Lipstick for the pig
I see that Multnomah County Library workers don't feel safe on the job. The libraries have become de facto insane asylums, and there's not enough security in the world for the problems of the people roaming Portland's public spaces.
Overdoses. Stabbings. Sexual harassment. Hate speech. For employees at Multnomah County libraries, workplace concerns go beyond late fees and damaged books.
An audit of the county’s library system published Thursday found that nearly 75% of surveyed library staff who work directly with the public don’t feel safe at their job. The audit, which reviewed the past two fiscal years, also identified areas in which the library system may be violating Oregon workplace safety rules.
And so it's ironic indeed that the voters have dumped hundreds of millions of dollars (not a typo) into maing the asylums fancier. Every crazy person deserves a deluxe place to act out, I guess.
For that kind of money, you could have permanently endowed enough security to make the branches comfortable places to go again. But no. We must pay the usual suspects in the construction game to give us bright, shiny places in which to be scared.
To make matters worse, guess who's in charge. Yep, the Chevy Vega herself.
In response to the audit, Multnomah County Chair Jessica Vega Pederson points to areas in which the county has already improved library security. She said the county is on track to purchase a new reporting system in 2024, and that the latest budget increased the library’s overall security expenses by 70% from 2019. She added that some of the challenges faced by library staff are felt by most people working public service jobs.
“Myriad factors contribute to this, including the housing crisis and systemic issues of inadequate behavioral health and substance use resources,” Vega Pederson wrote. “These conditions affect public libraries all over, particularly ones in urban settings with similar community needs.”
Sound like it's going to better any time soon?
Used to visit the main library weekly. Two or three decades ago the front steps became a magnet for people who seemed to have no literary interests. I objected to the prevailing smell of pot. But, it was only on the steps. I stopped going to that branch when the body odors became overwhelming inside.
ReplyDeleteI mean yeah, the main library was always kinda sketchy just being where it is. And I guess a little bit of crazy just came naturally with being so close to the homeless and other types who are there for reasons not aligned with the library’s true purpose.
ReplyDeleteBut I can’t even imagine it now, considering how bad it was some 25 years when I worked there. It is now most likely a potent, and smelly, mix of grievance culture mixed with unhinged (and high) street people who use the facilities for hygiene and their ow brand of hijinks.
Imagine a typical Portlander from 1958 being transported via time machine to today, and ending up at the library. Talk about Twilight Zone material.
Used to ride the bus in the late 60's from Beaverton as a young teenager to go to the library without a worry in the world.
Delete[Coughs in Project Manager]: PURCHASE a new reporting system in 2024!? IF it even gets implemented, it won't be online until 2026.
ReplyDeleteI was going to say "by then, we'll need a Bush-style surge". On reflection, what we really need is a Bush-style surge NOW.
How does the Oxford English dictionary define Incompetent? (of course assuming that page has not been used for toilet paper)
ReplyDeleteChevy Vega left out “Covid” as one of the factors. Of she also left out “marginalized” and “lived experience” , “systemic” and so many more of the go to words.
ReplyDeleteA Marxist Lesbian of the proselytic stripe:
ReplyDeletehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emily_Drabinski
It is a baton that they have been passing among themselves for a long time.
You guys'll like her. A lot
A lot of that going around in Portland today
DeleteIt looks like she has a strong resume and record of accomplishment. She opposes censorship. What is your actual beef with her?
DeleteMs Drabinski was quite impressive and thoughtful in this podcast.
Deletehttps://citationsneeded.medium.com/episode-179-from-budget-cuts-to-book-bans-the-decades-long-assault-on-public-libraries-9dcb1be0716
I wonder how she would handle the safety problem facing Portland’s central library
DeleteTold you - you guys love the creature Drabinski. I used the Multnomah County Library for 35 years. It is a bigoted mess. If you think the ALA is a good outfit you must also think our border is secure, antifablm actions are peaceful protests and we need to take in gazan refugees in job lots of 100,000. In other words you are probably a Harvard grad.
DeleteWhen I moved back to Portland in 1993 I went to the Belmont Branch to get a library card. I saw there laid flat on a below-the-hip display table the most explicit book, a coffee table book of B&W lesbians fisting, double fisting and etc.
ReplyDeleteI was shocked not because of prudishness, like many I could tell you personal tales...but because they were grotesque by any sane person's standard and they available to any grammar school child wandering past.
30 years before my mother had introduced me to the Hillsboro Carnegie Library. It was a powerful and key experience in my life. The frusty old maid and furnishings, the shushing staff are very clear to me as I now type. It was my emblem of America.
The Multnomah County Kenton Branch opened in 2010. Between that time and early 2022 I never saw a book on display that celebrated America. What was displayed? You name the group and their heroism and valor in standing up to the white colonialists . Cruelly oppressed by White, Cis America or you say your ancestors were? Well, Bob's your uncle. Boys are icky and fundamentally brutal criminals? Well, here's a treasure house for you my darlin'.
Joining in a book discussion about African child soldiers I asked if the author did not diminish the value of his testament as much of his story was shown to be false? The vitriol I received for the inquiry was overwhelming. Basically, what mattered was the narrative of evil white corporatism. Rigoberto Minchu? So much of what the leftist feminist committee who authored her autobio wrote of her life simply did not happen. Again narrative triumphed.
No mention of anything from The Federalist Papers, James Monroe, Lincoln ...and all of of the brilliant and durable culture that they established and developed.
You remember every right thinking reader's darling, the droll Romanian poet Andrei Codrescu who was featured on NPR for years? He took the ALA to task in 2006 for their fawning fkwittedness concerning the Castro regime's suppression of free expression. They love, love, loved that man and his totalitarian state. The poet had first-hand experience.
For several years at the St Johns Library a shabbily dressed heavily bearded nitwit checked books. As often as hygiene allowed he wore a red & black t-shirt filled with a line drawing of Karl Marx. How many corpses can be laid at that man's feet? The ALA nitwit not the commie one. I hated having to do business with the ignorant sob.
Of course they loved the insanity of BLM and Antifa. Did everything they could for them but provide bricks and matches.
On their website now they celebrate drag queen story hour. Do children need to see these freakishly made up clowns licking their lips while 5th graders sit on their laps and books including the how to's of analingus salt the children's shelves.
If you are fine with the above cheer on this woman who regards men and American pretty much as that trio of gorgons from Penn, MIT, and Harvard regard Jews.
Do you know what is taught in what used to be the service academies?
Where do you think that those 3 vile mediocrities from Harvard, MIT, and Penn came from? What is in context antisemitism?
You do not care? What is wrong with lesbian Marxists? Look to your governor, to the history of Portland and Multnomah County education. They've been taught to despise the system, abuse power and most especially in the case of families and children they have no skin in the game.
Forgive the insane evil of my source but do note a librarian is at the center of the matter:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/12/christian-teacher-fired-revealing-students-gender-transition-parents/
A concluding offering: All those worthless or questionable college and university majors who've graduated in the last quarter century? No where to go so where do you think they went?
ReplyDeleteThey got a pipeline into library science and are backed up in there like a Portland sewer, but think national sewer. You are an awful mug if you think they have any respect or affection for anything that could be considered traditionally American.
They are a hard core cadre of left-wing, uber/ultra left wing activists. Now led by a Marxist-Lesbian who is not confused about the need for enemies nor whom the enemy is. Listen to her BS but watch her actions.