Portland Anarchist Road Care

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Portland Anarchist Road Care (PARC) is a road maintenance organization formed in 2017 by anarchists in Portland, Oregon, United States, with the intention of repairing potholes in that city's roads.

Portland, Oregon City in Oregon, United States

Portland is the largest and most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon and the seat of Multnomah County. It is a major port in the Willamette Valley region of the Pacific Northwest, at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers. As of 2017, Portland had an estimated population of 647,805, making it the 26th most populated city in the United States, and the second-most populous in the Pacific Northwest. Approximately 2.4 million people live in the Portland metropolitan statistical area (MSA), making it the 25th most populous MSA in the United States. Its Combined Statistical Area (CSA) ranks 18th-largest with a population of around 3.2 million. Approximately 60% of Oregon's population resides within the Portland metropolitan area.

United States Federal republic in North America

The United States of America (USA), commonly known as the United States or America, is a country comprising 50 states, a federal district, five major self-governing territories, and various possessions. At 3.8 million square miles, the United States is the world's third or fourth largest country by total area and is slightly smaller than the entire continent of Europe's 3.9 million square miles. With a population of over 327 million people, the U.S. is the third most populous country. The capital is Washington, D.C., and the largest city by population is New York City. Forty-eight states and the capital's federal district are contiguous in North America between Canada and Mexico. The State of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east and across the Bering Strait from Russia to the west. The State of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U.S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, stretching across nine official time zones. The extremely diverse geography, climate, and wildlife of the United States make it one of the world's 17 megadiverse countries.

Pothole a type of disruption in the surface of a roadway where a portion of the road material has broken away, leaving a hole

A pothole is a depression in a road surface, usually asphalt pavement, where traffic has removed broken pieces of the pavement. It is usually the result of water in the underlying soil structure and traffic passing over the affected area. Water first weakens the underlying soil; traffic then fatigues and breaks the poorly supported asphalt surface in the affected area. Continued traffic action ejects both asphalt and the underlying soil material to create a hole in the pavement.

Contents

Background

In the winter of 2016/17 Portland saw freezing rain, graupel, ice storms, snow storms and extended periods of freezing temperatures, which damaged the city's roads. [1] [2] By the end of February 2017 municipal workers had identified more than 1,000 potholes. [2] In 2017 the Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) launched a "patch-a-thon" to fast-track road repairs, but acknowledged that repairs to some roads would not be completed until summer 2017. [3]

Freezing rain is the name given to rain maintained at temperatures below freezing by the ambient air mass that causes freezing on contact with surfaces. Unlike a mixture of rain and snow, ice pellets, or hail, freezing rain is made entirely of liquid droplets. The raindrops become supercooled while passing through a sub-freezing layer of air hundreds of meters above the ground, and then freeze upon impact with any surface they encounter, including the ground, trees, electrical wires, aircraft, and automobiles. The resulting ice, called glaze ice, can accumulate to a thickness of several centimeters and cover all exposed surfaces. The METAR code for freezing rain is FZRA.

Graupel, also called soft hail or snow pellets, is precipitation that forms when supercooled water droplets are collected and freeze on falling snowflakes, forming 2–5 mm (0.08–0.20 in) balls of rime. The term graupel comes from the German language.

An ice storm is a type of winter storm characterized by freezing rain, also known as a glaze event or, in some parts of the United States, as a silver thaw. The U.S. National Weather Service defines an ice storm as a storm which results in the accumulation of at least 0.25-inch (6.4 mm) of ice on exposed surfaces. From 1982 to 1994, ice storms were more common than blizzards in the U.S., averaging 16 per year. They are generally not violent storms but instead are commonly perceived as gentle rains occurring at temperatures just below freezing.

Other groups and initiatives with similar aims include one that began repairing potholes in Hamtramck, Michigan in 2015, [4] and PDX Transformation, who placed traffic cones around bicycle lanes in Portland in 2016 to prevent other vehicles being driven on them. [5]

Hamtramck, Michigan City in Michigan, United States

Hamtramck is a city in Wayne County in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 22,423. Hamtramck is surrounded by the city of Detroit except for a small portion of the western border that touches the similarly surrounded city of Highland Park.

Beliefs and activities

The group's mission statement describes their reasoning as follows:

Because we believe in building community solutions to the issues we face, outside of the state.

Because society portrays anarchists as only breaking windows and blocking roads.

Because when faced with anarchism as a political theory, statists often ask "But who will fix the roads."

