The Portland Business Alliance’s Mike Kuykendall was interviewed by a notorious journalist, C.W.Nevius, in the San Francisco Chronicle this weekend. I say “notorious,” because Nevius writes articles like this on a pretty regular basis, and one could be forgiven for wanting to punch his smug little fear-mongering face. But that’s really not a healthy attitude and I’m sorry I even mentioned it. At least I didn’t hit “send” on the email I just wrote him. Now, onto the article.

Mike Kuykendall says the criticism never seemed to let up.

“We were barraged with people complaining about conditions downtown,” he said. “There were people sitting on the sidewalk, there were guys with sleeping bags and pit bulls, and there was aggressive panhandling. We had visitors and conventioneers saying they didn’t want to come back.”

Sound familiar?

No, it isn’t downtown San Francisco.

Kuykendall is the head of the Business Alliance of Portland, Ore. Last week, he led a group that came to town to pitch San Francisco officials on Portland’s downtown plan, called “Street Access for Everyone.”

Sponsored by the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce and President Steve Falk, the delegation met with Mayor Gavin Newsom, District Attorney Kamala Harris, City Attorney Dennis Herrera, and Supervisors Michela Alioto-Pier and Sean Elsbernd. Frankly, that is an audience that would be expected to be very sympathetic to the idea. Clearly, this is an attempt to build political support for an initiative that could address one of the most persistent problems in downtown San Francisco - the unpleasant, and infamous, street scene.

Granted, there have been lots of attempts to solve this, and none seems to have made much of an impact. But before rejecting the idea out of hand, take a moment to understand the overall concept.

The San Francisco effort began when Falk took a trip this year to Portland. The city, which resembles a mini-San Francisco in many ways, has come up with an innovative model to keep people from camping on the sidewalk. Falk, who was impressed with the plan and thought a version of it might work here, suggested the Portland group visit city officials.

It is easy to see why the concept sounds attractive. The Portland group has accomplished the seemingly impossible. They’ve reduced the presence of street people, decreased street crime (down 40 percent in the last year, according to Kuykendall), and insist that they haven’t alienated homeless advocates. Making all that come together is a minor miracle, and by all accounts it sounded great to the locals.

Haven’t alienated homeless advocates, eh? I wonder what Portland’s homeless advocates are making of this article? Perhaps they feel Kuykendall is glossing over some of the opposition to the ordinance? Or that Kuykendall might have been in Portland for last week’s meeting of the SAFE oversight committee instead of down in San Fran prematurely pushing the initiative’s success?

Last week, the SAFE group decided it needs to ask council for $200,000 more dollars for another temporary day access center, since the current one is full to busting, and having one or two problems as a result.