Jessie Burke isn't going to take it anymore

Old Town chair says "The amount of shit I take is unbelievable."

Jessie Burke delivers a grim report to her board. Husband and board treasurer Jonathan Cohen is at her side.

Old Town Community Association Chair Jessie Burke told her organization on Wednesday that she has become disillusioned from working so hard for a city that hasn’t stood behind her.

“The amount of shit I get is unbelievable,” she said, listing as examples two garage and car break-ins at her home, a violent protest at her Old Town hotel and being called racist NIMBYs by anarchists “screaming expletives to our face.”

Burke said the police and city officials have let her take the heat for actions she thought had their blessing.

“I was invited by mayors office to write open letter to Free Store,” Burke said, referring to the group that has taken over streets and parking lots to hand out food and supplies to the indigent.

She was particularly upset that the police engaged positively with Portland Free Store leaders.

“I thought we were a team,” she said.

Burke insisted that she did not call the police on a Free Store event in March caught on video, in which the police gestured toward her and her husband, Jonathan Cohen, who is treasurer of OTCA, as the reason they brought perhaps a dozen officers to the scene.

“Why am I running cover for the city?”

A board that includes four new members will select its officers next month. Burke did not specify what future role she might accept, while suggesting it will be less demanding than her current position.

“My heart was broken from working so hard for the city,” she said.