Matt,

Thanks for posting all of this.

I do not think it's fair to connect the PBA with Cabbie's comments, but I will say I think the PBA has an agenda - as does Street Roots.

I think it's a matter of, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. I don't think Mike, nor the PBA are bad people, in fact it's been great to get to know them over the past week or so, and I respect what they are trying to do for Portland. Saying that - I think the sidewalk law stinks and that it directly targets people on the streets. I think it's about the simple principle that we can not tell a certain class of people - like them or not that they can't exist on a public sidewalk, therefore not being able to exist in downtown at all.

Portland is at a crossroads. I love downtown. And I love the direction Portland is going. I brag about this town like there's no tomorrow. I don't think you see Street Roots going around and bashing developers or saying down with capitalism. But we are saying that Portland is a growing and bustling town, and everyone has the right to live, work and play in that town. Poor, rich, whatever...

It really saddens me to see Portlanders say it's ok for people to freeze to death on the streets, or to see just how greedy some people can be when it comes to $500 - what a sad state of affairs. We live in a world with no universal health care, union being busted left and right, thousands service industry jobs being created that pay shit, and have thousands of people on the streets - to have people say, "I just bought a house, I'm broke. I have to save money" That's bullshit, and a cop out.

Thanks, Israel. I agree about Cabbie's comments, they were depressing and keep repeating themselves in my mind.

Two questions:Do you think the PBA feels Portland can't get past this crossroads it's at, and at the same time continue to have homeless on the streets? And have you got the sense that the PBA might be willing to compromise on the ordinance?

what happens when sit/liers get in trouble? fining people who can't pay rent strikes me as even worse than idly wishing they'd freeze to death.

Cabbies comments were cruel and senseless. It's one thing to make a personal decision to refrain from giving pocket change to those who beg on the streets...it's totally another to wish and hope that they die in the cold, etc.

I think that people have a right to exist, and making it illegal for a person to sit down or sleep when they don't have a home is inhumane, and probably unconstitutional as well. People who have big issues with looking at homeless people on the street just need to get over it. That's not to say that we shouldn't do what we can as a society to minimize chronic homelessness as best as we are able.

My opinion is Portland's creating its own crossroads regardless of where the PBA stands. If you look at small businesses, thriving neighborhoods, and the density issue - Portland is a moving train. The Portland Business Alliance does some great things, but they are they are not the end all be all with all of this. It takes multiple combinations to create an atmosphere for success - and I think that's a tribute to Portland itself, and all the great, and smart people, organizations, and businesses doing great things in this city. At the end of the day, the PBA has pitched in some duckets to contribute to ending homelessness downtown through employment opportunities and direct services. But those dollars don't add up to the profit margin being created by a bustling city. When the PBA comes out and says, "We are for a transfer fee, and let's make this happen," or we are for X amount of dollars per square foot to be given to affordable housing by developers - then I will believe the PBA is dedicated to ending homelessness. Until then, they are carrying out a strategy that has been carried out by Chambers of Commerce's in cities all across the U.S. for the last century. It's no secret the new ghettoes of America are the outer ring of downtown cores. I would argue that the PBA's policy on this issue, and there attack on politicians who champion these causes is a reflection that the PBA is more concerned with people being pushed out of downtown than housing them. So no, I'm not sure their vision for downtown has a homeless population in it, but that doesn't mean it's not Portland's vision to have poor people who exist right alongside everyone else.

And on the second question - no, they are not willing to compromise in the least bit - at least on the sit/lie law.

Cruel and senseless ? Hardly. You really need to get out more.

For the vast majority of the bums downtown, "homelessness" is a lifestyle choice, pure and simple. I was there myself once in a place with far less handouts than Portland; I know. I finally grew up and accepted the fact that if you want to live a halfway decent life, you have to work for it, unless you are born rich.

Most of these gutterpunks are born rich-this explains their total lack of any work ethic whatsoever. The ones who come from working-class backgrounds you don't see on the street as much, because they have some hustle going on, legitimate or not, that is more lucrative than begging.

Some professional beggars do very, very well, though. These days, these degenerate bums hit me up for heroin money WHILE I AM AT WORK in a taxicab...the most dangerous job in America.

Fuck 'em. I have no sympathy whatsoever left, not after working in downtown P-town for years on end. They lean in my window and demand money, and get irate when I inform them that I am trying to earn a living out here. You know what ? Tax time is coming up. I will owe Federal income tax, Social Security income tax, Oregon income tax, Multnomah County business income tax, and Tri-Met income tax. All at double the normal rate, as I am a "contract laborer."

Do you know what I was doing tonight while you little Socialist creeps were out snorting cocaine and getting laid ? I was sober, busting my ass to make money to hand over to the government, that's what I was doing.

Enough is enough.

My solution to the locust-like plague of professional beggars that you want to subsidize and encourage would be to totally ban panhandling, with detention in work camps for repeat offenders. Round them up, delouse and or de-tox them if they are so far gone that they present a danger to themselves and others around them, and then put them to work in exchange for food and lodging. There are countless things they could be put to work on around town. Think of the huge WPA programs during the Depression. Cleaning up trash and vandalism would be a good work detail to start with.

No work, no food, pure and simple. The more ambitious among them could apprentice into a trade, if they wish to do something other than garbageman-level labor.

