This is NOT my Portland

This is the email I sent to the mayor and other elected officials yesterday.  I didn't get a single response.  
I've been here 22 years.  I used to say I died and went to heaven when I moved here.  I don't say that anymore.  

My habits have had to change drastically in the last few years.

• I no longer go downtown.  The homeless and traffic are too terrible to bear.  I love the downtown farmers market but have mostly given it up.  Nor do I shop downtown anymore.
• I live in a very walkable part of Portland and have always enjoyed walking.  We can do most of our errands on foot..  I have curtailed some of my walking and now feel I have to carry pepper spray, even in my neighborhood.
• I've had so many plants stolen from my yard that I no longer plant things I value.
• There is so much theft, car prowling and break ins that I have baby monitors that I use to listen to whether anyone is approaching my house.  I take the monitors to bed with me so I can listen all night.
• When I have a package coming, I have to watch for it because leaving anything on the porch makes it likely to be stolen.
• I am afraid to use public transportation.
• I am afraid to attend a city council meeting.
• I don't want friends from out of town to visit because I am ashamed of my city.

It feels like I am under siege.  This is NOT my Portland.

Now we have criminals crawling the streets, taking what they want.  This guy has a big knife.  He is on the porch of this house, trying to get in.  The photo is from a security camera video.  The video shows him circling the house,  taking things and trying to get into the house.  Very creepy.

RIP

Residential Infill Project = death to our city

The greedy idiots are still destroying Portland

There are lots of demolitions of wonderful houses.  Every now and then people get excited about a specific grand home and they save it.  I am more upset by the many less expensive less grand but still wonderful bungalows that get destroyed every day, especially by the hated Vic Remmers, AKA Everett Custom Homes.  May a curse be on you if you buy one.  There is already a curse on him.

Here is a grand home in Eastmoreland (a pricey Portland neighborhood) that Remmers is slated to demolish.  Boy is he ever greedy.  And Portland lets him get away with it.  I am losing respect for my beloved city.

Source

More on the house here.  And Zillow still has the listing photos.

Gentrification in Portland

Too much construction

There is construction everywhere.  It is causing traffic problems and many livability issues.  Noise complaints are way up.  Our already crumbling streets are suffering from the weight.  Too many trees are being taken down.  Nice houses are being destroyed.  Construction debris is filling up our landfill.  And what they put up is just cheap and ugly.

Demolished house.  No, we are NOT green in Portland.

Around the neighborhood

Just a livability issue

Quote from Koin news story on Springwater issues:

"Neighbors in the area have been protesting the campers there, reporting crimes and overflowing trash for months. One homeowner, who didn’t want to be identified, said she stepped on a needle someone threw onto her porch this morning. She broke into tears telling KOIN 6 News her story.

 "This isn’t their ground to stand on. They shouldn’t be here. It’s an environmental disaster,' she said. 'All these advocates are here for the homeless, but there is no one here for us,” she said. “I hate my life. I hate my house. I don’t want to live here anymore.'"

What privilege means in Portland

This homeless situation is so big and so difficult.  I've talked before about the huge camping problem on the Spingwater Corridor which now has at least 500 campers, some say a 1000 campers.  And now the city says they are closing it down.  The campers want the city to allow camping in all neighborhoods, including Eastmoreland where the mayor lives.  This is a quote from their meeting:

"That's where the decision makers for our whole city live," Schultz said, "but they get to have their kids run around and not be confronted with [homelessness]. So they don't have the dinner-time conversation of, 'yeah, I saw a guy [urinating] in front of me or screamed a bunch of profanity at me or there were needles littered around.' They don't have to deal with that. It's a manifestation of their privilege."

So, now we know what privilege means.  It seems to me that the homeless are demanding privileges that the rest of us don't have.  They want all their needs met while they do whatever they want which includes using drugs in public, leaving trash everywhere, pooping and peeing anywhere, acting out, setting fires, taking what they want, destroying public and private property.

The Springwater trail homeless have a list of demands.

* Extend the Aug. 1 deadline to shut down the trail to overnight camping

* Provide additional time to people with disabilities, children or the elderly in the event of relocation

* Relocate homeless people, not displace them.

