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Tuesday, June 26, 2007
News Potter Announces Zero Tolerance In New Columbia
Posted by on Tue, Jun 26 at 10:53 AM
The Mayor announced a “zero tolerance” approach to “law-breaking individuals or groups” at the New Columbia housing development this morning.
North Precinct Commander Jim Ferraris (left) and Potter, in New Columbia this morning.
Potter, who was visiting the development to announce grants to seven youth outreach programs, told the assembled crowd, and KGW’s hipster newsman, Randy Neves [who looks a lot more hipster-ish in real life than in his KGW headshot], that recent crime problems in the development—particularly around McCoy Park, should not be allowed to disrupt the community.
“I want to address some concerns in McCoy Park,” said Potter. “There are those misusing the park, and I have asked Chief Sizer and Commander Ferraris to aggressively enforce all law violations. There will be a zero tolerance policy. McCoy Park does not belong to one group of people but the entire community.”
McCoy Park: DANGEROUS. DEADLY.
“There were problems in the park, but they’ve quieted down now,” says Kathleen Coon, who lives in the Trenton Terrace apartments directly opposite. “One night a couple of months ago, there were about 200 teenagers in there on a Friday night, and the police came in their cars, and told the crowd to disperse through their loud-speakers, and the kids just laughed a lot.”
“We don’t want New Columbia to revert to what it was like when it was Columbia Villa,” Coon continues. “All the crime, drugs and so on. But it’s very nice now. Very clean. Very safe.”
Is Potter using a sledgehammer to crack a nut? Using New Columbia’s unruly teenagers as a way to appear tough on crime? I think so. New Columbia seems like a marvelous place to live to me—let’s just hope those pesky kids learn to go to bed on time so the community is safe for all of us.
Also, the perception of New Columbia as a safe place to live is obviously very important to its success as a model mixed-income development. But I wonder if Potter would ever institute a zero tolerance policy at a new development in, say, Lake Oswego? Ah, never mind…forget I asked.
Comments
Fine. Just insert "affluent white neighborhood" in the sentence, and you'll be right back on track.
I think the Merc is starting to sound a little Johnny One Note in its ceaseless criticisms of Potter. According to some of my friends and colleagues who live in New Columbia, the troubles at McCoy park have been worse than your one source suggests. It's my understanding that a majority of the residents have been asking the police to crack down hard before the problem sticks. And it's Lars Larsoneque Rhetoric to suggest that the Mayor would act differently in, say, Lake Oswego. In fact, don't you think the mayor would do the same thing in any neighborhood? The residents of any affluent white neighborhood would similarily DEMAND a crackdown if hundreds of non-affluent non-white non-neighbors riffraffed their communities... and the Mayor, being first and foremost a police chief, would feel obligated to intervene. The Mayor, for all his faults, does not have a classist or racist bone in his body.
Wait a Minute!
How did Ferraris get is nose UNBURIED for this little excursion into the real world?
He must not be the lapdog he once was. I am impressed. Out in Public, even. It looks like he even wiped clean his nose.
Er, I'm not sure what you're talking about, "purely." Care to elaborate?
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I have a zero-tolerance policy toward Lake Oswego, but it's not in Portland, and Potter wouldn't have anything to do with it.