“Now if the city would just clean up the steps over there”…. Now if the city would pretty much do ANYTHING to help our neighborhood we wouldn’t be having to constantly architect and adjust our lives around a problem that’s been allowed to fester and grow. I don’t want to feel uneasy when I grocery shop or walk around my neighborhood, and we shouldn’t accept that as “just the way it is now”. Please remember this in November when you vote.
Groundhog Day. We endured this nonsense for more than a decade when we lived in the Pearl. When I installed the cigarette butt disposal bins in locations around Safeway, I had to carefully step over limp bodies and drugged-out panhandlers on the sidewalk outside the 13th Street area on both sides of the street. Seems that little has changed despite all the City elected officials claiming to clean up the streets that residents call their home. Plus ca change, c’est le même choses.
The perimeter of the Safeway block (sometimes referred to as the Lovejoy Condos) is covered by 2 security companies, one that does periodic visits throughout daytime hours, and the other that is also on 24/7 dispatch (Echelon/NWCC). The humanitarian staff of the NWCC is also available to help with the perimeter and is called often by the Pearl Patrol members (who also routinely cover routes on the perimeter). The Cordage building (the old Bridgeport brewpub building) is also covered 24/7 by contracted NWCC/Echelon services. Those contracted security companies have the legal right to enforce trespassing laws (leaning against a building or being within a few feet of the wall of a building is trespassing). Also, the police should be dealing with anyone there who is dealing drugs or using openly. AND, the interior and doorways of Safeway is covered by paid, contracted internal security guards. So, it's not for lack of security services . . . it's just the utter scale of the problem, not least of which that Portland is losing many of its mom-and-pop groceries, so the larger stores are becoming stronger magnets. Many of us are guardedly hopeful that the scale of the problems around NW 13th and NW Marshall/NW Lovejoy will diminish with the closing of the 2 Pearl shelters - the RDNC and the Northrup shelter.
Linda, thank you for the detailed description of the security services that operate inside and outside of the Pearl Safeway store. Homeless people and drug addiction are problems faced by all urban areas and are not affected by whichever political party is in power locally.
Sorry, but I disagree - these issues are absolutely affected by who is in charge politically at a local level. Homelessness in Portland continues to grow exponentially year over year while many other cities are seeing decreases. The politicians here pander to homeless drug addicts and the non profits who pretend to assist them, and ignore their actual tax paying citizens/businesses. Most of them need replacing as this dynamic has now become the definition of insanity.
No need for this snide aside…”You might already think of this as “Jehovah’s Corner” since there are always witnesses stationed there. Nonintrusive, just forever standing there til the end of time.”
Meth (or any stimulant) users tend to have a dry mouth and the drug also can raise their internal temperature. That combined with the dopamine we all feel from eating ice cream (those that aren’t lactose-intolerant, that is) has a purpose.
Candy is another thing stolen and consumed a lot for similar reasons - as can be seen by the locked up candy in CVS.
"there are fewer people sinking down into the sidewalk"
Sure, but they’ve moved across the street to the trolley stop, steps, and patio in front of the mostly empty property where Basics Market was briefly. Easier to avoid, but just as sad, dispiriting, and dangerous.
“Little thrill of danger”?
You and I apparently have a different relationship with danger as I prefer to grocery shop without hyper-vigilance.
“Now if the city would just clean up the steps over there”…. Now if the city would pretty much do ANYTHING to help our neighborhood we wouldn’t be having to constantly architect and adjust our lives around a problem that’s been allowed to fester and grow. I don’t want to feel uneasy when I grocery shop or walk around my neighborhood, and we shouldn’t accept that as “just the way it is now”. Please remember this in November when you vote.
Groundhog Day. We endured this nonsense for more than a decade when we lived in the Pearl. When I installed the cigarette butt disposal bins in locations around Safeway, I had to carefully step over limp bodies and drugged-out panhandlers on the sidewalk outside the 13th Street area on both sides of the street. Seems that little has changed despite all the City elected officials claiming to clean up the streets that residents call their home. Plus ca change, c’est le même choses.
In some parts of Portland, we're living in what amounts to an open-air insane asylum.
The perimeter of the Safeway block (sometimes referred to as the Lovejoy Condos) is covered by 2 security companies, one that does periodic visits throughout daytime hours, and the other that is also on 24/7 dispatch (Echelon/NWCC). The humanitarian staff of the NWCC is also available to help with the perimeter and is called often by the Pearl Patrol members (who also routinely cover routes on the perimeter). The Cordage building (the old Bridgeport brewpub building) is also covered 24/7 by contracted NWCC/Echelon services. Those contracted security companies have the legal right to enforce trespassing laws (leaning against a building or being within a few feet of the wall of a building is trespassing). Also, the police should be dealing with anyone there who is dealing drugs or using openly. AND, the interior and doorways of Safeway is covered by paid, contracted internal security guards. So, it's not for lack of security services . . . it's just the utter scale of the problem, not least of which that Portland is losing many of its mom-and-pop groceries, so the larger stores are becoming stronger magnets. Many of us are guardedly hopeful that the scale of the problems around NW 13th and NW Marshall/NW Lovejoy will diminish with the closing of the 2 Pearl shelters - the RDNC and the Northrup shelter.
Linda, thank you for the detailed description of the security services that operate inside and outside of the Pearl Safeway store. Homeless people and drug addiction are problems faced by all urban areas and are not affected by whichever political party is in power locally.
Sorry, but I disagree - these issues are absolutely affected by who is in charge politically at a local level. Homelessness in Portland continues to grow exponentially year over year while many other cities are seeing decreases. The politicians here pander to homeless drug addicts and the non profits who pretend to assist them, and ignore their actual tax paying citizens/businesses. Most of them need replacing as this dynamic has now become the definition of insanity.
We don’t have to live like this
No need for this snide aside…”You might already think of this as “Jehovah’s Corner” since there are always witnesses stationed there. Nonintrusive, just forever standing there til the end of time.”
This jab should be below the NWE.
I have noticed many homeless people eating ice cream. Does anyone know why that particular product?
Meth (or any stimulant) users tend to have a dry mouth and the drug also can raise their internal temperature. That combined with the dopamine we all feel from eating ice cream (those that aren’t lactose-intolerant, that is) has a purpose.
Candy is another thing stolen and consumed a lot for similar reasons - as can be seen by the locked up candy in CVS.
Thank you.
"there are fewer people sinking down into the sidewalk"
Sure, but they’ve moved across the street to the trolley stop, steps, and patio in front of the mostly empty property where Basics Market was briefly. Easier to avoid, but just as sad, dispiriting, and dangerous.