AP Explains: A look at rallies, recent tension in Portland

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AP Explains: A look at rallies, recent tension in Portland

2019-08-17 12:12 Last Updated At：12:20

The liberal city of Portland, Oregon, is again expected to be a flashpoint because of a right-wing rally planned Saturday. The out-of-town groups will likely be met by anti-fascist protesters, and the police will be out in force. The city has seen violent protests before.

Here is a look at the planned rallies and the recent tension in Portland.

WHO IS COMING?

The rally is being organized by a member of the Proud Boys, designated as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Others expected include members of the American Guard, the Three Percenters and the Daily Stormers.

According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, the American Guard is a white nationalist group, the Three Percenters an anti-government militia and the Daily Stormers a neo-Nazi group. Local anti-fascist protesters — known as antifa — will also likely be there to oppose the right-wing groups. Antifa members, known for wearing masks and black clothing, have participated in violent clashes before.

Another militia-style organization, the Oath Keepers, said in a statement Thursday that it agrees with the goals of the event but is urging members not to attend because the organizers have not done enough to keep white supremacists and neo-Nazis away.

WHY ARE AUTHORITIES WORRIED?

Authorities have their guard up because previous rallies featuring right-wing groups and antifa have turned violent in Portland.

In 2017, two men were fatally stabbed on a light-rail train when they confronted a man who was shouting racist slurs at two young women, one of whom was wearing a Muslim head covering. Less than 10 days after the slayings, an out-of-state right-wing group called Patriot Prayer organized a pro-President Donald Trump rally in Portland that was met with an angry counterprotest. Police arrested 14 people at the event.

In 2018, a similar right-wing rally erupted in dueling protests. Portland police declared a riot and arrested four people.

At a rally in June, masked antifa members beat up conservative blogger Andy Ngo. Video of the 30-second attack attracted widespread attention and put the focus on Portland even more.

Republican Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana introduced a congressional resolution calling for anti-fascists to be declared domestic terrorists, and Trump echoed that theme in a tweet last month.

Portland's City Hall has been evacuated twice because of bomb threats after the June 29 skirmishes.

WHAT'S THE CITY DOING?

Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler said people who commit violence or espouse hate are not welcome in the city and massive police presence will be on hand. None of Portland's nearly 1,000 sworn police officers will have the day off, and more than two dozen other agencies, including the Oregon State Police and the FBI, will help local authorities. Some businesses are closing their doors Saturday, and several weekend events have been canceled.

Authorities have also made a show of arresting a half-dozen people in the past week who are alleged to have committed violence at past rallies, including one on May 1 that ended with a brawl outside a Portland bar. Patriot Prayer founder Joey Gibson was among those arrested. A former Proud Boys member and four others who associate with far-right groups also were taken into custody.

WHAT IS PORTLAND'S HISTORY WITH EXTREMISM?

Randy Blazak, a leading expert on the history of hate groups in Oregon, said many of today's anti-fascists trace their activist heritage to a group that fought with neo-Nazis in Portland's streets decades ago, and they feel this is the same struggle in a new era.

White supremacists killed an Ethiopian man in 1988 in Portland. By the 1990s, Portland was being referred to as "Skinhead City" because it was the home base of Volksfront, one of the most active neo-Nazi groups in the U.S. at the time. As recently as 2007, neo-Nazis attempted to gather in Portland for a three-day festival.

WHAT DO PORTLAND RESIDENTS THINK?

The rallies and counterprotests have frustrated many Portland residents, who feel their city has been co-opted by political forces beyond their control.

While Portland is known as a liberal touchstone with a history of protest, many residents don't agree with violence from either the far-right or the far-left and would like things to return to normal.

Mayor Wheeler held a large rally in support of Portland and its residents earlier this week that drew dozens of civic leaders, politicians, educators, civil rights groups and unions.

More than a half-dozen events are planned Saturday — including a juggling contest, a Buddhist meditation and a dance party with people wearing giant banana costumes — to thwart potential violence and defuse any problems that could arise.

Venice tests a 5-euro entry fee for day-trippers as the Italian city grapples with overtourism

2024-04-26 03:49 Last Updated At：03:50

VENICE, Italy (AP) — Under the gaze of the world’s media, the fragile lagoon city of Venice launched a pilot program Thursday to charge day-trippers a 5-euro ($5.35) entry fee that authorities hope will discourage visitors from arriving on peak days and make the city more livable for its dwindling residents.

Visitors arriving at Venice's main train station were greeted with large signs listing the 29 dates through July of the plan's test phase that also designated separate entrances for tourists, and residents, students and workers.

