THE BEATIFIC LOOK on Mayor Charlie Hales’ face was the tell.
Portland City Council was more than two hours into an often-strident hearing on the fate of homeless rest area Right 2 Dream Too (R2DToo) last Thursday, October 3. And Hales—a pointedly silent co-conspirator in Commissioner Amanda Fritz’s plan to move the rest area into a little-trafficked rump of the Pearl District—had found a way to escape the firing squad of enraged neighbors and their powerful allies.
Homer Williams, godfather of the Pearl and an investor in a nearby hotel, had just finished speaking to the council. His words followed a parade of histrionic comments from fearful senior citizens—and some harsh hand-wringing from landowners and lawyers, including Williams’ partner Dike Dame, over lost value.
In contrast, Williams’ comments seemed eminently reasonable.
“Let’s take 30 days,” he said, “and really look at this… if we need to meet every day we will. We’re willing to commit resources from our businesses.”
Hales looked serene. He nodded. “Thank you,” he earnestly replied—maybe remembering the thousands of dollars Dame and Williams had given his campaign last year.
And hours later, when it came time to vote, anyone paying attention knew what Hales would say: Williams’ offer was too good to pass up. A vote would wait until next Wednesday, October 16.
Somehow, Hales managed to walk out looking like a peacemaking statesman who reined in the urges of a colleague, Fritz, who’d been determined to see things through no matter what.
Of course, there’s more to the story than that. The mayor was trying to douse his own fire.
Hales, despite giving Fritz public credit for leading the relocation push, had been the first to raise the idea of moving R2DToo from NW 4th and Burnside. And if he and his chief of staff had their way, that move would have happened long before this month.
They wanted R2DToo out well before the Lee Family Association—a powerful group with deep ties to Portland’s Chinatown—had its annual gathering in the city this summer.
It fell to Fritz, however, to find a new home and settle a lawsuit filed by R2DToo and its landlords in 2012. The spot she eventually found, beneath a Broadway Bridge ramp, was the fourth considered. And once everyone realized that spot, technically, was in the Pearl, it also fell to Fritz to take the barbs from outraged neighbors.
It also fell to others to reach out to Williams. Foes met with Commissioner Nick Fish after struggling to get time with Hales. That may be where the seed of Williams’ conciliatory offer was planted.
Fritz held long meetings with R2DToo in the hours after the hearing. Emails obtained by the Mercury show Williams and Ibrahim Mubarak, R2DToo’s leader, making plans to huddle.
Hales, however, was out of town until this week, the Oregonian reported.
But it’s unclear whether a deal might emerge. Williams told me he’s impressed with R2DToo but that solutions need to involve “roofs, real roofs.” That may not fly with the rest area, whose members see tents as a cheap, no-bullshit way to help dozens of people otherwise unhelped each night.
Hales has called R2DToo “unique” and “special.” Will he have their backs in talks with Williams? Or will he keep letting others take the lead?
Honestly, what we’re doing with the homeless right now isn’t working, and it would just be too damn expensive to send them off to colonize Mars. So, why not give it a shot? If homeless camps can be sanitary, effectively police themselves, and not besmirch the fragile aesthetics of the Epcot Center north of Chinatown … well, it would set a precedent and provide a working model for the future.
Funny how intolerant and exclusive this supposedly tolerant and inclusive city really is.
The so-called, “Homeless” picked that spot where they are. They will continue to come and go as they please. Politicians are so self absorbed in their own self imagined omnipotence, that they have deluded themselves into believing that they are empowered to regulate non conformists. This is just another boondoggle. The money spent will benefit corporate special interests, such as construction companies, private social service agencies, and real estate management firms, but the scapegoats won’t get a fucking thing out of this horseshit, except further harassment.
It’s really not as if the people who sleep under the crumbling, Burnside Bridge, are in any way affiliated with any corporate entity. None of them have signed any power of attorney or voted for anyone to represent their interests. They aren’t like the tribe of Multnomah Indians who originally, had all this land to themselves, only to be rounded up and shipped off to the swamps and thickets, clear down by the Coast.
The City Council and neighborhood groups can make all the crooked deals they want, and the people who have been sleeping under the bridge, will continue to do so. I don’t think that the precious Pearl has anything to worry about. If anybody intended to sleep under the dilapidated, Broadway Bridge, they would already be so doing.
Isn’t City Hall vacant at night? It’s close to where the protestors like to stay. Why not open it up and let them sleep there?
Interesting read in the paper today, ‘Dignity’ village has over 60 residents, over half of whom have lived there over 2 years, some 3 and 4 years.
This supposedly transitional place has been anything but, for the most part.
Turning into a nice rent-free community.
And this bum Mubarak wants to make another?
Professional Homelessness can never be solved.
When is the last time you filled out a resume for anyplace Mubarak?
Portland business owners had a most effective solution until it got outlawed; drip lines.