A Really Bad Photograph of the Portland Tribune

Under the Fiction tab, I wrote a short piece called Panhandler.  This week’s Tribune talks about panhandlers.

The Portland Tribune is free.  Anyone can pick it up at a little blue newspaper dispenser on street corners, especially those with coffee shops on them.  It comes out once a week, on Thursdays.

Peter Korn wrote an article in the most recent Portland Tribune that everyone from this great city should read.  Please pick it up and read it.  If not, read the article on-line.

Some of the headlines and teasers that appear on the front page are:  Portland tolerates what other cities won’t.  Would Rudy Giuliani put up with this?   “Those of us one the East Coast who manage cities are always shocked when we see what goes on in Seattle and Portland and Santa Monica and elsewhere.  That doesn’t go on in New York.”

Read the article.

The guy in the picture on the front page has words written on the side of an electronic something-or-other – “If you don’t like it, well, just f..k off.”  Of course, the Portland Tribune completely fuzzed out the bad word.  I only edited part of it.

Some of the ideas in the article are good.  For example, require a permit to panhandle.  Don’t charge for it, but the police can check to see if the panhandlers have warrants.

See, according to the article, other cities have found there is a link between “quality of life” violations and violent crimes.  “Quality of life” refers to things like litter in the streets and sidewalks, broken windows, petitions, and being asked for a quarter or a dollar.

Violent crimes are – well, you know what they are.  Does Portland seem more violent to you?  Does New York seem less violent?

Pedestrians see more than people who whiz by in cars (and they experience it longer).  I walk with a cane and I am probably slower than most.  However, most of my fellow pedestrians  probably don’t vote more than people who just drive by.

People who live in Oregon are nice.  No one wants that to change.  People who drive everywhere, though, need to think about those that don’t.

I’m one of those that don’t.