Maybe you didn’t read the Oregonian‘s op-ed pages this weekend. But if you did, you might have learned something surprising.
The volunteers at Right 2 Dream Too, the controversial Old Town homeless rest area, are now apparently responsible for the vagaries and indignities of the notoriously fickle restaurant business. We know this because of the experiences of two different restaurants nearby, as related by failed Republican senate candidate James Huffman.
Huffman laments the purported decline of one old-timey joint, not-cheap Greek eatery Alexis at NW 2nd and Burnside, and the demise of another (that he invested in; it was partly run by his son), Ping at NW 4th and Couch. He’s clear about his version of the reasons for both.
The biggest problem, however, is the homeless camp just one block away. Congregations of homeless people have always been a reality for Chinatown businesses, but the “Right 2 Dream Too” camp encourages even more while discouraging pedestrian traffic, particularly in the evening.
The camp is illegal. Yet it has been there for more than two years. Commissioner Amanda Fritz has tried to negotiate an alternative site, but that’s on hold because Mayor Charlie Hales is concerned about the effect of a new campsite on nearby business interests.
But what about the interests of Gerry Tsirimiagos and the other business people struggling to make a living in this neglected part of our city? I confess I have a small dog in this fight as owner of a small share of Ping, a nearby, once-thriving restaurant that had garnered national recognition. It is now closed, and has been since business plummeted right after the homeless camp arrived. Gerry says the camp had the same effect on his business.
He’s right about a few things. Right 2 Dream Too does exist and has existed fore than more two years. Fritz really has brokered a deal that would give it a new home in the Pearl. But all the rest? It’s malarkey—and the O should have known better than to give it any credence.
Alexis still gets good reviews. But it’s not like it’s not been running in what Portland used to charmingly call its Skid Row for years and years—a place filled with social services institutions and relief agencies that have long been a magnet for people on the streets looking for shelter, medical assistance, or a hot meal and some time out of the rain.
That reality preceded R2DToo and it will continue, sadly, long after R2DToo is gone. R2DToo hasn’t changed the makeup of a neighborhood that must not have been so bad that Alexis, as Huffman remembers it, hadn’t managed to thrive before. And if that kind of thing really does matter so much, then why hasn’t the Chinese restaurant right next door to R2DToo—packed during lunchtime some days—closed its doors?
Moreover Huffman’s own post alludes to some of the other factors that might be hurting the Alexis (beyond the notion that restaurants come and go and wear out all on their own, in any location):
Gerry has battled with the city over reduced parking on Burnside to accommodate buses. He got a few of those parking spaces back. But the city now bans nearby on-street parking after 10 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays so that police patrols won’t be obstructed by parked cars. Gerry’s pleas to move the prohibition back to 11 p.m. or midnight have fallen on deaf ears.
The problem with his Ping anecdote is far more clear-cut. The O‘s own reporting this fall broke the news that it would reopen as a commissary for Lardo, also co-owned by Huffman’s son. Ping didn’t close because of a homeless rest area. It’s owners had been soul-searching about their future since before R2DToo arrived, when chef Andy Ricker bolted to promote his own empire. The place closed to remodel and rebrand, except that rebranding never happened. And yet it will still live on. Huffman, as a self-described investor, should know that history better.
Huffman does offers this caveat to his points.
Can he prove it? Probably not, but there’s plenty of anecdotal evidence from former customers and the balance sheets of both restaurants don’t lie.
Once again, he’s right about something. Balance sheets don’t lie. Or fudge facts. Or twist details.
Instead, that kind of work is left to an op-ed writer.
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.)