sofi

In what way is this not just embezzlement by creating a slush fund by the mayor's office and city admin? It really seems like embezzlement.

It is crazy to me how many empty lots there are in the city. Dare to Dream 2 is probably the most infuriating one bc of the history there but they are everywhere. there should be insane fees for squatting on empty lots in the city. I'd double that shit every year until they sold it or did something.

He was in the bike lane, yet the driver's actions did not contribute to the collision. Hm.

The rake that every pundit and poster steps on (and I am guilty of this too) is the implied presumption that every political decision is necessarily undergirded by deep political values or beliefs rather than Vibes based on the 3 most recent semi-relevant things they interacted with

Portland Said It Was Investing in Homeless People’s Safety. Deaths Have Quadrupled. The city responded to an increase in homeless deaths by intensifying encampment sweeps and adding emergency shelter at the expense of permanent housing. Experts say this has perpetuated the problem.

Sweeps do actually kill people. I watched it happen to houseless neighbors of mine. 5 years our neighborhood had zero issues. Each sweep they became more and more worn down.
Homeless Deaths Quadrupled — ProPublica share.google/c8RPXDH0D3mH...

did you miss the part where there wasn't one. because the mayor didn't show up. that was like the whole post so I'm not sure how you missed it but well here we are

Incredibly disrespectful conduct on his part tbh. Really seems like he wants to run away from the consequences of bad policy choices.

you've been running on that "hates preschool, loves billionaires" platform long enough that I'm pretty sure we know who you work for and what your values are.

here's hoping we see someone at least modestly progressive come and win the primary before we lose the state to Drazan

Mayor ghosts city council because he doesn't want anyone to challenge his big "MISSION ACCOMPLISHED" PR victory lap in local papers after claiming he's fixed homelessness in Portland.

Seems a lot like Mayor Wilson just doesn't like his ideas or claims being challenged.

really interesting and suspicious choice given the recent revelations of admin hiding knowledge of $21 million in housing money from the council before the budget adjustment and the still unexplained firing of the housing bureau director.

Portland City Council will meet today to discuss the "Homelessness to Housing Continuum."

The original idea was for it to be a venue for Mayor Wilson to talk about his homelessness plan. But per Wilson's office, it's not certain he'll show up.

(And bureau staff have been advised not to attend.)

if someone with direct lived experience with our SUD treatment and houseless services systems ran for office here that would be the most qualifying characteristic any candidate has ever had for any office in Portland. certainly more than being from a family that owns a dairy or a freight company.

I would personally vote for any houseless person in the city before I vote for anyone with a trust fund or a business worth north of a million dollars again

love the implication that if someone has been addicted to a substance - you know, received treatments for a medical disorder - they aren't qualified for public office. for reasons

"but he's wealthy/successful/married/in politics!" yeah man I have some news for you about who gets addicted to stuff

I'm sure this framing was not intentional but it is incredibly telling about the ways people view houselessness and addiction and the people it happens to

Felt like I was losing my mind when I talked about the sheer number of empty units in this city and people insisted this was not a thing

LONG RAMBLING EMOTIONAL THREAD:

It's World AIDS Day. Since the Administration has decided to keep it quiet, I'd like to share my introduction to AIDS.

I grew up in Seattle. My mom remarried a man who had a brother who was a King County Sheriff's Deputy. His name was Terry and he was gay. 1/x

All 50,000 panels of the National AIDS Memorial Quilt has been fully digitized.

You can search Duane's name and see the panel he made. And someone else made a panel for him, too.

www.aidsmemorial.org/interactive-...

“yeah our network downtime was getting to be a problem until we told the bot it was wearing programmer socks. we’ve got a whole team trying to figure out which fursonas work better for QA”

in one sense, computers and related technology are obviously not magic. in another, often just as real sense, they are absolutely a kind of magic. gosh I love computer

okay it's finally myths of the realm time. god I love this alliance series

people in portland should be angrier about their tax dollars being funneled to the salvation fucking army tbh

good time to start masking up indoors if you aren't already tbh

gonna get a good grade in personality, a thing that is probably normal to want and apparently possible to achieve

one of the more personally irritating parts of job hunting is all of the wild and frequently invasive corporate astrology shit I have been subjected to. I have yet to apply to a job that has not forced me to do a personality quiz either before or after the interview.

it's this almost certainly

maybe it's because "liberal" means dramatically different things depending on who is saying it and the context? boiling the political philosophy down to "human rights" is missing a lot of the actual philosophy but that's also often not what people mean when they say liberal

what if we did just shove every tech ceo into a wickerman and let nature take its course

but man it's really hard to get people to drill into specific problems when they're being given maximalist outrage bait that targets the basic concept of the technology as the root of all evil