* Refrain from seizing anyone's possessions

* Cease the criminalization of the homeless community

* Meet directly with the trail's homeless campers

* Levy a tax on real estate projects to benefit social services

* Allow interested homeowners to open their backyards for long-term camping

* Deploy storage units for campers' belongings a week before the Aug. 1 cleanup

Source: Vahid Brown, discussion leader from July 23, 2016 Springwater Corridor meeting

Just a livability issue

Yesterday someone posted this photo of the homeless sleeping in the park playground.  She said:

"My toddler and I arrived at laurelhurst park this morning at 8 am. Up since five and ready to play. Instead of sliding and swinging kids we were greeted by a group of homeless people and dogs sleeping under the playground. I am so sick of this!

I let a park ranger know and it took them about forty minutes to pack up and then he had to once again to tell them to leave as they just hung out.  Now smells like booze and pee here.  Please rain."

A city out of control

As far as I can tell, Portland is out of control.   This is how Portland looks and feels these days.

All of the city departments are understaffed and can't keep up, including the police.  The city website often leads you in circles instead of helping you with your problem.  It used to be a great website.  Not anymore.

If you call about an issue, it takes six to seven phone calls (and a lot of time) to find anyone who might help you.  Every response I get from them talks about how over burdened they are, without the resources to respond.  This is pretty much the standard  response you get to any complaint (I got this one in email):

" Service Level Update:   Due to reduced resources, the Bureau may need to prioritize some  enforcement/complaint types in order to effectively process the more critical  cases with our limited resources.  While  cases are being setup to document all complaints received, not all cases are  being assigned for investigation and enforcement.   We apologize for this service level reduction and plan to respond to  more case types as additional resources become available."

What this means is that if you haven't been shot or stabbed, don't expect a timely response from the city.  If it's "just" a livability issue, don't expect any help.  And people are moving to Portland for its "livability"?   Boy are they gonna be surprised!

Camping along the Springwater Trail

The homeless situation gets worse and worse.  We now have the largest single homeless camp in the country with an estimated 500 to a thousand people living along the Springwater Corridor.  The situation there is very bad and unsafe.  There are shootings and other violence as well as heavy drug use and  fires.  It's supposed to be a bike/pedestrian trail but it's unsafe to be there.   People who live near the Springwater Corridor are very affected by the camps in close proximity to their homes.   The city has  decided to finally clear it out, which will force all those people into the neighborhoods.

This is a tent in Laurelhurst Park.  It has been there for weeks and weeks even though camping is prohibited in the parks.  The tent is very near their maintenance building.

I reported the illegal camping.  That tent is still there and now it has a neighbor.

It's pretty hard to get to the Hollywood neighborhood on foot without going down these stairs.  This guy called me Babe and asked for money.  When I refused, he was angry and called me names.

The construction  gets worse and worse.  The city does not respond in a timely manner to construction complaints.  It takes days for them to respond.   By the time they get there, that particular subcontractor has moved on to another project.  The construction people know they have the upper hand and are ignoring the laws.  This construction site has had the sidewalk blocked for about ten days although the law says they can't do that for longer than 2 hours.

Portland is changing and the changes are not good.  Portland has the slogan "the city that works".  I think we need a new slogan.  Maybe we can just put a Not in front as in "Not the city that works".

Still want to move to Portland?

Breach of the public trust

The city is having public meetings to talk about infill.  But they are refusing to discuss the basic important questions.  Look at their slide on the items that are NOT up for discussion.

David Minnick photo

All they cover in their meeting is things developers want to change.  It is so very sad.  And I am not the only one who is upset.  Here is a very good article on how they are breaching the public trust and another on demolitions.

The infill meeting was sort of creepy.  Those representing the city were spouting a party line and not open to any ideas.  It was sort of like the Stepford Wives and not what I expect to find in Portland.  It feels like corporate america and the developers have us by the throat.

And if you think you are exempt, think again.   They have pretty much decided all of Portland is subject to these changes.

Further they are now letting constructions sites operate all night long....

Around the neighborhood

I took these photos while we were out walking and running our errands on foot.  We generally walk no more than a mile and a half or so from our house and I consider that area to be our neighborhood.  

Bet they love their back yard view.

Camping in the park under the sprinklers

Casablanca lilies in the median strip

Banana plant.

I wonder if they were happy with this change.

Too shiny

This is a house we walk by very frequently.  They recently painted it with very shiny paint and now every imperfection sticks out when none were visible before.

One of these things just doesn't belong

These houses are all in close proximity.  Most were built in the early 20th century.  One was built in the early 90's.  The difference in quality and appeal is astounding.  Unfortunately, what they are building TODAY is even worse.