The neighborhoods along 82nd Ave are all in uproar this month over that perennial hot button issue: prostitution. What’s really interesting to watch is how the conversation has played out on the internet, where a degree of anonymity and the ability to link together like-minded people across the neighborhoods have led to a flurry of active and heated discussions. The debate over how to solve prostitution on 82nd has turned into a battle of the blogs.
First off, there’s the moderate Save NE 82nd, organized by Madison South activist Dawn Rasmussen. Tonight is Save NE 82nd’s big, long-planned (and hilariously named) Prostitution Town Hall, which Rasmussen hopes will be a “positive, solution-oriented conversation” that lays out all the ideas for how to improve the dire situation of 82nd. And there are so many ideas.
Last week, Mayor Potter announced his plan to solve prostitution in the area, including putting $500,000 toward treatment for prostitutes. That press conference was hijacked by an outspoken neighbors organized via their own blog, Montavilla in Action who demanded the City reinstate the Prostitution Free Zone. “Before we get philosophical, we need to immediately stem the crime,” said organizer and press-conference-crasher Liz Sullivan, “We’re at critical red alert on our streets.”
More hot and bothered frustration is obvious at the the Montavilla Neighborhood Association Yahoo group, where a lot of neighbors to have freely vented their anger — sometimes articulately and reasonably, sometimes not. “The blatent strollers or those who just hang out on the Avenue has increased to the point of being very, very obvious,” reads one post, “ I am not low-class, nor is this neighborhood, but what is allowed to occur here is ghetto behavior. What the heck is going on??”
The “hostility and hatred” of the message board sparked another neighbor, a woman named Mika who lives on SE 72nd, to organize his own blog and group 82nd CARES. Mika and a dozen other area residents think the Prostitution Free Zone (PFZ) is a horrible idea. “We can’t fix this problem with more police,” Mika told me today, “We need to have the services available for these people.” That means transition housing and shelters (women’s shelters in Portland currently have an abysmal six month wait list). 82nd Cares has also taken to poking holes in the pro-PFZ argument using homemade graphs:
Montavilla In Action states that “we the citizens around 82nd Avenue are having our safety compromised each + every day.” Since prostitution between consenting adults does not directly compromise any bystander’s safety (although it may be uncomfortable for them to witness it on the street), it must mean that the presence of prostitution is attracting other crimes. Is it true? Here’s the chart based on Portland Police Bureau’s numbers.
The PFZ expired after the second 2006 point first 2007 dot on that chart and, as Mika points out, while arrests for prostitution have spiked and dropped as police staged stings throughout the year, all other crimes have dropped by 18 % overall. The idea that Montavilla has become unsafe and crime-ridden thanks to the death of the PFZ isn’t supported by police data.
Anyway, tonight’s the night all these neighbors will be coming out of the internet woodwork and talking face-to-face about all the touchy subjects. How the Prostitution Town Hall will go down is anyone’s guess, but getting a “positive and solution-oriented” discussion is definitely going to involve some serious crowd-wrangling.
No Zones=more hookers and johns. (Criminals shouldn’t unfairly be singled out on accounta criminal behavior, apparently)
Instead, Mayor wants more services, shelters and housing for hookers, expects less hookers and johns.
Is basic math really that hard?
If they hired more women on the police force, they could do more stings and curtail the stemming of the problem in the first place: the johns.
Thanks Sarah for the continued coverage of this critical issue.
We were disappointed at that event last night. We asked of the organizer weeks before if we all could collaborate, since many of our groups have all been working in silos. We asked if we could get a neighborhood representative on the panel (not just Biz Assoc). We want the community & all to know that we are not “NIMBY” (we want a successfully collaborated, fully integrated solution that proactively addresses this complicated crime properly. We don’t want the crime to displace. We have asked our City leaders to look at what other Cities are doing that has proven to help the neighborhoods & these young women. Learn from other cities that have larger budgets and have proactively been working on this very complicated issue.
We have done our homework & we ask that the City do theirs. We asked a few weeks ago of the organizer of Save NE 82 Summit if we could briefly look back before we look forward – why has the crime of prostitution escalated so quickly in less than a year (the chart you show proves this), what has the City been doing since last Sept. 30, 2007 when they dropped the PFZ – sounds like the City only took action after the fatalities regarding prostitutes & pimps occurred in July. We also ask that the City look at what other cities are doing.
Mika – of 82nd Cares when we state “we the citizens around 82nd Avenue are having our safety compromised each + every day.” We can list hundreds of examples of stories of our fellow neighbors and how their safety is now being compromised – johns now freely 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 daughter 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 has been two retaliation style turf war fatalities on our streets.
Mika, we were disgusted to learn that the City lifted the PFZ last Sept 2007 and promised “real solutions” but like Jeri Williams (former prostitute & City Neighborhood Activist now) touched upon last night – that currently there are NO services for these young girls & women. When did the City cut that funding in addition to abandoning the PFZ? Jeri mentioned that if you go to County’s home page for help & services for the prostitutes & there are 2 numbers that are no longer working.
We too tried calling these numbers a few months ago to outreach on efforts and got no where. When we heard about your group late last month we outreached to you too.
Unfortunately last night we heard no real answers, plan, timelines, approved funding etc. Mika – we want to work with you and others & collaborate on ideas that are working in other US cities – because unfortunately it’s not working here. We cannot wait yet another year for those “real solutions” to happen – unfortunately all of us are having to push our City Leaders along, for the residents, the neighborhoods & especially for the these young girls and women.
Thank you,
Montavilla In Action | http://www.MontavillaInAction.blogspot.com
One more thing – Sarah the PFZ was abandoned Sept. 30, 2007 so on that chart it’s the “dot” after the 2007 Q3 “dot” that shows the spike in prostitution.
Thanks again.