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.

Great White Whale

The houses being built in Portland keep getting uglier and bigger, towering over their neighbors.  I guess it is pretty cheap to build when there is no trim....  ugh.

 This is their rendering.  Note the fake trees and grass and the missing neighbor houses.

And yes, there are TWO of them, one behind the other.  Once again this is a rendering...

Here is a link from Google maps.  I think there are 8 units with 1800 sq ft each and renting for $2800 per month.  GAG.

RIP

Residential Infill Project = death to our city

Affordable apartment in Portland (so the ad says)

Craigs list ad

This is the whole 165 sq ft apartment, for $1135 per month.  Like a dorm room....

I blogged about it when it was being built. 

And here are all the amenities you get for an apartment smaller than most rooms in my house.

• All Utilities Included! (Power, Electric, Trash, Sewer, Complimentary WIFI, Everything!)


• Studio furnished with a new twin bed


• Kitchenette includes granite counter top, deep stainless steel sink, microwave, cabinets, and mini refrigerator/freezer


• Flexible lease terms: 6-9 months (+$100), or 10-18 months (listed base rent of $1035)


• Pets welcome! $300 Deposit & $25/Month Pet Rent (Limited Breed Restrictions)


• Two Common kitchens on each floor, with weekly cleaning (10 within the whole building)


• Complimentary bike parking


• Secured Entry and Quiet hours


• On-site laundry payable by credit card


• Professional maintenance of common areas and grounds


• Walk Score: 94, Transit Score: 70, Bike Score: 99


• Large ADA bathrooms


• Smoke Free Community

Life in Portland, the city that does not work

My life of late has been consumed by two Portland problems: the homeless and unbridled growth.  Unbridled growth is destroying us.  Our city is overwhelmed. And our elected officials are doing squat.

In the words of  Tom McCall:  " We must respect another truism - that unlimited and unregulated growth, leads inexorably to a lowered quality of life.”

This is a shit bucket provided to the homeless in the park and emptied for them.  They haven't emptied it yet...  I think it pretty well sums up life in Portland these days.

Today is the day of the big Springwater Trail homeless camp sweep.  It's been in the works for at least six weeks and was postponed once.  The news reports that of the more than 500 people camped there, they have relocated 60, including a dozen they put on the bus to somewhere else.  And now they are going to force them off the trail into the neighborhoods.  They have been told to camp in small groups on public property  but not in parks and some other rules that not even I can follow.   They are angry.  Broken down vehicles that people live out of have become the norm on Portland streets.

I get a daily Google News alert on the topic "Portland Homeless".  Here are some of the links from the past few days.

Open Wapato jail to the homeless, says Commissioner Loretta Smith

Fire breaks out at homeless camp near Hawthorne Bridge

Police: Man tired of homeless campers throws bomb under RV

Lents neighbors wrestle with homelessness issues

Harbor businesses to challenge Terminal 1 homeless shelter

'Lents' year from hell:' Neighbors protest new homeless camp

Homeless on the Springwater Trail prepare to leave

The Spaceship

This house is called the Spaceship because of all it's blazing lights.

Source: Stop Demolishing Portland

"This house sold earlier this year for $900,000.
It's a great example of the realities of the City's claim that we have to accept all this redevelopment to 'increase density' to accommodate the "climate refugees".

No one lives there.
It's owned by someone with an address in Vegas that's a building on the strip - $1.3-million-and-up condos.
This house is used only as an Airbnb - I got that from a neighbor, and there's a recent complaint about it, filed at the City.

It was completed in 2015 but has already had serious water-intrusion problems.
If you're familiar with University Park, you'll see how-ridiculous this house looks at the location."

Quote from Stop Demolishing Portland

Loving the gorge to death

Unbridled growth is destroying us.  These people are lined up to climb over a giant log jam in Oneonta gorge.  Does this look like a natural spot?  Too many people.

Source

"It is so depressing to see such beautiful nature treated like an amusement park. I personally blame Instagram and people going places they see on there to take the same picture for "likes". The amount of selfie-sticks and pooh-bears at Oneanta Gorge the past couple of years have turned it from one of the most magical little hikes in Oregon into a barely recognizable shizshow of crowds. Side-note, someone is going to have an accident at the log-jam there and I am curious to see how this looks in 10 years..."

