Enclosure is coming this year, in late 2114. Are you and your loved ones prepared? PSTU 3 has all the latest news and coverage on pre-Enclosure events. Stay tuned here for important news as it happens. [more info]
March 12, 2114
(Portland) The smell of burning rubber suffuses the dusty streets that make up the Tangletown Slum in Portland's Albina neighborhood. Locals have no electric power and no source of water. In the dusk, smudges of black smoke billow off makeshift fires fueled by tires and rubbish as people cook whatever food they can find and stamp their feet to drive off the cold. This looks like a defeated neighborhood, but Tangletown is the nerve center of a growing network of radical groups opposed to any protective facility unable to harbor all the city's residents.
The so-called "Enclosure" proposal, once thought to be a public project, has now been taken over by multinational weapons manufacturer Hastings Corp. Hastings has been collecting up properties in the downtown and inner eastside core that will form the center of a new domed city. Hastings CEO Alfonso Maldonado has not released full plans for the structure, but the company has initiated a lottery for berths in the new city.
The divisive proposal has plenty of foes, but the group most threatening to Hastings is a rag-tag collection led by a 29-year-old named Miguel Gorostiza. Gorostiza, a resident of NE Monroe Street, founded the activist group Free Portland that has been linked to terrorist activities. In January of last year, Free Portland was accused of setting off a series of small bombs on Hastings construction projects downtown. In July, they were accused of interrupting power to the downtown grid. But more recently, Gorostiza has been organizing like-minded groups into an umbrella organization called the Anti-Dome Alliance (ADA).
"This is our city," Gorostiza told me, when I visited him at his home last week. "Don't come in here and siphon off resources and then build a little island for the rich and think we won't stop you." Gorostiza is an unlikely-looking revolutionary; a scraggly beard hangs below gaunt cheekbones and a skull covered in close-cropped, receding hair. But there's something of the prophet in those eyes, and Gorostiza is given to sound-bites that rally the faithful. "Build a glass house," he said, grimly, "and we'll be throwing stones."
Gorostiza watched as haphazard efforts from various sectors of the city rallied to oppose Hastings. Late last year, he began organizing the leaders of these groups to work in coordination with each other. In January, Gorostiza began putting out press releases under the auspices of the new group. At first, the Anti-Dome Alliance staged large rallies. Mayor Bassett, under pressure from Hastings, disbanded the Portland Police Department, putting Maldonado in charge of security. Soon, Hastings was taking aggressive action to break up the demonstrations.
But then the Anti-Dome Alliance turned to terror.
In the last two weeks, there have been seven targeted bombings of construction sites at downtown locations. The ADA has made a point of saying they are only attempting to slow the project down, not cause harm to individuals. But in two of the incidents, several people were injured by flying debris, and in one case a construction worker was killed. Asked to respond to criticism, Gorostiza was unequivocal: "When Hastings brought out the riot police, they injured a lot more than 14 people. They've killed 11 officially, although we've counted 24 dead. And let's not forget the real consequence here: Hastings plans to let hundreds of thousands of Portlanders die as they and their cronies hide inside the dome. That's what all this is really about."
Asked if the bombings would continue, Gorostiza responded. "As long as the glass house rises, we'll be throwing stones." In the cryptic world of the Tangletown Slum, that counts as a "yes."
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