My Specific Response to Commissioner Fritz, Who Reminds Me About Using Possibly Bigoted Language

Commissioner Fritz <amanda@portlandoregon.gov>	12:21 PM (3 hours ago)
to me, Charlie

In addition to concurring with Mayor Hales’ comments, I encourage you to talk with your neighbors and think about your framing.  Many residents and business owners in East Portland are very concerned about use of terms such as “Felony Flats” or now “Felony Heights” to describe their community.  They believe, and I agree, that it perpetuates a negative stereotype of an area that as many times more wonderful, hardworking people than felons.

Amanda

Amanda Fritz 

Commissioner, City of Portland

My response: 
Commissioner Fritz, while I'm thinking about it....not using descriptions such as "Felony Flats" gives said descriptions MORE power and connotation. Rather than trying to rename a large swath of East/SE Portland with a moniker sellable by real estate interests in order to hide unsavory business and promote specific points, I specifically use "Felony Flats" as a very convenient and easy catch-all label for encapsulating problems in this area in one fell swoop. 

In fact, most of my neighbors (yes, I do know them, and chitchat with them) also use the term "Felony Flats" - although there's alot of disagreement over just where the flats are. Many, for instance, think of the Flats as being south of Foster/east of 52nd, out to 136th or so. Others, like myself, include Powell and Division, all the way out the the Gresham city line. Market, as you know, looks down on this area - hence my use of "Felony Heights" as another useful catchall. Most Portlanders use the term "Felony Flats", as far as I know. 

I'm sorry that you think (and declaim to me) that I'm demeaning and degrading others' lives,dreams, and aspirations in my use of these terms. This is not, in fact, the case. I do wonder, however, why you come within inches of accusing me of bigotry and slander by warning me about my cavalier use of these terms, and reminding me that I'm "harming" others. I certainly hope you aren't so personally accusatory with other citizens who email your office.

And I'd like to go on in my response to Commissioner Fritz: 

Please don't take it literally that I'm accusing everyone who lives in Felony Flats of being a felon. To do so is being deliberately asinine, in my opinion. Or completely naive and woolheaded - which in that case I do wonder what other issues and situations, and words, you take too literally. Which I'm sure are few, if any. 

If the City is so adamant that Felony Flats "dare not speak its name", why not put up signs announcing the specific 'hoods on major roads, like Beaverton and Vancouver, and Seattle, do? That way folks can refer to, say, Powellhurst-Gilbert, or Hazelwood, or Battin - rather than a catch-all you and others in city government find so unsavory. Of course, this would mean finding money and spending it on perhaps what is, after all, more window dressing. 

It seems to me, and I'll address this more as I go on, that because you five Commissioners are equal in power (and each completely dominate entire areas of city government to the exclusion of the other four) that y'all rarely agree on anything of significance (like fixing the roads, perhaps). Hence, in order to show folks that "something" is getting done, y'all nitpick everything and focus intense stares on teency issues (fluoridation, bike boxes, bioswales, sequoia trees, who can drive a taxi, or - in this case - my possible causing of harm by actively using the term "Felony Flats") in order to drive your "constituents" (the people you see most often in front of you, or who squawk at you, like me) to tizzies over "serious" crises - which in turn leaves many residents focused on the wrong trees, as it were. 

I don't think y'all do this deliberately, though I do worry about how personal yours and Mayor Hales' messages were. Rather, I think you all do this as part of a function of a City government structure that doesn't work anymore (but was great in 1905 or so, when saloons, brothels, and slots gambling needed strong responses, and the city was a stumpy grubby mishmash outside of downtown, and issues needed a strong hand). Step back, and get some perspective. It could be possible that part of the problems (and the solutions) lie within city government itself. 

Thanks!