It's time to take a stand! Help stop Rose Festival parade-taping.

Kari Chisholm FacebookTwitterWebsite

Randy Leonard is taking a stand against the absurd Portland "tradition" of taping off chunks of sidewalk - and then violently threatening people who don't "get it." From KGW:

But if Commissioner Randy Leonard gets his way, this will be the last year that tapers can take those prime viewing spots several days in advance, only to plop down moments before the big show starts.

"It's just not appropriate," said Leonard. "It should be first come, first served." ...

"I just have a hard time getting my arms around what it is that people think is their right to evict someone who is sitting in their taped off area when they show up at 9:00 a.m." said Leonard.

Nevermind that it's already illegal. From the O:

As they do for concerts and hit movies, parade watchers have sat out overnight to reserve good spots for decades. More recently, Leonard said, people started to tape, chalk or spray paint sections for their families.

That's probably against the law, given that sidewalks and streets are public property and can't be controlled by any one person, said Sgt. Brian Schmautz, a Portland police spokesman.

Over at the Portland Mercury, they're taking matters into their own hands tonight.

The Mercury Clean Up Squad(TM) will meet at the Convention Center Max Stop, NE MLK and Holladay [Friday] night at 7.45pm, to ensure the Rose Festival can be enjoyed by all, not just a self-centered few. Sidewalk tape cleaning and trash cleaning will begin promptly at 8pm. Please bring garbage bags, and a civic-minded, can-do attitude. If you fancy a drink first, a few of us might be in Rontoms on East Burnside from 6pm.

This is brilliant. If you join 'em, don't get beat up -- move quiet and fast.

Meanwhile, can we enforce the sit/lie ordinance for anybody camping out overnight? Please?

  • LiberalIncarnate (unverified)
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    This is a fantastic idea! Bravo to the Mercury! If people want to save a spot let them camp out like everyone else!

    I, for one, I will watching from my TV at home. No tape required.

  • Eric J. (unverified)
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    Randy Leonard is a extremely bored person and needs something better to do with his time than to gripe and compalin about petty things. First the IKEA sign and now this. It looks like he just does this to mark time that he has on his hands. Randy! - Listen up! If you are that bored with your job that you have to complain about petty items like this, find one that keeps you occupied so that you won't be so foolish and petty. Quit being petty and do your job - or get a real job that doesn't bore you like this one.

  • Kurt (unverified)
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    The City has been making revenue for decades by selling parking permits to construction companies who require certain street locations to be reserved. Perhaps we could do the same by selling "Rose Permits". Certain size lots would require certain fees and all the money could go toward the parade or for replacing all the grass after the festival has moved away. Let the Duct-tapers pay for the rights that they seem to think they can enforce on others by merely being able to yell louder than the honest folks. I imagine that a good location could earn $150 in permit fees and God know the city loves it's ability to inflict fees.

  • LeoXXIII (unverified)
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    Wow--we are scrapping bottom. We all know that Randy likes to get his name in the press and loves being a show boat, but it is a big disappointing that you all are jumping on board. Let the Oregonian cover this important issue--it will give them something to put in their paper, and Randy will get his ego puffed up again---but don't make blueoregon the equivalent to an online Oregonian.

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    It may seem like a non-issue, but to those who are physically threatened, harassed, etc. on the morning of the parade because they're in someone's "spot," it definitely is a problem.

    I think the taping off is stupid, and therefore we have never gone to a single one of these parades.

  • no one in particular (unverified)
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    Meanwhile, can we enforce the sit/lie ordinance for anybody camping out overnight? Please?

    I am vehemently anti-tape (and was out there ripping it up for the starlight parade before this was ever in the Mercury) but I don't understand what's wrong with people camping? If someone wants to put in the work to camp out overnight... let 'em do it! What's next, you want to arrest anyone who shows up before 5:30am or something?

    It's this lazy, trashy taping that I have a problem with.

  • dartagnan (unverified)
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    Here's an even better idea: Scrap the parade and the whole damn festival.

    Every year I dread the Rose Festival's arrival because I know it's going to mean crappy weather until mid-June.

    Why can't you Portlanders get it? God DOES NOT LIKE the Rose Festival!

  • janine (unverified)
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    Go Randy and the Mercury! In my opinion taping is lazy, boorish and rude, and I'm thrilled to see it done away with. I hope they keep ripping it up until the turkeys finally give up.

  • Eric J. (unverified)
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    It's only once a year. OK - Twice if you count the Starlight parade. In any event, it's only done those times and for the rest of the year the streets are clean of tape. Sounds like Randy has a hoard of bored people like him to complain and to be petty like this. It doesn't make sense to have a snit fit over something this petty when there are other more pressing items and issues the city has to deal with.

