You have no doubt been following the SAFE story here in Street Roots. But in case you've missed it, here's some background.
Several months ago, Mayor Tom Potter gathered and Portland City Council directed an eclectic group of more than 30 of Portland's best and brightest to “assess citywide problems associated with street disorder and sidewalk nuisances and recommend strategies for problem-solving.” This group then met twice a month for four months. They came up with the catchy name SAFE, for “Street Access For Everyone.” In November they delivered a set of five "all or nothing" recommendations to city hall. They are:
The first recommendation has been well received. It promises some needed services for the homeless, like storage lockers and dramatically improved housing assistance. Most people who sit, or even go standing, are in full agreement with the second and third recommendations. However, Street Roots and other advocates for the poor complained that this tightly-packaged deal was leveraging civil rights (prohibiting anyone from sitting or lying on a sidewalk in a “High Pedestrian Traffic Area”), for direct services such as immediate shelter, which should have been in place years ago.
Time will tell. On Dec. 13, the City Council approved the ordinance.
Meanwhile, back on the street…
The new year was less than three hours old when, amid the night's reverie, shots rang out that were not part of the celebration. A young black man lay dead on a sidewalk, Portland's first homicide of 2007. Nobody that was there saw a thing; there is immediate speculation the murder was “gang- or drug-related.” A much-too-familiar refrain these days.
SEX, DRUGS & ROCK 'N' ROLL... reasons why, on a daily basis, rain or shine, thousands of hardworking, absolutely normal people venture to places like downtown, Old Town/China Town, parts of Southeast 82nd Avenue, North Interstate, any MAX Station, Hawthorne Boulevard and numerous other “hot spots,” in every neighborhood, all around the Portland metro area. And beyond, way beyond.
Breaking news: Since Day 1, normal people have enjoyed sex, and from time to time, getting high.
More breaking news: The sex for-hire and drug trades have been around since Day 1.
These thousands of local consumers, who are not poor, not homeless, not unemployed, not addicts, and certainly not criminals, are spending huge amounts of money each year on both sex for hire and personal-use amounts of illegal drugs, primarily pot. Yet, mysteriously, it's as though all this economic activity were taking place on another world, manipulated by invisible hands. Imagine a Portland industry with a cash flow that probably rivals the whole Oregon Lottery, paying no taxes whatsoever. It's a bloody outrage, is what it is, millions in annual revenue ignored, or filling the pockets of corrupt cops.
Welcome to caveman capitalism. In addition to no financial accountability, there are also no consumer or worker protections, not even age limits — what an utter disgrace. Without law, business conflicts often devolve into violence. Illegal guns are tools of the trade, and the true law of the land is cap the competition, before the competition caps you. The rest of us are caught in the crossfire.
War is not peace, and prohibition is not regulation.
What we have today amounts to a self-perpetuating cycle of misery and exploitation of both the young and poor, a more violent and dangerous society, and enormous untaxed wealth for an unscrupulous few. Drug and prostitution enforcement in this environment is nearly meaningless, even though we waste millions of public dollars on it every year. Our beautiful little city, like every other, is left to pick up the dead bodies that get regularly spit out the other side of this butt-ugly business. And yet, still, to some, legalization would be “immoral”?
So what should the City of Portland do? Well, I'll see SAFE's five recommendations and raise them two:
With all due respect to Mayor Potter and the members of the SAFE workgroup, I do not think it's enough to pretend someone else has the “lead role in ensuring better progress” — that's how we got into this mess in the first place. Frankly, I believe that's a whopper of a cop-out.
To be fair, I believe his honor and the members of the SAFE workgroup mean well and are sincerely interested in improving public health and safety in Portland. Nonetheless, I suggest the workgroup lacked a certain perspective. Apparently, there were no poor or homeless people. If there had been, I'm sure they would have objected — as I do — to being unfairly associated with words like, “disorder” or “nuisance.”
