Screw history, we're Portland City Hall
I see the handwriting is on the wall for the Portland Elk. If and when the statue returns to the streets, it won't be part of a fountain. The parks bureau (Carmen "Chainsaw" Rubio) and the water department (Mingus "A Um" Mapps) can't be bothered.
The reason we can't have nice things is the people we elect to look after them.
There will be the usual public input charade, but it won't make any difference. It never does. Farewell, noble David P. Thompson Fountain. You survived Terry Schrunk, you survived Sam Adams and Randy Leonard, you survived two world wars and Mount Saint Helens, but you are no match for the current custodians of Wheelerville.
It's the classic 'this is why we can't have nice things.'
ReplyDeleteNothing is sacred in the name of progress. Onward comrades.
ReplyDeleteThe worst nice thing lost may be reputation. Who in their right mind will be booking much of anything downtown or the convention center for their event? Big or small? The daytime is not so swell. After dark is.......unfriendly?
ReplyDeleteI heard that the Portland Diamond Project is going to have a MLB team here in no time
DeleteAnd how much do you want to bet that if the statue had been dedicated to some random gay rights “pioneer”, that the city would had made all kinds of promises to restore the statue to EXACTLY the way it was previously? And on top of that, they would had made it their sole focus to arrest and prosecute the vandals, along with providing 24/7 security monitoring.
ReplyDeleteI can’t believe the way the local leaders and some citizens in Portland make me hate the very town in which I have spent the better part of my life in. But here we are.
The water bureau is behind so much malfeasance and wrongdoing. They demolished this beautiful old fountain within two weeks of RACC removing. They demolished the 100 year old Ransome (rebar) engineered reservoirs at Washington Park - only to replace with one
ReplyDeletesmaller tank that apparently has changed from drinking water use to fire protection use...the Portland Water Bureau is hands down the worst public water utility in the country.
3rd generation Oregonian and I've never warmed to that statue. It sat awkwardly in the middle of the street and the elk was an ungainly thing with an un-elkishly long neck. It'll ultimately reappear in some appropriate public space, and that is fitting. But I won't miss its prior placement. Just because something is old doesn't make it, de-facto, a masterpiece.
ReplyDelete