Last night (Wednesday, 10-12) the Occupy Portland GA decided to continue to "Occupy Main Street". First a little background.
On October 6th, the Occupy Portland movement started with a rally and march through downtown Portland that drew an estimated 5 to 6 thousand people. Initially it was to be a march on the sidewalks because the General Assembly (GA) made the decision not to get a permit. The City and the police maintained a dialogue with the OP organizers and in the end opened up the streets for the march without a permit. This huge. The march ended at Chapman Square and Lownsdale Square, two city parks separated by SW. Main Street, known as the "Plaza Blocks".
Lownsdale is one of two courthouse squares that comprise the Plaza Blocks which are bounded by Third and Fourth Avenues and Salmon and Madison Streets. The north square is named for Kentuckian Daniel H. Lownsdale, who settled in Portland in 1845 when there were fewer than 800 people living in the city. The south square is named for former Iowa territorial legislator and native Virginian William Williams Chapman (1808-1892) who arrived in Portland in 1850.
Between the two Plaza Blocks, Main Street curves around a huge elk fountain given to the city by David P. Thompson.
In 1974, after a debate about disturbing the blocks in order to complement the then-new General Services Building, Thompson's elk and the Plaza Blocks were designated as Historic Landmarks.
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The City suspended the park rules and the Occupy Portland camps settled in with one issue facing both the OP and the City. On Oct. 9th the Portland Marathon was happening and they had already received permits to use both parks as the finish line. After much negotiation, the City, the marathon organizers and OP cam e to an agreement to split the parks with OP using the south park (Chapman) and the marathon using the north park (Lownsdale). The day before the marathon an unofficial message was put out by someone at OP that the Mayor and the police would join with OP in a march at the end of the marathon, diaried here. The resulting kerfuffle within the movement as to who was responsible for the announcement did not split the movement although there were some hard feelings. The end results was another march with about 3,000 participating.
Including these anarchists.
At the end of the marathon/march, OP re-occupied Lownsdale Square and settled in for the long haul.
Fast forward after the Fleur-de-Kos.
For a week OP had kept SW Main blocked. Causing a detour of TriMet Bus Rts 4, 6, 10, 14 and 33, emergency vehicles and all other vehicular traffic. SW Main St. is the main egress off of the Hawthorne Bridge and is carrying extra traffic because the Morrison Bridge (next bridge to the North) is partially closed for re-decking.
The City has been trying to convince OP that Main should be re-opened and yesterday there was a significant police presence on the surrounding streets waiting for the order to clear it. The order did not come, yet.
This is the press release from OP re: continuing to block Main.
Occupy Portland Oct 12th Official Press Release
October 12th, 2011 ·
Occupy Portland has reached the following agreement of the General Assembly through our process of modified consensus:
Occupy Portland will continue to use Main Street as a common space for meeting and community building, except for emergency vehicles, bicycles and the anti-war march on Saturday, October 15th.
We will initiate direct communication with transit and emergency service unions, as well as the community as a whole, to develop a long term plan that honors both the needs for accessible gathering space and the safety of the entire community.
This process will take effect as soon as a protocol is developed. A working group has been tasked with developing this protocol and will begin work immediately on reaching out to the communities mentioned. There will still be room for continued discussion about the use of Main Street. We encourage all members of the community to join us at our next General Assembly meeting by the Elk on Main Street at 7pm so you can participate in our process.
In addition, The General Assembly of Occupy Portland agreed upon the following
statement on October 12, 2011.
City Officials and the Portland Police have expressed concern that
Occupy Portland is endangering the lives and livelihoods of the people
of this city through our continued occupation of the section of Main
Street between City Hall and the Department of Justice downtown.
We, too, are concerned about the lives and livelihoods of the people
of Portland, as well as the safety of Occupy Portland. However, we
believe that a political and economic system controlled by the
wealthiest 1% is a greater and ever-present danger to the people of
Portland and across the world.
It has been claimed that our occupation of Main Street is slowing down
emergency vehicles and risking people’s lives. We acknowledge this
concern however, the real risk to people’s lives is the fact that 40
million Americans are without healthcare, 560,000 of whom are
Oregonians.
We occupy Main Street with them.
It has been claimed that our occupation of Main Street is interfering
with public transportation and inconveniencing Tri-Met workers. We
acknowledge this concern, however, the real threat to Tri-Met workers
is the millions of dollars in budget cuts, which are undermining the
wages and benefits of public employees and destroying our public
transportation system.
