Darcelle Plaza

[olivermoss]

Instead of renaming a street for Darcelle, they are renaming a park for her... a park that is closed due to safety concerns. The public is welcome to attend the re-naming ceremony, which will be elsewhere because it can't be at the park. You can't even use the sidewalks there, the city had to take part of the street and put up Jersey barriers to create a way to walk around it. The park is currently an icon of Portland's systemic failures to govern both currently and historically, basic inability to invest in infrastructure, putting an idea that sounds good in theory over realistic concerns, etc. (For context it used to be a semi-underground parking lot with a park on top, but it was structurally unsound.) It also

has a spicy local nickname.

is called Paranoia Park by local due to it's long association with hard drug use even before it was closed.

I have to admit, my first reaction was not good, but if Wheeler does pull this off and the renaming gets the revitalization back on track, in 2 years this will be seen as genius, one of the city's jewels. An indoor/outdoor drug den turned into much needed downtown public space. He just has to reverse literally decades of failures and planning.

Also, an abandoned urban park with 70s style design? All bricks in weird angles and decaying wood? Why do I not have one million pictures of this? Oh yeah, I've tried and due to being short I can't get a decent angle and I am not going to be cheeky and try to break in because I value my skin.

Comments

[mistressofmuses]

Oof.

I mean... yes, if that COULD get the revitalization back on track, that would be pretty damn cool, and would be a great legacy in multiple ways.

But for the time being? Yike.

[olivermoss]

It's like we expected a present and got extra homework instead. It's opportunistic to link this project to her legacy because of the attention and pressure it will create. If it works, well it better damn work.

A lot of people are saying it's great because it will upset the right people that Portland is naming a park for a drag queen but, uh, yeah, it is literally a monument to our liberal city's failures on several different levels and across several decades and we *still* don't even have a redevelopment plan in place. It's highly associated with hard drugs and mental illness. Yeah, I think if they get wind of this they'll they are going to have a field day.

The street rename would have been the pro-LGBT+ feel good power play, this is chaining us to a project.

[mistressofmuses]

Yeah... it's definitely opportunistic, and in future hindsight it MAY be a really good thing... but only if it DOES work.

The idea of a dedication ceremony that *can't happen in the place being dedicated because of public health and safety concerns* is again, that sort of thing that would be considered heavy-handed and over the top in fiction.

Sure, honoring a drag queen with a park being named after her WOULD piss off the right people... but yeah, the specific place in question ALSO provides a lot of ammo and support for the associations they're already trying to make.

[olivermoss]

Would have been nice to bolster the community rather than assign us more work, especially since there are news stories about mass migrations of trans people here without housing or jobs, most of whom are expected to arrive homeless, fleeing the south in such numbers it's going to create nationwide demographic changes in LGBTA+ communities. Most of whom expect Portland to be very different from what it in in terms of community, services, etc.

I don't know if those stories are accurate, but the pandemic killed Brave Space. We have the 'largest LGBTQ+ center in the PNW' but that just means ours is larger than Seattle's, and also FTM and NB stuff has been fighting for space or even being seen as valid as long as the center has existed. But the rest of the country is see a Trans Utopia and I was literally talking with people last night about how if you say it's not Shangri La for trans people or not able to handle influx of homeless youth, people attack you like you are trying to gatekeep Portland or scare trans people away from getting help.

Oh and the Q Center literally just closed it's main food support program.

[mistressofmuses]

I think that's the part that maybe comes across as the most... frustrating, near-insulting about it. Like you said, instead of a party, you got homework. Having something solely celebratory, that doesn't come with a bunch of "this will be positive and cool *IF*..." caveats, would have been a much bigger boost for the community.

And especially when there are so many issues facing the queer community (everywhere, but including locally.) There ARE a ton of people who are pretty desperately fleeing from a lot of regions that have become markedly unsafe... and that's going to create a huge strain on an already stressed community with limited resources. *Especially* when there's a hugely inaccurate perception of what the city is like. I mean, yeah, it's a LOT more progressive and queer-friendly than places many people are fleeing from... but it's also not a perfect utopia, no matter how people want to portray it that way.

You've mentioned how hard FTM and NB spaces have struggled to exist at all, and how many "trans groups" really only exist for trans women, despite not being labeled as being MTF-only. I think it's a huge disservice to demand people NOT acknowledge areas in which the community struggles... letting people make informed decisions based on accurate information is a GOOD thing, not "gatekeeping".

Yikes. :( I know our local food bank (not queer-specific) just did a big local media interview about how they have the highest-ever demand for assistance, while also currently having the highest costs and lowest donations they've had as well.

