street between Third and Fourth, I really expected this next step, which is the frustration from the Repressive Right that a few hippie heads didn't get busted, and traffic flow was restored without violence. So now they're pressing for an end to the Occupation, because of a new-found concern over public places, and a fresh opportunity to see the cops wade in with nightsticks and stun guns drawn.

Adams has blunted this now, too. I wonder how long until Larson and his buddies come up with some new angle to call for the hippie punching they so desperately want to see?

[coalition_unwilling]

5. My response to Larson and his douchenozzle colleagues:

[hugo_from_TN]

8. Ummm, the police opened up Main Street

They made several arrests of folks who refused to move.

[99th_Monkey]

6. Yay! .. that's my Mayor.

He's also allowing a new homeless encampment to remain, that sprung up in wake of
OccupyPdx, claiming that if Occupy could camp without getting hassled, they should
be able to also do the same i.e. camp peacefully.