Last Thursday has had better days. Much better. Quite a few friends moved into the neighborhood in the 90's. They are creative people and artists. We had a great Halloween party when friend of a friend bought one of the many a vacant buildings on the street. "Vacant building on Alberta", good luck finding that today!
When individual artists selling on the street in the Pearl District were driven out by Pearl businesses, they created Alberta's Last Thursday.
Some musicians started a marching band. DJ's brought their music. There was hooping and fire performing. Many late night house and yard parties. Lam's was a good spot. Always fire involved! As mentioned, the clown house often did something crazy and fun. Like bike jumping, mud wrestling, fire and clowning.
Fast forward to today. It's not as wild, more all ages, more suburban spectators. But it is still worth enjoying for the people watching. Or get a bite in one of the outdoor spots and let it flow by. Be respectful parking and leave room around people's driveways. The last Thursday in August may not be as vibrant, some of the performers are packing up for out-of-town festivals.
The problem with the event is that the businesses who benefit from the night itself, and from the year round businesses, that would not be there except for the artists, do not want to pay for the event. The businesses that benefit are the bars, restaurants and landlords.
From time to time you will hear a landlord claiming to have founded Last Thursday. Question is how much are they willing to pay in each month to Last Thursday which made their bank?
Those businesses are like, "let the artists pay - they have plenty of money, right?" In fact, most artists selling there break even on materials and if they are lucky, earn less than a dollar an hour for their labor.
Those Alberta businesses benefitting, with a few exceptions, have always been cheapskates.
They don't support the Alberta Street Fair.
I know this because friends are organizers of that event. You can see yourself from this list, many prosperous bars and restaurants are missing, and the amounts contributed are sad: http://albertamainst.org/who-we-are/supporter/. The bars, by and large, don't support the costs of Last Thursday, but they benefit from it with their best nights of the entire year.
An exception has been Binks, which has donated money to cover the Last Thursday costs.
The mayor's office wants to make it into the tame Alberta Street Fair. Keep Portland tame! The fire chief appointed by Randy Leonard has essentially banned fire performance in Portland despite no safety incidents and repeated attempts by the performers to work with her.
Then we have this gem: http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2010/08/portland_lemonade_stand_runs_i.html
There is a good argument that someone has to pay for portapotties, street cleaning (litter - WTF!), garbage cans. Yes some TriMet buses have to be rerouted. Are police extra, or is that their job? That someone should be the bars and restaurants, maybe food carts, or other disposable container food and drink vendors, generating trash to be picked up, not the artists. Then there are various crazy talking organizers claiming to manage it as a way to support themselves.
Likely the neighborhood association will kill it. Neighborhood homeowners have benefited handsomely from increased property values, although they still pay property taxes on a fraction of of the current value. They can walk to businesses that would not be there without the artists work since the 90's. "But hey, 5 nights a year is too much inconvenience! We demand you conform to our little vision of Stepford".
See it while you can. read more
