Comments section speaks louder than City Hall
Beleaguered residents say no to shelters. District representatives say nothing.
The silence is deafening. Faced with an issue that has ignited a firestorm in the Northwest District, our elected leaders are nowhere to be found. The NW Examiner has repeatedly sought out comments from Olivia Clark, Mitch Green and Eric Zimmerman, but we have not received any replies regarding the city’s plans to allow two overnight shelters to be placed the district.
In the event that our officials are not aware, here is a compilation of our readers’ concerns after an Examiner editorial noted how the city is acting without input from residents.
(The following compilation was aided by Chat GPT. The facts have been checked by Examiner staff for accuracy.)
When the Examiner published “I don’t trust you—but trust me”, the editorial touched a nerve.
The piece criticized Mayor Keith Wilson’s decision to install a large, no-barrier congregate shelter in the Pearl District without community input. But the frustrations shared in the comments section rivaled many City Council hearings.
“The mayor gave little to no real consideration to the placement of this shelter… This is reactive policy with no real vision or care… something we unfortunately have grown very used to tolerating (to our ongoing detriment) in this city.”
That sentiment, posted by a reader, reads like a weary dispatch from the front lines of Portland’s civic erosion.
Not anti-homeless. Just tired of being ignored.
Some of the media shorthand frames Northwest residents as entitled or out of touch. The truth is more nuanced—as readers have shared.
“The term NIMBY has become a blunt weapon in Portland, used to discredit legitimate concerns… Wanting basic order is not a lack of compassion—it’s a call for accountability.”
That thread continued with longtime resident Cathleen Callahan calling out the city’s deflection tactics:
“Mayor Wilson has betrayed us by ignoring the codified pledge to seek neighborhood input… The residents clean this up—not the city. Unpoliced but heavily taxed, we shoulder the costs.”
The Examiner followed up to clarify that Northwest Community Conservancy, the group providing that safety net, is “a nonprofit underwritten by private donations and voluntary assessments on homeowners.”
So yes, residents are paying for the services the city fails to provide.
1,500 beds, no answers.
Mayor Wilson’s goal is to create 1,500 shelter beds. But as commenter Naomi pointed out, it’s a soundbite solution that fails to address root causes:
“Drug addiction, mental illness, joblessness… Wilson’s warehousing approach doesn’t address any of these. And those who call neighbors who object ‘NIMBYs’ adds insult to injury.”
Dan Berne’s comments raise many concerns:
Where will people go at 6 a.m. when shelters close?
Where will they use the bathroom?
Where will they get food—or drugs?
Who’s monitoring all this?
What defines success?
And when does the city admit failure?
A gold star for the mayor. A raw deal for the rest.
LA closes her comments with a reality check:
“I feel we are caught in Mayor Wilson’s bold campaign promise and he will do whatever it takes to give himself the gold star for doing what he said he would do—regardless of the cost.”
That cost, she notes, is already being paid: in fleeing businesses, rising crime, public defecation and an ever-widening trust gap between residents and City Hall.
We can argue over tactics and timelines. But until the city stops performing compassion and starts planning for real recovery—until it includes the people who live and work in these neighborhoods in the conversation— little will change.
Our readers have spoken. Is the city listening? We are still waiting to hear from you, District 4 councilors.
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I'm your typical Portland liberal/progressive. Not an extremist in any way.
But I have sold my studio condo at W Burnside and NW 16th, because after 12 years living there, I could not live in a constant state of fear and anger at the crime and drug addiction. And I am STILL the building superintendent in that same building, though I no longer live downtown. So to provide "low" or "no" barrier shelters is probably not going to create a downtown which is ANY better than we have NOW. But I would be THRILLED to say in the coming months that I was wrong!