City Commissioner Randy Leonard has launched a public attack
on the Portland Business Alliance (PBA) and Mayor Tom Potter over their
controversial sit-lie ordinance. Last week, Leonard accused the
business lobby and the mayor of being “disingenuous” in their efforts
to get council to sign off on enforcement of the law by opening a
24-hour restroom at city hall.
The sit-lie law is the outcome of the mayor’s Street Access for
Everyone (SAFE) committee, which last December promised city council
more benches, restrooms, and a day-access center for downtown’s
homeless, in exchange for making it illegal to sit or lie on the
sidewalk during the day.
But Leonard thinks the PBA—which is widely regarded as the
driving force behind the law—and the mayor’s office, are
overeager to see it enforced before the attendant compromises are in
place. Moreover, Leonard seems to have lost patience with what he sees
as their attempts to score political revenge with him over the
issue—by opening up a restroom at city hall, for
example—rather than truly address the needs of downtown’s
homeless.
“The mayor’s office and the PBA are playing ‘gotcha’ with me,”
Leonard told the Mercury last Thursday, August 9. “And one
should avoid getting into a wrestling match with a pig, because you’re
going to get dirty and the pig likes it.”
Leonard last opposed enforcement of the law in council on June 13,
and secured two more votes to delay enforcement until showers at a
day-access center, lockers, benches, and a 24-hour bathroom were fully
implemented.
The other services—the day center, lockers, and
benches—were just getting off the ground in June and are now all
in place, but a 24-hour restroom presented a higher hurdle for the SAFE
committee. As a solution, the PBA’s vice president of downtown
services, Mike Kuykendall, raised the idea of opening city hall’s
restrooms at a meeting on June 21—not long after Leonard
originally raised his objections.
“I think everybody needs to be stepping up to the plate and doing
their part,” Kuykendall said. “This group agrees city hall is the best
location for the restroom, since it’s inside, and it’s warm, and
secure.”
As a result, city hall’s restrooms were opened to the public
overnight, for a six-month trial period, starting August 2. But Leonard
thinks opening city hall’s restrooms is a political copout for the
committee, because the homeless do not tend to congregate anywhere near
city hall, at SW 4th and Madison.
“Attempting to open city hall’s restrooms is a disingenuous attempt
to comply with city council’s direction, because there is nobody down
here within blocks at night,” says Leonard. “The homeless are in Old
Town, and in Pioneer Courthouse Square. So my suggestion to the mayor
was, if you want to avoid a conflict, open the restrooms at Pioneer
Courthouse Square or at NW 1st and Davis.” Otherwise, Leonard has told
Mayor Potter he’ll oppose enforcement of the law again, at a vote
slated for Wednesday, August 15.
Leonard is gearing up for a fight—and with fellow Commissioner
Erik Sten out of town on vacation this week, it will be up to him and
the mayor to pig-wrestle over the deciding vote of Commissioner Sam
Adams, who voted with Leonard against enforcing the ordinance last time
around.
“The best place for a 24-hour restroom is in the central core of
downtown,” says Adams, who says he is still deciding which way to vote.
“But I think the 24-hour restroom here at city hall will suffice for
now.”
“The [SAFE] Oversight Committee had no intent to be
disingenuous or to disregard Council’s direction,” said its co-chairs,
Kuykendall and Monica Goracke of the Oregon Law Center, in a statement
to the Mercury on Tuesday.