I love my bride. God bless her, she called me yesterday mid-afternoon on her cell phone and said: "I'm at the line at the Springsteen show. They're giving out numbers. The first 300 people with floor tickets get to stand in the very front in a roped-off section. They're up to number 178. Get down here."
This was a surprise phone call. I was planning to go down to the arena about an hour later to check out the scene casually. Me being the Bruce fanatic of the house, you would think my wife would have let me do the reconnaissance and pushing onto the line. It is a fine, fine thing that she didn't.
I hung up the phone, grabbed our floor tickets, bolted out the door, fired up the car, and made it down there in record time to join her. We stood in a self-organized, self-policed, and largely well behaved line for several hours, but it was worth it -- we did indeed get to stand about 3 to 8 feet from the stage in a very roomy standing room area for the whole show.
When you are this close at an E Street Band concert, it's impossible to be objective. We loved it, of course. And although it was great to rock out to the old anthems, it seemed that the newer the material was, the better I liked it.
If you have doubts about Springsteen's new album, you might want to see him perform it live. His dedication and commitment to it is fairly infectious. Not a single number he did failed to please me.
But then again, it's impossible to see straight when you are spitting distance from Bruce.
If contractors who do business with the City of Portland wish to state that fact in advertising and promotional materials, they should have to pay the city a fee for the privilege of doing so.
This the same week that her "chief of staff" (I gag) announces the city's supposed new pro-business initiative.
It would be funny were it not so sad.
Oregon Gov. Kitzhaber's reckless stand against the State Legislature's school funding plan is perhaps the final chapter in an 8-year term that has been largely a disappointment. Although I am a registered Democrat and very leery of the Oregon version of the Republican Party (there's a long blog entry for another day), I have never understood why the public was so enamored of this guy. Strutting around in blazer, tie (sometimes), and jeans (yuck), this former doctor doesn't have much to show for his stay in the Governor's Mansion. His official web biography states it this way:
During his first term as governor, Kitzhaber oversaw the expansion of the Oregon Health Plan, which reduced the rate of uninsured Oregon children from 21 percent to eight percent. In addition, Kitzhaber's welfare reform plan, known as the Oregon Option, has reduced the number of welfare caseloads more than 50 percent, saved more than $200 million in the state budget, and helped nearly 20,000 Oregonians find work.
Preserving Oregon's environment remains a priority for Kitzhaber, and during his first term he developed and implemented the Oregon Plan for Salmon and Watersheds. This is a collaborative plan that encourages federal, state and local government agencies to work with private landowners to restore watershed health and recover endangered salmon species.
Education and opportunity for Oregon's children also has been a centerpiece of Kitzhaber's administration. He has fought for stable education funding, implementing the Education Act for the 21st Century, increasing investment in Oregon's colleges and universities, including freezing tuition, and juvenile crime prevention.
Taking the last plank first, while he has fought for stable funding for schools, he has failed, failed, failed, as this year's fiasco of special session after special session of the Legislature has proved. As for the environment, a program that "encourages" folks to do things hardly seems like a major accomplishment. And for him to take credit for welfare reform is somewhere in the general direction of Al Gore's internet. OK, he knows what he is talking about on the Oregon Health Plan, but that plan was created before he was elected governor, and it has not been flawless under his leadership. When the medical director of the plan defiantly surrendered his license to practice medicine rather than undergo treatment for alcoholism, following his arrest for driving under the influence, I started to wonder about Kitzhaber's political "doctor card."
I remember when "Kitz and Katz" ran the Legislature and were the pundits' darlings, but that was many years ago. Kitz's time as governor largely mirrors Katz's time as mayor of Portland. They haven't really made much of a positive impact. Their tenures have been... well... the best word I can come up with is odd.
The Portland City Council and some downtown merchants are trying to find $12 million to put an ice skating rink on Pioneer Courthouse Square for four months every winter, beginning at Thanksgiving. Their theory is that it will bring more people to the area, especially in the slow months between Christmas and spring break.
Of course, this $12 million will include at least $1 million of public money, and the council seems eager to spend it.
I doubt that this is worth the effort. The real problem with the square and surrounding blocks is not the lack of public amenities. It's the creeps that have taken over the area, with nary a cop in sight. The day earlier this year when a 30-year-old "panhandler" aggressively solicited me -- including following me, way too close, and putting his hand on my arm -- that was my last discretionary day at the square.
Now the city that can't afford police stations open at night, or a working mental health system, or any answer for heroin addiction other than a downtown methadone clinic, is ready to pony up for an ice rink.
Whatever!