Big O gives O'Toole front page feature story - Page 2

urbanlife · #21 Posted **Dec 11, 2007, 8:49 AM**

The cost of housing is rising here because people want to live here.

Also I always get a kick out of it when I tell people that I hate the rain and they tell me that I picked the wrong city to live in. My response is that while I hate the rain there are very few things I hate about Portland, while other cities I have been in, there is a list a mile long that I hate about them that are all far worse than the rain. So I can put up with the rain to live in a city that I overall like.

As for O'Toole, I would be banned for life from this page if I said the first thing that came to mind when I read this article, but I will say I would of had to throw away my Pumas because there would be no way to get that smell out of them after I was finished with him.

rsbear · #22 Posted **Dec 11, 2007, 6:29 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by alexjon

Old, but true!

You can consider it shit, but I consider it legitimate pride. Have a little in your own state.

I was born in Portland and lived in Oregon for the first 26 years of my life. I have more pride in PDX than you will ever be able to fathom so don't you dare try and tell me that I don't.

alexjon · #23 Posted **Dec 11, 2007, 7:41 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by rsbear

I was born in Portland and lived in Oregon for the first 26 years of my life. I have more pride in PDX than you will ever be able to fathom so don't you dare try and tell me that I don't.

Pride? Then why attack another state for the same thing?

I'm proud of Texas for everything it was and is. It may seem Republican, but it's a Democratic state; I know my history and how we came to our shame. It is a world power, it has great figures that are as amazing as they have been portrayed, and it has always stood apart from other states.

It seems, however, that the only fundamental respect we get as people is from states like New York, California, and Illinois. Which is fine, since, at the end of the day, Texas is still one of the best places on earth!

alexjon · #24 Posted **Dec 11, 2007, 8:52 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by urbanlife

The cost of housing is rising here because people want to live here.

Also I always get a kick out of it when I tell people that I hate the rain and they tell me that I picked the wrong city to live in. My response is that while I hate the rain there are very few things I hate about Portland, while other cities I have been in, there is a list a mile long that I hate about them that are all far worse than the rain. So I can put up with the rain to live in a city that I overall like.

I like the rain, especially after living in Phoenix.

Actually, a lot of what I appreciate about cities I got from living in Phoenix. I take very little for granted anymore

Sekkle · #25 Posted **Dec 11, 2007, 10:34 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by alexjon

Actually, a lot of what I appreciate about cities I got from living in Phoenix. I take very little for granted anymore

I know exactly what you mean (and I moved here from Phoenix a few months ago).

alexjon · #26 Posted **Dec 11, 2007, 10:47 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by ForAteOh

I know exactly what you mean (and I moved here from Phoenix a few months ago).

I do miss dust storms, though

MarkDaMan · #27 Posted **Dec 12, 2007, 1:00 AM**

^me too...but that is about all I can think of missing from that hell hole...

O'Toole is a fool...hahahaaaa...

Sekkle · #28 Posted **Dec 12, 2007, 1:24 AM**

^, ^^ I don't think there's anything I miss aside from family and friends. I like everything about Portland better... still getting used to all the rain and the early sunsets, though!

65MAX · #29 Posted **Dec 12, 2007, 10:07 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by ForAteOh

^, ^^ I don't think there's anything I miss aside from family and friends. I like everything about Portland better... still getting used to all the rain and the early sunsets, though!

Actually, the sunsets here are later in the day, from spring solstice to autumn solstice, than they are at points south. Then it's reversed for the other six months.

Oh yeah, and the O'Toole article is not even worth responding to. Complete garbage. Oops, I guess that was a response.....

urbanlife · #30 Posted **Dec 12, 2007, 11:21 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by alexjon

I like the rain, especially after living in Phoenix.

Actually, a lot of what I appreciate about cities I got from living in Phoenix. I take very little for granted anymore

Oh dont get me started on Phoenix, and I have never even lived there.

Actually, seeing we are going in random directions because O'Toole is too much of an idiot to hold our attention, I was always under the impression that Texas was a Conservative Democrat state. Which nothing wrong with that. I dated a girl very briefly that was raised there, and she had alot to say about that. If I am not mistaken, Texas got screwed when Bush took office, just like the country got screwed when he became president.

I guess the moral of the story is that we all have lapses in judgment, just never vote for a Bush.

alexjon · #31 Posted **Dec 12, 2007, 5:00 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by urbanlife

Oh dont get me started on Phoenix, and I have never even lived there.

Actually, seeing we are going in random directions because O'Toole is too much of an idiot to hold our attention, I was always under the impression that Texas was a Conservative Democrat state. Which nothing wrong with that. I dated a girl very briefly that was raised there, and she had alot to say about that. If I am not mistaken, Texas got screwed when Bush took office, just like the country got screwed when he became president.

I guess the moral of the story is that we all have lapses in judgment, just never vote for a Bush.

