Business Interests Speaking Up: Time to Drive Away Downtown Campers

Portland Mercury:

The powers that be in Portland are getting increasingly insistent in their demands that Portland shut down both of its thriving tent cities: Occupy Portland in Chapman and Lownsdale squares, and a homeless rest area in a private lot at NW Fourth and Burnside, according to emails and letters sent to city hall in recent days. KPTV reported last night that the Portland Business Alliance, after leaning hard on Mayor Sam Adams to reopen Main Street, has now formally called on Adams, in a letter, to pull all the tents from the Occupy Portland camps. Their reasoning echoes Nick Fish's, in his open letter to the camp on Monday. In our view, allowing tent camping in a downtown park is not integral to protecting free speech rights, and we respectfully request that you immediately ask the Occupy Portland participants to remove all tents and other camping equipment from the parks, in compliance with the city's camping ordinance. In the Mercury's latest batch of emails from Adams' office, obtained yesterday, the mayor's community advocate says calls and emails have begun tilting against the mayor's embrace of the occupation.

After council this morning, the mayor told me he's still taking things day-by-day. And when he leaves tomorrow for a 10-day business and cultural trip to Asia, he'll be in cell phone contact "as much as technology allows." Meaning, he says, any big decisions, like rousting the camp, would "absolutely" not be made without his consent. Meanwhile, the Mercury has also obtained a series of emails along the same lines from the office of Commissioner Dan Saltzman, who oversees the city's code enforcement arm, the Bureau of Development Services. Those contacts show a heavy press by Old Town and Chinatown neighbors and big-shot developers to drive out the Right 2 Dream Too homeless camp. [ Subscribe to the comments on this story ]

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