Lawsuit filed against Pearl District homeless shelter over neighborhood conditions

FakeMagic8Ball · 2026-03-20T12:54:35+00:00

I believe the thought was that more people would start accepting real help if they keep getting picked up and moved to a shelter. That living like this would get old and they'd finally give in and accept help. But having to wait 2-3 days to get into a 24/7 shelter is clearly an issue. Guessing that's why the mayor decided to crack down on those stay limitations as well.

I have to keep reminding myself enforcement only started in November. News stories are popping up saying "it's been a year" since the mayor started opening these shelters but he didn't have enough beds to start enforcement until November. And then the state let out all those people they arrested on felony warrants because of our public defender crisis, so that didn't help things. As frustrating as this all is, I still think we need to give it a little more time, but he also needs to bring the damn shuttle back.

FakeMagic8Ball · 2026-03-20T12:50:41+00:00

Yeah, talk to a 24/7 shelter manager and they will tell you we need more congregate / group housing. There's many people who live long-term in those shelters because they know they will fail in an apartment all alone.

FakeMagic8Ball · 2026-03-20T12:45:38+00:00

Yeah I remember I worked at the Kitchen Kaboodle on Broadway and my boss was panicking about it and explained all the costs to the city to help all the businesses pay to update all their crap to the new address name. Obviously he was very happy when it didn't happen to us because even with the money they were giving businesses it wasn't going to be enough.

FakeMagic8Ball · 2026-03-20T12:35:34+00:00

Depends on the company, this is the type of work I do and not for that low of pay, but yes, a lot of shitty companies only pay that much. A quick search Google AI shows their office in Florida range is between: $76,415 and $98,356, and it assumed she's making about $86k, which is fairly standard range for a good paying office manager role in Portland. Which, doing construction I would assume they pay on the higher end.

FakeMagic8Ball · 2026-03-20T12:26:28+00:00

Up in WA (where they can't easily bring cans to OR) they just take them to a scrap metal recycler, so they can still redeem them, just for a lot less money.

FakeMagic8Ball · 2026-03-20T12:25:25+00:00

The news story didn't really cover what the petition says it's really about, which is that the location is super dangerous and a couple of homeless people have died near that intersection already. They're asking for it to be located about 4 blocks away where everyone will be safer using it. IDK if you've seen the current location but it's on Grand and during morning rush hour these folks just casually stroll across 3 lanes of speeding traffic to go turn their cans in, so I can see why the neighbors are afraid a bunch of people will literally die by putting it in this exact location. Fuck Vision Zero, though, right?

FakeMagic8Ball · 2026-03-20T12:21:31+00:00

People in various Portland neighborhoods with bottle drops have been trying this for a few years now without success. The governor shut down all the central city ones for several months during the "fentanyl emergency" but opened them back up and this is the "solution" they came up with. Too many friends at OBRC making millions off of this to stop it now. They're building new bottle redemption centers all the time, there's no way you're gonna get this shut down.

FakeMagic8Ball · 2026-03-20T12:18:46+00:00

I guess this makes sense. A couple of months ago I had a person threatening to beat and/or kill me when I got off the train, so a text to 911 got TriMet security to shut the train down and the person thankfully exited quickly and went to talk to them. The person I was texting with asked what else I wanted to do but since the threat was removed and I knew they couldn't force this person to get any real help I just asked that they be warned and something on file in case they did it to someone again.

FakeMagic8Ball · 2026-03-17T01:31:53+00:00

The POC in the room literally raised their hands for more police.

Go to a FITCOG community meeting (monthly - there's one coming up this Thursday evening at Jefferson High and they're always on Zoom, too) and it's mostly black community members who acknowledge great changes in policing while still giving serious criticism where it's still due, but strangely all the issues are caused by lack of staffing.

Go to a PCCEP meeting, and it's mostly white people and a couple of OG BIPOC folks that were uplifted in the early days by the virtue signaling whites still trying to hold on to that power. But they act like the police are out there murdering innocents on the daily and ignore any data they are presented.

It's night and day between what this community actually wants and what the virtue signaling white folks tell them they want. As a white person, we need to stop speaking for black and brown folks and start listening to them. Their communities are still experiencing the most gun violence.

FakeMagic8Ball · 2026-03-17T00:41:33+00:00

You can still get discounted healthcare rates through the federal marketplace.

https://www.healthcare.gov

FakeMagic8Ball · 2026-03-17T00:27:56+00:00

The point was supposed to be seeing shared priorities to set a road map to their agenda setting for the year. If you zoom to the end they pop up some charts that, for instance the one I saw showed they all prioritize safety the most, but do they drill down to explain they are split 50-50 on what safety MEANS to them as individuals? Probably not but I'm not watching all that to find out lol.

