December 29, 2011

Occupy Portland slows down for the holidays

It may be one of the most progressive communities in the country with an unemployment rate, at about 10 percent, as high as any major city in the country. But still the Occupy movement seems to have taken a sort-of Christmas break here.

“It’s gotten cold and the holidays have come so things have slowed down,” said Cammie Ground, who was one of about a dozen people who came and went from Occupy Portland’s 24-hour vigil in front of City Hall to protest their lack of a legal ability to have an encampment. “It’s getting difficult for people. There’s only so much energy to go around.”

Other activists agreed with Ground that the 99 percent movement has lost some steam as of late in Portland. One man, who declined to give his name, said the group’s general assembly meetings have been attracting about 50 people as of late. At the height of the movement, it wasn’t atypical to draw a crowd of 200 or more, he said.

Meanwhile, there seems to some level of confusion about their events. Activists at the vigil waited for a dance party march to reach City Hall. But it turned out what some thought was an Occupy Portland action was actually the Decentralized Dance Party, a idea concocted by two childhood friends from Idaho to bring a traveling party to cities across Canada and the American West. While the dance party did march en mass around Portland, it was sparsely attended by Occupy activists, and some left when they realized t-shirts were being sold and donations were being sought for the event.

One of the organizers of the dance party told me Occupiers had asked that the party parade make its way to City Hall, he didn’t know if doing so would be safe. He made certain to tell me that while he supported Occupy, the dance party wasn’t affiliated with it.

But Occupy Portland is still engaging in some direct actions (and it should be noted that I spent a total of only two hours with the activists after arriving in Portland earlier in the day). While I was at the vigil, a small colorfully-painted school bus pulled up and quickly unloaded about a dozen Christmas trees in front of City Hall.

The activists planned to set up the trees in front of City Hall as a two-fold statement, some told me. Christmas trees have become a sort of symbol for Occupy Portland because the city had removed theirs’ earlier in the week. Also, when an earlier tree was being hoisted onto the roof of City Hall while Occupy Portland’s camp was being raided, the police presence it took to keep the tree off the roof was enough of a diversion to allow the activists to take back the park, they said.

— Bob Plain