Actually, you nailed it pretty well.

The tax burden shifted heavily from an economically balanced one to one that weighed heavily on the middle and lower class, executions jumped, and people just... yeah, we just went crazy.

The blue in our cheeks is coming back, though. We're socially progressive again (except in certain suburbs that won't be named, but that's almost universal), and we're slowly regaining our financial balance.

We'll let the haterade go for now

Dr Nevergold · #32 Posted **Dec 13, 2007, 2:47 AM**

Who cares about Texas?

O'Toole and his gang of ideology pretend that anyone who opposes their viewpoint aren't choosing their own lifestyles. Oregon soundly voted for Measure 49 to uphold the land use laws. Its pretty clear that the majority of people around here are living in the ways they are by choice.

O'Toole can't understand these are choices, not forced. He believes his idea is the only "choice" and by definition he's deluded and out of touch with reality. When you think you're belief is the only "choice" that's called authoritarian thought. LOL

65MAX · #33 Posted **Dec 13, 2007, 7:59 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by heckles

Who cares about Texas?

About 20 million Texans.

Everybody should take pride in where they live. Even people in Mississippi take pride in their state. As they should. What's wrong with that?

O'Toole is a professional contrarian, he only exists to stir things up. Don't take him so seriously.

Snowden352 · #34 Posted **Dec 13, 2007, 7:02 PM**

While I agree with everyone that O'Toole seems to be more concerned with attacking Portland than resolving its problems. I do think that there seems to be a very concerted effort to ignore his arguments. The fact that the only thing that Homer Williams, just for example, can only rebutt by calling him "an idiot" says that there are no intelligent responses (to say nothing that I think anyone who just calls someone they disagree with an idiot is an idiot edit: I'm referring to Williams, not my fellow bloggers).

I do think that the market plays a larger role in housing costs in Portland than in Houston (where there is a surging demand in Portland to live in-city, and in certain neighborhoods than Houston--I'm not convinced that it would be cheaper to remove the UGB). However, as congestion increases, I do think that there needs to be a rethinking of transportation. Also, the resolution to the shrinking middle class/working class in the city won't be resolved by government rather without a stiff, stiff raise in taxes.

Anyway, I just thought I'd shake things up by disagreeing with EVERYONE who has commented so far. Just a note: I am a libertarian, and that's why I agree with O'Toole's basic premises; and if you must attack something, attack ideas, not politics or the person. Thanks.

pdxman · #35 Posted **Dec 13, 2007, 7:10 PM**

So you're a libertarian eh?

Snowden352 · #36 Posted **Dec 13, 2007, 7:29 PM**

Yup.
edit: it wasn't meant to be a gratuitous statement; merely a moment of honesty (I wanted to be up front about my position).

cab · #37 Posted **Dec 13, 2007, 8:03 PM**

For me the issue with Otoole libertarian's are the total lack of knowledge on how we got to this point in the game. Otoole argues for more hwy miles and yet never once does he go back and point out that the highway system is the largest public subsidized work project in history. The entire game has been rigged for 75 years. Unlike the creation of the rail system, which should be the libertarians transportation model since it is the ONLY system to be built by private investors, the highway systems massive subsidizes turned the market. libertarian stand on very fragile grown because they never get the fact that there entire model stand on the shoulders of the basic common infrastructure that government built. Simply put there is absolutely NO proof that libertarian theory has the ability to produce a civilized functioning society.

I have a feeling that our country is going to learn this lesson very harshly going forward as we watch our country fall apart under the thumb of the halliburtons of the world.

MarkDaMan · #38 Posted **Dec 13, 2007, 11:24 PM**

I'm curious Snowden on what arguments specifically in that profile you agree with?

Phxbyrd211 · #39 Posted **Dec 13, 2007, 11:38 PM**

Why does everyone have to be bashing on Phoenix? There are many here in Phoenix who share Portland's ideals and hope to make them work. Positive things are being done to make Phoenix a better city to live in and in 5 years or so that conception will begin to become reality. Phoenix is simply well behind Portland in their transformation. When settlers were traveling the Oregon trail, Arizona was still part of Mexico (although largely uninhabited). Thank you

2008 Super Bowl, Glendale Arizona

alexjon · #40 Posted **Dec 14, 2007, 5:23 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Phxbyrd211

Why does everyone have to be bashing on Phoenix? There are many here in Phoenix who share Portland's ideals and hope to make them work. Positive things are being done to make Phoenix a better city to live in and in 5 years or so that conception will begin to become reality. Phoenix is simply well behind Portland in their transformation. When settlers were traveling the Oregon trail, Arizona was still part of Mexico (although largely uninhabited). Thank you

2008 Super Bowl, Glendale Arizona

Phoenix's problem? US Airways and their use of Sky Harbor as a means of keeping themselves the biggest player in the market there.