Sometimes I feel like Zimmerman is the only councilor who listens and is willing to do more than just listen. Whoever filmed this - THANK YOU. I recently wrote a letter to the mayor begging him to have a real police presence here, as this has without question worsened since the shelter opened and is completely contrary to his promise the neighborhood would improve. The video says it all, and I would hope stops the NIMBY accusations.
I keep hearing that the police are too tied up with their assignments at the ICE building - be that as it may, it should not amount to what few officers we have being pulled at the expense of our neighborhood.
When Morillo was trying to defund cleanups District 4 residents came out in droves to support the mayor’s plan, despite the hesitation of his promise the overnight shelter would be an asset to our neighborhood. I hope Councilor Zimmerman is able to get the mayor to understand that we want to work with him but he has to step up the resources to help us in turn. THIS IS NOT OK.
This is absolutely not acceptable. This is a disaster. The thing that keeps my block safe is the fence around my building. I want the shelter system to work, but it is NOT acceptable for those on the street disrupting and destroying communities to be allowed autonomy and a choice to refuse shelter. No fu**ing way is this allowable!
I’m so tired of being given the excuse, there’s another thing going on right now so no police are available. This isn’t Mayberry and they need to be able to handle multiple things happening at once. We obviously need more police (who actually enforce laws) so that should be a number one priority for the mayor and city council. But is it? Of course not, many of them I’m sure would like to further defund it.
Glad to see a high level City official finally noticing what has been the norm at this site for nearly a decade. Many days, the scene on the sidewalk in front of Safeway looks the same way. When I was installing the cigarette butt receptacles around the Pearl in 2018, walking along 13th on either side of street adjacent to Safeway was always a scene right out of San Francisco’s Tenderloin District. To Don’s point, the City and County seem content to flush hundreds of millions in taxpayer dollars down the toilet on programs that fail year after year after year.
This is beyond ridiculous, maddening, and sad. All the money that the city and county have thrown at trying to fix the homeless problems have been for naught. The Pearl has fast become one of the most dangerous and unclean areas of the entire city. I feel so sorry for the residents of the Pearl who have to wade through this dreck every day.
I’ve been saying this over and over and over. I live here. It’s a madhouse, an uncontrolled, un contained, crazy, sad, danger zone.
Tell me again how well the shelter operates.
Tell me again how we’re trying to revive the city.
I can only imagine the fun we’ll have frolicking in the new Fields Park-when it opens.
I’m thankful for the few people who have a bit of clarity regarding what really is going on in the Pearl. It’s nothing but Magical thinking on Wilson’s end. Let’s not perpetuate the lies.
Thanks to Eric Zimmerman for calling it out as it is! If the county wants more than 2 people per day at their deflection center, some of these folks are apparently in need of services- or the alternative.
Mitch Green and Morillo are apparently ok with this, given their recent annti-cleanup and anti-public safety votes.
I live in what I sometimes call Upper Northwest: just across the city & county line where Burnside becomes Barnes. I have been here for 28 years. When the North Pearl District started developing, I sort of was envious that I didn't live there. These days, not so much. Between this, the stretch of vacant storefronts on and around Lovejoy from 405 to the Broadway Bridge, the changes at Jamison Square I am sort of glad that things didn't work out for me. It is very depressing to see the decline of what once the finest "big city" urbanized neighborhood in Portland. I visit the area but nowhere near as often as I used to. I have seen what happens outside Safeway in the daytime, but never at night.
North Pearl has almost no other businesses still surviving, so Safeway has been the main spot for panhandling, loitering etc., long long before the shelter opened. (Many nearby businesses closed because of untenable rent increases rather than street-people issues).
I’m not sure how you’re missing the very direct impact that ongoing “street-people” issues are having on businesses in the area. Many of these shops might be able to keep up with rent if foot traffic hadn’t dropped so dramatically and if they weren’t dealing with frequent property damage and theft.
I’ve lived almost next door to this Safeway for years, and the situation has gotten significantly worse—at all hours—since the shelter opened. It’s bad enough that I now drive to another store to avoid the experience. The last time I went, on a Sunday afternoon, I made accidental eye contact with two masked men lingering in the back of the store who were clearly attempting to steal and avoid security, who then followed me until it was clear I was going to mind my own business.
I wouldn’t be surprised if this Safeway eventually shuts down, and it won’t be because they can’t afford rent. It will be because the constant theft, security costs, and ongoing cleanup after drug addicts (as the video so graphically demonstrates) have made operating there more trouble than it’s worth. And honestly, that’s the same conclusion many taxpayers are starting to reach about living in the city in general, especially dumped on areas like NW/SW.
Same here - in my letter to the mayor I told him the walkability in my neighborhood is useless if I have to drive somewhere to shop. I also told him I will no longer shop there after work as I feel unsafe, and with good reason…not a pearls-clutching unsafe. I hope he listens to Zimmerman.
It's this way early in the morning as well. Let week I could not walk on the sidewalk ramp or steps on NW 13th going o Safeway because individuals were strewn across actively taking meth or just having taken it. Mitch Green, you are our Councilor. Get off your Peacock horse, open your eyes, and help those of us who live here!
Except it isn’t. And that statement is what the city has been doing for so long - normalizing dysfunction. Saying “it’s all like that” isn’t how we make improvements. As the signs say, Portland is what we make it. I don’t vote for apathy.
Have you been to the Safeway on Barbur Blvd? It’s shocking how civilized it is.
