Open and shut case

I could hardly believe my eyes when I read that Portland and Multnomah County are actually shutting down homeless shelters. Wait, is the problem solved?

When we voted for Keith Wilson for mayor, he assured us that he would (1) create thousands of new shelter beds and (2) either coax or force the street people onto them. Apparently he got the first part done, more or less, but neither he nor anyone around him really had the guts or the smarts to do the second part. And so taking the shelters apart may not effect any more of a change in the street crisis than opening them did.

It's not clear whether we're going to try something else, or just give up. Meanwhile, Juan and the Metro crew continue to collect the "homeless tax" from the upper middle class and wealthy who haven't packed up and left the state. That tax has racked up more than $1.4 billion dollars, with a "b." Where did it all go?

I'm ready to give up on Wilson. He may have been better than the wingnuts he ran against, but he's not up to the tasks at hand. Portland continues to drift, and not toward improvement.