Down on the boulevard, they take it hard
Of all that's been lost in the decline of Portland, the trashing of Hawthorne Boulevard is among the most depressing developments. There's still a stretch of the avenue that's doing pretty well, but the closer you get to downtown, and the further you go east of around 37th, the worse it gets.
The depths to which the once-thriving street has sunk were really brought home yesterday by this disturbing story of a prominent businessperson who was mauled by a vicious pit bull belonging to a homeless guy. The woman was out for a morning jog at 45th and Hawthorne when she was attacked. The dog, which emerged from the parking lot of a derelict abandoned building, bit her legs, arm, and torso pretty badly. A photo of her wounds was so gruesome that Instagram took it down, although now you can see it here, I think, if you have the stomach for it.
Both the homeless guy and his dog have been identified, but of course, the inept county animal people let them get away, and now they're apparently on the lam. The woman says she's lucky the dog didn't do even worse damage; fortunately, a passing motorist helped break up the attack. "The homeless crisis in this city is OUT OF CONTROL," the victim wrote on Instagram. "This is not just about eyesore camps and trash. More importantly it is about public safety, mental health, piece of mind and quality of life for all of us... the housed and unhoused."
So many have been saying the same thing for so long, until we're blue in the face. But all the politicians are going to do is burn through hundreds of millions of tax dollars, at best building cheap apartments that the homeless will die, not live, in.
Meanwhile, the thousands of people who have migrated to Portland to spend their lives shooting up in a tent will continue to have their "harm reduced." The rest of us who live here, just the opposite.
If you feed them, they will come. A census of mentality ill street people should support the concept that they’re not home grown.
ReplyDeleteAccording to KGW report the dog was taken from the man to be quarantined at his mother’s house in Camas for 10 days to determine if it was rabid. He then came and took the dog back.
ReplyDeleteThis reminds me that free animal care is (or was in the past) offered to the homeless once a month down along Front Avenue out in deep NW. The people offering the care would provide care even when they knew the dog was stolen.
Take a chunk of that money, buy riot control trucks that spray out water at a decent pace and start spraying down the sidewalks nightly. It's gloves off time. Also start tagging/chipping all the Hobo-Sapians so we can track them- do we have any idea who they are and how long they have been here? Are they being shipped in from other states?
ReplyDeleteLived just off Hawthorne in Buckman then Mt Tabor since 1983. Always thought we’d retire there. But the dystopia finally wore us down and we moved to Tigard. Sanity is back and we aren’t looking back.
ReplyDeleteThis poor woman. She could just have easily been my daughter and grandson, or an elderly person. Portland city government blows through hundreds of millions of dollars to "help the homeless" and there's nothing to show for it but more ODs and more felons, junkies, and lunatics moving to town every day.
ReplyDeleteThere has to be a sharp lawyer somewhere who can figure out a way to for the citizens of Portland to file a class action lawsuit against Wheeler and his brain dead city council for failing to keep their constituents safe. Citizens have a right to expect their city leaders to ensure they can walk down a sidewalk, run their businesses, and enjoy their lives without fear of being being attacked or even killed.