Another awful, awful week in the Rose City. A 20-year-old woman went to an underage dance club downtown Friday night. She never made it home, and they found her body floating in the Willamette River under the Broadway Bridge on Monday.
We pride ourselves on being such a livable city. But let's face it, we flunk badly on the basics. Our police department isn't very good. No reflection on the men and women who work there, necessarily -- it's just that the operation's run by someone I wouldn't trust to take my cat to the vet. Poorly managed, and woefully under-budgeted. Under the thin veneer of the Katz Theme Park, downtown is a dangerous place, full of thugs, guns, and drugs. I don't even like to go down there in the daytime any more.
Our police stations close at 6:00 at night. After that, and all weekend long, the cops drive around like lone rangers in their boxy Ford sedans with the exploding fuel tanks, their defective Glocks, and their little computer screens. No support staff, no "house." Until 8 or 9 Monday morning.
I guess when it's time to blacken the circle for mayor, I'll have to vote for Tom Potter. His campaign "platform" is full of stale, empty platitudes, but I know he'd do a better job with the police bureau than the current mayor. She's too busy building streetcars and trams to worry about why we're burying the young girls who dare to walk on the streets of Portland, Oregon by themselves.
When they pull the 20-year-olds out of the river, you might expect to see an emergency press conference vowing some sort of action. Not from this mayor. Sound asleep in her designer sheets, dreaming of the next lovely thing she can say about urban renewal districts and gay rights.
Anyone could do better with the police bureau. Extremo the Clown is starting to look like a good alternative.
Comments (17)
PDX is a very provincial town - in the sense of being small and clueless. The town keeps a stiff upper lip when things hit the fan, but don't do anything meaningful to fix the problems when they appear.
Bad things like girl turning up dead is only going to increase. Sadly, we need to get used to it.
I think you go a little overboard here. There are certainly troubles with the police department, especially (in my view) under the command of Chief Kroeker. They are definitely having some community interrelation issues. But I think you do us a disservice by suggesting the city is an unsafe cesspit of crime, when that's really not the case. Portland's crime rate is very comparable to other cities of its size and makeup, and--like everywhere--has dropped over the last decade, in some areas signficantly (property crimes off 21% in 10 years; personal crimes down 53%). I'm sorry you don't feel safe even during the day; you are in a minority that is as small as 3% of the population, depending on where you live.
The City is working hard to create outcome-based reporting for what goes on in Portland. Do you know about the Service Efforts and Accomplishments annual report? It's a good read.
I'm no cop apologist, and I see the problems. But I've lived other places, and comparatively speaking Portland is a very safe, very well run city.
(PS--It may seem in comments like I'm starting to pick on you, Jack. I don't mean to be so uniformly contrary; you've just picked a couple of issues I feel strongly about lately).
Not much has been said about the situation so who knows what happened. Even the best cops in the world can't stop every murder. I think I need to hear a bit more about the circumstances in this particular situation before I can make the judgements you have. That's just me.
Downtown Portland dangerous? That is going overboard. While the Portland police has had a lot of problems, there are hardly any neighborhoods, especially not downtown, that I would be afraid to walk around in, even at night. I have lived in several other cities where things were much, much, much worse.
I don't think you can blame Vera for bad behavior/management of the police. It was Kroeker.
Downtown does not feel dangerous to me at all. There are some sketchy folk, but it seems safer than anywhere else I've lived, and the next largest city was only 60k.
I have to figure that, relatively speaking, Portland must be a pretty safe place. I cannot imagine what would happen if the Police Departments in Newark were to close at 6 o'clock.
Have you lived anywhere else? Do you really think Portland is dangerous downtown during the day? Do you expect the mayor to be patrolling underage dance clubs on Friday nights? Have you gotten a distemper shot lately?
Overall, very few stranger-related murders occur here in Portland. That makes me feel safer. Now, if I could just do something about those shifty friends of mine....
I'm no fan of Vera's (just let loose a bit on Pablo's site about this very issue), but I think the jury is still out here as to exactly what happened with this young girl.
She apparently left the bar without her coat, her purse, and without telling even one friend that she was heading out for a bit. Was that a smart move on her part? Um, no. Are we presuming that she left the bar against her free will? Not that I've heard.
Does that mean she should have been killed? Of course not. But we don't know what did happen yet, or who, if anyone, might be to blame.
