Blogtown, PDX

Thursday, February 15, 2007

Media Vision PDX preview: “Get your fucking Blackberry out of my face.”

Posted by Matt Davis on Thu, Feb 15 at 11:30 AM

Hey, you! The attorney with the offensive checked shirt! Yeah, you! Portlanders want you to “get your fucking Blackberry out of their faces”, according to this morning’s Oregonian.BLACKBERRY: VISION this up your ass.

Reporter Joe Rose has obtained a sneak preview of the Mayor’s VISION PDX survey, which finds Portlanders are feeling “a growing gap between the haves and have-nots.”

In the “Economy” section, for example, the report shows that many people think “the tram/South Waterfront/ North Macadam development (not to mention the Pearl, which seems to have become a verb, as in ‘to Pearlize’) was a total waste of money. Resources put into such projects, many Portlanders said, “should have gone to increasing transportation and housing options for a larger range of people.”

Other areas of wasted money include that fucking Blackberry handheld you’re shoving in my face. Get rid of it. More highly useful insights from the ~~soon-to-be-widely derided~~ VISION PDX project soon.

UPDATE, 1:12pm:Numerous people, including the Mercury’s esteemed editor, don’t understand “what the fuck this post is talking about.” To elucidate: THE BLACKBERRY IS A SYMBOL/METAPHOR FOR THE DIVIDE BETWEEN PORTLAND’S HAVES AND HAVE NOTS referred to in the mayor’s upcoming not-very-scientific Vision PDX report. Saying “Get your Blackberry out of my fucking face,” is another way of saying, “stop showing me how you have more money than I do,” without droning on about the Mayor’s Vision PDX project. I don’t want to BORE you. That’s all. Also, that’s why it’s funny. P.s. I’m a dick.

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Comments

I don't get it. What does a Blackberry have to do with development?

Posted by G | February 15, 2007 12:00 PM

EVERYTHING.

Posted by Matt Davis | February 15, 2007 12:17 PM

From the article:

Of course, for the mayor, the draft report contains this gem from the citizen surveys: "Many questioned the current form of government: Is it productive and effective?"

What's "many"? Were they asked, or did they offer, thoughts on what if anything to do about it? Or is the Mayor's office simply taking any criticism of the current form as a desire to change it?

Posted by b!X | February 15, 2007 12:32 PM

Quantify the results? What? Are you mad?!

This is about feelings, B!X. Feelings.

Posted by Matt Davis | February 15, 2007 12:43 PM

Some Vision PDX people seemed a little pissed at the 1/18 city council meeting (where they voted to accept the review commission's report) that Vision PDX results would have no effect on that report.

That's when they learned how irrelevant they actually were, I guess.

Posted by Mark | February 15, 2007 2:43 PM

That's when they learned how irrelevant they actually were, I guess.

Until the report starts being used by the pro-strong mayor camp as a way to show that there's community support for changing the government.

The draft report says that "many questioned the current form of government: is it productive and effective?" It also says "a smaller number of respondents expressed dissatisfaction for the commission form of government..." It's only the draft report, so no numbers are given to show what that means.

Further, "Everyone, regardless of their political leanings, wants to know that their government is doing the best job with the money they have and that the system is fair." It wouldn't be terribly surprising to see that sold as "Portlanders are screaming for efficiency."

Also interesting--respondents apparently are fully behind publicly funded elections, based on the assumption that politicians elected under it would be less beholden to special interests.

Posted by Scott Moore | February 15, 2007 3:01 PM

After charter reform fails and this report lands with a thud, Potter is going to go down as the least productive mayorship ever. Yes, less productive than Van B. Delashmutt.

Posted by Morgan | February 15, 2007 4:37 PM

I heard that 14,996 of the 15,000 respondents specifically mentioned the commission form of government as the thing they hate most about Portland.

Also, respondents much prefer that our city be renamed Potterville instead of Portland.

Posted by West Hill Billy | February 16, 2007 3:02 AM

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