It’s time for a radically honest assessment of Portland’s public safety. I recently returned to Portland, where I grew up and my family still lives, after attending college on the east coast. I was struck by the visual signs of a city weary from a confluence of public safety maladies. In Northeast Portland, I found stores resigned to accepting theft insurance instead of deterring stealing, drug use out in the open and a sense of lurking danger articulated by my bike-everywhere-Portland mother.
I spent the last four years in large east coast cities, ones with robust law enforcement and community development programs. Improving public safety won’t fix any systemic problems but rather offers the foundation for long term work. If community members feel safe enough to engage with parks, take public transit and utilize other city services, these systems will undoubtedly improve. By allowing public safety to deteriorate, Portland has been thrown off course from its progressive vision. Rather than take transit, people will drive. Rather than engage in community improvement, neighbors will retreat inward, build fences and bar windows, all while businesses pull capital. It’s already happening.
A sense of safety provides the foundation for community engagement and stewardship. The city of Portland owes its residents the primary civic building block of public safety as we emerge from the chaos of the last several years.
Owen O’Brien Powers, Portland
