The city has not fixed Northrup shelter issues. Security is the neighborhood is still a problem, with increasing numbers of long term residents moving to other parts of the or entirely out of the city. The amount of private security hired by building managers and HOAs in the neighborhood ha not changed this. What was once on of the premier urban neighborhoods in the country continues to fall apart. Property values are where they were 20 years ago. There are over 100 empty store fronts in the area. Neither the City nor the county seem to care. Jim in the Pearl.
I was surprised that so many people seemed to agree in substance with the issues. It gives one hope that the problems can be conceptualized for what they are by a group with varying political stances.
I think the elephant in the room is where do people who don't comply with not camping on the streets go? They don't want to go to the shelter. Or the shelters cannot handle their behavioral disturbances? Either jail, or civil commitment to acute psychiatric care? Detox? Residential substance treatment facilities? Does the city have a place for all the people who are nonconforming, law breaking, and often severely mentally ill? I don't know, but I do not believe the capacity of the system currently can handle this. I heard a while back that there are 400 empty jail beds that are unfunded? If they are unable to take care of their basic needs because of severe mental illness, civil commitment for relatively short periods of up to six weeks, often much shorter, can help to tune them up and might lead to them choosing to pursue some other mental health support and housing on a voluntary basis. It will help some and give them an opportunity to begin anew. Fifty acute care psychiatric beds per 100,000 people is considered the benchmark for the number of beds needed according to the Treatment Advocacy Center.
2. Charter Reform: Green raises an excellent point about Prosper Portland. The agency needs substantial reform, including a clearer reporting relationship with the City Administrator and direct accountability to the City Council.
3. Portland Street Response: Arnold and Zimmerman have the right approach. Portland Street Response should be organized wherever it can operate most effectively and efficiently, with close coordination between civilian responders and the Police Bureau.
4. Severance Payments: Green provides the best answer. The City Administrator should be directed to end excessive severance arrangements and unnecessary nondisclosure agreements; if the administration fails to act, the council should.
5. Public Camping: A more revealing question would have been whether candidates support continued funding for campsite removals when people decline available shelter. Arnold gives the clearest answer.
6. Return to Office: Clark provides the most practical answer. I support flexible schedules, perhaps three days in the office and two at home, along with consideration of additional compensation for employees required to work on-site five days a week. At the end of the day, managers need to hold their direct reports accountable for their performance, and I’m not sure this is a hill I’d want to die on.
7. PGE Negotiations: Green correctly questions the premise of this question. Land-use appeals have established legal procedures, and the city should allow those procedures to work without prejudging the outcome.
9. Northrup Shelter: Arnold and Zimmerman identify the central issue. Portland needs shelters, but they must include adequate funding to manage neighborhood impacts. City employees should ask themselves what they would expect if a shelter opened next to their own homes.
Overall: I think The Oregonian got its endorsement right: Zimmerman, Clark, and Arnold. Green showed promise and makes some good points, but ultimately his policy priorities are too far removed from what I believe Portland needs right now.
Will be only ranking Zimmerman, Clark, and Arnold. Portland can’t afford to have people in office who want to abolish the police and have disdain for the common taxpayer as well as any business that employs more than 20 people. The DSA must be voted out if we ever want to move back in the direction of normalcy.
Well, still have to get out and vote, as does anyone else who is sick of how things are. There are more non-DSA than DSA supporters out there, so now’s not the time to be passive.
This is classic "horse race" journalism. Don't cover any of the "other" candidates--there are 12 in all, and not all are fruit-loops--which means they'll be underfunded and marginalized, a classic self-fulfilling prophecy. Lazy journalism feeds into the inherent flaws in the "25-percent and you're elected" radical city charter. Media didn't bother covering the creation of this bizarre charter, and now its defaulting to favoring iincumbents.
The city has not fixed Northrup shelter issues. Security is the neighborhood is still a problem, with increasing numbers of long term residents moving to other parts of the or entirely out of the city. The amount of private security hired by building managers and HOAs in the neighborhood ha not changed this. What was once on of the premier urban neighborhoods in the country continues to fall apart. Property values are where they were 20 years ago. There are over 100 empty store fronts in the area. Neither the City nor the county seem to care. Jim in the Pearl.
I was surprised that so many people seemed to agree in substance with the issues. It gives one hope that the problems can be conceptualized for what they are by a group with varying political stances.
I think the elephant in the room is where do people who don't comply with not camping on the streets go? They don't want to go to the shelter. Or the shelters cannot handle their behavioral disturbances? Either jail, or civil commitment to acute psychiatric care? Detox? Residential substance treatment facilities? Does the city have a place for all the people who are nonconforming, law breaking, and often severely mentally ill? I don't know, but I do not believe the capacity of the system currently can handle this. I heard a while back that there are 400 empty jail beds that are unfunded? If they are unable to take care of their basic needs because of severe mental illness, civil commitment for relatively short periods of up to six weeks, often much shorter, can help to tune them up and might lead to them choosing to pursue some other mental health support and housing on a voluntary basis. It will help some and give them an opportunity to begin anew. Fifty acute care psychiatric beds per 100,000 people is considered the benchmark for the number of beds needed according to the Treatment Advocacy Center.
Here is my opinion of a few of the responses:
2. Charter Reform: Green raises an excellent point about Prosper Portland. The agency needs substantial reform, including a clearer reporting relationship with the City Administrator and direct accountability to the City Council.
3. Portland Street Response: Arnold and Zimmerman have the right approach. Portland Street Response should be organized wherever it can operate most effectively and efficiently, with close coordination between civilian responders and the Police Bureau.
4. Severance Payments: Green provides the best answer. The City Administrator should be directed to end excessive severance arrangements and unnecessary nondisclosure agreements; if the administration fails to act, the council should.
5. Public Camping: A more revealing question would have been whether candidates support continued funding for campsite removals when people decline available shelter. Arnold gives the clearest answer.
6. Return to Office: Clark provides the most practical answer. I support flexible schedules, perhaps three days in the office and two at home, along with consideration of additional compensation for employees required to work on-site five days a week. At the end of the day, managers need to hold their direct reports accountable for their performance, and I’m not sure this is a hill I’d want to die on.
7. PGE Negotiations: Green correctly questions the premise of this question. Land-use appeals have established legal procedures, and the city should allow those procedures to work without prejudging the outcome.
9. Northrup Shelter: Arnold and Zimmerman identify the central issue. Portland needs shelters, but they must include adequate funding to manage neighborhood impacts. City employees should ask themselves what they would expect if a shelter opened next to their own homes.
Overall: I think The Oregonian got its endorsement right: Zimmerman, Clark, and Arnold. Green showed promise and makes some good points, but ultimately his policy priorities are too far removed from what I believe Portland needs right now.
Will be only ranking Zimmerman, Clark, and Arnold. Portland can’t afford to have people in office who want to abolish the police and have disdain for the common taxpayer as well as any business that employs more than 20 people. The DSA must be voted out if we ever want to move back in the direction of normalcy.
Your vote will be swamped by disciplined DSA voting.
Well, still have to get out and vote, as does anyone else who is sick of how things are. There are more non-DSA than DSA supporters out there, so now’s not the time to be passive.
This is classic "horse race" journalism. Don't cover any of the "other" candidates--there are 12 in all, and not all are fruit-loops--which means they'll be underfunded and marginalized, a classic self-fulfilling prophecy. Lazy journalism feeds into the inherent flaws in the "25-percent and you're elected" radical city charter. Media didn't bother covering the creation of this bizarre charter, and now its defaulting to favoring iincumbents.