BLM Ribs, Lownsdale Park Health and Food Safety, Portland

8 consecutive days of volunteer work at BLM Ribs, camping within 20 feet of the 

off-curb in the street gutter FOOD SERVICE petri dish

https://www.portland.gov/parks/lownsdale-square
 

"The Plaza Blocks were lively places where orators held forth and citizens assembled. They are characterized in part by several large old elms and gingko trees. 

Chapman Square, originally designed for the exclusive use of women and children, features all female gingko trees. Lownsdale Square was to be the "gentlemen's gathering place." Today the Plaza Blocks are still a busy gathering place, although men and women can now safely coexist in either of them.

In the center of Lownsdale Square stands Soldiers Monument, Douglas Tilden’s 1906 sculpture in memory of the Oregonians killed in the Spanish-American War (1898). The tall granite obelisk is topped with a bronze replica of a soldier in the Second Oregon Volunteer Infantry, part of the first large American fighting force ever sent overseas.

 At the base of this monument are two howitzers used in the defense of Fort Sumter (misspelled as 'Sumpter' on the plaque) in 1861. They were brought to Portland by Colonel Henry E. Dosch.

 Because the cannons were used by both Union and Confederate troops, it was Dosch's idea to face one north and the other south.

"Park Location or Entrance

Lownsdale Square main entrance

SW 4th Avenue and Main Street

Portland, OR 97205

Get Directions

Open hours

Park hours: 5:00am-midnight

"The City of Portland ensures meaningful access to City programs, services, and activities to comply with ***Civil Rights Title VI and ADA Title II laws and reasonably provides:

 translation, interpretation, modifications, accommodations, alternative formats, auxiliary aids and services. To request these services, contact 503-823-4000 or TTY 503-823-6868."

***(No person in the United States shall, on the ground of race, color, or national origin, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.***

TELL THAT TO THE PORTLAND PARK RANGER WHO TOLD ME "YOU HAVE 5 MINUTES TO PACK UP" WHILE THE BLM RIBS TENTS ARE ALSO NON COMPLIANT WITH EVERY RULE THAT APPLIES TO THIS PUBLIC SPACE.

https://www.portland.gov/services

"rain washes the twenty gallons of dish slop

down the gutters along the federal building,

crows have better mush to nibble

in the park where riot ribs

hang out under the molting trees

in a francis bacon meets goya meets basquiat world

forking spuds like gogh in a van quick

here come the pig with eight hanging off the side

going in flashing circles, chasing their tails

we smoke copious pot

billowing around the beers in the park across the jail

court injustice theater, the tricked out blm ride

with a p.a. system taunting the night

kill me now, cowards

***

yesterday, got out of the soggy tent around one

the blm booth had collapsed from ten hours of water and wind

i set things right, swamped out the trash

and heard the elk had been deherded from main street

by proudboys in pickups, shoulda seen it coming.

made bleach water and cleaned the public toilet

which ranks among the worst rank homeless shit magnet

around, bleached the sidewalks, put food out on the table

and greeted passersby, helped put up the new

canopy knowing how they assemble and attached 

two by fours to the legs for weight,

got offered a beer, then two by a pretty girl

from the pendleton blanket shop

greeted more people, then came nate and we

shot hoops for three hours by the war memorial

with howitzers from fort sumpter 1861

more spraypaint on it ever day 

there's drumsticks on the grill, people are happy

for free hot food, all sorts pass by mostly simpatico

a drunk russian almost causes trouble

but his buddies pull him down the street

and the loons show up, wiggling under the cedar tree,

doing incantations, waving sticks and kooking out

the protest at the jail release a few blocks away

spits out random individuals or groups amidst

cheers jeers and beered unclear

one Native man shares long candles 

i attack to a gallon can with no label, he comes back

for lighter fluid he pours into a water bottle

after cops take away his candles

the kooks come in droves and then amber in black

chatty and wants to share the only beer

the last pair of kooks almost have a tussle

around four am, i'm soon home walking thirty feet to the tent

a mini riot still reverberating a few blocks away

fuck it five am

i depart to southeast and my storage and carla won't serve

me coffee so to my storage full of money

and i drink coffee

all i want

fuck you

and back to camp with this and that in tow i hear the 

dickboys came thru again and messed with my *new friends*

while i was away and i do again the swamp out

hallelujah"

10-11-20 blm ribs

jp gone, gone for hours, returns full of empty excuses

and lotsa lip and a short fuse sticking out of the petri dish

of unhinged anarchy with a new biz license

no propane for 48 hours plus and no way to cook or kill microbes

no charcoal and a cooler full of half warming meat

human shit dog shit loose trash rain slop runny nose festering wound

haven, the two hours of scrubbing pots

with a greasy sponge buy me a few moments of half gratitude

until the Park nerd boy scouts show up at 10pm TO HASSLE

the houseless and look the other way

covering for the con men taking donations online

and unable to perform basic tasks or figure out how to

organize the operation with volunteers, none of whom know other

and are largely white boys like me

as the main man

plays on his skateboard, or scooter, or megaphone, or takes a girl

off for several hours as the ragged downtown deranged and

disenfranchised settle for a piece of bread and an apple

while cases of canned soup, uncooked pasta, fresh produce

from the Oregon farms----spoils or is sneezed on by the 

crazy lawless cars that rush past only a few feet away.

the con men have no literature or propaganda for BLM

nothing but nicer clothes than the sidewalk crew

that lurk across the terrain 

without shadows

and without anything to wipe their asses with other than

cedar tree splinters and wax cups from the gutter: