North Park Blocks PDX

Category: Commentary

  • Cities: Contradictions of Capitalism

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    Excerpt from: Naked Cities: The Death and Life of Urban America By Adam Gopnik  The New Yorker Oct 5, 2015 Cities can’t win. When they do well, people resent them as citadels of inequality; when they do badly, they are cesspools of hopelessness. In the seventies and eighties, the seemingly permanent urban crisis became the verdict…

  • Old Town Chinatown Advocates Speak Out

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    Two brief public comments – Portland City Council – Oct 7, 2015 Click images to play video segments.  Charles Mattouk – Owner of Charlie’s Deli 22NW 4th St. … Because of sidewalk campers, there’s no access or egress to parking spots or bicycle spots. Personal property completely fills the sidewalks and forces people to walk in…

  • Oregonian OpEd: “Emergency” Response to Old News

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    By William Russell – Executive Director of Union Gospel Mission  reposted from Oregonian 9/24/15 On Sept. 23, Mayor Charlie Hales declared a “homeless state of emergency,” with plans to aggressively combat homelessness in Portland. The announcement felt surreal, as if someone were announcing in 2015 that President Obama had won the 2012 election, or reading a…

  • Oregonian: Neighbors Organize to Halt Park Chaos

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    A big thank you to the Oregonian Editorial Board for the thoughtful essay on how the North Park Blocks organized in response to months of illegal and menacing activity in the park. Read the full editorial here (and be sure to continue on to the comments). Frustrated neighbors, park-area businesses, PNCA and Emerson School officials banded…

  • Eugene: Outside Travelers Controlling Our Public Spaces

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    “Lots of options, but no easy answers for downtown Eugene homeless, transient population” from The Register-Guard ~  Eugene Sept 13, 2015 With a single email sent the Thursday before last, Eugene Mayor Kitty Piercy reignited an old but evergreen debate in our city: Should people be bothered by downtown’s ubiquitous homeless and transient population and,…