- Illustration by Valerie Pensworth
Normally, when the national media write about Portland, it’s all about pretty feelgood stuff: Bicycles, environmentally friendly construction, and twee places to shop and dine. But ABC News has just posted a story about what it calls the “dark secret” of a place “routinely voted one of the most livable cities in the country: Portland is a major hub for child sex trafficking.
Predictably, the report drew a tweet from Mayor Sam Adams. “Awful. Unacceptable. Action required,” the mayor wrote, while pointing out that he and Police Chief Mike Reese have beefed up staffing to combat sex crimes. Adams has made targeting the illegal sex trade one of his priorities.
So, it’s bad. But is this really a secret? Hardly. ABC is not the first national news outfit to shine a light into our fair city’s darker corners. And the local folks here haven’t been slouches, either.
All that attention is one reason why there has been news like this: Thanks to $900,000 in federal cash earmarked by Sen. Ron Wyden’s office, the Portland YWCA is planning to open a shelter for trafficking victims by the end of next year.
And even that won’t be enough. Advocate say millions more are needed to make a shelter sustainable. It’s grim, but it’s hardly a problem that’s in the shadows.
Sam Adams has made the child sex issue one of his top priorities.
The police are villified in Portland. Sex workers are glorified.
Man, there are a lot of things wrong with that ABC article, in my opinion.
It does the worst kind of coverage of sex trafficking, which is too linger for long paragraphs juicy, graphic details and doesn’t get at all into the larger social issues at hand (like poverty, lack of prostitution-specific social services, lack of social services in general, instead focusing blame solely on parents and strip clubs.
Plus it’s damn lazy. It mentions that Portland is in need of more human trafficking shelters, but doesn’t mention that Portland just secured money to build exactly that. It’s an ongoing issue, not a scintillating new one.
Final note of laziness (and now I feel like a troll): it says one of the girls was picked up on Portland’s subway system. Portland doesn’t have a subway system, ABC. Light rail vs. subway, get it right or pay the price.
@ Mirk there are Subways all over town but when you need to pick up an underage ho I recomend the malls.