Scratch St. Johns off the list of places where Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros can feel at home. The Los Angeles-based folk band caused an uproar on the neighborhood’s Facebook community page after a member of the group posted photos of promotional graffiti for the group’s new album spray-painted on a concrete truss underneath the St. Johns Bridge. On Wednesday, the band issued an apology on its Facebook page, calling the promotional tactic “[h]yper lame” and promising to have the water-based paint removed within 48 hours…. “Despite the fact that we did not physically do it, we are the party responsible,” wrote band leader Alex Ebert. “Any witch hunt (and one is brewing, according to messages we’ve received) need look no further than us. Sue us, fine us, denigrate us - its our fault. And we are sorry.
I get it; A band decides to do something different to promote itself…and it turns into a case of what seemed like a uniqur, creative idea going horribly and irretrievably sideways. Turns out defacing a bridge- however innocently or well-intended- isn’t a great way to energize your fan base.
It probably seemed like a good idea at the time, and thankfully the paint used for the promotional graffiti was water-based. Still, folks here in the St. Johns area of Portland are a wee bit sensitive about their landmarks- especially the St. Johns Bridge, a Gothic suspension bridge and a Portland icon my neighborhood his justifiably proud of. In a city famous for its’ numerous bridges, the St. Johns Bridge is Portland’s only suspension bridge and it serves as the symbol- and point of considerable pride- for the surrounding neighborhood.
Construction on the bridge began on the bridge a month before the 1929 stock market crash, and the project provided much-needed jobs in the St. Johns area during the Great Depression. That history is but one very good reason why the bridge is so important to my neighborhood.
St. Johns (and north Portland- NoPo if you’re one of the cool kids) has long suffered from a strain of Little Brother Syndrome. It’s own incorporated city from 1902-1915, when residents of St. Johns and Portland voted to approve annexation to Puddletown, this part of north Portland has long been hypersensitive to real and perceived slights. A working-class neighborhood lacking the political clout of wealthier neighborhoods like Irvington, Eastmoreland, or the West Hills, St. Johns is a place few Portlanders frequent. When Fred Arneson and Carrie Brownstein published their guide to Portlandia a couple years ago, the section on North Portland was a blank page, the implication being that there’s little of interest or value there. I get it; I used to feel the same way…when I thought about this part of town at all.
Until Erin and I moved to the neighborhood 15 months ago, I’d spent little time north of the Willamette River and east of Interstate Avenue. We love it here now, but like most Portlanders we’d spent little time in this part of town. In many respects, it was like moving to a new city. We’ve been here long enough to understand the pride and devotion of those who call this neighborhood home. Long overlooked by city government and the business community, there wasn’t much here until the past few years. Portland’s gentrification trend has finally begun to move into St. Johns, particularly in Cathedral Park below the St. Johns Bridge- which has meant new businesses, restaurants, and a proliferation of apartment complexes.
The St. Johns Bridge is the symbol of my neighborhood. It stands for something; it’s size and grandeur command respect, something not often afforded this part of Portland. Mess with that bull, and you’re going to get the horns.
Memo to Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros: The apology was nice, and I hope that whatever lessons there were to be learned from this story were incorporated and understood. Granted, people in St. Johns have long been overly sensitive to real and perceived slights; that’s our history. Perhaps it’s on us to forgive and move on, but you’ll have to understand why St. Johns took this act of vandalism so seriously. We’ll forgive…but I suspect most won’t be forgetting anytime soon.
