Old Town neighborhood controversy

Jessie Burke vs. Portland Free Store

Jessie Burke and Jonathan Cohen are Old Town’s power couple. They own real estate, operate businesses and lead the political affairs of their community.

Burke chairs the Old Town Community Association and Cohen is its treasurer, but their reach goes well beyond their corner of the city. Burke locked horns with Gov. Tina Kotek in 2023 over her appointment and dismissal from a task force to turn Portland’s downtown around.

But the dominant duo melded into the background after calling the police on a free food and clothing giveaway on Northwest Second Avenue early last month. When they call the police, they get action. About a dozen officers lined the street, prepared for whatever disruption the Portland Free Store Project and its homeless beneficiaries might bring.

Burke and Cohen were accompanied by a similar number of neighboring residents and business people. An independent videographer known as John the Lefty also came. He asked the police why they were there, and they pointed to Cohen.

“The officer told me that you’re the spokesperson for the community. What’s going on here?” the videographer asked.

“I don’t know. I just work in the community,” Cohen said. “I don’t have any comment right now. I’m just here to support the community. … I really don’t want to say anything.”

With that, the one-man news agency turned to a down-dressed Burke.

“In the yellow beanie: Do you have any comment about what’s going on?”

Burke shrugged her shoulders, then explained, “We want people to have permits.”

Video man persisted, and eventually she began talking.

“I’m doing this for the Bureau of Transportation,” she claimed (an assertion PBOT later denied).

Why did Burke not say she was acting as chair of the Old Town Community Association?

We asked her, but got no reply. We asked Cohen why he dodged his affiliation, but he did not respond either.

John the Lefty, holding a video camera in her face, was more successful in drawing Burke out.

“I have to have a permit for my A-frame sign on the sidewalk,” she said. “I have to get a permit for everything. The residents have to drive on the streets. The streets are not accessible because suddenly there’s a pop-up. If there were a permit, everyone would get notification, and we’re not getting it.”

Portland Free Store had taken over a block and a parking lot in Old Town on March 6, though on this day the organization confined its activities to the sidewalk as a bevy of police officers and neighbors looked on.

According to Burke, the demonstration was about the importance of city permits that would have forewarned the community of activities planned in the right of way.

Darlene Urban Garrett, executive director of the District 4 Coalition of neighborhood associations, which Burke also chairs, participated in the demonstration at her request.

“I was asked by a neighborhood association,” Garrett said. “If a neighborhood association calls me for help, I’m going to be there.”

She did not fault Burke and Cohen for hiding their identities or roles as neighborhood officers.

“I kind of get it, because you didn’t want anyone to know who you were. I may have done the same thing,” Garrett said. “It was not a friendly group.”

Although police officers were present on that day, “there could be ramifications after the fact” had the Free Store people and their supporters known who they were, she said.

The videographer didn’t see it that way. “There were at least a dozen cops. This was an absolute waste of police resources.”

Silence broken

After the NW Examiner made inquiries to City Hall agencies and participants about the anti-Free Store demonstration, Burke finally released her side of the story in a 900-word letter to Mayor Keith Wilson and members of the City Council on March 25. She did not send it to the news media, but the Examiner obtained a copy and posted it to its website.

“Over the last few months,” Burke began, “I have been getting calls from Lan Su Garden about Northwest Flanders being taken over with tents, making it impassable to vehicle traffic. Over time, residents started to notice and get upset, feeling once again that Old Town was getting treated as the neighborhood where no rules apply.

“We checked with PBOT, and no permits were obtained to close the streets.

“A resident went over and asked the group back in November of 2024 if they had a permit to close the street, and he was told to ‘go home you f*$king NIMBY as*$%le.’ That same person told them they were coming every Thursday and Sunday. Attached is a picture of Northwest Flanders just one of the nights of these street takeovers. The other photos are when they moved into a Prosper Portland-owned parking lot without permission and none of the Blanchet House staff or volunteers could get their cars out.”

Burke wrote that a female police officer asking about permits was accosted by a “masked mob” and later doxxed, the names of her children and their school posted online with a threat: “I hope they will be safe tomorrow.”

“This week, we as a community wanted to show our support for law and order,” her letter continued. “We were met with screaming slurs, calling us racists and asking if we had paid reparations. Our message was consistent and clear—we just want the rule of law to be consistently abided by and enforced.

“I'm disappointed that this group is being treated with any sort of credibility, when every community they show up in (they are also terrorizing Lair Hill) is raising the alarm bells.

“When law-abiding, civil citizens are being treated as equally credible as an organization and people who will gladly threaten the lives of children, call the elderly slurs and threaten to shoot up small businesses—all so they can continue to flout the law and be disrespectful to the community of which they are visitors—we have lost the thread, and that is why Portlanders are leaving in droves. And I have to say, as someone who has fought incredibly hard to save this city, I'm about to my breaking point.

“This inconsistency has created two classes of citizens, where all rules are enforced for the civil, and rules do not apply if you are uncivilized. Simply call anyone a racist—that's all it takes to put leadership on its heels. For too long we have let childish behavior run the city. It is time for this to stop.”

While making the case for law enforcement taking her side, Burke denied inviting the police to the recent event captured on video.

By that time, the Police Bureau had already geared up to counter Free Store disruptions.

“One particular incident on March 6 drew heightened concern,” wrote Portland Police Public Information Officer Terri Wallo Strauss in response to an Examiner inquiry. “Central Precinct officers were dispatched to Northwest Flanders Street and Second Avenue after multiple complaints that the group had set up vehicles and tables in a manner that blocked the street and entrances to private parking lots.

“A large number of individuals began surrounding and threatening officers … This required a citywide response, leading to delayed handling of lower-priority calls.”

And what about neighborhood leaders denying or hiding their roles in advocating for government action? Burke made no mention of it. When the political heat rises, matters of transparency and accountability take a back seat.

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