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BY 6 PM on Monday night, September 15, the Vestal Elementary auditorium on NE 82nd Avenue was heating up. Three hundred people packed the wooden school seats to talk about the topic that's making neighbors and city hall sweat: the rampant prostitution along 82nd Avenue.
Reports of streetwalkers along 82nd have quadrupled in recent weeks, with police making 36 arrests along the street in the last month and neighbors complaining of condoms on their Little League fields and syringes on their sidewalks. Now that the politicians have taken notice—two city council members were at the Monday night town hall—the community has to agree on the best solution, which is turning into a heated debate.
In the front of the auditorium was a giant notepad with clear directions written in black pen: "Quiet, Respectful Listening." Dawn Rasmussen, the coordinator of the Save NE 82nd Avenue group and organizer of the town hall, was working hard to keep the audience quiet, respectful, and listening. One tactic was to table all questions related to the controversial Prostitution-Free Zone (PFZ)—a questionably legal law enforcement policy that Portland police used along 82nd until it expired last year. Some neighbors blame the recent uptick in streetwalking on the death of the PFZ.
"Before we get philosophical, we need to immediately stem the crime. We're at critical red alert on our streets," says Liz Sullivan, a member of neighborhood coalition Montavilla in Action, who stood outside the town hall gathering signatures for a petition demanding the city reinstate the PFZ.
Last week, Sullivan and another Montavilla in Action member took over a press conference at which Mayor Tom Potter announced an outline of his plan to combat prostitution on 82nd. Potter does not support reinstating the PFZ and Sullivan regaled the crowd with horror stories of coming across prostitutes and johns having sex while taking a Sunday morning stroll through a neighborhood park. Potter's idea is to put prostitutes and johns on probation after their second arrest and promises $500,000 in city funds for treatment options. Anything short of reinstating the PFZ is not enough enforcement, argues Montavilla in Action.
That's the last thing the Oregon American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) thinks should happen. It battled the Prostitution-Free Zone until it expired last year and according to Oregon ACLU Executive Director David Fidanque, the zone was essentially an "end run around the criminal justice process." Since prostitutes and johns were punished in civil court, they had no right to a lawyer and often wound up without one.
"What I see in the mayor's statement is he says we're going to use the criminal justice system, rather than having police officers being prosecutor, judge, and jury, which is how it functioned all too often under the old system," says Fidanque.
Another neighborhood group, 82nd Avenue Cares, competed for space with Montavilla in Action handing out flyers at the town hall. Their ideas for bettering the dire prostitution situation are the direct opposite of reinstating the PFZ: less crackdowns on prostitutes, more funding for the social services sex workers desperately need.
"This is not a law enforcement issue, it's an issue of econ and social justice," says Crystal Tenty, sex industry outreach coordinator for the Portland Women's Crisis Line and member of 82nd Avenue Cares. While Tenty is one of the few people who has actually asked the people at the center of the debate (the prostitutes) about what they need, she's says no one from city hall has taken the time to do the same.
"The entire discussion about what should be done is dominated by neighborhood associations and police and politicians," laments Tenty. "Any sort of program that's going to work is going to need to have input from sex workers."
Tenty thinks Potter's promised $500,000 would be well invested in long-term services that help women transition off the street. Since the current wait-list for a women's shelter is an abysmal six months, that means funding housing for sex workers. Establishing a childcare facility and drop-in center where women can shower and do laundry would also be proactive steps.
"A large majority of [sex workers] are out there simply doing it for the money and there aren't a lot of alternatives for them to make a livable wage," says Tenty.
From the stage of the stuffy town hall, Jeri Williams echoed Tenty's frustration with Portland's void of social services for prostitutes. Now a neighborhood organizer, in the summer of 1989 Williams turned $20 tricks on 82nd every night and lived with an abusive pimp. The organizations that helped her escape and get therapy are now defunct.
"There's no well-funded, structured programs for prostitution," says Williams. "We have to make the investments necessary to make the change in our communities."
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Thank you Tara for the coverage. We do however disagree with some of your comments in the above article and in your previous article. You are using words like "battle". We are not battling with other groups especially those that are trying to help the prostitutes. We are not even battling with the Mayor or the City Council - we are asking questions, we are wanting details and integrated solutions. I think in other cities our actions or verbiage would not be characterized as such, but just community activism.
