Opinion: The Portal in Ipswich

The portal has been a thing since 2024 where it first opened in Philadelphia. It then expanded across international waters where one was placed in Dublin, Ireland and back in the USA in New York. From this, many issues arose and eventually they had to shut it down for a few days, as tensions were high.

I fully understand it’s a new piece of technology that is fantastic, yet when it came, it was where the next portal was going to be placed. I'm sure many names popped up. It’s a process where people get to vote on where the next one will be placed, Ipswich won that vote and it arrived here.

Now I really don't understand why Ipswich got the portal, since it's more of a big face time call without audio.

I also am aware it will only be here for a while, yet that period could be extended. But does this actually mean that more people will spend their time in the town centre? Possibly, yet I do doubt that, since many other town centres have abandoned shops and empty places. 

I have been to see it in person and it's okay, nothing really special about it, especially as I have seen videos online from other portals. For me personally I don't fully understand why Ipswich. I get that people did vote for this however will the effect of it wear off?

When it was first heard, I saw an article which was an opinion piece talking about how people need to stop moaning about it. Now I can somewhat agree, yet its just a big concrete circle with a round screen.

It just sits there doing nothing that will bring business back, or people to spend even more time in town. It then goes on to say that people used to have a sense of humour, yet I can tell it was written by someone who grew up in an age where anything could be said, but are only now getting people explain that you can't say that.