A post about nothing


A couple of readers have sent me tips about last week's revelation that Portland's mayor, Dud Wheeler, is apparently going to propose establishing some 500-person homeless camps, and forcing tent dwellers off the sidewalks and into them. Thanks, readers, but it wasn't news to me. I haven't written about it because it's all so unrealistic. 

We've been through trial balloons like this before – Creepy Sam Adams launched one in February on behalf of the Dud – and they have gone nowhere. In particular, Deadly Deborah Kafoury, currently the Multnomah County chair, isn't going to cooperate, and I believe she's got a lock on a lot of the money that would be needed. She wants that money to build nice little apartments for addicts to shoot up in, rent-free and consequence-free.

No matter whose politics you may agree or disagree with, it should be pretty obvious that the city and the county need to be merged, like the big boys do it in L.A. and San Francisco. That's the charter change that might actually get something done about the humanitarian crisis on the Portland streets. Not everything, but at least something. Maybe you could get rid of the needless Metro layer of government, too, as part of the deal.

Meanwhile, news of Wheeler's new/old plan has the kids at the Merc and the Weed screaming "concentration camps" again. And the self-appointed social justice warriors are hissing, too. God forbid we should have a criminal justice system.

Besides, where would the camps be located? You're talking months of dithering about that. They can't even site a tiny-house campus for a couple of dozen people wthout months or even years of yammering.

But the biggest problem with the proposal is that you would need cops, lots of cops, to force the squatters into the camps, and right now Portland doesn't have a functioning police force. Hasn't for a year or two. Unless someone has been shot, they're not interested. 

And so forgive me if I don't get too deeply into this story. Because nothing like what Wheeler is reportedly proposing is going to happen without radical change in leadership.

Why is the mayor doing this now? Is it supposed to affect people's votes in the elections that start this week? I have no idea. I do know, though, that the end of Dud's current term is only two years away. And then, with any luck, he will take his money to a much safer place, and we will say goodbye to him.

Comments

  1. Mayor Ted’s political adventure is worth remembering……first he was appointed state treasurer after tossing some family money around the ruling party. His plan was to then run for Governor but Dr. Kitzhaber got super duper bored and wrecked the Dem succession plan by grabbing back Mahonia Hall. Of course the hundreds of career party wannabes hated him for jumping back to the front of the line so they ran him out of Salem cause his cute girlfriend did a no no. Talented Kate then fell into office branded as the country’s first bisexual Governor and Ted had to find something to do for 8 years……..no doubt deciding to slum at city hall was the worst decision possible, wrecking his marriage while exposing his near total lack of leadership skills. All because Kitz got bored…..

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  2. Although the "big boys" in the City and County of San Francisco have merged, Los Angeles county has 87 other incorporated cities in addition to Los Angeles itself.

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    1. And, although dispensing with Portland and Multnomah county does not deal with the real problem of three counties and dog knows how many other municipalities and special districts are included, the Metro boundaries are a better approximation of the real beast than Porltand/Multnomah. Metro should have replaced a couple of layers, but instead just inserted another, largely useless and dysfunctional, layer instead. It ain't never gonna happen. Rational delivery of governance is not in the warp and weft of Oregon politics. If it came about, I suspect that we would resent it and plot its eventual downfall.

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    2. "Although the 'big boys' in the City and County of San Francisco have merged, Los Angeles county has 87 other incorporated cities in addition to Los Angeles itself." Yes, but when the big city needs something, it doesn't have to go begging to a separate set of bobbleheads at the county level.

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    3. The City and County of San Francisco merged in 1856...before Oregon was a State. I believe they had to get a special dispensation from the CA State Legislature to do it.

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  3. Why is no one else talking about a merger? It's so obvious that it's needed. And why no talk about a hybrid council with both district and at-large representation?

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    1. Why is no one else talking about a quick, simple, way to make a huge dent in our homeless problem, by allowing citizens to freely choose to live in what we now forbid as "unhabitable" housing"? Repealing ORTLA's prohibition on waiver of any "rights" granted under our 49 year old "tenant protection" act, would enable citizens to make their own deals for housing that now is not available to the homeless, because it doesn't meet minimum "habitability" standards. Better a leaky roof than no roof at all. Better doors and windows without "working locks", than none at all in a tent. "We have met the enemy and he is us", and no one is even talking about this as a major step towards restoring the Oregon we once knew and cherished.

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    2. Alu Toloa- I would imagine there would be a lot of liability issues.

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  4. Liability issues would be no different than from 1859-1973, when, only what is now ORS Chapter 91, governed both residential and commercial tenancies, without distinction. Liability issues would be no different than in Wyoming or other states without the 111 pages of densely written text that ORTLA currently imposes on residential tenancies. The rental agreement could easily incorporate a clause such as:
    "In consideration for Resident electing to opt out of the application of ORS Chapter 90 to this tenancy in return for a lower rent than would otherwise be possible, the parties understand and agree that in the event either has a claim against the other, jurisdiction and venue shall be in the Circuit Court of the county in which the subject real property is located. Oregon law, with the exception of ORTLA, shall apply."

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