Last Thursday's Summer Ranks Swell with the Heat

Once again, people took to the street—NE Alberta Street, that is—for the popular Last Thursday festival that began 12 years ago and has been accused of transforming the neighborhood, paving the road to gentrification, and all that follows. Increased property values. Hipsters and hippies galore. Traffic, space, and other public safety issues. More shops, more noise, more $ in this now key Portland neighborhood destination.

Last Thursday both delights and enrages. Neighbors, business owners, vendors, out-of-hood revelers, City officials—everyone's got an opinion about Last Thursday, its purpose, structure (or lack thereof), and certainly its longevity. Just look at the blogs. The most recent event landed smack dab in the middle of July's hottest week and brought thousands upon thousands of gawkers, partyers, performers, and vendors, with little or no incident. Some open container and noise violations were easily handled. Street reopening at 10 p.m. took much longer than expected. Massive quantities of sno-cones were consumed. Thanks to the City of Portland, Coast to Coast Event Services, and volunteers with the Team Last Thursday group, the flash mob style of Last Thursday appears to not be losing appeal.

Photo by flickr member Zervas

After a tipping point during Summer 2008, when exuberant ranks of Last Thursday attendees typically swell between 8,000 and 10,000, the City of Portland finds that taking a more active role helps create a safer event, which is one of the main concerns to most stakeholders. Officials hope that Last Thursday will become a self-managed, community-run event with minimal City involvement. (FYI: our City currently spends $10,000 per month to keep the event safe. There is no other event in Portland that receives this same level of City support.)

Photo by flickr member Lisa Norwood

Self-management, however, might prove too tricky to handle, at least anytime soon. Last year, a rogue group took it upon themselves to haphazardly block some of Alberta's cross streets with cars—rather than going through the City's permitting process for official street closure. Neighbors complain of noise, littering, yard destruction, late hours, lack of parking, public urination and puking. A neighbor recently reported that a group of rowdies destroyed her flower garden when they chose her front yard for their wrestlemania venue. Vendors feel the pull of the crowd towards the spectacle itself, rather than arts and crafts admiration and purchases. A Concordia neighborhood artist only sold two pairs of handmade earrings after spending 5 plus hours at last week's event. Business owners are divided—some restaurants and bars do really well during Last Thursday, while other venues suffer from lack of sales. Binks and The Nest were packed to the gills at July's Last Thursday, particularly because of their outdoor patio seating.

 Photo by flickr member Zervas

In the last year, multiple neighborhood and task force meetings have allowed people to speak out about the somewhat controversial event. So, just what do the people want? "Organizers" want to maintain the spontaneous spirit of the event that helps keep Portland weird. Some neighbors and business owners want to see more artistic participation, such as a juried area on a street site. Arts-focused organizations envision more time-based art activity. Many people want to see marginal vendors banned, hopefully curtailing the sale of drug related items and the flea market vibe, and promoting "family friendliness." City officials want public safety improvements to be rigorously implemented. And, all agree that such enforcement would come only from more neighborhood involvement.

Photo by flickr member Zervas

So, Who's in Charge?

To curtail the heaps of misinformation that is circulated about Last Thursday, for the record, the City of Portland is in charge of:

• Police coverage of the event (at approximately $5K each month for overtime for 12 officers and one sergeant) to primarily span law enforcement, oversight of street closure and reopening, back up of other code enforcers as needed.
• Contracted event security personnel. At a cost of $2K per month for 30 people for four hours of work spanning rule enforcement, traffic management, street reopening.
• Noise control with two staff walking the event, warning and citing noisemakers.
• Traffic safety planning including the services of City traffic engineers to plan a safe street closure.
• Street closure including barricades and flaggers (for $2,500 to $3,000 per month).
• Two or three fire marshals walking the event, looking for issues of overcrowding at businesses, usually bars.
• Fire fighters/EMTs with at least one fire truck present at the event.
• Safety planning and coordination of agency response.
• Six additional porta-potties.

Also noteworthy:

• Binks (an Alberta Street bar) provides 12 porta-potties, paid for with donations from some of the businesses.
• The Oregon Liquor Control Commission (OLCC) supplies two or three inspectors who walk the street to make sure bars and other licensed premises are obeying liquor laws.
• Multnomah County Health Department contributes two or three health inspectors at each event who visit all food vendors on the street.
• Tri-Met re-routes their #72 bus for the duration of the event.

Even though Team Last Thursday does not hold an event permit, the all-volunteer organization is in charge of overseeing the following event elements:

• Posting no parking signs on Alberta Street in advance of the street closure (15th to 30th Avenues) to warn car owners to move their vehicles by 7 p.m. Street reopens at 10 p.m. All bus rerouting notifications are posted at affected bus stops.
• Placing 40 trash receptacles on Alberta Street during the event and removing them the next morning by 9 a.m.; picking up improperly discarded trash on Alberta Street between 15th and 30th Avenues, and between Wygant and Sumner.
• Notifying all directly affected neighbors of the noise variance. Amplified music is not allowed and bands, DJs will be asked to stop. Violators will be cited with noise violations in accordance with the City's noise policy.
• Bringing in and training 20 to 50 volunteers to help enforce rules - specifically no open containers of alcohol, no music audible beyond 100 feet, no public urination, event ends at 10 p.m. Zero tolerance for open containers and public urination. A sweep up and down Alberta Street insists that vendors close down and leave the area. (This took far longer than expected at last week's packed event.)
• Visiting with attendees, vendors, DJs, and other participants to ask for voluntary compliance of the rules.

Portlanders certainly know how to make the most of our hot summer months and Last Thursday is sure to remain popular as long as the weather drives our desire to be out and about. Additional task force meetings will be held in August and September. Plan on attending if you've got something to say about Last Thursday.

 Photo by flickr member Zervas

Get Involved

If you are interested in volunteering and/or training volunteers for the event, contact Team Last Thursday at info@albertalt.com or at 971.221.7747. You can also see: www.LastThursdayPDX.ning.com for more information.

If you have non-emergency questions regarding Crime and Livability in NE Portland, contact: Celeste Carey, Crime Prevention Coordinator, NE Portland carey@ci.portland.or.us 503.823.4764

If you have non-emergency questions about the City's involvement in Last Thursday, contact: Shoshanah Oppenheim, Transportation Policy Manager soppenheim@ci.portland.or.us 503.823.1125

If you have questions or concerns during the Last Thursday event, you should call the non-emergency number at: 503.823.3333

For life threatening situations, crimes in progress, or situations where an officer is needed immediately, always call 911.

If you are interested in learning more about the Alberta Street Business Association, contact Corey Bean at albertabiz@gmail.com.

If you are interested in learning more about Art on Alberta, see: www.artonalberta.org.

Please note that Team Last Thursday is not affiliated with either the Alberta Street Business Association or Art on Alberta, but both nonprofits are interested in the Last Thursday event. (Aren't we all?)