    Let em tape it up. It only happens once a year so just live and let live.

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    We all know that Randy likes to get his name in the press and loves being a show boat, but it is a big disappointing that you all are jumping on board.

    I love the suggestion: our journalistic standards are higher than the Oregonian's. But don't mess with our blogger cred--nothing is too oblique or salacious for our scrutiny !

    I have as close to no opinion on this issue as is possible (while still holding an opinion). The wisp of a thought that does cross my mind is this: every year, as I pass through the virtual parade, marked like full-sized architectural drawings with tape, I marvel that the social fabric is strong enough to support this citywide game of "dibs." Not only are the tape lines regarded as legitimate, but no one walks off with the lawn chairs and old couches.

    I don't think anyone in the argument has a claim to the egalitarian, democratic high ground here (after all, people aren't buying space). I'm unconvinced by that. Which leaves me to weigh the two choices. I suspect that in ten years, we'll rue the day we ever sacrificed the social contract we all had agreed to. We'll tell stories of the old tape-and-couch system to unbelieving youth, like our parents tell us about how you could leave the door to your house unlocked back in the olden days.

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    Kari, the sit/lie ordinance is not due to go into effect until tomorrow anyway--and it's exempted from permitted assemblies in any case, of which the Rose Festival is one.

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    I have to echo Jeff's comments, although I have a slightly stronger opinion. Almost every year, my family has chalked up a spot downtown from which to view the parade. At the crack of dawn Saturday morning --we're talking 5 AM here--my mom or dad goes down to sit in their chairs with a thermos of coffee and a box of doughnuts to share with other curbsitters.

    It's a hilarious, silly, community-building affair. People bring sidewalk chalk for kids. Homemade goodies are passed around. Adults blow bubbles for mobs of kids to chase. Conversation is struck up between utter strangers. You have to do something to pass the time.

    I don't agree with people arriving at 9 AM to kick someone off the curb because their space is "reserved," and frankly, no one in my family has ever seen it happen. If you aren't there the night before or early in the AM, you pretty lose the right to sit in that spot.

    I think this is one of the things that makes Portland seem like a small town, even though we get bigger every year. I'd hate to lose the community spirit it embodies.

  • Chris McMullen (unverified)
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    I never understood why people think they can stake their claim on public property. Mandating some city ordinance against it is silly, but no one should think they have dibs on a spot just because they tape a section off.

    First come first served, I always say.

  • Scott in Damascus (unverified)
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    And what about all the corporate spots reserved in many of the prime locations? Don't believe me - then walk over to Nordstroms and ask them what gives them the right to tape off the whole front of the store's public sidewalk?

    Randy is right - first come, first serve. It works for movies, concert tickets, and all other general admission events.

  • Call Me Old Fashioned (unverified)
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    For the first time ever our paper of record and the "voice of the northwest since 1850" has doctored up their front page foto.

    Making the news cute is not itself news, of course. I myself loved Kari's cut and past sombrero send-up of last year's gubenatorial candidate in those "Saxtonville" posts and Jack Ohman's cartoons never fail to get a laugh and make us all think.

    But I just don't think it's right for our state's daily paper to crop, cut and paste photos for front page news stories.

    Call me old fashioned, but I look to the front page of the newspaper in hopes of finding the news.

    At least you can still start a campfire with it.

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    Kari, the sit/lie ordinance is not due to go into effect until tomorrow anyway--and it's exempted from permitted assemblies in any case, of which the Rose Festival is one.

    Oh, sure... and it's fine to permit the assembly, y'know, when the Parade is actually happening... but 12-24 hours early? No way...

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    You have a solid point, Kari--in theory, how far before the actual permitted event, constitutes sitting or lying in service of attending that event? A day? Two days? Three? Maybe the day before "ROSE SWEEP 2008" all the homeless people should just take their chairs and sleeping bags to 4th avenue and buy a communal roll of duct tape to mark out their spots for the next two weeks.

  • Richard Scot (unverified)
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    Bravo - good to hear another institution (or community) take a stand against this sort of anti-democratic (big and little D) practice. And to Kurt - are you seriously suggesting that those with the money to pay for preferred spots should get the best views of a parade - really?