We occupy Main Street with them.
It has been claimed that our occupation of Main Street is keeping the
working people of Portland from getting to their jobs on time. We
acknowledge this concern, however, the threat to working people is an
exploitative economic system in which people find themselves with
growing levels of debt, unemployed, or stuck in low paying jobs
without benefits and virtually no control over their working
conditions or everyday lives.
We occupy Main Street with them.
We are the 99% and we occupy together.
I think this is a huge tactical blunder. I think this post on the OP Facebook page sums it up better than I could. Bold is mine.
Hi. My name is Tony. Today was my first day at Occupy Portland since the march a week ago. On day 2 I saw that the focus had shifted from global economic issues to disagreements with the city, and I decided not to go down, because I wasn't interested in investing my time in those fights. In fact, I only went down today because I read a post on this facebook group that the barricades had been r...emoved, and I saw that as a sign that maybe the group was moving forward to take on real issues.
Then I got down there and saw the situation. It was embarrassing. I walked past the papasan and a dozen or so people in the street spouting empty rhetoric, but tried not to pay any attention to them.
In the park I saw a much different scene happening. It really is amazing the systems you guys have going on down there. The way that everything is self-organized and needs are being met, that is a radical movement. For one week's work, you guys are doing good, and you should be proud of that. I wanted to show my gratitude, so I helped out as best as I could on dishes, talked to people about what was going on, and tried to figure out more ways I could help. It was beautiful.
Then came the GA. I gotta say, it feels good to be peacefully assembled in that street and hearing people speak their minds. When I'm there, I can see why you would want it. But, the vast majority of Portland doesn't care about assembling on Main St, and will never understand why you care about it. A lot of them support our cause, but we will see this support continue to waiver as long as Main St. is blockaded. The fact that this is a PR issue was rarely even addressed. I heard so much talk about safety issues, yet there are streets all around the occupy site that have traffic on them, and I've never heard safety concerns about those. So, you're worried about how to organize street crossings? I've crossed a few streets in my day. It's not that difficult. I'm pretty sure we could reach consensus on how to cross a street without a single voice of contention. I bet any one of us could get it right on the first try. No friendly amendments necessary.
In all seriousness, I really respect the decision-making process that is developing. I know it's not easy to find a way in which everybody's voice can fairly be heard. However, there are obvious failures in the system. You told people who wanted to voice their concern to come down to the GA at 7pm. I was there. I listened. And listed. And listened. I did twinkle fingers. I did sad doggies. I made the decision not to speak because there were a lot of people there, and I knew we couldn't all speak, but I participated.... for 4 hours. After those 4 hours, when we finally got around to voting, the crowd had shrunk to half of it's size or less. In the end what we had was a consensus that emergency vehicles and bikes would be let through. Basically, we voted not to barricade ambulances. that took 4 hours.
We need a better process. We know what the opinion of the 99% in the city is. They want the street open. I know this because I have a temperature gauge. Every vehicle that goes West over Hawthorne Bridge can be considered to be giving twinkle fingers for Main St opening. Now, I am not a vehicle owner, but there is one thing I understand about drivers. They do not like it when you get in their way. asking them to go around and not caring if they're inconvenienced is very self righteous and sends a condescending message (again, PR issue.) They have a right to the street, which we are infringing upon, and we are not listening to their concerns.
And of course, there is overwhelming online support for opening main street. this support was dismissed at the meeting as representing a sample that does not include poor people, when in fact, anybody can get access to the internet through multnomah county library as well as a number of cafes. Anybody can earn a computer by volunteering at free geek. Web access is near universal, and it is largely because of the internet that this movement can happen. Dismissing online opinions is damaging to the movement and distances a large, visible population that has tools to help us. We need to find a way to incorporate them.
All in all, if the GA had represented the desires of the 99%, we would have opened Main Street. Until it does open, those barriers are barriers to outreach, which is what we should be focusing on. Bring people out. If we bring enough people to the park that they can't fit on the sidewalks, then we won't need those barriers to take the street.
That's my two cents. I will not be at the GA tomorrow night, but I will be finding other ways to help at other times. I would like those in attendance tomorrow night to consider my opinion. Also, please don't get discouraged. As the movement matures, I'm sure there will be awkward stages. These things take time.
I find it ironic that OP is in support of the "Occupy Wall Street" movement and at the same time wants to occupy "Main Street".
I am going to have to re-think my support of OP if a minority continues to dominate the decision making process, who do they think they are, Republicans?