Sleep tight
On the heels of Thursday's broad-daylight gangster hit near the public library branch in North Portland, we now learn that the man who died in his Southeast Portland home of gunshot wounds over the weekend may have been an innocent bystander hit in his own bed by bullets intended for someone else. The violence in our town continues to grow, and the politicians won't even acknowledge the trend, much less do anything about it. "Look over here! A sustainability center! Major league soccer! What's that you say? Gunshot noise? No, must be fireworks at the Beaver game."
| Posted at 10:11 PM | Permalink |
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Comments (13)
It was too late to comment in the other thread (been camping since Thursday), but I love the "payroll is up 3% over the last 10 years" offered forth by a City mouthpiece.
Say, what kind of annual salary adjustment do employees of the bureau get? 3%?
Maybe you should be buying less red light cameras and spend more time on real policing.
Posted by MachineShedFred | August 25, 2009 7:16 AM
For years, this city lacks leadership, accountability and balls.
Posted by Brian | August 25, 2009 7:50 AM
Yep, That's why I moved, taking my nice little income (and thus taxes) and businesses (and thus jobs and taxes) with me. Although I am keeping property in PDX since truthfully, the taxes on those are low and California and East Coast suckers keep moving here so there's never an end for renters willing to pay Portland's over-market rental rates for "cute places in up and coming neighborhoods". SUCKERS. Sorry, but it's true. Portland has driven me into become an absentee landlord, which of course is horrible for the community. Sorry :((
Portland, and Oregon in particular really have their priorities all wrong at this point and I found it just really didn't make any sense to continue to invest my business here. Lots of talk from the government here, but no walk. Choosing MLS over schools, infrastructure and true living wage job creation was the final straw.
MachineFedFred, Employees at the City almost always get a cost of living increase each year based on cost of living inflation. And trust me, 3% isn't really significant in a take home capacity. For example, someone making 50K at the City - after taxes, PERS deductible, etc. it comes out to about 1200 bucks a year, or less than 100 dollars take home increase per month. Given Portland's love of other increases such as the audacious water/sewer bill increases, allowance of Pacific Power rate hikes and (surely) soon to be Special Levies - that money is gone.
God, I'm so glad I left.
Posted by ExCity | August 25, 2009 8:23 AM
The leadership is busy shouting down and cursing reality TV truck drivers in front of city hall. They can't hear the gunfire.
Posted by S.A. | August 25, 2009 8:24 AM
I keep pinching myself, saying this is a nightmare, wake up, wake up.
Posted by John Benton | August 25, 2009 8:47 AM
"And trust me, 3% isn't really significant in a take home capacity."
Don't forget pay grade jumps which almost everyone gets. Plus the folks at Intel who take 10% pay cuts to make it thru tough times.
Otherwise, you're right about most CoP employees living in a vacuum with plenty of make-work jobs.
Posted by Steve | August 25, 2009 9:20 AM
Recall that the crime prevention personnel at ONI are engaged in this sort of nonsense:
http://blogs.wweek.com/news/2008/06/17/advice-from-the-portland-nanny-state-no-solo-street-crossing-until-age-10/
Posted by Gardiner Menefree | August 25, 2009 9:26 AM
And recall that the Office of Neighborhood Involvement (ONI) does not appear to have any idea about what it should be doing for the people who live in Portland, other than, perhaps, setting up committees:
http://blogs.wweek.com/news/2008/06/12/setting-up-committees-is-not-a-measure-of-achievement-says-city-auditor/
Posted by Gardiner Menefree | August 25, 2009 9:33 AM
Hi Jack,
Just a reminder that we live at the most peaceful and safest time in all of human history.
I certainly hope the scary news we are hearing lately doesn't signify a new crime wave, but it is helpful to remind ourselves how safe and secure our society really is, at least when it comes to violent crime.
http://greatergood.berkeley.edu/greatergood/2009april/Pinker054.php
Posted by JHB | August 25, 2009 9:46 AM
Our leaders have sold our souls to the gods of "quality of life." The only problem is, our leaders and the people they lead have very different ideas of just what QOL is. THey think street cars and soccer teams are where its at.
The populace wants good paying jobs, safe neighborhoods and street that don't turn milk into butter. What is so ironic is that every publication that ranks cities/states on QOL places Portland/Oregon in the middle of the pack. With everything they have done, wouldn't you expect a better ranking than that.
Posted by mp97303 | August 25, 2009 9:56 AM
For those who think it's just going to get worse in the Queen City of the Willamette Drainage Basin, USNews has provided a list of the best places to find work:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/usnews/20090825/ts_usnews/americasbestplacestofindajob2009
Posted by Gardiner Menefree | August 25, 2009 10:01 AM
Sad to say, but Portland is going down the same incompetent road as San Francisco - without the corporate taxes to support itself - and a muddy, poo-poo filled river instead of a world class Bay. Until such time as there is a complete house cleaning in City Hall, Metro and TriMet nothing around here will improve anytime soon.
Posted by Dave A.. | August 25, 2009 12:25 PM
Our policies (drug laws) value this innocent man's life LESS than an adult who wants to voluntarily consume drugs.
I'd rather allow thousands of free individuals to make the choice to take drugs and even to kill themselves with these drugs than to lose even one more innocent person like this guy or the forest service worker who died pulling up pot plants last week or the next kid who gets in the way of the gang violence fueled by drug prohibition.
Posted by John | August 26, 2009 10:17 AM