Why I Am Not an Anarchist, by Greg Hill

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Yes! Tasty organic cotton candy. For sure strawberry, lemon, and mango. About the comment about not liking the Last Thursday inconvenience. I worked residential treatment and alternative ed. in the community. One of my former students, Jamil Myrick, was shot dead at 15th and NE Alberta. 20 years ago many of the buildings on Alberta were boarded up and gangs were wilding on the street, it was the ghetto. If it weren't for the dirty hippies and their art the neighborhood would not be cool. It bothers me that Johnny-come-lately residents and business owners on the street don't show any appreciation. Five evenings a year, that's it. I don't think we need worry. Rents are pricing the artists out. The scene is less cool every year, now food trucks show up and people from all over are trying to cash in. The money on a "last" Thursday has never been awesome, it is far from payday, great advertising though Anyway back on point, anarchy was a part of the scene at the start. We did not ask permission. At first the street did not close. I watched as too many people were reveling to be contained on the sidewalk - between 26th and 27th a band was rockin' and suddenly people burst into the street to dance and drink from plastic cups. The police closed the street for safety, but the street was unusable for cars.TMI -sorry, see you there.

Fuck you, I've lived in this neighborhood for 18 years. I had my first child when I lived at 22nd and Alberta. My dad has owned a house on Mississippi for 60 fucking  years and I was born in nopo. Don't get all uppity at me about "the ghetto" and "Johnny-come-latelies" just because I don't prefer to participate in the fucking circus. I don't have any problem with most of the businesses on Alberta; I'm friends with the owners of some of them, and old Joe is my neighbor -  oh, that's right, I'm sure you would have considered Joe's Place "ghetto", so never mind. I don't even have a problem with Last Thursday, or the Mississippi Street Fair (of which my brother has been awarded Best BBQ seven years in a row). I just don't like to go out in them, because I'm a middle-aged mom and it's not my scene. I'm sorry black people make you so fucking uncomfortable, I guess I won't bother stopping by. I'd hate to get any of my ghetto on your cotton candy.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

"Gangs were wilding on the street". Are you talking about me and my baby? Walking around the neighborhood, going down to the cafe for lattes and terrorizing people with my stroller? I actually LIVED THERE THEN, DUMBASS. A few of the buildings were boarded up, but it wasn't gangland by ANY stretch of the imagination. But I'm probably one of the residents you dismiss as being ungrateful for all the white hippies buying the cheap, run-down houses as the older residents who were too infirm and poor to maintain them bought them up. Which is not a bad thing... it's the cycle of life in a city. Old poor people die, young poor people buy their houses and fix them up, and eventually become middle-aged people with decent middle-aged incomes. The only thing that's changed is that the redline vanished, so now the middle-class black families can buy houses anywhere they want.

BTW the neighborhood would be just as nice without the circus. Possibly nicer.

[Rev. Stu Holbrook]

I don't know you so I am unable to confirm or deny your gang affiliation.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I'm sure you would know the father of my kids as one of the builders of last thursday, btw. Not that you give a shit about anything short of congratulating yourself.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I don't know you so I am unable to confirm or deny your gang affiliation.

Yeah, as a johnny-come-lately I'm sure you're unable to confirm or deny much of anything about my neighborhood.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

You apparently racist piece of shit.

[Junkenstein]

Well that escalated quickly.

Adding "Organic Cotton Candy" to the list. Not sure what this list is, or what else will be included but I feel a need to start it.

[Cain]

You really reported Nigel for calling you a dumbass?  Really?

That's a whole 30 seconds of my life, checking that moderator report, that I'll never get back.

[Junkenstein]

BRB, REPORTING EVERYONE FOR EVERYTHING.

[Cain]

Yeah, but really, stop reporting petty shit.

I have to open a window and dismiss it every time it happens, and it's fucking annoying.  It wasn't funny the first time, and it's certainly not come the 5th time.

[Junkenstein]

I'll pack that in then. Apologies.

[LMNO]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but "the ghettos of Portland, OR" sounds a heck of a lot like "The slums of Hampton Beach, NY".

As compared to, say, West Baltimore.

[Raz Tech]

I was kind of thinking the same thing.  I grew up in Chicago.

[Faust]

OMG STOP REPORTING POSTS.

STU, discuss this out with nigel first, we don't intervene unless it is otherwise unavoidable.

Junkenstein, hit that report button one more goddamn time and you'll have my Junk in your trunk if you know what I mean, and I think you do.

[Junkenstein]

I'm assuming you got a load of repeats. I did try and vary it for amusement but obviously failed here.

Apologies again.