There is an absolute plague of these guys congregating around the corner of 36th and Hawthorne. Guys (and some girls) in their early 20s, sitting in groups of up to 10, blocking the sidewalk, acting like complete a-holes (pardon the language, but it fits), etc. etc. Sure hope PPD thinks about a similar enforcement on this side of the river as well.

Okay, so the police are only now dealing with this? Was this because someone with influence in CoP was finally exposed to it, or because someone told Sam Adams that the panhandlers were a big reason why that person's group was skipping out on running a convention in Portland. More importantly, how long will this last before it's business as usual?

Saw this group in front of the Portland Outdoor Store about 3 weeks ago. Filthy dirty, profane and aggressive. Given the choice I would never enter downtown Portland again. Wonder if Mayor Doolittle understands how this affects the economy in downtown Portland...or cares. Since he's never had a real job he probably doesn't understand the concept of retail and how it helps pay for city services.

I've been saying for years that they should investigate and impound dogs owned by the homeless kids. Most of them are pitbulls, NONE of them are licensed, and I would bet virtually everything I own that none of them are up to date on their shots. (Not to mention most of them are raised and housed in living situations that give rise to violent tendencies.)

Oh, Nick Fish will whine about the crackdown being unconstitutional to these poor homeless downtrodden. He will ask for emergency funds to license the dogs, give shelter to the kids with their service dogs.

Oddly enough most of the time the dogs are better behaved than their "owners".
These people should not have domestic animals. They are not capable of adequetly caring for them, or themselves.
The more enforcement the better! Get them and their poor pets off our streets!

Better late than never I suppose. There is a big camp of these guys at the end of the Morrison bridge, where the off ramp loops around down to Naito, near the Max Station down there. This if the first year I've ever felt reservations about going down to the MAX after dark.

Rain can't come soon enough, for a host of reasons.

"They typically stay in town through the summer until the weather changes in the fall"

Look at the timing. Crack down on them at the end of the good weather period - they're gone when the weather gets bad.

Mission accomplished!

I can't believe things were ever different in Portland. How did my parents allows to go downtown unattended in the 60s on the bus whence were under 11 years old? It was a smaller town then, but the police did their job. No sitting, spitting, brushing teeth, no people sleeping on park benches or in doorways. And no defecating or urinating in public places, no littering, no accosting women and children. Is it more humane to allow this uncivil and threatening behavior or to crack down on the things we cannot and should not tolerate so that we get more of it? Are people so afraid of committing to a firm grasp of right and wrong that they can no longer distinguish between the two? Does everybody's story make their behavior excusable? Is everyone today a spineless whimp? This is where situational ethics that was all the rage in the education field in the 70s has taken us. Schools teach propaganda - make sure you know what they are learning!

I have lived in Portland since 1975. I started working downtown in very early 80's. Always felt safe at all hours and spent years dining, bar hopping, theatre going, shopping, etc. Now I rarely go down there. Just in past 10 years or so it has become such a human toilet and cesspool.

I have friends that still must work down there and the reports are not pretty. Every one of them hate it. The bums, panhandlers, gutter punks, tweeters, urine, feces in doorways and vomit are disgusting.

Back 'in the day' there were bums. The truly mentally ill. They were small in number, so small that we gals in office had names for some of the regulars and often handed them spare change. The creeps down there now are a different breed. I don't care what any bleeding heart says but a lot of losers are choosing the streets as life style. There is a huge homeless industry in this progressive city that depends on them for jobs.

I was getting the sales calls from Portland Opera couple years ago, trying to entice my into season tickets. I finally told them I would not be going downtown any longer because of the lowlifes, the hassle to drive and the lawbreaking bicyclists. It's too bad because I have some $$$ to spend and business owners down there are missing out. I used to do all my XMas shopping there. Forget it now. And no restaurant is worth dodging beggars and puke puddles for.

I know a lot of folks will scoff at my opinion but I usually find it's people who have moved here in last few years and don't have the old PDX to campare to. I weep for what this city used to be.

These folks are a huge problem everywhere. I had a volunteer gig at Outside In one summer, back in the early 90's, where I was quickly introduced to an all-new variety of human complexion. With their gray-green skin, the homeless kids appeared to be a race unto themselves. The thicker the caked filth on their skin and clothes, the higher the merit badge in their troop. 10 years later, I tried to enjoy a trip with my small child to swim on a hot summer day in that pool/fountain across from Keller Auditorium. We left when I realized that most of the people there were homeless and not pleasant, either.

In the fifteen years since I volunteered to work in a homeless clinic, my sympathy with the homeless has dwindled to near-zero. The last straw was a recent visit to Ashland. Every couple of years we escape, leapIng like so many mountain goats out of the willamette valley up to the pass, where we revel in one of Oregon's greatest gems-the Shakespeare Festival. So many plays there over almost twenty years, memories to tickle a person in the grave. The last time we went, last spring, this fabulous refuge was being ruined by hoards of the homeless locusts. And news of Ashland's first murder in 7 years. A young liquor store clerk, found decapitated on the bike trail. Case still hasn't been solved, but with so many transients clogging the alleyways there now, there are probably way, way too many leads for Ashland's little police department to track successfully.

There should be wilderness areas dedicated to the homeless. Put them to work culling deer, eg. Drop them food from helicopters. Build a lot of geothermal bathouses and yurts. Trade them drugs and alcohol in exchange for staying away from the rest of us. Under no circumstances allow them to raise any children they bear, and aggressively bar them from wrecking everyone else's enjoyment of life. The pursuit of happiness in a city, even one as small as Ashland, is becoming all but impossible with all these derelicts sleeping on our streets and begging for booze money. Pretty soon we will all be leaving to go live in places like Oklahoma, where people need to get a license to panhandle.

Great, while they are at it can they do something about the dealers that hang out in front on the greyhound station looking for fresh meat?

ever notice they only have puppies?

never an older dog.

troubling to me.

The meat gets tough after they're a year old.

Did you see the lowlife who recently had a nursing mother in a shopping cart in front of Pioneer Place and Pioneer Courthouse? He had a sign saying nursing mothers cost more to feed. He was using the dog to earn money and trying to sell the puppies. Shocking to see as a resident of Portland and must really give a sour taste to visitors.