Passing Multnomah County's Community Corrections HQ this morning (at SW 5th & Stark), I witnessed two separate drug transactions, less than a block and a half from a PPB cruiser (with an oblivious cop inside, windows rolled up).

Ironically, I had just left the InAct drug treatment program, which is part of Multnomah County's STOP (drug diversion court), Sanctions, Treatment, and Opportunities Program. The STOP budget has been cut to the bone, and they are desperately looking for new real estate (their current landlord gave them notice).

It can't help recovering addicts to have the narcotics supermarket (aka "Meth Mall") located so close to the County mandated check-in locations. The dealers don't even look worried they might get caught.

No worries, though: Erik said Portland is doing just great. No meth epidemic here. No crime. Plenty of cops on the street, plenty of beds in the jails. Panhandling and homelessness: solved.

Life is like a box of cho....

No wait wrong quote,

Stupid is as stupid does

Neil Goldschmidt got one of these awards as well. Recently. It may have been 2003 or 2004. These guys gotta be invested somehow, literally. They know there are trade-offs.

Heh...Nathan left off the "yet" in that quote.

Y'know, "We're not like Detroit or New Orleans...yet."

This one amused me: "'This firm has altered how Portland looks, lives and the way it thinks about itself,' said Lawrence Wallack, dean of the College."

Here again, the clarifying qualifier has been left off...it left off, "...and not in a good way."

Thanks to Williams and Dame, we've gained a whole new way to look at ourselves:

We're well on our way to being just like Detroit or New Orleans! Or San Diego!

Dammit, the Nathan Seltzer I knew was a damned decent guy. It looks like he's tap-dancing for the West Hills Mafia now.

Jack, where does that quote from Prof. Seltzer come from? thnx

Yesterday's cover story for InPortland magazine in the O.

DYSFUNCTIONAL? PLANNING?

Jack you need to have your candidate for city council explain to us mortals how taking 14,000 acres out of Metros plan and out of Portland Comprehensive plan helps our city.
After all it was Amanda Fritz along with Leonard Gard and Mari Johnson from planning that convinced city hall that S.W.Portland needed to be taken out of Merto and Portland Comp Plan to (I am not making this up) "SAVE THE SALMON" and that doubling the zoning from "R-10" 10'000 sq ft per lot to "-20" 20'000 sq ft per lot (about 1/2 acre) was the only way to do this (even though the west hills never had/never will have salmon for a few minor reasons 1.no water yeararound,2.no gravel for spawning beds (S.W. hills are clay)3.no fish will ever enter the Tryon Creek watershed until ODOT replaces the culvert that goes under hw43 (it impossible for fish to get by it)
So after 5 years of "NO INFILL/GROWTH" on the west side are we finally seeing the results?
Schools closing/no affordable housing/sprawl.
Also ask her why the "C" and "P" zones were increased so much when you have clean water into one of the most polluted rivers in America.
"EIGHBORHOOD ACTIVEST"OR "Planner"
All i can say is "NOT IN MY NIEGHBORHOOD!"

Thank you for another largely off-topic anti-Fritz rant, but I'm afraid it's your last.

For the first poster "anonymous" and Jack too--

Interesting story aout the drug deals in close proximity to the drug treatment faclities and the oblivious PDX cop --

You both know that Saint Amanda has come out repeatedly in Neighborhood Associaion meetings against using city bcks for jail beds, right? But Saint Amanda wants city bucks for beds in the OHSU psych wards to "treat" drug dealers -- not users, but dealers and meth lab cooks. WPPNA meeting, June, 2005.

Saint Amanda never misses a chance to put her hand out for taxpayer fuds to benefit herself or her pet causes.

Just another data point on Saint Amanda, who is less and worse than she wants us to see.

I was surprised to find that PSU's College of Urban & Public Affairs is honoring Williams and Dame for changing Portland's skyline.

I'm wondering if the school promotes a planning philosophy of "...the end justifies the means...?"

If that is what the school is teaching their students, this city is in more trouble than I thought.

Heaven forbid someone in public administration, or Williams and Dame, reveal to City Council what they know the true cost of a development may be.

Shame on PSU School of Urban & Public Affairs.

Jim & Ginski: excellent tin foil hat contest that you guys might want to check out in the La-La Times...It might keep the Klingons from putting anti-Amanda thoughts in your brain (cut & paste the below link):

http://www.latimes.com/la-me-ufo1may01,0,3164612.story?coll=la-home-headlines

On the state of drug enforcement in Portland, I too can attest that the Meth-Mall (aka Bus Mall) is only getting worse. I also saw a forty-something man defecating next to the ATM (5th and Stark) about this time last year: it was about 5:00 p.m. on a Friday afternoon, and he appeared sane enough to have a buddy trying to provide a modicum of privacy...They say that drug abuse can cause loose stools, but it offended me deeply (had my son in the back seat).

The recent shootings and beatings just underline the lawlessness that is rife in Portland and Multnomah County. When was the last time a child was wounded by a drive-by shooting in Washington or Clackamas County?