For the tent camps, a gift shop

I see that before she left office, former Multnomah County Chair "Deadly" Deborah Kafoury set up a four-story homeless day spa on Park Avenue in the heart of downtown. 

It serves more than 1,100 Portlanders a week, according to county officials. In a week’s time, 200 people scrub themselves in showers. Washing machines spin 140 loads of laundry. Since mid-January, center staff has referred 207 people to mental health services.

The county hired Mental Health & Addiction Association of Oregon to run the center. It’s staffed by more than two dozen peer specialists who themselves once struggled with addiction or homelessness.

Lockers keep visitors’ few possessions safe. There’s no pressure to leave until closing time at 8 pm.

This is sure to go as well as the Bud Clark Commons (scornfully nicknamed the "Bum Bellagio" by many of its detractors) over by the Broadway Bridge. That area is now an utter no-man's land.

My blueprint for success in dealing with the homeless is pretty simple: Get a hold of Deadly Deborah's agenda on the subject, then do exactly the opposite of what it says.

But what the kids at the Weed find most interesting about the new KOA Kampstore on Park is that it's only a block and a half away from the absurd new Ritz-Carlton Hotel and condo palace, where hundreds of millions of ill-advised dollars are currently going to die. "How will those rich pigs like the sleazebags on their front porch after 8:00 every night?" The Weed scribes, for whom socialism is the only comfort in their poverty, can hardly contain their glee.

As for the businesses over there that are complaining about what the facility is attracting, well, there's always the 'Couve. If I were building a hotel, that's where I would put it.