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Thursday, September 17, 2009

News / Politics Mayor Asks For Feedback On Free Sidewalk Plan

Posted by Matt Davis on Thu, Sep 17, 2009 at 8:20 PM

Here's the draft. I like it. You?

Update, Wednesday September 22, 5:14pm

Activist group Soapbox Under The Bridge has emailed the following response to city commissioners.

Dear Mayor and City Council Members,

We at Soapbox, a non-profit organizing project around homelessness, would like to thank you for your efforts around our community's continued emergency, homelessness. We realize a great effort has been expended by each of you to create and support programs and tools that will help people end their homelessness.

As a project organizing around homelessness, we were asked to respond to the Mayor's "Downtown Draft Sidewalk Management Plan Concepts" document from a week ago. A lot more effort has obviously been expended in finding out about the sidewalks and what happens on them this time around, compared to the "sit/lie" law (or Sidewalk Obstruction ordinance) that preceded this document. We do however have a few questions and worries.

First: Although we applaud the city's continued efforts, including the Coordinating Committee to End Homelessness, we worry when services are tied to, or mentioned in documents dealing with "protecting sidewalks." This gives the impression of a "carrot and stick" approach to ending homelessness. A stick is not needed, nor does the city need to punish people for sleeping outside. We feel that the coupling of services to laws was one of the many key faults with the last ordinance.

Second: We hope that the "criminal zero tolerance" policy does not just include Portland's low income and homeless populations. Any stated goal around continuing police policy in this area must recognize that others besides homeless people commit crimes. This is especially worrisome to us as the two examples given in the draft document were both activities that were used during the "sting" from a few months ago as the police's response to the declaration by a Circuit Court Judge that the Sit/Lie law was unconstitutional. A sting where they admitted in Oregonian coverage to targeting homeless people. This seems it could quickly become a targeted response—see, for example, this Oregonian article entitled "Portland grapples with homeless issue after ruling on sidewalk ordinance."

Third: "Give Real Change, Not Spare Change." Aside from the fact that this could be perceived as stealing dignity from homeless people, or lacking the recognition that a person might not always make the wrong choice to give money to a homeless person, there is also the worry that this could become a "don't give under any circumstances" ordinance.

Fourth: "Downtown Signature Retail District Strategy." Although we appreciate the Portland Business Alliance and others' efforts to make downtown a premiere place for tourism and shopping, we also feel it is important that people be able to live there, including our poorest and homeless. Please do not give to much of our downtown or its control to an organization that has only one interest at heart.

Fifth: Although not directly mentioned in the Sidewalk Management Initiative sheet we received, we worry about how this law or process will interact with Tri-Met, street sweepers, and other users of portions of the sidewalk.

We would be happy to meet with you, or any others over this important issue in the future.

Thank you.

Soapbox Under the Bridge

 

Comments (10) RSS

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1
That is not a draft. It is a list of concepts. Adams talks a lot and says nothing. This outline is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

Let's see a real draft.
Posted by Number Six on September 17, 2009 at 8:47 PM · Report
2
This plan might be fair to all sides with one small adjustment.

There are several items on the list, each one has a separate, independent timeline, and separate independent likelihood of actually occurring.

It's easy to imagine finding the interest and will to align city codes, for example, or making zero tolerance of littering a goal of Portland police.

But that those easy and punitive efforts should happen prior to some sort of equity to improve and expand local social services seems to use the stick and not the carrot. Get set for more stubborn opposition.

Try it the other way around this time. Before you set loose Jeff Myers and other authoritarian cretins, give a little love and acceptance.

The "Give Real Change - Not Spare Change" is an excellent idea. I hope to see Sam himself on the CCTV in downtown hotels instructing tourists to buy copies of Street Roots, Randy doing 12th Step work at Hooper, Amanda serving soup at Sisters, Dan tackling off-ramp hobos, and Nick teaching street kids job skills at Outside In.

Go team.
Posted by J_Renaud on September 17, 2009 at 9:03 PM · Report
3
I think, in rough, it's the best thing we've seen so far. But as #6 pointed out, it's not even a draft.

2 things jump out at me...

"Establish and fund a Downtown Signature Retail District Strategy: A plan to make the heart Portland the west coast’s premiere place to shop, visit, work and live."

this sounds WAY too much like code words for increased private control over public space, Portland has already gone way too far down that slippery slope.