[olivermoss]

People are just nutty about Portland online. IDK why. I mean I can guess, I think some people are in love with the idea that there is A Good Place.

Yeah, people need to make informed decisions, but in general they seem to think there is the sort of structures available to catch them that just... are not possible to build. If we made a trans halfway house, suddenly whole lotta people would suddenly be totally NB. We already have the fucking holdover hippies putting out guides on how to access services for trans people because according to them trans people don't exist, therefor the services are for 'people' and if you are a people you should know that some random grant money went to physical therapy for AFAB trans people to prevent back problems due to binding and here's the script for follow to get in on it! We pretty much can't have trans-specific services even if we had the the money and the structures.

[mistressofmuses]

Yeah. I think a lot of people are really desperate for there to be the sort of queer utopia they long for, and Portland has gotten slapped with that label. I understand how for some people that probably DOES feel necessary - that whatever bullshit they're dealing with, wherever they're dealing with it, they have to think that there's a magical place where they'd be safe and cared for and wouldn't face whatever they're stuck with where they are. I can understand *wanting* the fantasy.

But... Portland is a real place with real people? And demanding that it only be spoken of as a pure perfect fantasyland is not actually good or okay. It's not fair or okay to the people who live there, and the scene that actually exists there, and it's not fair to desperate people who think that all they have to do is get there to be safe... only to discover that hey, even if they get there, they've still got a lot of issues they're going to face.

I hate that people will wreck everything. The "how to steal services from trans support groups" is depressing and infuriating and not in the slightest bit surprising.

[olivermoss]

People love to think that if they can save enough or get their lives in order, they can go to someplace better. Maybe Portland will be better for them, but the expectations just get insane. No one wants to hear anything contrary to that or the sheer impossibility of what they expect.

[mistressofmuses]

I sympathize with that desire. The feeling that "escape" is possible, and that all you have to do is get up the funds/sort things out in some way/physically get yourself to a certain place, and that suddenly everything will be perfect.

I think that Portland likely IS a lot better than a lot of other places, and especially for queer kids and adults that are looking for a place they can be out and exist without being constantly afraid. BUT. The expectations are still completely unrealistic and impossible to meet, and that's not fair to anyone involved.

[olivermoss]

We do still have the lowest cost of living of any of the big, queer friendly west coast cities and people over-focus on that. The problem is, that we are also much smaller than the other cities and several hundred people arriving without jobs is a MUCH bigger deal to our city, it's tax base and existing services than other places.

We also just do not have the long standing organizations, shelters, etc that other places have.

We also have a tremendously narrow job market. We don't even really have a major industry. So, our tax base is smaller in both the number of people in it and also how much money there is to be taxed. It's just... a joke compared to Seattle with fucking Amazon and Microsoft.

There is a huge downside to us being more 'affordable', we simply don't have the resources other places do.

Retail and service industry are some of the most competitive jobs here because very young adults with no college are constantly arriving.

We'll see how it shakes out. Just shy of 500 trans minors arriving alone with no housing or jobs over the next couple of months is an estimate being thrown around. Being affordable doesn't help if the services are already overstrained and there is no path to a job.

For some, Portland is the best choice and in a lot of cases things will work out. Hopefully, the numbers are wrong because in general this looks like a slow moving disaster and there isn't anything productive I can do about it.

[mistressofmuses]

Portland IS a bit more affordable than the tech-giant cities, but it's a really good point that it also comes along with things like a smaller job market, fewer high-paying jobs, fewer taxes to support social services etc.

Plus yeah, the infrastructure is a punchline for a reason, and in the broader sense the city just isn't equipped to take in a huge flood of new people, particularly not ones who are likely to need a lot of support while they find their feet. And with such a narrow job market, it may be VERY hard for them to find said feet.

I very much do hope that it works out in the best ways for everyone. I want people to be safe. I want people to have their needs (physical and mental/social/psychological) met. I hope that people see the need and respond by doing what they can to help... but I also know everyone is feeling strained.

[olivermoss]

Before the pandemic, I at least had places I could toss some money and know it wasn't going to scammers or be oopsie'd into a general fund. Not ideal places, but at least places. Now they are all gone because shit is fucked and now the mayor is assigning us homework on top of it.

[mistressofmuses]

Right? There are still a lot of things rippling out from the pandemic, and just how many things didn't make it through, or couldn't make it after.

And yeah, with that whole climate, "fix the thing that we fucked up so badly it's basically an example of governmental fuck up" is just... not helpful.