Portland’s paving backlog has grown by more than 500 miles since 1999. By 2008, Portland had a backlog big enough to pave a two lane road from Pioneer Courthouse Square to San Francisco. Taking the philosophy that a problem doesn’t exist if it can’t be measured, the city stopped calculating the road paving backlog in 2008.
Yet, while allowing roads to deteriorate, Portland has dumped ever-increasing "resources" into bicycles and streetcars. This brief post puts it all into perspective. Damning as it may be, Portland's insipid "mayor" tries to put a happy spin on things, while his buddies in the bicycle mafia are completely up in arms over the fact that The Oregonian actually wrote about the issue. Facts really stick in their craw.
It's a safe bet that a lot of them will be out tomorrow, yammering about "shutting down the corporations". It should be noted, however, that the Occutards are not - repeat, not - organized. They're just a bunch of motivated citizens who meet to pound drums, defecate on squad cars, and otherwise exercise their right to peaceful protest under the First Amendment.
Below are important final details for the F29 actions happening in over 70 cities Wednesday. These were discussed on the national call last night and this email has the follow up information from that call. Please read this email and provide us with this information. It will help turn out people to your action and create a stronger coordinated action.
We need the following from each action:
* Please let us know who your videographer contact will be for F29 by emailing video@shutdownthecorporations.org. We will be trying to collect photos and videos from across the country to immediately produce a wrap up video of all of the action on F29. On the day of action send files to our dropbox.
* If possible shoot one video clip where an activist says to the camera, "We're in -insert city here- where we're targeting -insert ALEC member corporation here- because of -insert bill or issue here-."
*Please have people interested in social media email socialmedia@shutdownthecorporations.org so that we can coordinate social media leading up to and during the action.
* Tag all videos and pictures with #F29 so that we can find them and link to them on the national website.
* Send us your city-specific messages and one quote from your action for the national media work. This will allow us to show the depth and breadth of actions happening on F29. We need these as soon as possible to include in the national press releases. You can email them to media@shutdownthecorporations.org.
* If something happens of national importance (i.e. incredibly successful action happening, severe police repression, etc.) call the national press number 503.208.6775 so that we can know about this and spread it to national media.
* Please have your local occupation post info about F29 to your website's front page, Facebook and Twitter. Link to this video as well. It is important to get the buzz going about F29 so people will come out and participate in the actions in as large of numbers as possible.
* Send us your action details and we will post them on the website (i.e. meet here at this time, see the info under Occupy Portland under Coordinated Actions for an example). Email web@shutdownthecorporations.org.
Here are some important pieces of information for you:
* We have completed a national messaging document. As this is useful please use it for you messaging and media work during and leading up to the day of action.
* We have completed the first national press release. This can be used as a model or you can cut and past sections from it that are useful for your local releases. You are also welcome to just use it for your local release if you'd like, though including information about your local action will make it much stronger. Additional releases will be created and posted to the website.
* This is the informational flyer from Williamsburg, NY that was mentioned on the call.
* These are action planning checklists from Training for Change that may be useful in finalizing your actions and making sure you have your roles covered.
* There will be upcoming actions in Charlotte against ALEC on May 11th - email charlotte-may@shutdownthecorporations.org to connect with the organizers. Similarly, there will be actions in Salt Lake City from July 28-30th. Email slc@shutdownthecorporations.org to connect with the organizers.
These are the main follow up items from the call. The full notes are attached and posted on Interoccupy.
The next call will be a debrief call on Thursday 3/8 at 6:00 PST/9:00 EST. You can register at Interoccupy. This will be a chance to talk about what went well, what could be better and where we go from here.
Let us know if there is any support we can provide.
Good luck on F29! Take action, have fun and let's shut down the corporations!
