

I really hate the guy but if you’ve never had a near-death experience you wouldn’t understand that your logic is a bit weird in the moment. it takes more than a couple of moments for your brain to catch up with reality. his shoes are special thick lift shoes to make him seem way taller because he’s extremely vain. if he fell out of his awkward tall shoes when he ducked, he probably would have been preoccupied in the moment with not appearing short and weak (his true form) until the reality caught up to him. I don’t doubt at all that some sycophantic pr stooge was yelling into his earpiece to “look triumphant, look triumphant!!” when he was getting back up though.
yes! I used to live there. it’s bonkers.
Basically all the lakefront property is not owned by people directly, but leased under highly permissive terms from a single entity (ominously named “The Lake Corporation”) so they can apply restrictions about land use to owners to prohibit public access, and act collectively to try and prevent public access attempts. It’s basically a Union for rich people to use to collectively bargain to keep poors away from them. totally wild.
They exert undue influence over the city’s politics which is usually evident by their inherent inequity and hostility to non-members in the city… but the county they’re in (Clackamas) tends to fight them a lot. The city’s officials are usually in tight with the Lake Corp (or ARE Lake Corp) so it’s basically a corporation vs the county/state trying to keep poor people away.
The city’s dedicated police force, unsurprisingly, are very keen on the Lake Corp… so even if you (legally) access the lake, they will send a boat out to hassle you until they find a reason to move you along - usually with the lie “you had to trespass to get here. you can leave and we’ll drop it, or you can make this hard”