Portland nightlife: A lot of bullets are involved
You may have read about the latest downtown Portland shooting, the other night: right outside the toney Nines Hotel and the Pioneer Courthouse, the state's most prominent historic building. At 9:30 on a weeknight.
At last report, the man who was hit was in the hospital with serious but not life-threatening injuries. The police arrested the guy they think did it.
Hector Hernandez-Rios is accused of firing a single shot at the other man after he accused Hernandez-Rios of taking his phone and allegedly followed Hernandez-Rios while fiddling with a knife on his belt, according to a probable cause affidavit.
Hernandez-Rios told police he was afraid the man would attack him, so he shot him with a gun he bought on the streets a few days earlier.
Not mentioned much is the fact that while the shooting went down, there was an outdoor concert going on one block away, at Pioneer Courthouse Square. Or maybe it had just let out. The Flaming Lips. Fortunately, no concertgoers appear to have been victimized.
They're luckier than the 19-year-old woman who had the misfortune of being in Old Town when the bars closed a couple of Saturday nights ago. Her family says she was caught in a crossfire. Whether that is the case or not doesn't seem to matter much. She was shot and did not survive.
Couch and Broadway. The Portland "entertainment district." You want to be out of there by 10:30 at the latest. Or maybe don't go at all. When the bullets fly, you'll wish you had stayed away.
Among many issues, I wonder what sanctuary city status contributed to this. From the SF Chronicle on drug dealers in the city. https://www.sfchronicle.com/projects/2023/san-francisco-drug-trade-honduras/
ReplyDeleteIt's really cool how we immediately go there.
DeletePortland has always acquired a lot of spectators. Used to be flattering.
DeleteI recall about 4 weeks ago The Oregonian explained how Honduran gangs know downtown patrols is only day shift, and the police shift change happens at 6pm, so they take over downtown at 6:30pm, knowing they won't be harassed.
DeleteThe wife wanted to take me out for Dinner at Hubers for my 70th Birthday next week but I'll pass I want to make it to 71.
ReplyDeleteI have good memories of Hubers, the “Oyster Bar” and a couple of Chinese restaurants in old town. It’s sad that the area around those places has turned to sh-t.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteAfter 22 years, Portland Fashion Week moves to Wilsonville.
https://www.wilsonvillespokesman.com/multimedia/fashion-empowers-us-portland-fashion-week-moves-to-wilsonville/article_02e09646-4056-11ee-9e7a-b3f321adb72a.html
“No matter how gorgeous The Nines, and no matter how safe once inside, I believed that our crew and our patrons’ property and safety could not be guaranteed anywhere in the city,” Foulk said in a letter to the city of Portland explaining the decision. “As I would now not bring my daughter, my grand baby nor my 87 year old mother anywhere near our event due to the aforementioned conditions, I felt that neither could I conscionably subject anyone else as well.”