"Criminal Zero Tolerance: The Police will continue proactive zero tolerance law enforcement for criminal behavior such as aggressive panhandling and littering."

proactive? really? Like your undercover sting on smokers and litterers in the square? That was some serious "America's Most Wanted", wasn't it?

too bad our dwindling police force is wasting it's time on this. Hey Rosie? Sam?? There really are real criminals in town. I prefer my tax dollars went to catching them, thank you very much.

I don't want to disparage the key point though, an easily definable 4 foot clear zone on every sidewalk. If it's enforced evenly, that sounds like something that everyone should be able to get behind.

But the devil is in the details, we really don't know much yet.

Posted by rabblevox on September 17, 2009 at 9:45 PM · Report
4
my big worries:
making sure that "Criminal Zero Tolerance:" is everyone, not just some
making sure that "“Give Real Change; Not Spare Change” stays that and does not turn in to "Dont give change to people, even when you feel like it"
and
making sure that Downtown Signature Retail District Strategy" does not become "the PBA owns downtown"
and those are all just worries that could be helped a bit by rewording I think.
outside of that it looks pretty good... lets see what happens with it and what the end product looks like
thanks
Patrick
Posted by Patrick Nolen on September 17, 2009 at 9:46 PM · Report
5
This basically boils down to businesses saying " no one shops downtown because of the filthy homeless."

The issues
* Increasing media reports about aggressive panhandling.
* Recent Court ruling ... http://oregonlive.twi.bz/a).
* Significant budget cuts ...

The reasons that I really don't go downtown are:

* I'm not paying a $1.60 an hour for parking, I use to go on Sunday but they ruined that too.
* I'm cheap and my local NE community has better restaurants for the price. SE is good too.
* Construction has been going on downtown forever and makes the visit suck
* When parking downtown, the parking meters don't take paper money. Also when using a card, I end up wasting at least 3 minutes out of my day waiting for it to validate with my bank and then walking back to my car.
* Is the Pearl still urban renewal? if so why?

I still love Portland though.


Posted by SkilletBSlice on September 18, 2009 at 1:23 AM · Report
6
Supply and demand. If people keep giving money to panhandlers, they'll continue to panhandle. If people give the money to not-for-profit homeless charities instead, so many problems go away. So "Give Real Change - Not Spare Change" is the key to the whole thing. Not just some woolly public education campaign. Install collection boxes throughout downtown. Then if someone asks you to help the homeless, people would be encouraged to put the money in the box instead. And divide the proceeds amongst Sister of the Road, the homeless shelters, etc etc. The result? Less panhandling AND better care for the homeless, everyone's a winner.
Posted by Stu on September 18, 2009 at 9:57 AM · Report
7
I've got no problem at all with the "real change" idea. Of course, people are always free to give money however they want, but giving people an easy way to contribute to real solutions can't be a bad thing
Posted by rabblevox on September 18, 2009 at 12:05 PM · Report
8
"And divide the proceeds amongst Sister of the Road, the homeless shelters, etc etc. "
Stu,
things may have changed since when I left, but when I was there Sisters was not in favor of such programs as it took away from people's options and is demeaning, saying that the person does not know how to spend the money on things of importance... (white man's burden anyone?) if you expect people to work themselves out of homelessness (which is what our society basically expects) then responsibility is a skill one most learn. one of the hardest things I had to learn while homeless was if I wanted housing, I needed to show up for housing meetings on time... if I wanted to have bus money on Friday, I could not spend all my money on Thursday.
thanks
Patrick
Posted by Patrick Nolen on September 18, 2009 at 1:16 PM · Report
9
I am not trained to see details that others see but I would agree that the proposal seems to be tailored toward the business community's interests while trying to keep advocates for the homeless somewhat domesticated if possible. A lot of this will depend upon WHAT IS REALLY MEANT and HOW IT IS INTERPRETED AND ENFORCED BY LAW ENFORCEMENT. All of this only addresses symptoms and not the real live issues of the root causes of homelessness and the constantly decreasing available public space for those who have nowhere to lay their heads. Pain medication can bring comfort or harm or kill the patient. Perhaps what we have is a pain killer that could possibly do harm rather than a therapeutic prescription for the real problems.
Posted by RevChuckCooper on September 18, 2009 at 4:35 PM · Report
10
I avoid downtown outside of work hours because of having to pay for parking. And downtown has douchebag magnets like the Greek Cuisina.

I have never seen an aggressive panhandler. What I do see, and try to avoid, are the professional panhandlers from Greenpeace, etc. on every street corner, as well as unlicensed A-boards and sidewalk cafes.
Posted by LawyerPepper on September 18, 2009 at 7:25 PM · Report

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