Downtown Portland businesses: "The city has let us down"


Business operators in downtown Portland are tired of the riots, the graffiti, and the tent camps. They have formed something called the Rose City Downtown Collective, which will work on these problems and spur the local politicians on to get off their duffs and do something about them.

Here's a story about the formation of the new organization. There's a polite open letter, but also some less sunny comments from a couple of the real estate types that used to own the City Council.

“You already had businesses who were on their last legs because of COVID, then all they had to their names was their inventory. Then that was taken from them,” [Moyer heiress Vanessa] Sturgeon said. “The expense of replacing their windows is just the final blow for these small businesses.”

The collective is a wide variety of businesses and individuals ranging from hair stylists to restauranteurs to folks at business firms to candy shops — all calling on City Hall to do more.

“We need these small businesses to have safety for their clientele,” Sturgeon said. “We need the garbage picked up downtown, we need the homeless to have a compassionate resolution to the lifestyle that they’re now living, which is quite inhumane in tents on the streets.”

It's going to be up to the new City Council members – Carmen Rubio, Mingus Mapps, and Dan Ryan – to get the downtown moving back in the right direction. It would take guts. There would be all sorts of whining on the left. But as Chloe Eudaly and Sarah Iannarone found out, the left can take you only so far.

Meanwhile, look on the bright side. The Pioneer Courthouse Square holiday tree has made it through five nights without being destroyed.

Comments

  1. I'm really surprised that someone with standing hasn't gone to court and got a writ of mandamus to compel the city to enforce the laws that are on the books. You'd have to be blind to not see the violations. But then again, even a blind person would probably stumbled over the "campers" blocking the sidewalks!

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    Replies
    1. John: What do you think is keeping business owners from securing a write of mandamus? The downtown mess pre-dates COVID and the summer protests.

      Delete
  2. They are like sacred cows. Don't have to obey any laws.

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  3. It seems like the only people the cops go after are the protesters (occasionally) and the working poor (when somebody's dead).

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  4. That’s rich that the Timbers signed the letter as they allowed their brainwashed fans to fly their Antifa flags and they allowed their product be turned into nothing more than a social justice platform.

    I don’t know how Powell’s is going to stay in business much longer and if they go that will send shockwaves through the business community. At this point I wouldn’t even blame the Blazers leaving town for somewhere like Pittsburgh or even Louisville or Tulsa. Good luck with them getting any top-tier free agents at this point as the pull of Damien being here doesn’t mean much anymore.

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  5. That Portland Feeling.
    [Verse 1]
    We never go downtown anymore when I ask you out
    And there's no eagerness like before, now you're full of doubt
    You're trying hard not to show it (baby)
    But baby, baby I know it

    [Chorus]
    You've lost that Portland feeling
    Whoa, that Portland feeling
    You've lost that Portland feeling
    Now it's gone, gone, gone, whoa

    [Verse 2]
    There's no welcome look in your eyes when the Max train comes
    And you criticize the city council, you say that they're a bunch of bums.
    It makes me just feel like crying (baby)
    'Cause, baby, something beautiful's dying

    [Chorus]
    You've lost that Portland feeling
    Whoa, that Portland feeling
    You've lost that Portland feeling
    Now it's gone, gone, gone, whoa

    [Bridge]
    Baby, baby, I want to take you to the Christmas lights up at the zoo.
    If you would only love it here like you used to do, yeah
    We had a town, a town, a town you don't find everyday
    But you're right, oh, you're so right, they let it slip away
    Baby (baby), baby (baby)
    No more riots, please, please
    We need to move (We need to move)
    It's overdue (It's overdue)
    I know I fought it, (I've been a fool)
    it was so cool, what can you do?

    [Chorus) We've lost that Portland feeling
    Whoa, that Portland feeling
    We've lost that Portland feeling
    I don't care what went wrong
    We should be gone, gone, gone
    We've lost that Portland feeling
    Whoa, that Portland feeling
    We've lost that Portland feeling
    It should be part of our past, I guess it couldn't last,
    Rose City? Kiss my ass. Whoa, whoa, whoa.

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    Replies
    1. Upon further review: I woke up this morning and reread that. It reminded me of the famous Spinal Tap comment: "It's such a fine line between stupid and clever."

      Delete

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