Campers on the sidewalk in front of City Hall this morning say they wanted to be there when Mayor Charlie Hales arrived at work.
Even after overnight rains soaked the city, a half-dozen or so dedicated protesters stuck around Monday morning to make sure their “stop sweeping humans” message reached city employees’ eyes and ears as they arrived.
Protesters want the Portland Police Bureau to end its most intense homeless sweep in years, which the bureau began after saying it received multiple citizen complaints of “entrenched” camps.
“People are still getting all their belongings—everything they own—taken from them when police come through,” says protester Steven Entwisle. “When they come through with sweeps, they’re sweeping people to nowhere, and that can be devastating to people already on the streets.”
Protesters began showing up to camp on the concrete in front of City Hall yesterday evening, and Entwisle says the group was about 25 strong at one point. He says several people plan on continuing the protest today.
This just in, homed Portlander’s want the addicts living down by the river to quit stealing bikes, getting drunk and screaming profanity, and pissing all over the place making downtown smell like urine. Oh and while you are at it stop throwing garbage all over our parks, there are trash cans there for a reason, you don’t have anywhere else to be, walk over and put your trash in the receptacle.
This just in. Only addicts get drunk, scream profanity, publicly urinate, and litter.
OH THIS LOOKS LIKE FUN!
This just in: I am a little disappointed by the lack of awareness for homeless space monsters.
Oh please.
Their time would be better spent looking for work.
This just in…Portland Mayor and City Council allow developers to run amok, displace tenants, demolish perfectly livable homes to build unaffordable ugly housing and increase numbers of homeless people.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BXxxfc4aYc
This just in….Portland is growing up and is no longer the ex-sleepy logging / timber town it was in the 90’s. The vocal minority fails to accept this growth as a positive, and is rapidly turning into crotchety old timers who piss, moan and long for the “good old days” while bitching at those darned hipsters (i.e. all 20 somethings) and them evil “Californians” (i.e. anyone they deem to not be a “native”).
Luckily all is not lost…not too far away from the close-in neighborhoods that this group thinks should never grow, there remains several great, affordable neighborhoods that are free of newer apartment buildings and evil outsiders. It is yet to be seen whether they have any plans to attempt to migrate there en masse and establish their personal utopia where nothing ever grows or changes. If they are able to set up such a colony and block out all outsiders and growth, experts believe they could create a suburb that rivals the cost of living, infrastructure and livability of inner Detroit.
More to come at 6:00
This just in: Gordon’s video link is actually really goddamn beautiful.
This Just In: This thread is about the displacement of homeless people, not some lame opinion of what somebody thinks Portland was or is becoming.
@suzanne this just in, infill development is not the reason heroin addicts are living on the street. This idea that we are all just one more skinny house from sleeping in a cardboard box is ridiculous. The people supporting themselves with bike theft and begging while destroying the usability of places like the Eastside Esplanade and Springwater Corridor are not homeless because there are apartments on Division.