Occupy Portland Shuts Down Main Street

Occupy Portland by eliduke/flickr.com

After several hours of deliberations, the ’Occupy Portland’ demonstrators have voted to keep Main Street closed with the exceptions of buses, emergency vehicles, and bikes. This decision came from 90 percent of the people who are participating, all of whom have been camped out at Chapman Square for the past week. However, police officials have not responded to this decision. But Mayor Sam Adams asked the protesters to consider reopening the downtown street.

“We don’t want a confrontation. We just want to get the street reopened,” said Adams.

The majority of many demonstrators said that they would like to see the street reopen, as well, out of concern for public safety and city businesses. However the other demonstrators that don’t want the street reopened say it is closed for a reason. The sections of the street that are closed off are between Third and Fourth Avenue. In order to pass any kind of proposal, Occupy Portland needs to have 90 percent of the vote to reopen or to keep the road closed, is needed since they’re operating on a consensus model.

One demonstrator, who refused to give his name, said that the general assembly needs to be respected.

“When you say this is dragging on, well when there’s a problem that needs to be decided in Washington, how long does that take? It can take weeks and weeks, months and months,” the demonstrator said.

Main Street did reopen briefly on Wednesday morning because some of the protesters removed the barricades that were being used to block the street. But some of the other protesters felt that the street needed to remain blocked and returned the barricades after being opened for about an hour and then sat down in the street. It’s not known how long the demonstrators will be there.

According to John Mackin, one of the Occupy Portland demonstrators, they plan on being there well past winter.

“It’s going to be a long while before people are out of here,” Mackin says. “Definitely over the winter. It’s going to take awhile. No one is in a rush. A lot of people don’t have anywhere to go.”

For the most part, the demonstrators have been quiet peaceful, apart from the few activist that spray painted the word ‘PIG’ on the back of a police officer’s patrol car that was parked near their camp. A member of the Occupy Portland financial committee says they’re working to pay the Portland Police Bureau for damages.

The ‘Occupy Demonstrations’ are now happening throughout the entire world. Many people believe that if they protest what is going on with the government, I.e. the financial crisis that just about every country is going through, then the government will start to make changes with the way they are running things and with what they say should be cut/who should be taxed more.