    This sort of thing has crept in everywhere. It used to be that for mid-night christmas eve mass folks would arrive and hour or two early to get a seat. Maybe grandma would stay at home with mom and arrive later, but the bulk of the family would come early and sit, sharing the community feeling and enjoying the choir for at least one night a year they'd spend more than 50 minutes in church. In the last few years I noticed that entire pews would be marked off with jackets or even pieces of paper and folks would parade in five minutes before to take their prime seats. It was only after I exclaimed to the old irish parish priest, "what, are we protestents now" (read that as "republican" most catholic church customs are very democratic in nature - well that and there are prot. denominations that actually allow families to buy prime pews) This led to the priest making a hard and fast rule - NO saving of seats except for the elderly and their escorts, and the shaming of folks who felt entitled to the best seats.

    It's sad that what used be be regarded as an item of common sense and common courtesy in this nation now has to be directed and encouraged from figures in authority. If you don't want to mix with your fellow man, stay home - for those democratic traditions, and few things are more so than parades and church, be a part of the crowd and accept your part - leave the entitlement at home.

  • raul (unverified)
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    Hey Eric J !

    Are you trying to say Randy Leonard is petty?

    Buy a Thesarus ya dipstick ! If Randy did or does something you don't like, complain. Two posts about this? And how many times did you use the word petty? Maybe you really meant pretty?

    Sorry there Eric J- maybe I was being petty

    Love and Hugs Raul

  • sadie (unverified)
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    What is the world coming to? First a granny ran down kids and cops in the children's parade. Now we have gang-like duct tape tagging of street territory, by middle-aged suburban peeps. I'm almost afraid to walk the streets of PDX this Rose Festival Season!

  • Smiley (unverified)
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    That the polite residents have respected the selfish residents desire to exclude others from public places is commendable, but the problem is now way out of hand. the evidence along the parade route is mirrored by the public backlash.

    Polite Portland has enabled a very impolite trend.

  • Ibid. (unverified)
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    So now Randy Leonard wants oversight of families who make plans to view the Rose Parade?

    We've always thought it a quaint part of Portland to see the taping and chalking - it's like Portland's living room expanded across the city from Pioneer Courthouse Square.

    Now he's virtually calling for anarchy on the streets with tape ripping parties and a call to ignore any family who have made plans for gathering and viewing the parade.

    Way to build community Randy, What's next?

  • dyspeptic (unverified)
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    Once upon a time, the taping and chair parking only happened on a fraction of the parade route, only for one chair deep, and people realized that it was only fair to get their spot occupied by 9 or so if they expected to keep it. As long as one could still show up and hope to get a decent view, there was no point in protesting the tapers. Over time, it has gotten completely out of hand. Taping happens along the whole route, and multiple lines deep in some places. Kudos to Randy and the Merc for taking a stand on an issue that was overdue for attention.

  • Gretchen (unverified)
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    I am anti-tape and anti-sit/lie. There are too many groups in Portland trying to carve out a little piece of Portland for themselves exclusively. I think that, deep down, this is why so many people are as upset about the parade tape situation. Tapegate is a case of obvious overt greed in a city where covert greed and behind closed doors business deals are stealing our city out from under us. People can actually do something to stop the greedy tapers - they can rip it up. It's much harder to do something about the greed we don't see until it's too late.

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    ibid... you mean everyone would be forced to stand/sit as equals to enjoy a common event?

    Oh the horrors. That will tear the community apart!!!!

  • Ibid. (unverified)
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    lestat - sit/stand as equals? What would be equal is if everyone could afford to live on or near the parade route. This will be a shut out of families who don't have the means to live downtown, have children and grandparents that can't get up at 3Am to find a place they can all enjoy the parade together, and draws away from the convivial atmosphere of the parade.

    It reminds me of the Butter Battle Book by Suess, all this crap. The tapers against the non-tapers. People will be ripping up tape tonight who will likely not even attend the event and families are going to show up to find they don't have a spot to watch the goings on.

    If this was important, Leonard could have raised it months ago and worked out a solution. Not at the last moments which does nothing more than to raise tension.

    That's the community ripping conduct I'm pointing out.

    No worries, Leonard will get oversight of the fair route rules next and it'll all be laid out by his political insiders and the rest of us will be stuck with one more Leonardism to contend with.

    The days in which Portlanders talked about an issue and worked out solutions together are over, and Leonard having raised this at the last minute and in the way he did, only goes to prove it.

  • Coleen Goodbird (unverified)
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    Tapers are poopie-pants

  • ellie (unverified)
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    All this brouhaha and impending Wild West tape v. non-tape showdowns almost makes me want to go to the parade to watch. Almost. The screaming parents, the crying kids -- somebody has to be there to laugh, right?

    The taping practice is immature, absurd, generally irritating, and a great example of how self-centered our society is. (Also... newsflash: it's frickin' PARADE, people -- who cares?!?) That said, anti-tape squads are just asking for and creating trouble.

