Tuesday, October 25, 2005

Update...Did the anonymous complaint come from Lake Oswego?

Here is a review of our on going coverage of the exclusive story we call
Clown House in Crisis City of Portland storm 05
The Clown House started 8 years ago, at the end of a circus tour. We had a child and decided to focus on having a place to raise our kiddo, get involved in a community, build bikes for people who need them, provide a place for weary travelers to land when on tour themselves and, of course,to have a good time.
We have had some really nasty scrapes with greedy contractors and developers over the years. Especially in the Mississippi neighborhood, the common tactic to rid the neighborhood of black folks and other undesirables is to use the city as a weapon. They call in complaints anonymously about yard infractions, the city then bugs the landlord with threats of fines until they decide to toss the tenants, and/or sell off.
This is once again happening on Alberta street. As new buildings come up,so does the rent all around, and the unscrupulous puddin head developers, riding around in gargantuan SUVs that are empty of cargo and clean from not being used for the actual heavy duty work they were designed for, protect their investments and set up new ones by crawling the streets looking for opportunity.
Our landlord (nice guy, likes kids)called about a vague letter from the city about our yard here being full of trash and debris and said it all had to go or he will face a $2000 fine and turn it over to us.
Define trash and debris. It's all relative to the person looking at it. It may have been in a dumpster when we found it, but when it's painted and in our yard, an old wooden spool becomes a fabulous circus prop that, in the hands of clowns, has entertained hundreds of people on Alberta street.
The irony is, when they go to sell the properties they have swooped on, they always say "Arts District," or if it's a property near the clown house they say "In the heart of the Alberta Arts."
Most neighborhoods that experience big economic booms lose the soul that made them appealing in the first place. NW 21st & 23rd are a classic example. Also, "cleaning up" doesn't mean that the urban blight goes away. NW still holds the dubious honor of having the highest rate of drug overdoses.
Strong communities require economic & ethnic diversity to survive. As a Clown-American, I sincerely hope that this kind of economic harassment doesn't remove the soul, or my family, from NE ALberta.
We had to get rid of all the bikes, they were in a row behind the house and were used to build funny bikes, provide transpo for folks who couldn't afford a bike, teaching welding, and for inventing things (I wonder if Orville and Wilbur had this problem?). The dead bike row also was the only means the bike shop had for helping to pay its rent. We sold parts and gear to other bike people for cheap, and used the money to help pay for power and or rent.
If the bike shop paid our living expenses, then we would have time to manage the thing in an orderly way, but we are relying on mostly anarchists and clowns for our management team. We didn't decide to have a public bike shop in a board room; it evolved, rather autonomously, because anarchists, clowns, & other folks WANTED it to happen. And people still want it. But who will keep it looking neat and pretty for the developers?
It seems that no matter what we do, the high property values make some folks ruthless.
I'm gonna keep cleaning and getting rid of props and materials and hopefully we can find a use for an empty yard.
This has been
on going coverage of the exclusive story
Clown House in Crisis City of Portland storm 05
and now back to our regularly scheduled clownarchy
Every stick of our furnature came from dumpsters I relate to this.

I dont know how I feel about this

Extremo the clown

Extremos car and the only automobile that I have ever respected ever.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

i'm glad you guys are in the neighborhood, see you tomorrow.

Anonymous said...

i know it's kind of late for comment on somethin from last week: i've been living in this neighborhood for ten years. have been party to a few nuisance complaints. have had the cops called on too rowdy theater parties held in the once rexall rose in what i think of as the beginning of all of this. as an artist, as a white person, i have helped make it easier and more comfortable for those who want to take over. our house just tries to remain a treasure secret (also full of bike parts).
sometimes i try to look at all of this from my dog's point of view: i once used to walk her without worry without a leash. we'd take our morning walks through the alley and around the corner of 24th -- what she calls "my territory." over the years she has gotten more and more grumpy in her pit-bull self, and is angry about all of the folks bringing their dogs around to her corner. after all - she comes from fighting stock (rejected by the pros for her good heart i'm sure), from an old neighbor who was forced to move by economic circumstance, who also had nuisance complaints filed against him for his dogs. i tell you, she doesn't get along with most around here. (she loves banjo tho) her leashless days are over. i was yelled at the other day by a neighbor for my aggressive dog barking at his dog. i yelled back, full of rage at my dog's displacement. i didn't think to say, you know, she was here first, this is her "territory." niether human dealt with the situation in a neighborly way.
the other side of all that is, of course, my wake up call to try to train my dog out of this behavior. i guess she needs to be able to fit in a little, so i can get donuts stealthily in the night without starting a fight.

Dingo Dizmal said...

Great post,I know some tricks to tricking your dog into belaying the "Eat the face" instinct/command that someone emparted on your doggie. Come run your dog with Banjolina in the yard (now free of our livleyhood) plenty of room to run (we are paying for an empty lot) and we can talk sometime.
Banjo was raised by folks who wanted her to be mean, We trained her out of it. Now she misstrusts men but still is a wonderful dog who pitches in and is an asset to the house.
So your the white lady that started all this mess hahahahaha!
I wish race had nothing to do with the problemos here on Alberta, it seems that Portland has so many good ideas compared to rural or messed up citys like St.Louis, Huston, Newark, and others.
I cant relate to folks in places like that because they look and sound like apes, not like a Silver back, Mountain gorilla or a swinging chimpanzee, more like the cartoon ape smoking a cigar, wearing a derby hat and trying to pick up a stick that it's standing on..
I think it will all work out somehow, I don't think it would be out of the question for some civic organisation to come along and help the Clown House out with money, people, time, and make the joint a real hell raser when it comes to non-profits.
I grew up in a whirlwind of adventure and chaos, I know my skills well and am wise enough to pass stuff I don't know about to people who do.
I think we need a grant writer.
The bike shop should remain annonomus, We have never asked volenteers or students of metal class to sign anything, in fact I never ask anyones name (because I don't care, I call everyone "dude" anyway).
The shop should be geard for the working poor and travelers.
I have other demands too but I'm going to just wait and see what happens, The inspection still hasn't happened and the stress it amazing.
The dead clown hanging from the tree looks like a happy holloween thing but in reality it symbolises the death of our freedom to express ourselves and make a living so the dead clown will have a pilgrim hat, a santa hat, easter bunny, as long as it takes to get justice...or till the lease runs out and we become the Gresham Clown House.