Or, we could totally legalize prostitution and put those that wish to whore themselves, for heroin is not cheap, to work in state-regulated brothels.

I'm no Christian, and I'm certainly no Communist. Think Harry Dean Stanton in Repo Man, if you want to make fun of my attitude, but, seriously, enough with the bleeding hearts already.

"Do you know what I was doing tonight while you little Socialist creeps were out snorting cocaine and getting laid?"

It's like you're psychic, Cabbie, PSYCHIC, I tell you! I'm not going to address most of what you wrote, because this coke really saps the concentration, but I am interested to hear about your own experience of homelessness? Thanks for posting, too. It's good to give the bleeding hearts something to beat against.

I'm not so much a psychic as I am terminally fed up with our fair town's ever-escalating over-taxation and aggressive beggars.

My experiences with living on the rough were a series of things like breaking into unrented rooms in run down buildings to sleep, sleeping in parks and alleys, sleeping in sheds, cars, tents and trucks, doing dishes in exchange for a couch or a shower at a friend's crappy apartment, highly organized dumpster diving, squatting for months and years in what ended up a pretty improved and interesting situation at one lucky place, things like that.

One memorable time about 13 years ago when I was living in a muddy tent in exchange for digging and planting a huge garden, I had to walk downtown because I had no bus fare. The probation department of the County I lived in at the time had permanently misplaced 40 dollars that I had paid them, and they demanded it again, if I wanted to stay free. As I walked downtown with a fucking hole on the sole in my All-Stars, the beggars came at me, over and over. That was probably the oft-cliched moment that people start to seriously question their liberalism, for me.

The majority of the times I lived out of doors over the years, I managed to work at some goddamn lowly job or other. It's not so unusual. I met a lot of people who did the same thing.

We always looked down upon beggars. They are the lowest rung on the ladder of any street scene. Not so much roots as a debilitating fungus.

I can't believe a human could be so hateful toward other humans.

So I bet the vets and drug addicts LOVE living on the streets. And the people running away from domestic violence or bigot family members. Especially people who became homeless after their ER visit left them broke and out of work.

Everyone has different life experiences, Cabbie; You can't assume that everyone out there on the street is working the same gig you were. Some people have actual problems. It's not your place, or anyone's place, to judge another person in that situation. People do the best they can.

Portland is one of those big talk cities when it comes to homelessness, but in reality, nobody is doing a damned thing.

It's heartbreaking.

OF COURSE there are people who unwillingly wind up on skid row due to no fault of their own, and there is in fact a safety net for them.

I drive vets around all the time, at a deep discount on the government dime-many other cabdrivers resent those VA calls, because we lose money on the deal, but I don't. You are talking with someone who deals with them on a daily basis. The other 95 percent of the professional bums who hog the resourses that people who are truly in need should be getting are the real problem here.

I used to be just like you, until I had to tell the bums that I would not give them my hard-earned pay, day after day after day after day after day in downtown PDX. Seriously, you can't even walk 15 feet without someone demanding your money down there. Again, we could solve the whole issue with WPA style work programs. Anyone truly in need would jump at the chance. The rest would go home to their mommies when they find out they cannot just sit on their asses all day while you naive idiots hand them heroin money.

How much you want to bet that Cabbie either:

1) Went to Reed, or

2) Works for the Portland Business Alliance.

Hmmm....I got some news for you, Cabbie. I never have done cocaine, and I do get laid - with my wife.

However, I busted my butt in college and afterward while your hero, George W. Bush, did exactly the things you think "Socialists" do.

Went to a number of years of community college, could never afford more back then. Was totally denied financial aid one year for welding school when I made about $11,000 as night manager of a sandwich shop, trying to balance many hours of work and school at the same time as the rent rapidly went up in my neighborhood.

I always hated the entire corrupt war-profiteering Bush Dynasty and the fools who are so dumbed down that they even buy into the whole Republican/Democrat false dichotomy to begin with. I knew about Dubya's well-covered up indescretions with the law, his CIA daddy, and his grandpaw Prescott's dealings with National Socialist Germany back home, 15 years ago, where I grew up under the boot of those frat boy shitheads. I went to school around them, fought them, and waited on them in the most humiliating, menial service industry jobs you could ever imagine.

Yeah, you got me all figured out all right, you morons. Guess again, pendejo.

"Homeless."

Does the time when my house burned down with everything my family owned in it when I was 11 years old count ?

How 'bout the months I spent at that age sleeping on other people's floors, eating their food, and wearing their clothing while we scrambled to survive ?

Would that qualify me to attend Reed, get the taxpayers to cover it's outrageously expensive 35K annual tuition, and live in the equally expensive PC Wonderland of SE Portland ? Is there a financial aid program for that ?

You are indeed right about that dreadful lot of blue-blooded nobility and their current appointed puppet in the White House vis-a-vis "Socialism." Fuck, even a stopped clock is right twice a day. THAT at least you have a clue about.

Cabbie, thanks for commenting again. I think your perspective has been colored by your experience, and whose hasn't. But it's been very interesting to see where you're coming from.

wow! I just found out alot of info. I was homeless once too,but we did fun stuff like spraypaint stinky old bums, or pour gas on them for a bum fire.

How come I never see the homeless lining up for work as a day laborer, much like latino immigrants (both legal and illegal) Yes the work is horrible, with low pay and no safety laws, but you never see caucasion homeless lining up for the work.