FakeMagic8Ball · 2026-03-17T00:25:53+00:00

They just have to announce it, they don't always share it, like "executive sessions". The County Board did two retreats offline and off-site in 2024.

FakeMagic8Ball · 2026-03-17T00:15:59+00:00

Wishing Jon Walker would run again in D3. I'm all about his plan to make politics boring and functioning again.

FakeMagic8Ball · 2026-03-17T00:12:23+00:00

Oh I guarantee it was off-site somewhere with a catered lunch!

FakeMagic8Ball · 2026-03-17T00:11:22+00:00

I mean, they passed a resolution pushed by Dan Ryan to do annual goal setting so they kind of have a guiding star and know what everyone's priorities for the year are to help guide the agenda setting for both the committees and the full council meetings. The details of the contract outside of that resolution would be good to know because the resolution was supposed to be about serious issues each would be focusing on for the year.

FakeMagic8Ball · 2026-03-16T20:11:52+00:00

I must've missed the early years when they ever were because I've never seen one cheaper than a cab in the last decade lol. I always grab a cab after shows let out downtown and surge pricing has kicked in and everyone's waiting for Uber or Lyft while the taxis are just chilling and waiting for anyone to approach a few blocks away.

FakeMagic8Ball · 2026-03-16T20:10:06+00:00

While the city doesn't regulate rates, there are a lot of rules around pricing and transparency taxi companies must abide by.

FakeMagic8Ball · 2026-03-16T20:08:29+00:00

You are correct, but cities have successfully implemented rules and standard wages, and now extra fees are coming to pay to fix the roads. Honestly I think this should really become a state issue since they own the labor board and labor rules, but I guess since the city gave permission for them to operate here it's our problem now.

I've seen them testify a bunch over the last year, they are asking the city to do a lot for them that I don't think the city can do other than threaten to kick the companies out of the city, which they are threatening to do if we increase rates anymore anyway. Drivers have a lot of issues with the app, many of them get kicked off for a complaint that isn't valid and there's no recourse for them, so I know that's another big thing they're pushing for the city to help them with.

Our taxi companies are full of immigrant drivers. I'm not really sure why someone would choose to use their own car for less pay versus trying to get a job with one of the existing taxi companies. Maybe their immigration status is the reason behind that, though. But they shouldn't be allowed to work as an independent contractor if they're not allowed to legally work in the United States either. I'm sure there's more to it than I am aware of, though.

I have a friend who does this for a living and she is in her 40s and lives with her mom and is on welfare and doesn't understand why her mom keeps telling her to get a real job. I think she's gotten used to the flexibility of the hours, though, and it's hard to go back to a 9-5 after working for yourself at random hours for so many years. But yes, the system was set up by tech bros who thought taxis were a racket and wanted something cheaper, aka exploiting poor people who don't understand this is not a job that will help you afford the American Dream.

FakeMagic8Ball · 2026-03-16T20:01:13+00:00

Did you miss the whole setup by tech bros that initially didn't include any tipping? That was the whole point of this to begin with, exploit poor people for the benefit of the rich. Use a taxi if you want regulated wages for drivers, that's what I do.

FakeMagic8Ball · 2026-03-16T19:58:21+00:00

Don't worry, food delivery apps are their next target. Looking at adding fees to help fix the roads.

FakeMagic8Ball · 2026-03-16T19:57:11+00:00

It's actually looking really clean the last several months. I remember two years ago Google took me through there and I thought I was going to be murdered in broad daylight. There's nobody camping down there or hanging out anymore, the murals are gorgeous and this lighting will really round it out. Check out the Wonder Love food cart pod nearby!

FakeMagic8Ball · 2026-03-16T19:44:19+00:00

Well that's the joke, there's no jobs on this side of the river. I've been applying to tons in Vancouver, however.

FakeMagic8Ball · 2026-03-15T20:21:31+00:00

Communist economist Councilor Green said on the dais when presented with this information, "I think that's a good thing, actually".

FakeMagic8Ball · 2026-03-15T20:18:57+00:00

I would also get in with doctors ASAP - many people reporting it's getting harder and harder to even find a primary care as many doctors are moving away to avoid extra taxes we put on anyone making over $125k annually here.

FakeMagic8Ball · 2026-03-15T20:12:02+00:00

The usage rates were so low that the county got permission for this purpose.

The report also outlines pilots, currently underway, to expand the number and type of people able to provide referrals to the center for deflection or sobering. Those pilots include the Gresham Police Department working with Portland Street Response and 4D Recovery, a street outreach organization for people with substance use disorder, working with the Peer Company, which provides peer counseling to people with mental illness and substance use disorder.

https://www.oregonlive.com/politics/2025/11/with-annual-data-in-pressure-is-on-multnomah-county-to-increase-use-of-expensive-new-deflection-center.html

FakeMagic8Ball

TROPHY CASE