Sometimes I feel like Zimmerman is the only councilor who listens and is willing to do more than just listen. Whoever filmed this - THANK YOU. I recently wrote a letter to the mayor begging him to have a real police presence here, as this has without question worsened since the shelter opened and is completely contrary to his promise the neighborhood would improve. The video says it all, and I would hope stops the NIMBY accusations.
I keep hearing that the police are too tied up with their assignments at the ICE building - be that as it may, it should not amount to what few officers we have being pulled at the expense of our neighborhood.
When Morillo was trying to defund cleanups District 4 residents came out in droves to support the mayor’s plan, despite the hesitation of his promise the overnight shelter would be an asset to our neighborhood. I hope Councilor Zimmerman is able to get the mayor to understand that we want to work with him but he has to step up the resources to help us in turn. THIS IS NOT OK.
This is absolutely not acceptable. This is a disaster. The thing that keeps my block safe is the fence around my building. I want the shelter system to work, but it is NOT acceptable for those on the street disrupting and destroying communities to be allowed autonomy and a choice to refuse shelter. No fu**ing way is this allowable!
I’m so tired of being given the excuse, there’s another thing going on right now so no police are available. This isn’t Mayberry and they need to be able to handle multiple things happening at once. We obviously need more police (who actually enforce laws) so that should be a number one priority for the mayor and city council. But is it? Of course not, many of them I’m sure would like to further defund it.
Glad to see a high level City official finally noticing what has been the norm at this site for nearly a decade. Many days, the scene on the sidewalk in front of Safeway looks the same way. When I was installing the cigarette butt receptacles around the Pearl in 2018, walking along 13th on either side of street adjacent to Safeway was always a scene right out of San Francisco’s Tenderloin District. To Don’s point, the City and County seem content to flush hundreds of millions in taxpayer dollars down the toilet on programs that fail year after year after year.
This is beyond ridiculous, maddening, and sad. All the money that the city and county have thrown at trying to fix the homeless problems have been for naught. The Pearl has fast become one of the most dangerous and unclean areas of the entire city. I feel so sorry for the residents of the Pearl who have to wade through this dreck every day.
I’ve been saying this over and over and over. I live here. It’s a madhouse, an uncontrolled, un contained, crazy, sad, danger zone.
Tell me again how well the shelter operates.
Tell me again how we’re trying to revive the city.
I can only imagine the fun we’ll have frolicking in the new Fields Park-when it opens.
I’m thankful for the few people who have a bit of clarity regarding what really is going on in the Pearl. It’s nothing but Magical thinking on Wilson’s end. Let’s not perpetuate the lies.
Thanks to Eric Zimmerman for calling it out as it is! If the county wants more than 2 people per day at their deflection center, some of these folks are apparently in need of services- or the alternative.
Mitch Green and Morillo are apparently ok with this, given their recent annti-cleanup and anti-public safety votes.
I live in what I sometimes call Upper Northwest: just across the city & county line where Burnside becomes Barnes. I have been here for 28 years. When the North Pearl District started developing, I sort of was envious that I didn't live there. These days, not so much. Between this, the stretch of vacant storefronts on and around Lovejoy from 405 to the Broadway Bridge, the changes at Jamison Square I am sort of glad that things didn't work out for me. It is very depressing to see the decline of what once the finest "big city" urbanized neighborhood in Portland. I visit the area but nowhere near as often as I used to. I have seen what happens outside Safeway in the daytime, but never at night.
North Pearl has almost no other businesses still surviving, so Safeway has been the main spot for panhandling, loitering etc., long long before the shelter opened. (Many nearby businesses closed because of untenable rent increases rather than street-people issues).
I’m not sure how you’re missing the very direct impact that ongoing “street-people” issues are having on businesses in the area. Many of these shops might be able to keep up with rent if foot traffic hadn’t dropped so dramatically and if they weren’t dealing with frequent property damage and theft.
I’ve lived almost next door to this Safeway for years, and the situation has gotten significantly worse—at all hours—since the shelter opened. It’s bad enough that I now drive to another store to avoid the experience. The last time I went, on a Sunday afternoon, I made accidental eye contact with two masked men lingering in the back of the store who were clearly attempting to steal and avoid security, who then followed me until it was clear I was going to mind my own business.
I wouldn’t be surprised if this Safeway eventually shuts down, and it won’t be because they can’t afford rent. It will be because the constant theft, security costs, and ongoing cleanup after drug addicts (as the video so graphically demonstrates) have made operating there more trouble than it’s worth. And honestly, that’s the same conclusion many taxpayers are starting to reach about living in the city in general, especially dumped on areas like NW/SW.
Same here - in my letter to the mayor I told him the walkability in my neighborhood is useless if I have to drive somewhere to shop. I also told him I will no longer shop there after work as I feel unsafe, and with good reason…not a pearls-clutching unsafe. I hope he listens to Zimmerman.
It's this way early in the morning as well. Let week I could not walk on the sidewalk ramp or steps on NW 13th going o Safeway because individuals were strewn across actively taking meth or just having taken it. Mitch Green, you are our Councilor. Get off your Peacock horse, open your eyes, and help those of us who live here!
This is every Safeway in Portland. You are not special.
Except it isn’t. And that statement is what the city has been doing for so long - normalizing dysfunction. Saying “it’s all like that” isn’t how we make improvements. As the signs say, Portland is what we make it. I don’t vote for apathy.
Have you been to the Safeway on Barbur Blvd? It’s shocking how civilized it is.
When was the video taken?