Quote:
Originally Posted by WestCoast
Reddit is like fox news - I avoid those trainwrecks completely.
This site is bad enough with the groupthink, but those places are miles worse.
Yes, I've had my car broken into downtown and stuff stolen.
No, I don't leave valuable in it anymore.
Most of my staff have had similar, so, yes, they all 'learned their lesson'
We live in a city where the police are ineffective.
We live in a city where the victim is blamed when a crime is committed.
All here chuckle that someone could be so dumb as to not know their cars were open fodder for anyone to rifle through.
And we overlook the fact that our downtown has turned into a camping wasteland.
We blame others instead of the actual campers...
It's all just so bizarre.
Everyone here is whistling past the graveyard while the desirability and value of our downtown slowly and silently diminishes.
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There is a couple points I take issue with, police are not ineffective, they are understaffed and they have found through legal issues that unless someone is doing something that warrants police interaction, it is best for them to play hands off. So there really isn't anything they can currently do about camping downtown for several reasons. Not all homeless camps are on the city of Portland land, some of it falls on state and other departments. These different owners also have different rules on evicting campers from their land. Basically this is something that needs to be streamlined from the state down if it is ever going to be dealt with in a more efficient manner.
Also telling people to not leave valuables in their car isn't victim blaming, it is just pointing out the obvious that the chances of catching someone who breaks into a car is really slim. It is easy to figure out which cars have valuables in them and when there is no one around. Garages downtown have all gone automated, so there is no one working the booths, so no visible people working in garages and security for garages varies from garage to garage and they tend to work on shifts so security isn't in a garage 24/7. On top of that, the punishment for breaking into a car and stealing stuff is rather light. If caught, one might spend up to a month in jail unless the amount stolen is over $1200 or something like that, which if that happens, then it becomes 3 months at most. Once out of jail, these guys just go back to doing it again.
To prevent this, garages have to increase security and people have to be more aware what is in their cars. These two things are the easiest way to crack down on car break ins.
But as I pointed out, just because someone is homeless on the streets, it doesn't mean they are also a criminal, therefore we shouldn't be treating those on the street as if they are all the same because they are not. There is no one simple solution, and anything that is done is going to require a lot of work and time to help reduce the number of homeless in the city.
As for businesses, that's a mixed one. So far the businesses downtown has lost have been businesses that haven't been keeping up with the times and what consumers want today. The jewelry store that is closing down, I wouldn't be surprised if their profits have been dipping for a long time since that isn't where people go to buy jewelry anymore, and I really question how good it is to run a jewelry store these days anyway. We still have businesses opening up in downtown that better match today's consumers, and these kinds of changes naturally happen in cities with or without a homeless problem.
Obviously the city should not ignore this issue, but I have a hard time any business can use it as their sole reason for closing.
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