You have an extraordinarily high degree of idealism when it comes to police performance in my opinion, Jack. I like idealism, so I agree with you that the police department needs work. But as both a Portland native and someone who has spent a long time away, I've gotta say the amount of bitching Portlanders do about their city and city government is CRAZY. The big government scandal is a bad water software system and 3 housing inspectors ripping people off. This city runs as much like a Swiss timepiece as any I've been to in the US, and better than a few I've been to in Europe. Even Swiss watches break now and again.
The stuff you're linking to is definitely disturbing. But asking the police to snuff out the criminal mind is asking a lot.
Look on the bright side--at least we know cops aren't sitting around the station on weekends!
Which will change in two months. It seems pointless to rant about something (Vera) in which there is no possibility for change (she is not running again) and without any attempt at learning from the past (what do you want in the next mayor that you did not have in Vera?).
I think it is more than just not having their priorities straight, I think they never really thought far enough ahead to have priorities. No planning or true business-style management to speak of. I think she did some good things but overall was a failure. I also agree the police dept. isn't run very well, but they are under funded and are up against a bad economy which often drives crime rates up. If we could refrain from policing the entire world, we might make a dent in these problems.
Okay, I'll play. I want (from the next mayor) someone who is satisfied with grappling with the nuts n' bolts issues of running the city. This would be instead of spending most of her time (and huge amounts of treasure provided by, among others, _me_) on playing "Sim City" and building expensive moneypits (I mean, showpieces) she can brag about to her peers at mayoral barbeques.
» Drifting through the ether from karmaville
A short list of things I meant to post on but didn't. A rebuttal to Jack's 'Portland is dangerous' post. A proposal on the issue of marriage. A dream in which I died. The hell of methotrexate withdrawl. The beauty [Read More]
Lange, Pinot Gris 2015
Kiona, Lemberger 2014
Willamette Valley, Pinot Gris 2015
Aix, Rosé de Provence 2016
Marchigüe, Cabernet 2013
Inazío Irruzola, Getariako Txakolina Rosé 2015
Maso Canali, Pinot Grigio 2015
Campo Viejo, Rioja Reserva 2011
Kirkland, Côtes de Provence Rosé 2016
Cantele, Salice Salentino Reserva 2013
Whispering Angel, Côtes de Provence Rosé 2013
Avissi, Prosecco
Cleto Charli, Lambrusco di Sorbara Secco, Vecchia Modena
Pique Poul, Rosé 2016
Edmunds St. John, Bone-Jolly Rosé 2016
Stoller, Pinot Noir Rosé 2016
Chehalem, Inox Chardonnay 2015
The Four Graces, Pinot Gris 2015
Gascón, Colosal Red 2013
Cardwell Hill, Pinot Gris 2015
L'Ecole No. 41, Merlot 2013
Della Terra, Anonymus
Willamette Valley, Dijon Clone Chardonnay 2013
Wraith, Cabernet, Eidolon Estate 2012
Januik, Red 2015
Tomassi, Valpolicella, Rafaél, 2014
Sharecropper's Pinot Noir 2013
Helix, Pomatia Red Blend 2013
La Espera, Cabernet 2011
Campo Viejo, Rioja Reserva 2011
Villa Antinori, Toscana 2013
Locations, Spanish Red Wine
Locations, Argentinian Red Wine
La Antigua Clásico, Rioja 2011
Shatter, Grenache, Maury 2012
Argyle, Vintage Brut 2011
Abacela, Vintner's Blend #16
Abacela, Fiesta Tempranillo 2014
Benton Hill, Pinot Gris 2015
Primarius, Pinot Gris 2015
Januik, Merlot 2013
Napa Cellars, Cabernet 2013
J. Bookwalter, Protagonist 2012
LAN, Rioja Edicion Limitada 2011
