Some ? To the People for Portland posters

#1

This is a small discussion forum, and I would consider being incorrect on these assumptions, but I doubt that:
They really stick out with their attempts of manipulation and complaining throughout some of these threads, which include no offers of remedy.

Do any of you actually live in Portland?

Apparently PfP has a lot of dark/mysterious money from…
Real Estate interests?
The Koch brothers?
The Proud Boys?

You really should let everyone know where the money is from, you might gain more support. Why the secrecy? It must be really bad.

Are you paid per post?

People for Portland doesn’t want to work with the People of Portland?
Please declare yourselves; make yourselves known.
Don’t be afraid of Portland - Use your millions of dollars for good

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#2

I’m not with People for Portland, but I find it quite interesting that a group that wants to bring change to Portland is so vilified. Let them speak. Let them raise their money. You, and others, have so much more power than them, your vote.

Vote with your conscience, I’ll vote with mine.

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#3

Are you saying you suspect some people in this forum are astroturfers paid by People for Portland? Just want to be clear.

The money being dark could be just to protect contributors from reprisal, as with Planned Parenthood and many other touchy subject areas. It doesn’t _need to _ mean Kochs or Proud Boys — but agreed, it could.

#4

Raysco,

I find your post a bit odd as I haven’t seen much mention (I think once) of People for Portland (P4P) on this forum. I guess the discussion does have some validity in a bike forum as P4P is pushing for public safety improvements and action on the homeless crisis both of which affect cyclists.

I do find it strange that many in Portland spend a lot of time trying to vilify a group that has very reasonable goals with broad appeal (see below). Some supporters of P4P have come out publicly such as major Portland philanthropists Jordan Schnitzer and Tim Boyle. Both of them have done a lot of good for our community.

Just like Planned Parenthood and other groups don’t release the names of their donors publicly neither has Poeple for Portland. This is not unusual and not indicative of some evil dark money source. I think one of the best things people can do is to listen to the OPB interview with the co-founders of P4P. One is a long time Democrat and the other a long time Republican.
Here is the link. It’s about 20 minutes long.

And here are the goals of the group. I find them quite needed.

1) End the Humanitarian Crisis on Our Streets

Transition homeless Portlanders from inhumane, dangerous camps to safe, sanitary temporary housing solutions with access to mental health and addiction services

2) Strengthen Accountability & Justice

Require body cameras on all police to ensure transparency and accountability for those who enforce the law and those who break the law

3) Reform & Reinvest in Public Safety

Expand the Portland Street Response to engage those with mental health and addiction challenges; add more police for neighborhood patrols and to reduce rising violent crime

4) Restore Cleanliness & Pride

Initiate immediate government action for sustained citywide clean-up of garbage, dangerous waste, and graffiti

Here is the link for those interested:

https://peopleforportland.org/about-us/

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#5

tfcandiit,

The tone and content of many (most? all?) of your posts indicates that you are a political agitator. It’s not too great a leap to believe that you are doing it on behalf of P4P. I think most people have seen enough of that inundating every aspect of public discourse for years now to know it when they see it. Basically, we’ve come to know when someone is trying to manipulate us using things we care about (in our case, cycling). And that’s the main problem many of us have with P4P, they’re trying to manipulate the “people”.

Get out for a bike ride and have a great day!

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#6

No mention of People for Portland is pretty much my point.
Are some posters here astroturfers? maybe.
Political agendas that align with People for Portland’s bullet points? Yes.
The timing is amazing.

I don’t think anybody disagrees with their assessment of the current state of the city, but it’s more of a “No shit Sherlock” response.
We all have been saying most of the same things a year or so before these carpet baggers came to town.
Have elected leaders been too slow? Yes.
Can a new set of elected leaders do a better job? I doubt it.

Portland has had 4 mayors and a lot of supervisors. since beginning of the homeless crisis in 2010, an array of border line republicans, moderates and liberals.
Ideology instead of pragmatic leaders? No.

But I don’t trust a group or politician that does not want me to know everything about them, yet wants my approval.
I don’t equate donors to a organization that provides reproductive health care to political donors of a group who wants to shove their way into a city. Political donors should be known.

Not allowing anyone to know who controls the purse strings says a lot to me. I think of the right wing nut jobs who would drive their diesel pickups to Black Lives Matter protests with their license plates covered.

Maybe the forum could add in a discussion page for just political comments, so I could learn about bike matters without having to scroll past someone opining about who is such a bad leader or whatever.

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#7

Bryan,
Sounds like you are one of those “blocked/trashed bike paths are good” people because it’s compassionate? I think too many in Portland confuse compassion with enabling. Too bad I have to go out of town on a beautiful day like today to find a safe place to ride but that is the case.
Stay safe and be well.

