11. Americans have always lived in the ruins. The poor and the working class have always had to figure out ways to live in the ruins. 4 nights ago, for the first time, I had to say with a homeless person in mid 30 degree weather—as it took an hour and a half for Portland Street Response to arrive. - ThreadSky

vtlozano.bsky.social • 46 days ago

11. Americans have always lived in the ruins. The poor and the working class have always had to figure out ways to live in the ruins. 4 nights ago, for the first time, I had to say with a homeless person in mid 30 degree weather—as it took an hour and a half for Portland Street Response to arrive.

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vtlozano.bsky.social•46 days ago

12. Because it was a typical busy night for Portland Street Response. And everyone in the PDX has seen so much homelessness for many years. As a new transplant here, I do see a difference. Governor Abbott used his emergency powers under COVID to sweep homeless encampments out of sight.

vtlozano.bsky.social•46 days ago

13. One day the homeless encampments were there, under every freeway overpass. The next day, they were gone. The difference in the PDX, it seems to me, is that it’s harder to forget; and public policy argues about what to do about such an entrenched problem. But it doesn’t try to sweep them away.

vtlozano.bsky.social•46 days ago

14. Watch, in small doses, the interviews conducted under the project “Soft White Underbelly.” It’s an astonishing, heartbreaking series that humanizes the cost of all of these amnesiac polices we’re asked to live under; so that we can cope by escaping to our favorite cafe, bar, or winery.

vtlozano.bsky.social•46 days ago

15. Even collective grief and rage are metered. I say this as someone who just survived a very sloppy medical system where almost any medical provider—even if they’re unskilled or dumb as a rock—the ability to prescribe feel-goods. “Dr. Spaceman” from 30 Rock is not fiction. : )

vtlozano.bsky.social•46 days ago

16. So, yes. Please watch “Soft White Underbelly” on YouTube. And then purchase the iOS app and support the project. Because it is, simultaneously, a roadmap of late capitalist damage, ruins, survival and grief. And more survival. This project will be archived as foundational in the next phase

vtlozano.bsky.social•46 days ago

17. The next phase of the American Experiment. The US tends to sweep its collective traumas under the rug; and then, about 10 years later, to memorialize them in Oscar winning films. The early to mid 1970s is a golden age of cinema because of this.

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