Homeless Camp Growing Larger on Eastbank Esplanade
I work down by the Hawthorne Bridge on the east side of the river. Over the summer, the number of homeless people camped out by the OMSI overflow parking lot has continued to grow. I feel sympathy and compassion for the people there. I understand that there are mental health and addiction factors to consider. I have volunteered in the past to serve meals at homeless shelters.
But the area is getting more sketchy by the day. There is a ton of trash strewn around and it is starting to stink. People are disassembling three bicycles at the same time and “repairing” them. There are tents everywhere, and one has a no trespassing sign on it. I saw a homeless man yell at his girlfriend and then chase her up to the Hawthorne Bridge while she was screaming and crying. There is constant activity around the porta potties and I wouldn’t dare use one. I need to park there sometimes, and the people camping in their cars are taking up multiple spots. I was just out walking there a few hours ago and I saw someone throwing leftover food on the pavement, ostensibly for the birds?
This is common use area, and it’s getting very difficult for anyone except the people camped there to use it.
Obviously it doesn’t take much for your sympathy and compassion to dry up, chief. Try parking your car a couple blocks away and minding your own business.
Ummm…so the solution is just to let people throw trash around and commandeer scarce street parking as much as they want to instead? Or to tell people just not even to bother using the east side esplanade?
Trust me when I say it’s not as simple as just ‘parking your car a couple of blocks away’ during a typical weekday in that area - not unless you want to run afoul of the parking police & score yet another ticket, that is. (All of the parking in that area is either 1 hour, 2 hour, or 2 hour unless you have a zone pass - and most of the zone pass spaces are down closer to the river.)
“Try parking your car a couple blocks away and minding your own business.”
Uhh, right…
I hear you, Motor. I commute on my bicycle everyday through that area, and that use of it — unregulated homeless hangout — is definitely edging out other uses.
Don’t let PG get to you. See his blog to know where he’s coming from. His view of the homeless is as a Jesus wrapped up in rags that each one of us is oppressing by not letting them poop, pee, throw trash, do drugs, swear, and sleep where ever they please.
There is more the city government and each of us can do to help the vulnerable residents of our city. Portland Gentrification’s blog has valid points about the over consumption and abuse of resources and land by extremely rich developers.
My comments relate to the over consumption and abuse of one of our shared spaces that we all cherish and want to keep pleasant, safe, and clean. I have worked in the area since 1999, and have been watching the esplanade go downhill lately.
These strike me as audacious activities in a public park: No trespassing signs, ramshackle dwellings, perma-parking, human waste, needles, littering, domestic violence, and chop shop bike mechanics. Last summer, a homeless man who was off his meds threatened and nearly assaulted me as I sat on the benches that overlook the water. I called 911 and the operator did not seem interested since the person had not actually hit me.
Compassion for the homeless is a very important subject. Trying to preserve the beauty and tranquility of this public resource that we all pay taxes to maintain is important as well.
Thanks Motor for clarifying. I believe your original post privileges a sense of distaste for an already increasingly demonized group - the homeless and fucked-up. The idea that they are somehow abusing our (privileged people’s) tax money too - really, can we leave that to the Lars Larson crowd?
Your complaint seeks a foundation on the idea that those people aren’t “sharing” this space with you - but which would make you happier, continuing to share it with them, or seeing them go somewhere else altogether? Do you really like the idea of siding with the Haves vs the Have-Nots this way?
PG
Thank you for your comments. There has always been a tent or two down there. It was easier to share the space with fewer campers. I’m going to guess that there are 15 tents down there now. They started popping up earlier this year. They line two streets. You can no longer walk on the sidewalk, and you cannot use several of the benches because they are always occupied. It’s an issue of density more than anything else.
@Portland Gentrification -
You wrote, “Your complaint seeks a foundation on the idea that those people aren’t “sharing” this space with you…”
but then you move off into another area. Let’s stay here. This space isn’t being shared. It’s no longer a good place to take kids through. Nor a place I’d recommend female friends of mine to ride through at night. Although it used to be.
Let’s stay focussed on *the use* of the space, not *who’s* using it. Then, we avoid discriminating unfairly.
@Portland Gentrification - I’ve been homeless for 10 years. I’ve used that status to save $100,000. That makes me a have/have not. I avoid the homeless parked around me. Not because they don’t have…but because I’m afraid of them.