Portland Anarchists fixing potholes

[Lexicat]

Portland Pothole + Sinkhole Repair

[m_a_t]

[kermujin]

That about sums up the methodology used in the town where I live. There are no utilities under the roads here, but I’ll venture a guess that if the depth of a pothole is endangering the water or whathaveyou system, then the pothole problem has got WAY out of control.

Also, a side note is that the pothole that keeps reappearing, deeper each time, near the turn to my street has in fact wrecked three car axles (that I know of), and the municipality has zero responsibility.

[kermujin]

‘qualified’ road workers? In my experience the (usually) dudes doing the patching are mostly college-age guys on break from school, or other 20-somethings (read: possessed of an as-yet-unfucked-up back) doing pickup work. I wasn’t aware there are areas where roadbed engineers do this work.

[GulliverFoyle]

I don’t know anything about road repair, but I figure there’s probably at least one trained professional overseeing the work.

[kermujin]

An excellent idea, but judging on the cold patch/rain/repeat cycle around here, I ain’t so sure…

[Wanderfound]

@mallyboon

The problem is that what people expect and what they are willing to pay for often don’t match. People moan about potholes, but get frustrated about paying the taxes to fix them.

In my experience, it’s more that they’re unwilling to pay for things that benefit people who aren’t them.

The millionaires’ neighbourhoods in my city are perfectly paved. It’s the working class areas where the infrastructure is crumbling.

[anon30760835]

@Grey_Devil

Erosion can be accelerated or worsened with improper road patching.

and these children that you spit on, as they try and change their world, are immune to… heh, kidding!

These are just people are behaving dumb for attention and instagram hits.

[Wanderfound]

Anarchists at work:

Home

https://itsgoingdown.org/puerto-rico-building-future-based-mutual-aid/

https://itsgoingdown.org/audio-report-autonomous-disaster-relief-houston-post-harvey/

American anarchists have provided some of the most effective resistance of the Trump era. They were there in Houston, they were there in Florida, they were there in Puerto Rico. Medics, food, shelter, repairs. Generally before the official authorities had done anything to help.

They’re also well represented within Antifa.

[Wanderfound]

@Brainspore

@KathyPartdeux

Call me when you actually build the streets & put in the water mains, electrical etc.

Indeed, the real problem with anarchist societies is that they don’t scale up well.

It’s one thing to live with a few dozen people in a hippie commune out in the hills somewhere, it’s quite another to manage infrastructure on a scale big enough to provide services for a city the size of Portland.

Yes, but…difficult does not mean impossible.

Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria

Social anarchism

The main problem of anarchist and other socialist societies is that they are usually immediately attacked by the surrounding capitalists.

[anon30760835]

@kermujin

I wasn’t aware there are areas where roadbed engineers do this work.

It’s a matter of 20-somethings with the appropriate tools, training (granted, not much), and supplies (this last one is the sticking point), or without.

Driveway patch and roadway asphalt are not the same thing. The volatiles in the former necessitated by the lower application temperatures of the non-professional user can do further damage to the latter, which is homogenous and applied at temperature. Roadways are engineered these days, have been for 30 years at least.

To get the contracts to do the work you have to show qualifications beyond having a back and arms, and that’s to get the work done to a spec, one developed by engineers.

[Brainspore]

I don’t understand, if it’s a Democratic Republic then how is it “anarchist”?

[Wanderfound]

@Brainspore

I don’t understand, if it’s a Democratic Republic then how is it “anarchist”?

Anarchism and democracy are not incompatible.

Anarchism is a variety of socialism. Socialism is about extending democracy into the economic realm; anarchism is about localising democracy as much as possible.

(the above paragraph is, of course, an extreme oversimplification)

As for Rojava…

Abdullah Öcalan, a Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) leader imprisoned in İmralı, Turkey, is an iconic and popular figure in the DFNS whose ideas shaped the region’s society and politics.[3] In prison, Öcalan corresponded with (and was influenced by the ideas of) Murray Bookchin, who favored social ecology, direct democracy, and libertarian municipalism (i.e., a confederation of local citizens’ assemblies).[3] In March 2005, Öcalan issued his “Declaration of democratic confederalism in Kurdistan” based on Bookchin’s ideas, calling upon citizens “to stop attacking the government and instead create municipal assemblies, which he called ‘democracy without the state.’”

[wait_really]

@Grey_Devil

Wild guess. But do you think random Portland anarchists are going to be qualified road workers?

I’m a random Portland anarchist and I’m quite sure that I could pick up the process in no time.

I’m also a random (former) carpenter, with two decades of experience in various trades as well. I’m also currently an architecture student- who knows, maybe one day you’ll find yourself in a structure I’ve worked on. Would my political beliefs give you pause to trust its integrity?

[Brainspore]

@Wanderfound

anarchism is about localising democracy as much as possible

Which is exactly why it doesn’t usually scale up well.

[Keith_McClary]

@smulder

A significant fraction of the streets in my neighborhood — inside the city limits, near the airport, in the largest only metro area in the whole state — are gravel.

Are you sure they’re not fully grown potholes? Have you reported them?

[Wanderfound]

@Brainspore

Which is exactly why it doesn’t usually scale up well.

Usually, yes. But the Rojavans appeared to be making it work…which is why Turkey is now attempting to exterminate them.

[DukeTrout]

@jeff_fisher

It would be a huge waste of money for Portland to do the same. It snows, what, a few days a year maybe? And almost always melts by the next day (usually by lunchtime)?

Yes, but would it kill them to have a reciprocal deal with ODOT to borrow half of the hundred-or-so snow plows that patrol Mt. Hood all winter for when a bad storm hits?

[DukeTrout]

@Grey_Devil

So patch road, create much much bigger road damage, go back, fix it, hope it works

Or spend 30 minutes on internet research and do it right the first time? Do anarchists not get Google?

Preventing and repairing potholes and pavement cracks - Asphalt magazine

[Barradeno]

@Wanderfound

The main problem of anarchist and other socialist societies is that they are usually immediately attacked by the surrounding capitalists

Or by the communists, as in Spain.
ETA: and in Ukraine.