Source

It hasn't gotten better...

"Mike Jenkins, also known as Pork Chop, said he moved to the Laurelhurst Park area from the Springwater Corridor. He said many others will make the same move when the corridor is swept by the city...“They’re coming,” Jenkins said. “Down here in Laurelhurst Park. Put ’em on Hawthorne. I’m gonna put ’em on Belmont, I’m gonna put ’em right in front of shopping centers.”"



Laurelhurst Park camping

And a quote from Nextdoor:

"Is this basically him saying 'If you won't let us utterly destroy a protected natural area, I'm going to make sure we shove ourselves in your face as much as possible.'?

That's the same entitled mentality of the people on SE Hawthorne who painted a sign saying that people had better start giving them moe money when they pass or they're going to be forced to continue breaking into houses to steal. JUST because you don't have a fixed address, that doesn't mean that 1) I owe you ANYTHING, 2) You can threaten me with "Let me continue my criminal behavior or else!''

And another quote:

"This used to be something that I saw more frequently at Col Summers Park last year and the year before-, but I think it was more if we, as neighbors called in. It wasn't proactive, but reactive. To be honest, I don't think police will even come unless there is a direct threat of violence or a weapon involved."

More of how it is here:

Daycare wagon stolen and found on Springwater Trail

Homeless campers build tunnel along river destroying trees

The horror of living in Lents

Springwater sweep postponed

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.

Just a livability issue

Source:

Chuck Lawrence said two of his eight units at Bel-Air Court will soon be vacated after longtime tenants announced area homeless are making them feel too unsafe to remain in their apartments. Lawrence said he doesn’t blame them, , rattling off a list of recent crimes: stealing bikes and water, and frequent cases of trespassing.  “The homeless have been looking in the windows,” Lawrence said.   “Several [of the tenants] are single women.  Lawrence said he’s recently put padlocks on outdoor water faucets and installed several motion-detector lights.

There’s a four foot chain-linked fence around the side and back of the property, but he's hoping the city will allow him to make it taller.  “I've tried to take care of the place,” Lawrence added. "I’ve tried to take care of all of them, and it’s hard for somebody whose trying to make a living off their small rentals." Lawrence has owned the complex in southeast Portland for 30 years.

He said homeless in the area have been an issue for about two years and the biggest problems have come in the last few months. Tenants must cross the Springwater Corridor path to get to their homes, and some of the tents are just feet from the apartments.

“It’s scary,” said tenant Maddie Ingraham, pointing to a homeless camp about 30 feet from her bedroom window. “They’re everywhere, and they just kind of stare you down when you’re driving through your driveway. You just feel uncomfortable going to your own house.” “These people yell and scream all the time, like at three in the morning,” Ingraham added. "It’s just really inconsiderate. When they do move on they leave all their trash everywhere.”

Not ANOTHER stand off...

You might remember the Malheur Refuge standoff not so many months ago.  Now some of the Springwater Trail campers are saying they are having a standoff.  And the mayor is saying the campers are supposed to disperse in small groups into the neighborhoods.

This is the Springwater Trail and the "campers"

source

The mayor says these 500 people (or more)  should camp in the neighborhoods of Portland.  These "campers" have destroyed the land they have been camping on,  have made the lives of the people with houses near them miserable and have made they area they camp in dangerous to be in.

This is the trash "campers" piled up behind a home on the Springwater Trail.

Source

This is insane.  Our police are severely understaffed and can only respond to emergencies in a timely manner.  They can't respond to livability issues and that is how they classify problems with homeless people in most cases, including open drug use, needles left strewn around, noise, fires, trash, threatening behavior, urinating/defecating in public.  Perhaps Charlie Hales, the mayor, has become passive aggressive at the end of his tenure.

Still want to move to Portland?

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.'"

Just a livability issue

From a Nextdoor comment:

"My husband called the cops on a homeless man the other day who was at Sunnyside environmentally school playground. The man was belligerent and peeing on a tree in front of children. His "privates were in full view of kids. This is just not okay! My husband waited for at least 30 mins until he had to leave to get to work and the police did not show up as it's probably not a priority."

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."