“The City Council voted unanimously Wednesday to ban the practice of marking off public viewing spots along Portland streets for parades. The fine: $100 for the first offense, $500 for each subsequent violation.”

Does one need to say more? Last year in May, we posted about the first people putting down duct tape on SW 5th almost 2 weeks before the Rose Festival parade. It just screamed laziness to me. I know people will chant tradition or that they just can’t get down for the parade the night before. I call them out as just plain lazy. The Portland Mercury took up the fight and the night before the parade, the Civic Cleanup Crew took to the route and cleaned it up.

Randy Leonard took it further. A committee was setup to look into TapeGate and yesterday they passed a law. Now, how will it be enforced? Not sure. I could see the unique instance when Portland Police bust someone putting down duct tape or Portland Patrol trying to stop someone, but are they really going to go down and look up names and investigate? I think not. I assume this is meant more as a deterrent than anything.

I’m proud we were part of a change last June. Whether it was a traditions for some or not, it disenfranchised more people and created an elitist air with regards to parade seating.

So Mercury, what’s the next battle?

DSCN5459

Originally uploaded by dieselboi

Related posts:

1. Tri-Met using duct tape for repairs
2. The Next Big Duct Tape
3. Busted! Someone named Tower is in trouble
4. Tape Tape Tape Tape Tape
5. My Take on the Friday Tape Thing