Tara another key issue we have with your coverage is you are only pointing to the nuisance issues with the crime – as we have discussed and I have provided the “neighborhood stories” regarding safety concerns that have escalated in less than a year: johns now freely & blatantly harass women & young girls in the area - since if you are a lone women in this radius "you must be a prostitute", a family told us that their 14 & 11 year old daughters can't freely walk in neighborhood any more, johns are masturbating in cars & exposing themselves, johns are erratically speeding and circling down our residential streets all hours of the day & night since they are in the zone, literally. Many rental properties are being taken over by criminals as "base camps" closer to their place of work the Avenue - 82nd selling & dealing drugs. There have been two retaliation style turf war fatalities on our streets.
Tara & Ms Tenty, we too are disgusted to learn that currently the City, nor the County fund any services for the prostitutes, NONE. We tried calling those phone numbers on the County's help page online for prostitution social services to other groups - months ago - just like Jeri Williams says those 2 numbers are disconnected & have been for a long time. Couple that with abandoning the PFZ and now we have organized crime, pimps from other states have moved in to our neighborhoods and are running these young girls day & night - and we are nearly 1 year later hearing Mr. Leonard say yet again "real solutions" are coming. We agree with Ms Tenty that the City is not getting input from those directly involved in the issues, the prostitutes and the neighbors. We had to be squeaky wheels to get our voices heard – why is that?
We have challenged our City Council on their proposal - is $500,000K really enough to fund services and support their Police Service Coordination Team? When will the money be approved?
We have a rebuttal to the proposal on our blog. There are many, many unanswered questions to their plan and many more "Ifs".
On our blog is a link to our rebuttal to the Mayor's "prostitution talking points" as he refered to them on his website. We do not need talking points, we need a well executed plan that has buy in, adequate funding and addresses the complexity of this crime. The city stated a year ago that they were going to come up with "real solutions" as they abandoned the PFZ (Sept. 30, 2007). Now 1 year later organized crime has moved in and made the Avenue into a criminal "turf war", where young women are now blatantly & freely traded day & night, neighborhood women & young girls safety is now being compromised, fatalaties have occured, residents safety & livability is effected and now Mayor refers to his talking points as an important begining?
We plan to have our "March on 82nd Avenue to Reclaim Our Neighborhood" on Saturday September 20. Please go to our blog for the flyer & more info.
We also plan on presenting our Petition to Reinstate the Prostitution Free Zone to City Council, to commemorate with the 1 year anniversary (Sept. 30, 2007) of that negligent mistake. We ask that the PFZ be reinstated in addition to all of the city's proposed plans. We also stress once again that the City leaders look to Seattle and see how they took our law and PFZ ordinance and made it effective. Petition to Reinstate the PFZ - which we will be presenting to the City Council on Sept. 30th to commemorate with the 1 year anniversary of its abandonment.
We ask now more than ever that the City please reinstate the PFZ in addition to the proposal that they have just begun the start of that still does not have approved budget or buy in from all appropriate dept. After seeing all of the "Ifs" and layers to the proposal and were it can all break down, plus there has been no timeline presented to the plan - that we feel now more than ever the PFZ is needed in addition to the plans the City is now working on.
>>>> PRIORITY REASONS AS TO WHY THE PFZ SHOULD BE REINSTATED (UNDER EMERGENCY STATUS):
>>1. The research that the Mayor cited when lifting the ordinance did not even mention prostitution in the entire 18 pg doc it was lumped with the issues surrounding the DFZ http://www.portlandonline.com/mayor/index.cfm?a=169712&c=46244
>>2. According to the Neighborhood Response TEAM (NRT) back on 7/23/08- calls regarding prostitution have quadrupled since last year this time. Cause & Effect - Zone is gone = crime has grown considerably & formed deep roots
>>3. We the citizens around 82nd Ave are having our safety compromised each & every day (read our blog to hear comments from your neighbors: how neighborhood women are now being harassed, neighborhood young girls are being propositioned in daylight by johns that circle and speed through our streets.
>>4. Crime from all over is now coming to 82nd Ave – it is well documented that the women are being trafficked from Seattle, LA and beyond to work on the avenue due to our laxed laws. In addition, johns from all over the State & WA state are coming to our neighborhoods – we have taken on both States’ issues..