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    jeff, I guess, as usual, we are very close in beliefs but I am very different in terms of an opinion. I find this behavior by Leonard and the Merc absurd, and not a small bit elitist.

    Most of the tapers that I know are families who are looking to find a good parade spot, who don't have the ability to camp out over night, and who share in a well established and well respected "keep Portland wierd" tradition of taping spots.

    I have attended (and taped) the parade every year since I have arrived at Portland. I assumed the taping was the standard practice, and by the way, have been able to tape off a spot Friday afternoon every year. It made me surprised, and made me smile, that you could leave out lawn chairs and they'd be there the next morning. What a great city!

    In my seven years I have never witnessed the a confrontation, not one. Every one is polite and respectful.

    Sadly, the same thing cannot be said of the Merc children, who are the ones, unfortunately, have decided to impose their selfish viewpoint on the majority of parade goers.

    Can someone cite examples of confrontations? Can someone list those members of the public who have been unable to view the parade? My seven Rose Parades have taught me that Portlanders are caring, sharing, and respectful--and that includes the tapers.

    They arrive early (Sorry, Randy, way before 9 am. I typically set up by 7 am). We make space for late viewers. We clean up our mess, we manage the garbage bags, and we enjoy the damn parade.

    I find this whole brouhaha to be the essence of a Portland City Commissioner with too much time on his hands and a bunch of whiny, self indulgent citizens imposing their values on everyone else.

    Sad.

  • Katy (unverified)
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    Every year I go to the parade and every year it's clear to see; the people who have marked off a spot with tape or chalk or whatever they choose to use are people with kids who can't get up at 4 in the morning, drag their little ones out of bed and get them downtown while it's still dark. My guess is that most of these families are low income and don't have the ability to stay at the Hilton or the Heathman to get a front row spot. Randy Leonard suggested that folks are driving in from Vancouver in their "Hummers" and gold pinky rings taking front row spots with their tape. Has he been to the parade? Has he seen the people in the front row? They don't look like they're from Lake O Mr. Leonard! I think it's more likely those folks are staying at the Hilton and sitting in one the chairs the hotel provides for their wealthy guests. I think Mr. Leonard's argument is totally backwards. The people in the front row are not the wealthy, but rather those who can't afford to get their kids up that early and drive downtown and find somewhere to sit. I say let the poor kids watch the freaking parade, this is Portland after all. Don't we pride ourselves on this type of thing? I'm guessing the 20 something hipsters who were downtown tonight ripping up tape and yelling at those who questioned what they were doing aren't planning on going to the parade. I'm guessing they don't have kids who can't see anything from the second or third row. I'm questioning why they're spending their time on ripping up tape off the sidewalks (feeling quite secure under the dark of night in their mob of hipster friends) when there is a war going on. I would love to see this kind of energy channeled into something that might actually make a difference. Maybe go register some voters? Or how about writing a letter to editor about social equality? Go on a SOLV clean up? Pick something you're passionate about and go down to Salem on a lobby day? But no, instead you choose to go rip up tape off the sidewalk downtown (by the way, people were re-taping their spots as soon as the band of roving hipsters were gone, thus creating twice the garbage - thanks for that!) I was downtown tonight and saw a group of people laughing at what someone had written in chalk; it said, "if the Mercury told you to jump off a cliff would you?" It was great. Thank you for giving us all a good laugh, whoever you are, If you're so upset about the rose festival parade why not start writing the O and questioning the gigantic corporations like the Hilton and Nordstrom tha block off entire city blocks?

  • ws (unverified)
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    Tonight, while downtown, I came across the Merc anti-tapers at SW 3rd and Burnside. Quite an inspired group. They'd just come across the bridge and down MLK before that, where they'd encountered some rather contentious responses from people already at their spots.

    As I came to learn from following behind them, the policy was to remove tape only from spots where persons were not present. Chairs and other items left within the taped areas were untouched. As a top priority, politeness and safety surrounding the whole effort, was consistent to the extent I was able to observe.

    The response from people in proximity to the anti-tapers at work was overwhelmingly positive. Anti-tapers removed tape from around the area where Hotel Lucia had chairs set out because no person was actually occupying or specifically watching the chairs. That instance may not have been consistent with the no-touch policy. At any rate, A couple hotel employees outside the front door were miffed and confounded about it, but this was the exception.

    Adults and kids pulled up the tape and wound it into volleyball sized spheres that made their final arc into garbage bags. The Merc had their delivery van following around to load up bags of collected tape. My guess is that the total cu ft of gathered tape will probably add up to quite an amount.

