Xfinity/Comcast has a "story" out today on high earning jobs. The tease?
"Ever drive by a gorgeous home and wonder what the owner does for a living?"The tease photo is of the Pittock Mansion! The Pittock Mansion is "owned" by the City of Portland's Bureau of Parks and Recreation. (Maybe an unintended message is the way to get rich is to work for the government).
Even using its original owner, Henry Pittock, as an example, his Oregonian, now owned by the very wealthy Newhouse family has been laying off Oregonian employees right and left. So, the other message may be make sure you inherit money rather than trying to work for it.
This is a small matter for Xfinity, but it shows how dishonest bait and switch tactics easily infiltrate even the "helpful news" side of organizations.
4 comments:
Only nominally: most of the restoration and management of this amazing place is the work of volunteers. I remember what the place looked like in the years following the Columbus Day storm, and it was decidedly not pretty. By the time Mt. St. Helens blew, the transformation was little short of miraculous. I happened to be at Pittock mansion when treated to kind of a front row seat when the second eruption happened.
Max, thanks for the comment. It is a beautiful place, and the volunteers and private support are phenomenal. I used to go there for meetings decades ago after it was purchased by the City of Portland.
You're right that even though it is owned by the City, in the last 5 or 6 years its operational budget has come almost entirely from donations and fees charged. Though it did get a reasonable chunk of its funding from City funds in the half century before that. It will be interesting to see if the City at some point decides to transfers ownership to a non-profit entity.
I was incredulous to see it used as an illustration for this story since it is owned by the City of Portland and nobody rich lives there or has done so for more than half a century. Not that I expect anything serious or true from Comcast/Xfinity.
Heh! Not only is it beautiful (and the carriage-house has been a volunteer-run cafe for around 20 years) -it's also a trend-setter: it was the first place to use a technology called "recessed lighting", among other advances.
The use of the image by Comcast is unsurprising; they'd have had to pay for an image of an owner-occupied dwelling....
I continue to be impressed by your knowledge, Max, of Portland public institutions (including the Zoo and the Pittock Mansion).
What do you think is the viability of the Mansion since the City seems to be cutting as many financial ties as possible? I was surprised that the operating expenses had increased by about 50% in a time when the City is pulling back. But also surprised at how many visitors the Mansion gets each year.
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