There was a large contingent of folks at Saturday’s “Tesla Takedown” protest who arrived by bike. A group met before the event in southeast Portland to make signs and then rode together to the Tesla showroom on South Macadam Street.
Portlander Elianna Gnoffo grabbed footage of the event for me and I saw several familiar faces in the crowd. Gnoffo reported seeing Portland City Councilor Mitch Green among the 100 or so attendees. Protesters lined the street and received lots of support from drivers passing by.
Below is a short video from the event:
Protests take place at this same location every Monday afternoon starting around 4:00 pm. More information here.
Thanks for reading.
BikePortland has served this community with independent community journalism since 2005. We rely on subscriptions from readers like you to survive. Your financial support is vital in keeping this valuable resource alive and well.
Please subscribe today to strengthen and expand our work.
Looks like the stroads we have here in NC, with a sidewalk only on one side and no bike facilities. Lovely. How was the bike ride?
Moody isn’t the greatest street to ride but I believe that you can come across the Jean Luc Picard WunderCrossing (aka tillicum bridge) and head south on Moody with a bike lane to connect with an off street path that goes to the Tesla facility.
That stretch of S Macadam Ave. is definitely grim. But the Willamette Greenway Trail (MUP, albeit more of a recreational path) is on the riverfront on the other side of the Tesla building, with a (poor) connection west towards where the protest was. Other N/S streets in the South Waterfront area to the north are also much better for walking or biking than Macadam.
There are more people on the sidewalk in that single protest photo than I’ve seen–in total–on that stretch of Macadam over the last twenty years (not counting the BLM protests at ICE next door).
They should be protesting at the Russian embassy/consulate. Their leader is the one calling the shots for what is happening at the federal level.
And no surprise, they will only see these protests as “job well done” to exacerbate the already divided country.
The nearest Russian embassy or consulate is in Canada. For one in the US, there’s only Houston, DC and NYC.
There is also one in Washington, DC at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
Ironic that it’s next door to ICE holding facility
6 Tesla Swastikars burnt to a crisp in Chingin, Turkey
14 Tesla Swastikars burnt to a crisp in Chambéry, France
https://www.autoevolution.com/news/twenty-tesla-vehicles-are-affected-by-fires-on-the-same-day-in-turkey-and-france-222653.html
12 Tesla Swastikars torched and 4 damaged in Toulouse, France
https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20250303-dozen-teslas-torched-outside-french-dealership-authorities
10 Swastikars burnt to a crisp in Frankfurt, Germany
https://www.autoevolution.com/news/ten-tesla-model-ys-burned-to-a-crisp-in-frankfurt-anonymous-group-claims-responsibility-221042.html#agal_0
This seems like a terrible outcome for the environment
Four years of Musk / Trump is exponentially worse than torching every Tesla on the planet.
“Four years of Musk / Trump is exponentially worse than torching every Tesla on the planet.”
Sure, but those aren’t your options.
I know it is hard for cultists to accept that their Tech hero might be a massive failure… Tesla’s sales are not just cratering in Europe, they fell 49% in China in February.
Tesla will be an interesting footnote in automobile history.
That’s not really adressing the statement. Burning electric vehicles in protest is just dumb.
Did they stop to consider the environmental impact of social unrest? Maybe Elon should have considered this.
Swastikars…oh let’s stop the performative hyperbole.
I think “Swasticars” is actually pretty clever!
You’re not Jewish are you…..
Could you expound on this a bit? I’m not sure what you’re trying to say with this statement and it seems you feel it’s a very important statement to make.
One would assume that Jonathan has read the graphic novel “Maus” by Art Spiegelman.
If one imagines political polarization as shaped like a horseshoe, positions diverge, bending away from each other in their ideologies, then curving back toward one another in their actions. I am relieved that Portland’s Tesla protests were not destructive, however, globally, and in the United States, the right wing and left wing are agreeing with a “burn it down” philosophy.
Liberty weeps.
