Your explanations are just as anecdotal and driven by your personal prejudices and passions as his are. Anyone who isn't in the tank finds it perfectly credible that an outdoor homeless camp might hurt nearby businesses. You don't believe it because you don't want to believe it.

Alexis would probably do ever so slightly better if wasn't a blank, unwelcoming, windowless piece of wall from the outside.

We could move the camp outside of the Mercury offices? That's a solution we could all agree on.

Spot on. R2DToo did not bring the throngs of people experiencing homelessness to Old Town Chinatown. They've been there for decades because it's a historically poor urban neighborhood--and one that now houses a lot of social services. That precedes Ping by at least 40 years. And R2DToo has helped keep crime AWAY from their corner.

The O also had a charming "guest opinion" this weekend about how "illegals" are causing the boom in tiny apartments, and how it's going to ruin our city. (Nevermind the apartments she cites are renting for up to $1000 for only 200 sq ft...)

Reading the O (and worse, the comments), makes me feel completely terrible about humanity.

It's true Denis obviously has an axe to grind, but this paper never makes a pretense of objectivity, and that's one of the things I like about it.

What's also true is that any one investing in or opening a business in Old Town obviously knows that the neighborhood is home to services, and that presents some risk, particularly to places that want to appeal to upscale clientele.

This is why it's not surprising that a Chinese place in a former strip club might not have trouble appealing to the quick lunch crowd, but a fine dining establishment that has to affirmatively draw people to its location might have more trouble.

We can disagree about the extent of the risk, but there is no denying that the businesses in the area consciously chose to run it, no doubt in exchange for lower rents than other locations in the Pearl nearby.

Your pieces have become myopic. You aren't being objective.

Yeah, I'm sorry, but you can't blame R2DToo for the homelessness issue in Old Town -- the camp is in Old Town because that's where many of those without homes WERE. The neighborhood hasn't changed for the worse since Ping opened (and closed), and it's not like Ricker and Co. are exactly struggling in this city anyway.

While I agree that the general demeanor of Old Town (parking, street closures, street kids, general pee smell) does probably discourage pedestrian traffic -- would the writer rather the citizens of R2DToo be blocking traffic on the sidewalk instead of hidden away in tents? Like, what is his solution?

@Melanie: The author's solution is obviously for poor people to go away. It's not any more complicated than that.

Actually, Spindles, you probably couldn't ask for better neighbors. That wouldn't trouble me in the slightest.

R2DToo is welcome... Spindles is NOT. (His existence is driving down the entirety of Portland's real estate value.)