Beaulieu, Cabernet, Rutherford 2009
Denada Cellars, Cabernet, Maipo Valley 2014
Marchigüe, Cabernet, Colchagua Valley 2013
Oberon, Cabernet 2014
Hedges, Red Mountain 2012
Balboa, Rose of Grenache 2015
Ontañón, Rioja Reserva 2015
Three Horse Ranch, Pinot Gris 2014
Archery Summit, Vireton Pinot Gris 2014
Nelms Road, Merlot 2013
Chateau Ste. Michelle, Pinot Gris 2014
Conn Creek, Cabernet, Napa 2012
Conn Creek, Cabernet, Napa 2013
Villa Maria, Sauvignon Blanc 2015
G3, Cabernet 2013
Chateau Smith, Cabernet, Washington State 2014
Abacela, Vintner's Blend #16
Willamette Valley, Rose of Pinot Noir, Whole Clusters 2015
Albero, Bobal Rose 2015
Ca' del Baio Barbaresco Valgrande 2012
Goodfellow, Reserve Pinot Gris, Clover 2014
Lugana, San Benedetto 2014
Wente, Cabernet, Charles Wetmore 2011
La Espera, Cabernet 2011
King Estate, Pinot Gris 2015
Adelsheim, Pinot Gris 2015
Trader Joe's, Pinot Gris, Willamette Valley 2015
La Vite Lucente, Toscana Red 2013
St. Francis, Cabernet, Sonoma 2013
Kendall-Jackson, Pinot Noir, California 2013
Beaulieu, Cabernet, Napa Valley 2013
Erath, Pinot Noir, Estate Selection 2012
Abbot's Table, Columbia Valley 2014
Intrinsic, Cabernet 2014
Oyster Bay, Pinot Noir 2010
Occhipinti, SP68 Bianco 2014
Layer Cake, Shiraz 2013
Desert Wind, Ruah 2011
WillaKenzie, Pinot Gris 2014
Abacela, Fiesta Tempranillo 2013
Des Amis, Rose 2014
Dunham, Trautina 2012
RoxyAnn, Claret 2012
Del Ri, Claret 2012
Stoppa, Emilia, Red 2004
Primarius, Pinot Noir 2013
Domaines Bunan, Bandol Rose 2015
Albero, Bobal Rose 2015
Deer Creek, Pinot Gris 2015
Beaulieu, Rutherford Cabernet 2013
Archery Summit, Vireton Pinot Gris 2014
King Estate, Pinot Gris, Backbone 2014
Oberon, Napa Cabernet 2013
Apaltagua, Envero Carmenere Gran Reserva 2013
Chateau des Arnauds, Cuvee des Capucins 2012
Nine Hats, Red 2013
Benziger, Cabernet, Sonoma 2012
Roxy Ann, Claret 2012
Januik, Merlot 2012
Conundrum, White 2013
St. Francis, Sonoma Cabernet 2012
The Occasional Book
Phil Stanford - Rose City Vice
Kenneth R. Feinberg - What is Life Worth?
Kent Haruf - Our Souls at Night
Peter Carey - True History of the Kelly Gang
Suzanne Collins - The Hunger Games
Amy Stewart - Girl Waits With Gun
Philip Roth - The Plot Against America
Norm Macdonald - Based on a True Story
Christopher Buckley - Boomsday
Ryan Holiday - The Obstacle is the Way
Ruth Sepetys - Between Shades of Gray
Richard Adams - Watership Down
Claire Vaye Watkins - Gold Fame Citrus
Markus Zusak - I am the Messenger
Anthony Doerr - All the Light We Cannot See
James Joyce - Dubliners
Cheryl Strayed - Torch
William Golding - Lord of the Flies
Saul Bellow - Mister Sammler's Planet
Phil Stanford - White House Call Girl
John Kaplan & Jon R. Waltz - The Trial of Jack Ruby
Kent Haruf - Eventide
David Halberstam - Summer of '49
Norman Mailer - The Naked and the Dead
Maria Dermoȗt - The Ten Thousand Things
William Faulkner - As I Lay Dying
Markus Zusak - The Book Thief
Christopher Buckley - Thank You for Smoking
William Shakespeare - Othello
Joseph Conrad - Heart of Darkness
Bill Bryson - A Short History of Nearly Everything
Cheryl Strayed - Tiny Beautiful Things
Sara Varon - Bake Sale
Stephen King - 11/22/63
Paul Goldstein - Errors and Omissions
Mark Twain - A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
Steve Martin - Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life
Beverly Cleary - A Girl from Yamhill, a Memoir
Kent Haruf - Plainsong
Hope Larson - A Wrinkle in Time, the Graphic Novel
Rudyard Kipling - Kim
Peter Ames Carlin - Bruce
Fran Cannon Slayton - When the Whistle Blows
Neil Young - Waging Heavy Peace
Mark Bego - Aretha Franklin, the Queen of Soul (2012 ed.)