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#8

Hardly. The people blocking and trashing our multi use paths and streets, committing property crimes, etc are mainly drug addicts. After a lifetime of dealing with drug addicts in my own family, I have zero tolerance for them. But also after a lifetime of watching right wing dark money groups manipulating our country to the brink of a fascist takeover, I’ve got zero tolerance for them either.

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#9

I think you are seeing boogeymen where none exist.

Happy pedaling.

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#10

tfcandiit,

Well, all P2P has to do to remove people’s wariness of them is reveal who their backers are. And I see that you have left the question unanswered as to whether or not they’re paying you to leave comments here.

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#11

Oh come on Bryan and JayDedd, quit with the paid astroturf and Proud Boy/Koch brother paranoia conspiracy theories.
That’s just silliness. I have nothing to do with P4P except I like that they are trying to improve Portland.

Look at the goals of People for Portland. They are very reasonable, certainly not the work of some far right fascist wacko outfit.
Listen to OPB interview. 2 very reasonable co-founders (one Democrat, one Republican). Two very prominent Portland philanthropists (Tim Boyle, Jordan Schnitzer) who have given a lot of their money to our community have voiced their support.

Read their goals. Not extreme. Reasonable to most Portlanders. If it doesn’t resonate with people then fine but this is not the work of some evil entity as you and others on the far left have been suggesting.

P4P GOALS:
1) End the Humanitarian Crisis on Our Streets

Transition homeless Portlanders from inhumane, dangerous camps to safe, sanitary temporary housing solutions with access to mental health and addiction services

2) Strengthen Accountability & Justice

Require body cameras on all police to ensure transparency and accountability for those who enforce the law and those who break the law

3) Reform & Reinvest in Public Safety

Expand the Portland Street Response to engage those with mental health and addiction challenges; add more police for neighborhood patrols and to reduce rising violent crime

4) Restore Cleanliness & Pride

Initiate immediate government action for sustained citywide clean-up of garbage, dangerous waste, and graffiti

Here is the link for those interested:

https://peopleforportland.org/about-us/

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#12

The tfcandiit doth protest too much, methinks. (Bryan, do another one.)

But agreed, these four goals don’t seem extreme.

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#13

I’ve never even heard of this PfP crap and it doesn’t belong on BikePortland. This post should’ve been deleted the day it was posted by admins since its off-topic.

#14

You’re assuming that the “people” in People for Portland are acting in good faith. Sounds like some folks here believe they are not.

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#15

The problem is that there seems to be a handful of astroturfers who post the P4P talking points on virtually every topic here. The original post in this thread was calling that out.

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#16

Spot on bryan and Mark.

#17

I’ve been browsing here for a month or two and I haven’t heard of or seen of P4P once on these forums.

Also, the original post in this thread never claimed or even hinted to be talking to only the “handful” of “astroturfers”, raysco asked if BikePortland forum posters are paid per post, and was calling out everyone here in the forums.

Again I ask this entire thread be deleted as its off-topic, and P4P has nothing to do with these forums and this thread is only creating unnecessary drama about something that isn’t even true.

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#18

Um. Once again, it’s kind of the point that any covert P4P posters — that is, astroturfers (phony grass roots) — would likely not be explicitly mentioning P4P yet would be attempting to advance its agenda.

The OP was not calling out everyone. The very title of the post is “To the People for Portland Posters.”

The OP’s motivation would appear to be very much like your concern about such posters creating unnecessary political drama here. That is, you two would appear to actually be on the same side.

Reading comprehension?

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#19

Jay, You bryan and the OP are really reaching for some sort of evil conspiracy here. Racist Proud Boys and Koch brother afficionados infiltrating a small time forum for a bipartisan group that supports alternative public safety initiatives (Portland Street Response) as well as police accountability and body cameras? Huh? There is no boogeyman here.
I think we can all agree that Portland finds itself in a very rough spot. We need to work together to improve things, not try to denigrate others who are interested in improving the community in which they live (and ride). Be well.

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#20

The population of our country is mainly made up of grifters and rubes. Some people have learned from experience to be vigilant for the grifters. Groups that claim to be about “public policy” and refuse to disclose who is backing them financially are invariably for profit political grifters. People who constantly push the talking points of these shady groups in public forums are almost always astroturfers for the grifters.

As for P4P, until they disclose who is backing them, I’m going to assume they’re political grifters fronting for people who want power, money, or most likely both. The problems they talk about aren’t news to anyone around Portland who is marginally conscious. The “solutions” they talk about are the standard laundry list that everyone talks about. What I don’t see coming from them is how they propose to implement or pay for those “solutions” or any ideas about how they’re going to deal with the root causes of those problems - primarily the epidemic of drugs. Propaganda is cheap.

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