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7
Street roots
April 1, 2012
PR flacks make $1,400 a
week to botch social
media efforts
BY USER
C IT IZ E N J O U R N A L IS T
he Willamette Week reported
earlier this year that the average
salary of 94 public relation
“flacks” with eight agencies, including the
City of Portland, Multnomah County,
Metro, TriMet, Portland State University,
the Port of Portland, Oregon Health and
Science University and the Portland Public
Schools, is $74,318.
The group of 94 employees are thought
to be very upset at the new BookFace
timeline changes, where they spend most
of their time. “It’s really upsetting,” says
one flack with the County who was just
getting to know BookFace after his kids
taught him how to navigate the social
media site because no one in his bureau
had a clue about what is was.
“Now, BookFace changes the format to
this thing called a timeline. I’m totally
confused. I miss the days when we could
just put together a press release and fax it
to the Oregonian and they would run it.”
Even more upsetting is that one group
can’t figure out how to control their
institutions message on Twitter. “No one
will follow us back, and only a few of us get
the whole 140 character thing. It’s
exhausting.”
“After collecting more than $1,400 a
week,” one spokesperson said, “our
employees in the public relations
department are having a hard time
responding to reporters after spending so
much time on social media sites. Does SR
know what Pinterest is?”
“We’re going to need to hammer out a
pay raise if bureau directors ask us to go
T
on this thing called Instagram . People are
still unclear about bow BookFace relates to
Man with cane outpaces Portland
Streetcar, raising more questions
S T A F F R E P O R TS
A
Asked if he thought the city was wasting
its time on a streetcar line on Portland’s
Eastside, Shuffleton says, “Sure, if you want
to be late to just about anything, then you’ll
love it.”
City officials say they absolutely love the
three-years now,” says Jim “T he Shuffler”
streetcar, but never use it.
61-year-old man tired of taking the
Portland Streetcar realized he can
actually walk faster to his destination
than taking the trolley.
“I’ve been taking that damn trolley for
Tumbr and how Instragram is connected to
Twitter, and if Pinterest is just a fad, or if
anyone is still actually using Linked In.
“People are extremely frustrated,” says
one flack, “while frantically searching for a
number on his flip phone. I just want a
drink, and some time with my kids at my
space.”
Shuffleton. “It takes so long and those
announcements drive me absolutely bat-shit
crazy: ‘This stop is brought to you by some
real estate company that I don’t know and
frankly don’t care about.”
Shuffleton is petitioning others in his
building in Northwest Portland to ditch the
streetcar and to walk instead. “My mother,
who is 93, could outpace that 10-ton piece
of crap,” says Shuffleton.
INDEPENDENCE, from page 17
He has refused to pass other laws for the
accommodation of large districts of people,
unless those people would relinquish the
right of representation in the legislature, a
right inestimable to them and formidable to
tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies
at places unusual, uncomfortable, and
distant from the depository of their public
records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing
them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved representative houses
repeatedly, for opposing with manly
firmness his invasions on the rights of the
people.
He has refused for a long time, after such
dissolutions, to cause others to be elected;
whereby the legislative powers, incapable of
annihilation, have returned to the people at
large for their exercise; the state remaining
in the meantime exposed to all the dangers
of invasion from without, and convulsions
within.
He has endeavored to prevent the
population of these states; for that purpose
obstructing the laws for naturalization of
foreigners; refusing to pass others to
encourage their migration hither, and
raising the conditions of new appropriations
of lands.
He has obstructed the administration of
justice, by refusing his assent to laws for
establishing judiciary powers.
He has made judges dependent on his
will alone, for the tenure of their offices,
and the amount and payment of their
salaries.
He has erected a multitude of new
offices, and sent hither swarms of officers
laying its foundation on such principles and
organizing its powers in such form, as to
them shall seem most likely to effect their
safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will
dictate that governments long established
should not be changed for light and
transient causes; and accordingly all
experience hath shown that mankind are
more disposed to suffer, while evils are
sufferable, than to right themselves by
abolishing the forms to which they are
accustomed. But when a long train of
abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably
the same object evinces a design to reduce
them under absolute despotism, it is their
right, it is their duty, to throw off such
government, and to provide new guards for
their future security. Such has been the
patient sufferance of these colonies; and
such is now the necessity which constrains
them to alter their former systems of
government. The history of the present
King of Great Britain is a history of
repeated injuries and usurpations, all having
in direct object the establishment of an
absolute tyranny over these states. To prove
this, let facts be submitted to a candid
world.
He has refused his assent to laws, the
most wholesome and necessary for the
public good.
He has forbidden his governors to pass
laws of immediate and pressing importance,
unless suspended in their operation till his
assent should be obtained; and when so
suspended, he has utterly neglected to
attend to them.
“Portland’s streetcar is something we
should all be proud of,” says Charlie Hales,
former Portland City Commissioner and
current mayoral candidate. “Living in
Washington for the past few years, I came to
realize how much I missed it.” Asked how
often he commutes on the streetcar he says,
“I don’t know, twice a year. It’s great!”
Street Roots asked several riders how
they felt about paying for the streetcar and
Above, the Portland Streetcar to Portland
State University which cannot keep up with
Jim Shuffleton’s feeble, arthritic legs.
most didn’t realize there was a fee. “You are
supposed to pay to ride the streetcar?” said
one woman. “I’ve never paid, or seen
anyone pay for the streetcar in more than
two-years of riding.”
Officials with the city say they can’t afford
to enforce people paying for the railline that
is suppose to pay for the costs to maintain
current and future streetcar lines. “We’re at
a loss,” says a 22-year-old transportation
staffer with hipster glasses at city hall.
I’ve got my cane,” says Shuffleton. “I’m
walking.”
Street Roots is a proud partner
with the Jesuit Volunteer
Corps Northwest and
Americorps.
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