Jenny Lawson - Let's Pretend This Never Happened
J.D. Salinger - Franny and Zooey
Charles Dickens - A Christmas Carol
Timothy Egan - The Big Burn
Deborah Eisenberg - Transactions in a Foreign Currency
Kurt Vonnegut Jr. - Slaughterhouse Five
Kathryn Lance - Pandora's Genes
Cheryl Strayed - Wild
Fyodor Dostoyevsky - The Brothers Karamazov
Jack London - The House of Pride, and Other Tales of Hawaii
Jack Walker - The Extraordinary Rendition of Vincent Dellamaria
Colum McCann - Let the Great World Spin
Niccolò Machiavelli - The Prince
Harper Lee - To Kill a Mockingbird
Emma McLaughlin & Nicola Kraus - The Nanny Diaries
Brian Selznick - The Invention of Hugo Cabret
Sharon Creech - Walk Two Moons
Keith Richards - Life
F. Sionil Jose - Dusk
Natalie Babbitt - Tuck Everlasting
Justin Halpern - S#*t My Dad Says
Mark Herrmann - The Curmudgeon's Guide to Practicing Law
Barry Glassner - The Gospel of Food
Phil Stanford - The Peyton-Allan Files
Jesse Katz - The Opposite Field
Evelyn Waugh - Brideshead Revisited
J.K. Rowling - Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
David Sedaris - Holidays on Ice
Donald Miller - A Million Miles in a Thousand Years
Mitch Albom - Have a Little Faith
C.S. Lewis - The Magician's Nephew
F. Scott Fitzgerald - The Great Gatsby
William Shakespeare - A Midsummer Night's Dream
Ivan Doig - Bucking the Sun
Penda Diakité - I Lost My Tooth in Africa
Grace Lin - The Year of the Rat
Oscar Hijuelos - Mr. Ives' Christmas
Madeline L'Engle - A Wrinkle in Time
Steven Hart - The Last Three Miles
David Sedaris - Me Talk Pretty One Day
Karen Armstrong - The Spiral Staircase
Charles Larson - The Portland Murders
Adrian Wojnarowski - The Miracle of St. Anthony
William H. Colby - Long Goodbye
Steven D. Stark - Meet the Beatles
Phil Stanford - Portland Confidential
Rick Moody - Garden State
Jonathan Schwartz - All in Good Time
David Sedaris - Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim
Anthony Holden - Big Deal
Robert J. Spitzer - The Spirit of Leadership
James McManus - Positively Fifth Street
Jeff Noon - Vurt
Road Work
Miles run year to date: 113
At this date last year: 155
Total run in 2016: 155
In 2015: 271
In 2014: 401
In 2013: 257
In 2012: 129
In 2011: 113
In 2010: 125
In 2009: 67
In 2008: 28
In 2007: 113
In 2006: 100
In 2005: 149
In 2004: 204
In 2003: 269
Comments (17)
PDX is a very provincial town - in the sense of being small and clueless. The town keeps a stiff upper lip when things hit the fan, but don't do anything meaningful to fix the problems when they appear.
Bad things like girl turning up dead is only going to increase. Sadly, we need to get used to it.
Posted by Scott | March 16, 2004 9:04 AM
I think you go a little overboard here. There are certainly troubles with the police department, especially (in my view) under the command of Chief Kroeker. They are definitely having some community interrelation issues. But I think you do us a disservice by suggesting the city is an unsafe cesspit of crime, when that's really not the case. Portland's crime rate is very comparable to other cities of its size and makeup, and--like everywhere--has dropped over the last decade, in some areas signficantly (property crimes off 21% in 10 years; personal crimes down 53%). I'm sorry you don't feel safe even during the day; you are in a minority that is as small as 3% of the population, depending on where you live.
The City is working hard to create outcome-based reporting for what goes on in Portland. Do you know about the Service Efforts and Accomplishments annual report? It's a good read.
http://www.portlandonline.com/shared/cfm/image.cfm?id=33651
Public safety starts on page 7.
I'm no cop apologist, and I see the problems. But I've lived other places, and comparatively speaking Portland is a very safe, very well run city.
(PS--It may seem in comments like I'm starting to pick on you, Jack. I don't mean to be so uniformly contrary; you've just picked a couple of issues I feel strongly about lately).
TJ
Posted by Torrid Joe | March 16, 2004 9:10 AM
Not much has been said about the situation so who knows what happened. Even the best cops in the world can't stop every murder. I think I need to hear a bit more about the circumstances in this particular situation before I can make the judgements you have. That's just me.
