What a crime. Rocco's used to be so cool until recent changes in management and employee attitude. I know, I'd been going to Rocco's for over a year. When I first moved to Portland in July of '08, Rocco's was one of the first things I bragged about. The pizza isn't the greatest of quality, but that was quickly made up for by how nice and friendly the staff was to me. Within only a handful of visits I came to know almost the entire staff by first name and they always greeted me warmly. I began to make Rocco's a daily habit of pizza and beer, and anytime I needed to meet someone downtown it would be at Rocco's. I considered listing Rocco's as a sponsor of RovingFestival.com and began having all my business meetings there; inviting upwards of 5 or 6 clients at a time, all paying customers of course. I've celebrated several birthdays there, including my own. We'd buy beer all night long some nights, just hanging out and having fun.

Until Recently.

Just a few days ago I remarked to a friend that I don't meet as many cool people at Rocco's anymore. They just don't come around. Most of the type of people I see now are tourists who have never been there before nor will probably ever go there again. Or simply just the Mom-n-Dad types with their kids. No more artists, musicians, scenesters, skaters, hippies, punks, or any other genre for that matter. At the same time, I'd also noticed those friendly faces behind the counter being replaced by scowly, frowny, pimply faces of the less-than-friendly type who definitely aren't interested in knowing my name. And now Rocco's wants to be a bar, applying for it's liquor license after which everything on the menu went up by 25 to 50 cents.

Then it happened.

Yesterday I walked in to Rocco's to order a pizza and beer as usual. As I stepped up to the counter and placed my order, one of these not-so-friendly types steps up next to the guy taking my order and says "I know you come here a lot, but we can't have you sitting at the tables without buying something more." When I asked what he meant he explained that if I want to sit at Rocco's tables for prolonged periods of time I must buy something more than my original order; in other words I must continue to buy stuff in order to continue hanging out. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Not only is he wrong for the most part, I normally do continue to buy things, but I told him that that was a rather disrespectful thing to say to such a faithfully returning customer who has spent well over a thousand dollars of his hard earned money at this establishment. He just laughed and said he doubted it (pizza + beer = $5 to $20 times 300+ days: you do the math). I said if that's how he feels I'll just take my business elsewhere and he agreed that would be best. As I walked out I spat on the front door quid pro quo.

The Gentrification Bandwagon.

Gentrification is usually something that happens to slum neighborhoods by wealthy landowners who are interested in increasing the value of their land or property. It usually comes with a price as the ever increasing property values tend to drive out less successful businesses, despite whatever cultural value those businesses might have. Or, as it seems, if you're Rocco's, you go along with the gentrification program, increase prices, and kick out the lower class so the middle to upper middle class aren't offended (gentrification literally means to make suitable for gentlemen i.e. the wealthy). You do this first by eliminating troublesome employees (the ones friendly to the lower class), then eliminating the troublesome clients (the artists, musicians, etc.). The problem is this: Rocco's isn't having problems making rent; Rocco's isn't dealing with external gentrification. In fact, they're expanding, adding a bar to an otherwise bar-less block of the city. On that same block we have a coffee shop (plenty of artists there) two artsy and independent book stores (yup, artists there too), and a place called the Independent Publishers Resource Center (you guessed it; artists). Down the street you have New Avenues For Youth, a resource program for wayward teens seeking to get away from drugs and alcohol, Whole Foods (you can guess what types shop there) and a place called Living Room Theater, showing independent and artsy films. Not to mention Powell's Books, the largest used book retailer in the world is across the street.

The point is:

I used to tell people that if you are going to visit Portland, or even move there, you haven't seen Portland until you've been to Rocco's; an epicenter of the city's culture. Now, I'll be sure to tell everyone I know to steer far away from Rocco's lest they get a bad impression of this otherwise very cool and very artsy town. And to those who own Rocco's, perhaps someday you'll realize what you had and maybe by then it won't be too late.