Oh yeah. You forgot to mention “Eat the rich”
Another inscrutable statement that needs to be expounded on. I just see the rich getting richer regardless of who’s in political control while the rest are flat lining. Was that your point? Is liberty only for the rich?
Yes, he’s pointing out the fact that there is no liberty with wealth disparity like that.
What does it mean to have “no liberty”?
Yep the Horseshoe Theory is unfortunately often on clear display in Portland. At least there was no violence this time.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horseshoe_theory
One side of your horseshoe is missing because the right point is a racist, xenophobic, and fascist party that controls the government while the other point has never been a meaningful part of USAnian politics.
This is no longer about political polarization or ideologies. An unelected sociopath is literally in the white house dictating policy that is conservatively estimated to result in millions of deaths, is destroying the US economy, immediately destroying people’s livelihoods, empowering autocrats, betraying and dismantling democratic alliances and fundamentally restructuring US society.
Seeing what is happening through the lens of partisan politics that assumes that power is held by two opposing popular factions is completely misreading what is happening.
This is a power grab, a coup, by some of the most powerful people in the world that have openly endorsed anti-democratic, fascist ideals.
Yup
Well said!
LOL, I’d not expect anything less than hyperbolic mental distress over what is happening at the federal level from residents of a place that has had uniparty control for 4 decades on the other side of the political spectrum. It is blanket cognitive dissonance that concludes one should never apply the same raging critical eye to decisions made here with far greater likelihood of long term reduction to quality of life i.e. PERS, any funded infrastructure being done on budget, abysmal education at unbelievable cost, taxes, etc. The concentration of power here has been so robust, that any swing of the pendulum the other way could allow for reform of these issues to not annihilate the economy and services, but for the comment above, that is hilariously unlikely. This is like taking a kids ice cream away and telling them it is now time to eat their vegetables, oh the whining, crying, raging against what is good but not easy.
We have a lot of problems in Oregon, no doubt.
I assume your remedy like most of MAGA world is to have your “Daddy”, a Trump or Musk like figure come in and tell us what we need and what we don’t. Who needs a pesky congress and voters to get in the way.
Tell us again MAGA is not a Cult…
Of course not, that would never happen here because we like our “mommies” in Salem, Multnomah county, PPS, etc. too much. They just need an extra $100M more to solve homelessness again this year, they just need $25M this year for PERS out of the school budget, they just need 300% more to finish the bridge, they just need $1.5B to rebuild three high-schools that will have 25% fewer students by the time they are done, just a little bit more money and our mommies will fix all our problems. To your point, like the federal government, the voters elected these people and continue to, so what are we complaining about.
It’s very possible and indeed it is happening that bad decisions that financially favor a few are made in Oregon AND something incredibly disturbing and far reaching is being caused by the Federal Executive branch.
Acknowledging one does not mean it’s okay to ignore the other.
I guess you could call this ice cream, I would call it vegetables.
Ice cream would more like tax breaks for the wealthiest individuals. That, and having the privilege to stumble through life completely unaware of how the world works, who has actually been contributing to the American quality of life, and having the luxury of banging out barely comprehensible internet comments.
EBOLA?!1!??!1. Okay, take all my money, you know how best to use it, not Ebola.
Do you remember when we had cases of Ebola in the US in 2014? Probably not, because highly trained people dealt with it. Do you know how frequently outbreaks of Ebola occur in Africa and are a plane ride away from the US? Even musk lied about reinstating US Ebola surveillance at a press conference because of its obvious importance. He said eliminating it was a mistake, but did not actually restarted the program.
Take this moment to appreciate how little you know about the systems that are in place to protect you.
https://www.cdc.gov/ebola/outbreaks/index.html
Pepperidge Farm remembers.
https://www.oregonlive.com/beaverton/2014/10/jesuit_high_school_cancels_afr_1.html
Please show me on this doll where people who don’t like Musk hurt you.
A correction:
Indivisible.org has notified me that protests will now be every other Monday at the Tesla Dealer SW Macadam.
Next one: 3/17/2025
Why not do an Adopt-a-Road cleanup instead?