>>5. Until the city’s “real solutions” are in effect & working, we need to immediately stem the crime that has taken over our communities to bring back the safety & livability of the neighborhoods & their residents.
Thank you,
Montavilla In Action
www.MontavillaInAction.blogspot.com
Sigh.
The only reason the city is listening at all is that the good people of Montavilla are making such a fuss.
However, Montavilla, for what ever reason, is where the people that really run this city want the prostitutes, pimps, pushers and other prurient types. i.e., where they won't impact the investments of the wealthy, where they won't disturb the re-gentrification of the inner city.
There are two reasons that the prostitution crowd is in Montavilla.
1. That's where the mayor, the city council and the police want them. You, my friends, live in a politically weak neighborhood of a lower and lower-middle class demography. You don't donate much to political campaigns so the people who run the city don't care a whit about you. You must be aware of this by now. No? Still don't get it?
2. To be honest, in any business, the owner sets up shop as close to the customers as they can, and, the areas around Montavilla are where most of their "johns" live -- since conservative Christians make up the largest segment of their business.
Don't like them facts?
Sorry, but the truth hurts.
But keep screaming. The city will find some other relatively powerless neighborhood to force the problem to. They can't get rid of prostitution any more than we can get rid of the rain in Oregon. Prostitution is not called the world's oldest profession because it's a funny line.
Wait. I have a better idea.
Let's solve the problem.
We could legalize and control prostitution, bring in badly needed tax revenue, get the pimps and pushers and other slime out of the business. We could restrict it to an area where it doesn't affect other citizens.
We could stop or at least slow the spread of STDs by requiring health checks and licenses.
It would save the taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in lowered enforcement costs. It would lessen the workload on our overworked courts.
Wow. What a great idea. . . no, but wait. That won't work. The pastor of my church is against it, even though most of his male parishoners partake. Besides, it's too obvious a solution and makes too much sense. And what would the neighbors think if I supported it?
So let's just play hockey with the problem -- by making it someone else's.
Look out Gresham. They're headed your way.
Jacomus
"conservative Christians make up the largest segment of their business."
This is incorrect. Men who politically identify as liberal are twice as likely to use prostitutes according to research done in April 2008 on 110 (self-described) prostitute-using men:
17% Right
51% Middle of the Road
32% Left
If you want to see other results from this research into john attitudes and behaviors, the title is "Challenging Men’s Demand for Prostitution in Scotland."
Agree. Legalize it in a designated area. And while your at it, lower taxes on all local businesses. The reason there are prostitutes is because it's the path of least financial resistance. If there were better jobs and more of them, you wouldn't have people financially desperate. I would be willing to bet most woman don't do it out of joy. And I'm sure for some, it's their SECOND JOB. The only way you can get good jobs to Oregon is make it so a business wants to set-up here. And taxing the hell out of them won't do that. Spending taxpayer money isn't going to fix any moral problem. Nor is it going to provide any options for a living. The more any politician says they will "fix" things, it is guaranteed to get worse or not have it's desired result. And the idiots will clap their hands and ask for more spending of taxes, taken from PRODUCTIVE people, and spend on the NON-PRODUCTIVE people. All while the gov. and it's cronies take a cut.
Capital goes where capital is treated best.
Remember that, because it works on both sides of the equation. You cannot create any law that will solve a thousand year old moral issue. The supply would not be there if there was not a demand.
Mr. Jacomus -
Nice chatting with you again.
Don't have time to spar with you on all of your points and we do agree with you that the City keeps pushing the crime around and never truly addresses it. We do want to point out howeverthat we disagree & the facts prove that your second point is wrong:
2. To be honest, in any business, the owner sets up shop as close to the customers as they can, and, the areas around Montavilla are where most of their "johns" live -- since conservative Christians make up the largest segment of their business.
Actually the johns that come to our community are from all over Oregon State & WA State. Many also from other states who happen to be visiting Portland. Most however are from those more affluent areas you speak of, Lake Oswego, West Linn, and all points north & south east and west - Vancouver, Camas, Tigard, Beaverton, Salem, etc. OUR problem is everyone's problem.
Also once again you assume most in this area are Conservative Christians - which is once again incorrect.
We wish you a wonderful evening,
Montavilla In Action
www.MontavillaInAction.blogspot.com
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