Comments

1

tt's amazing how much time, money, and resources is spent on moving the homeless away from places, instead of actually using any time, money, or resources to, you know, help people no longer be homeless. Our society is so fucked up.

2

I know this 7/11 well. I've been going there for over 7 years. The owner is a wonderfully compassionate man and I don't know how he's tolerated the homeless there all these years. They are intolerable shitheads because they know he's a pushover. Not only do they annoy his customers but they leave a message every day. Portland needs to do a better job in supporting small businesses.

3

I’m not saying this is right or the manager should go without consequence. But, I can only imagine that some higher up in California is giving the manager/owner shit for the amount of homeless people outside the store, how they’re deterring business, and that they need to do whatever it takes to get rid of them.
I imagine this is more of a corporate issue than the owner/manager getting fed up.

4

Seems reasonable to me, as someone who helped run a store in Downtown Portland for several years anything that keeps the homeless from congregating outside your establishment is a win.A win for the business owner who is barraged with a daily attack by these people, urinating in your doorways, squatting and passing out in front of your store, harassing and annoying your paying customers for money non -stop, not to mention stealing something every second you turn your back.
Bothering the owners of this establishment due to this is simply another attack by the City of Portland and the left on those of us who actually PAY TAXES for the public services all you bleeding heart liberals" Homeless Advocates" want us to provide them for free. At the end of the day it is easy for some pathetic blowhard liberal who bitches and moans to complain away, and then go home to the suburbs where they live. They don't have their future, and that of their family's and in even the case of the smallest stores upward of a half a million dollars investment to try to protect. They have no horse in the race, but they bitch the loudest.
We got the hell out of downtown, like a long list of other business owners and operators have for this very reason.. Portland and it's city leaders are not willing to help business owners, they prefer to cater and pander to the leftist loons and the imbecilic nonsense spouted by them incessantly. You want to see Portland's future, look to Detroit. When your tax base is scared away, business run screaming for the exits and your left with a crime ridden wasteland without the means to provide public services as meager as stop lights even you discover you can't actually run a city when the majority of it's citizens are on WELFARE.

5

That corner is annoying. Most of the "homeless" people who congregate their are dirt kids fucked up on shit drugs. They've rejected civil society by choice. I don't know what the compassionate answer is to deal with the houseless population that is growing in Portland, but it's really out of hand at this point. I did notice the high-pitched noise when I went to get a bag of pretzels two days ago. It seems effective. I kinda miss the classical music though.

6

Don't lump me with people like that rennis2013 dickhead though. He sounds like an asshole.

7

It's reasonable if you have ever been near or inside this 7-11, and been subject to harassment, intimidation, needles and feces on the sidewalk, and all of the other effects of allowing drug addicts (not all homeless, Alex, we're talking about a small subset of homeless who are aggressive drug addicts) to congregate here.

It's endlessly annoying that the Mercury writers continue to pretend that what the public has a problem with is "the homeless" when it's really a problem with the much smaller group of individuals who are dangerous to everyone, including the non-aggressive homeless who are also frequently victims of attacks.

9

That guy used o profile me and treat me like dirt – and I was one of the productive homeless with no record or habits, which means by popular logic I was not considered one of the homeless we base our perception on – or that he bases his strategy on.

Welcome to America pal – you want to continue to have the right to do business then accept the environment you CHOSE to do business in and apply for a “pedestrian use only- keep moving” sign like every other LEGAL operation downtown.

And to the idiots who wine about “my taxes” – you apparently have overlooked that it is only the government which places your property rights over human rights of habitation to uphold your foolish notion that you ‘earned’ land itself. Were they go outside of the city and create their own community it is the governmental land use and property rights policies that would rope them back into coastal cities – the only place left to survive. Be GRATEFUL your taxes have upheld what is impossible to justify (that you ‘earned’ land) and saved you from having to fight over it. Be GRATEFUL that you need to do little more than participate in an economy of cooperativity (not merit) to lay claim to all of this. Be GRATEFUL your taxes have gone so far as to secure you a home and a right to own a business. And when it comes to property that you do not own – even if it adjacent to that which you do but which you unwittingly chose to set up next to….. apply for a sign, go back to the middle east where you can cut their hands off and play all the annoying sh** you want, or SHUT THE F*** UP.

10

Edit the headline! The shrill noise will not deter homelessness; only affordable housing (and sometimes supportive mental health care) will deter homelessness. Also, please stop using the phrase "the homeless"? This group of people are as widely varied as "the religious" or "the dog owners." Obviously, this area of Portland suffers from obnoxious street pests, not all of whom are homeless but all of whom lack the ability of going about their business in a peaceful way. Use generalizations constructively -- judge the book by its contents, not its cover.

11

Oops -- "group is varied"

12

Alex, I would like you to contact the Pearl District Neighborhood Association for comment. Ask how commonly it is for their residents to express:

1.) building construction making outrageous levels of noise without a variance or deviating outside of variance.

2.) Noise produced by transient and vagrant population, including street performance without a proper noise variance.

3.) Criminal and nuisance conducts perpetrated by the transient and vagrant population.

4.) The non-existent enforcement against the above three issues.

State environmental regulations prohibit open burning due to their harmful health effects through polluting the air which we all breath. Recreational fires are not allowed were fires are deemed inappropriate which means all ODOT and Parks & Recreational property are off limits.
Transients and vagrants disregard public health routinely and expose members of community to harmful combustion products while the offending people are not held liable.

It's common all over the city for many sidewalks and park facilities to unnecessarily fall short of the federal minimum accessibility standards due to tent camps and transient and vagrant activity.

Portland businesses saw a 31% hike in per ton trash rate from $9.60 to $12.60 to cover the cost of dealing with transient and vagrant related clean-up.

City suddenly expresses intention to enforcing noise code following supposed noise complaints without specifically stating if these complaints originated from transients, vagrants or their advocacy lobbying organizations.

It looks clear to me that it is the monied homeless industrial complex non-profits and advocacy lobbying groups with politicians in their pocket resisting transient abatement efforts, not noise.

13

timistheword,

well, since Alex cited Oregon law on noise, it's only leveling the field to mention the law the said dirty kids are breaking:

ORS 475.854
Unlawful possession of heroin
(1)
It is unlawful for any person knowingly or intentionally to possess heroin.

ORS 475.894 Unlawful possession of methamphetamine

(1) It is unlawful for any person knowingly or intentionally to possess methamphetamine unless the substance was obtained directly from, or pursuant to, a valid prescription or order of a practitioner while acting in the course of professional practice, or except as otherwise authorized by ORS 475.005 (Definitions for ORS 475.005 to 475.285 and 475.752 to 475.980) to 475.285 (Short title) and 475.752 (Prohibited acts generally) to 475.980 (Affirmative defense to ORS 475.969, 475.971, 475.975 (1) and 475.976 (1)).


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