Because the city of Portland refuses to adequately repair roads in a timely manner. [5]

The statement goes on to call for "community oriented direct action" and criticizes the militarization of police. [5] A member of the group explained to OregonLive.com : "As anarchists, we seek to bring about a society in which coercive hierarchies, such as government and capitalism ... no longer exist. To be exceptionally clear, anarchists do not desire chaos, we desire freedom and equality." [6] They also argued that "By creating structures to serve the same purpose as state structures, such as our organization, we have the ability to show that government is not necessary for society to function, that we can have a truly free and liberated society". [6] In an email to a Vice reporter, PARC organizers said "We waited around like everyone else, for the state to come in and fix the roads... We finally realized that the state is not going to do enough, on a timeframe that is reasonable." [7] They also said that while it was not their primary goal, they hoped to challenge negative perceptions of anarchism, and explained: "We want people to learn about anarchy by participating in anarchist efforts, or by those efforts effecting them in the real world, not just through some media filter." [7]

Direct action action taken by a group intended to reveal an existing problem, highlight an alternative, or demonstrate a possible solution to a social issue

Direct action originated as a political activist term for economical and political acts in which the actors use their power to directly reach certain goals of interest, in contrast to those actions that appeal to others by, for instance, revealing an existing problem, using physical violence, highlighting an alternative, or demonstrating a possible solution.

Militarization of police use of military equipment and tactics by law enforcement officers

Militarization of police refers to the use of military equipment and tactics by law enforcement officers. This includes the use of armored personnel carriers, assault rifles, submachine guns, flashbang grenades, grenade launchers, sniper rifles, and Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) teams. The militarization of law enforcement is also associated with intelligence agency-style information gathering aimed at the public and political activists, and a more aggressive style of law enforcement. Criminal justice professor Peter Kraska has defined militarization of police as "the process whereby civilian police increasingly draw from, and pattern themselves around, the tenets of militarism and the military model."

OregonLive.com is a website covering local news in Oregon and Southwest Washington. The website serves as the online home of The Oregonian. Started in 1997, it is owned by Advance Publications, which also owns The Oregonian. Betsy Richter was the original editor of the website, and served through 1998 when Kevin Cosgrove took over as editor-in-chief.

PARC said they had received criticism from the left to the effect that they "should be tearing the streets up, rather than paving them", but that they found this approach to be "ableist, classist and antisocial." [8]

Left-wing politics supports social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy. It typically involves a concern for those in society whom its adherents perceive as disadvantaged relative to others (prioritarianism) as well as a belief that there are unjustified inequalities that need to be reduced or abolished. The term left-wing can also refer to "the radical, reforming, or socialist section of a political party or system".

As of March 2017, PARC had patched several potholes in the southeast of the city. [5] Photographs of their efforts, in which their faces were covered, were posted on Facebook. [1] [3] [9] In March 2017 the group said they intended to continue their work as long as they had the necessary resources and time. [9] [10] They also said they would explore options including mobilizing people to fix roads in their neighborhoods themselves, and working to increase the visibility of potholes, [6] and may also expand into other forms of infrastructure repair. [2] PARC did not consult the city government before taking action, and explained: "We aren't asking permission, because these are our streets. They belong to the people of Portland, and the people of Portland will fix them." [2]

Response

Local residents interviewed by KGW.com expressed support for PARC. [10] Dylan Rivera, a spokesperson for PBOT, acknowledged the city's pothole problem but said it was unsafe for citizens to fix potholes themselves, and called for patience. [3] [10] Rivera said that unauthorized road repairs may be illegal, or may result in PARC being legally liable. [6] He also expressed sympathy for the group and said the Bureau viewed PARC's actions as "an extension of the community mindedness of Portlanders", and suggested PARC undertake repairs to gravel roads in the city that are not maintained by PBOT. [8]

See also

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References

  1. 1 2 Dubois, Steven (March 15, 2017). "Anarchists Take to Portland's Streets, to Fix Them". U.S. News & World Report . Retrieved June 16, 2017.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Metcalfe, John (March 15, 2017). "Portland Anarchists Want to Fix Your Street's Potholes". CityLab . Retrieved June 16, 2017.
  3. 1 2 3 Dymburt, Andrew (March 13, 2017). "Anarchists committed to fixing Portland's potholes". KOIN . Retrieved June 16, 2017.
  4. ↑ Marchello, Lindsay (March 17, 2017). "Portland Anarchists Patching Up Potholes". Reason . Retrieved June 16, 2017.
  5. 1 2 3 4 Brey, Bri (March 13, 2017). "Need a Pothole Fixed? Maybe a Portland Anarchist Can Help!". The Portland Mercury . Retrieved June 16, 2017.
  6. 1 2 3 4 Njus, Elliot (March 14, 2017). "Why Portland anarchists are patching potholed streets". OregonLive.com . Retrieved June 16, 2017.
  7. 1 2 Peyser, Eve (March 15, 2017). "Portland Anarchists Are Rebelling Against the Lazy Government by Fixing Roads". Vice . Retrieved June 16, 2017.
  8. 1 2 Murdock, Sebastian (March 16, 2017). "Anarchists In Portland Are Fighting The System By Fixing Potholes". The Huffington Post . Retrieved June 16, 2017.
  9. 1 2 Ibrahim, Dalia (March 16, 2017). "'Pothole vigilantes' seek to smooth out Portland's roads". The Weather Network . Retrieved June 16, 2017.
  10. 1 2 3 Benner, Mike (March 14, 2017). "Anarchist group repairing Portland potholes". KGW.com . Retrieved June 16, 2017.
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