“We need to find a new balance between the tourists and residents,’’ said Simone Venturini, the city’s top tourism official. “We need to safeguard the spaces of the residents, of course, and we need to discourage the arrival of day-trippers on some particular days.”

Not all residents, however, are persuaded of the efficacy of the new system in dissuading mass tourism, insisting that only a resurgence in the population will restore balance to a city where narrow alleyways and water buses are often clogged with tourists.

Hundreds of Venetians protested against the program, marching festively though the city's main bus terminal behind banners reading “No to Tickets, Yes to Services and Housing.” Protesters scuffled briefly with police with riot gear who blocked them from entering the city, before changing course and entering over another bridge escorted by plainclothes police officers. The demonstration wrapped up peacefully in a piazza.

Tourists arriving at the main station encountered almost as many journalists as stewards on hand to politely guide anyone unaware of the new requirements through the process of downloading the QR code to pay the fee.

Arianna Cecilia, a tourist from Rome visiting Venice for the first time, said she thought it was “strange” to have to pay to enter a city in her native country, and be funneled through separate entrance ways for tourists. She and her boyfriend were staying in nearby Treviso, and so downloaded the QR code as required. But she was still caught off-guard while soaking in her first view ever of Venice's canals by the sight of the entrance signs and her boyfriend telling her to get out the ticket.

On the other side of the entrance ways, workers in yellow vests carried out random checks at the train station. Transgressors face fines of 50 to 300 euros ($53 to $320), but officials said “common sense” was being applied for the launch.

The requirement applies only for people arriving between 8:30 a.m. and 4 p.m. Outside of those hours, access is free and unchecked.

Venice has long suffered under the pressure of overtourism, and officials hope that the pilot project can help provide more exact figures to better manage the phenomenon.

The city can track the number of hotel visitors, which last year numbered 4.6 million and is down 16% from pre-pandemic highs. But the number of day visitors, which make up the majority of the crowds in Venice, could only be estimated until recently.

A Smart Control Room set up during the pandemic has been tracking arrivals from cellphone data, roughly confirming pre-pandemic estimates of 25 million to 30 million arrivals a year, said Michele Zuin, the city’s top economic official. That includes both day-trippers and overnight guests.

But Zuin said the data is incomplete.

“It’s clear we will get more reliable data from the contribution” being paid by day-trippers, he said.

Venturini said the city is strained when the number of day-trippers reaches 30,000 to 40,000. On peak days, local police set up one-way traffic for pedestrians to keep the crowds moving.

Residents opposing the day-tripper tax insist that the solution to Venice's woes are to boost the resident population and the services they need, limiting short-term rentals to make available more housing and attract families back from the mainland.

Last year, Venice passed a telling milestone when the number of tourist beds exceeded for the first time the number of official residents, which is now below 50,000 in the historic center with its picturesque canals.

“Putting a ticket to enter a city will not decrease not even by one single unit the number of visitors that are coming,’’ said Tommaso Cacciari, an activist who organized a protest Thursday against the measure.

“You pay a ticket to take the metro, to go to a museum, an amusement park. You don’t pay a ticket to enter a city. This is the last symbolic step of a project of an idea of this municipal administration to kick residents out of Venice,” he said.

Venice Mayor Luigi Brugnaro declared the launch day, coinciding with an Italian holiday, a success, registering 15,700 paying visitors, 50% more than anticipated.

More than 97,000 others had downloaded a QR code denoting an exemption, including to work in Venice or as a resident of the Veneto region. Hotels in Venice, including in mainland districts like Marghera or Mestre, provided a QR code for visitors to attest to their stay, which includes a hotel tax — accounting for 40,000 of those.

Venturini, the tourist official, said that interest in Venice’s pilot program has been keen from other places suffering from mass tourism, including other Italian art cities, and municipalities abroad such as Barcelona, Spain, and Amsterdam.

But Marina Rodino, who has lived in Venice for 30 years, doesn't see the fee as the cure-all. Neighboring apartments in her residential building near the famed Rialto Bridge once inhabited by families are now short-term apartment rentals.

The corner butcher shop closed. Yet she noted that the new entrance fee requirement will still allow young people to flood the city in the evening for the traditional aperitivo, which can grow rowdy.

She was passing out mock European Union passports for “Venice, Open City,” underlining the irony of the new system, and challenging its legal standing with citations from the Italian Constitution guaranteeing its citizens the right to “move or reside freely in any part of the national territory."

“This is not a natural oasis. This is not a museum. It is not Pompeii. It is a city, where we need to fight so the houses are inhabited by families, and stores reopen. That is what would counter this wild tourism,’’ Rodino said.