Posted by Neva | March 16, 2004 9:51 AM
Downtown Portland dangerous? That is going overboard. While the Portland police has had a lot of problems, there are hardly any neighborhoods, especially not downtown, that I would be afraid to walk around in, even at night. I have lived in several other cities where things were much, much, much worse.
Posted by rod | March 16, 2004 10:35 AM
Never mind. You're right. There's a wonderful, safe atmosphere downtown.
And since it's not as scary as Detroit, it must be that the cops are doing a great job.
Posted by Jack Bog | March 16, 2004 12:20 PM
I don't think you can blame Vera for bad behavior/management of the police. It was Kroeker.
Downtown does not feel dangerous to me at all. There are some sketchy folk, but it seems safer than anywhere else I've lived, and the next largest city was only 60k.
Posted by alan | March 16, 2004 1:51 PM
I have to figure that, relatively speaking, Portland must be a pretty safe place. I cannot imagine what would happen if the Police Departments in Newark were to close at 6 o'clock.
Oy!!
Posted by Parkway Rest Stop | March 16, 2004 3:19 PM
Have you lived anywhere else? Do you really think Portland is dangerous downtown during the day? Do you expect the mayor to be patrolling underage dance clubs on Friday nights? Have you gotten a distemper shot lately?
Posted by brett | March 16, 2004 5:02 PM
Overall, very few stranger-related murders occur here in Portland. That makes me feel safer. Now, if I could just do something about those shifty friends of mine....
Posted by Neva | March 16, 2004 5:06 PM
I'm no fan of Vera's (just let loose a bit on Pablo's site about this very issue), but I think the jury is still out here as to exactly what happened with this young girl.
She apparently left the bar without her coat, her purse, and without telling even one friend that she was heading out for a bit. Was that a smart move on her part? Um, no. Are we presuming that she left the bar against her free will? Not that I've heard.
Does that mean she should have been killed? Of course not. But we don't know what did happen yet, or who, if anyone, might be to blame.
Posted by Betsy | March 16, 2004 5:21 PM
You have an extraordinarily high degree of idealism when it comes to police performance in my opinion, Jack. I like idealism, so I agree with you that the police department needs work. But as both a Portland native and someone who has spent a long time away, I've gotta say the amount of bitching Portlanders do about their city and city government is CRAZY. The big government scandal is a bad water software system and 3 housing inspectors ripping people off. This city runs as much like a Swiss timepiece as any I've been to in the US, and better than a few I've been to in Europe. Even Swiss watches break now and again.
The stuff you're linking to is definitely disturbing. But asking the police to snuff out the criminal mind is asking a lot.
Look on the bright side--at least we know cops aren't sitting around the station on weekends!
Thanks for the dialogue,
TJ
Posted by torridjoe | March 16, 2004 6:26 PM
Have you gotten a distemper shot lately?
For that, my smart-mouthed little friend, you are banned. Have a nice life.
Posted by Jack Bog | March 16, 2004 6:46 PM
The question, folks, is whether the head of the police bureau, the mayor, has her priorities straight.
And the answer is no.
Posted by Jack Bog | March 16, 2004 7:00 PM
Which will change in two months. It seems pointless to rant about something (Vera) in which there is no possibility for change (she is not running again) and without any attempt at learning from the past (what do you want in the next mayor that you did not have in Vera?).
Posted by pdxkona | March 16, 2004 10:31 PM
I think it is more than just not having their priorities straight, I think they never really thought far enough ahead to have priorities. No planning or true business-style management to speak of. I think she did some good things but overall was a failure. I also agree the police dept. isn't run very well, but they are under funded and are up against a bad economy which often drives crime rates up. If we could refrain from policing the entire world, we might make a dent in these problems.
Posted by Rodney | March 17, 2004 9:31 AM
Okay, I'll play. I want (from the next mayor) someone who is satisfied with grappling with the nuts n' bolts issues of running the city. This would be instead of spending most of her time (and huge amounts of treasure provided by, among others, _me_) on playing "Sim City" and building expensive moneypits (I mean, showpieces) she can brag about to her peers at mayoral barbeques.
Posted by Mark Jones | March 17, 2004 9:32 AM
Hmmm . . . Frank Ivancie?
Posted by Isaac Laquedem | March 17, 2004 9:36 AM