    I talked over different aspects of the whole taping concept with few people involved in the effort. First come/first serve seems like the fairest policy to handle securing spots to enjoy the parade, but I'm sure it can be very difficult for some people to do this early enough on the day of the parade, especially if you've got a kid or a few kids to wrangle, so taping off a spot kind of gives people like that a break.

    Some people kind of abuse the strategy of occupying a spot with a live person. I actually ran into a group of three young gals on SW Broadway who said their company was paying them to hang out overnight to secure a spot for the company.

    Later, after the Merc crew broke off, I walked up to 11th and Washington. There, after I saw them run off with them, I learned from a homeless person camped in a doorway nearby, that the kids I'd seen were a couple of skater kids who'd decided to abscond with some brand new folding camp chairs from somebody's taped off area. Probably get blamed on the Merc crew.

  • Pat Malach (unverified)
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    I'd have thought that at least ONE enterprising young reporter from one of those TV "news" programs would have grabbed a camera and headed out to catch this tape-napping on video.

    I guess they were too busy with the latest pre-packaged Paris Hilton stories from their news service.

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    Since the Parade and the entire festival is really about business advertising and promotion who gives a damn about who gets in line earliest to watch the extended commercial?

    I've attended one Starlight and one Festival parade. I find the entire thing to be nauseating. Those who do not will no doubt enjoy the spectacle, tape or no.

    As I type at 10 am on Saturday, the rain has begun.

    Enjoy.

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    'd have thought that at least ONE enterprising young reporter from one of those TV "news" programs would have grabbed a camera and headed out to catch this tape-napping on video. I guess they were too busy with the latest pre-packaged Paris Hilton stories from their news service.

    KGW had an extended piece with plenty of shots of Matt and Co ripping up tape.

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    Parades can be a lot of fun, especially for families. I know my daughter loves them.

    I couldn't care less which business sponsors which float. I like looking at the design they've put together, the time in which it takes to put it together, etc.

    Maybe my love of parades comes from growing up in a small town that had multiple parades per year - and I was in many of them. Between theater class, SADD, Student Council, Project Graduation float (I helped the seniors my junior year, plus our own float), etc., I was in many parades.

    I know we had at least 4 parades per year, but I'm thinking there may have been more.

    I've been surprised since moving to Gresham that we don't have a huge parade down one of the big streets. There's only the Teddy Bear Parade.

  • Ibid. (unverified)
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    Thanks Randy Leonard, you were the real Grinch trying to screw up the happy family time around the parade today. Just like the Seuss story, the families came anyway - everyone got along, all was well.

    You did your best, you can't stop the people of Portland coming together and enjoying the day - even in the rain.

    You got your tape off, Leonard. Nobody cared.

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    I was recruited from the east coast for my current job and my job interview day was the Friday of Rose Festival weekend in 1997. When I arrived in town that Thursday and walked around on Friday evening I saw tape and lawn chairs on the sidewalks (I was being put up at the Benson). I remember thinking how deeply weird it was, but I figured that if the local social contract permitted it, it was rather a charming small-town element of local culture, and there was nothing wrong with it. (Despite the prime viewing area made available by the Benson to its guests, I slept through the whole parade, a custom I now repeat every year). It's clear now that the local social contract did not really permit the taping -- it simply tolerated the practice for awhile.

    It's hard for me to get too exercised about it because personally, I just don't care for parades (except very small town 4th of July parades). I lived in Manhattan for ten years just a couple of blocks from the spot where every major parade broke up, and the post-parade carnage was pretty bad. I was prejudiced against every ethnic group in the city for a period of one to four weeks after their parade, depending upon the amount of inconvenience it caused in my neighborhood. The Irish were always good for the full four weeks -- the St. Patrick's Day parade always ended with piss-drunk teenagers from Queens and Staten Island puking on my front steps. The Italians and Germans were usually good for two or three weeks, and the Poles one or two weeks. My own ethnic group, the Greeks, fell into the two week category most years. %^>

  • CJT (unverified)
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    Imagine the revenue: City sells Parade Tape (by the foot or mile, it won't matter); Portland Mercury crew rips it up. City sells more Parade Tape; Mercury crew rips it up. Repeat. Budget problems solved. Start selling tape now for next year's parade.

  • Eric J. (unverified)
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    It is amazing how this mountain was made out of a molehill. It only happens once a year, but someone with a bug up thier butt had to justify their worth in thier job and make it an issue. This just was not necessary. We have better things to do (like 911 calls) than duct tape. Things like this make me want to have Randy recalled.

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