Portland City Council Hears From Residents Upset Over Downtown

PORTLAND, OR — In case there was any doubt that there was a certain amount of truth in a recent survey that found Portland residents are not optimistic about the direction that the city is headed in, that doubt disappeared in testimony before the city council on Wednesday. Residents put faces to the more than 80 percent of residents skeptical about where the city was going.

The survey was released by the Portland Business Alliance and found that there is a long list of things about which people are less than pleased. Areas o unhappiness include homelessness, crime downtown, the lack of effective leadership, and more.

"I can clearly see that the quality of the downtown work experience has deteriorated," Alexandra Etheridge, a resident who works as an associate director of the United States Geological Survey said. She stressed that she was speaking as a private citizen,

"I plainly see evidence of long-term exposure to perceived risk to physical safety."

She said that now she is in a leadership ole at USGS, she is aware of the stress being felt by herself and her colleagues. She listed disassociation, forgetting when incidents occurred, numbness, and despair.

Etheridge said their workplace had been targeted by crime. their trucks have been vandalized and people feel that "there is imminent danger and the risk of severe injury or death."

Disruption can lead to improvements or further demise.

Another USGS manager, Darwin Crammond then went further on some of what Etheridge had said.

"Last year, a propane heater explosion on our sidewalk blew out windows to the office and a person was seen shooting into traffic on I-205," he said.

Both Crammond and Etheridge talked about having to participate in training drills with a security team hired to assist them.

City commissioners listened and espoused sympathy but there was no concrete action proposed.