Incursio

I have been involved in may community initiatives, processes, and committees over the last several years, and I have begun to notice something about people. I don't have any links or stats or such - this is just my viewpoint. Any time there is something done - there are always that camp that must complain. We all know them, the folks that are never happy with any solution. They are more than happy to tell you how the government screwed up, or the government screwed the people, or the government is full of idiots. There is no project too big or too small to draw their ire. You hear them complain about roads, about Transit, about bicycles, about development, about zoning, about environmental restrictions. Here in Portland we have had some high profile projects that people just love to hate. The Tram. The Streetcar. MAX. South Waterfront or the Pearl. But if you ask those people "Well, did you attend any of the meetings?" the answer will invariably be "no...

There is a certain workplace in downtown Portland that anyone who is familiar with it will instantly know what I am talking about. It is a large workplace, and at the entrances there is a revolving door between two regular doors. There are large signs on the regular doors that say "Please Use Revolving Door". This is because a revolving door does not let in heat or cold the same way a regular door does. When you open a regular door there is a large breeze of air that comes through, and it is very inefficient from a heating or cooling standpoint. A revolving door in contrast, is never really "open". At any point in time two if it's "arms" will be in contact with the walls, allowing it to maintain a "seal". Well I think a very interesting study in human nature is these doors. Fully 50% of the people I observe walk through the doors with the big signs on them saying "Please Use Revolving Door". If I had the time I would si...

Last night, in Downtown Portland of all places, someone felt the need to destroy one of my Bill Richardson for President stickers. Sure, I don't expect everyone to agree with me politically. Fair enough. But what on earth could make you so mad about Bill Richardson? Are you mad because he is a "dark horse" candidate? Are you mad because most people have not even heard of him? Maybe the person who ripped apart the sticker was from New Mexico and had some personal reason. In any event I thought it was a strange thing... Now if It had been a Hillary or W sticker I could at least understand the animosity. To each their own I guess. Just try and keep your mitts off my car.

After Tuesday's meeting about the proposed change to Interstate Ave, it seems like the default argument is to label anyone who opposes renaming Interstate to Cesar Chavez - is simply a racist. They call us racist because they know it will win their argument. We can't come back from that.