City Removal of the Homeless in Unpublicized Statement Reeks of Backlash Fears, Again

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Tents in the Tent Village That Has Developed on City Land Behind Trader’s Joe, Portland.

“Staff has been directed to,,…….,, begin the campsite removal process.”  Those words are in the  policy statement released this morning to this blogger is an unpublicized, vague and undated response to this blogger’s inquiry about the rumored removal of the homeless  from the city land behind Trader Joe’s on Marginal Way in Portland.

The lack of transparency of this verbose statement to the press and hence the public suggests a fear of backlash by Interim City Manager West as experienced on previous occasions.  Maybe the removal will happen before anyone in the public notices that the “campers”, a.k.a the homeless, .are not camping anymore in the Park behind Trader Joe’s?  West is one of three final candidates under consideration to be Portland’s next city manager and most likely more negative PR coming from her is not to her advantage.. West is an attorney having served as corporate attorney for the city of Portland.  Attorneys often perfer to toil in the dark; not a good look for a city manager.

The undated policy statement regarding the homeless behind Trader Joe’s  could have gone into affect two months ago or two days ago.  There is no way of knowing. Why it has been kept under lock and key is curious and not stated in the statement released this morning by Jesssica Grondin, city spokeswoman, who is out of the office until Monday, April 24th.  The cold policy statement does not say who the “staff” is that will remove “campers” from the site.  Is it the Police department, the Parks  Department?  Or maybe its  the  PortlandPublic Library staff who will do the removing?  When?  In the dead of night in a sneak attack on the “campers?”

“Staff will immediately begin giving campers verbal notice of the planned removal,,,” Again, there is no date attached to this statement, so it is not known if that part of the process has officially begun yet or has been concluded.   “Written notice will be given at least 24 hours prior to the scheduled removal and in accordance with the administrative policy.”  Has that part of the process begun or been completed?   “When the removal occurs, any personal belongings left behind by ‘campers’ will be taken to Amistad, where they will be stored for at least one week for their owners to collect.”

“The area (behind Trader Joe’s) will be posted as an “emphasis area” upon the area being cleared.”  That gives staff the ability to remove any future structures without notice.  While the city spokeswoman may refer to them as “campers” most enligntened people call them “homeless.”

“I do not have an exact timeline of when the removal will occur, but it will be over the next week or two.  Cleanup is conducted by our Parks and Public Works Departments,” concludes the policy statement from city spokeswoman, Grondin.  Again, no dates at all attached to the policy statement which makes it impossible for the public or this member of the press to know just where in the process the city is.  It continues to beg the question, why wasn’t this policy statement issued in the form of a press release by the city?

Is this lack of transparency by the city like burying the unpopular and mishandled city policy toward the food truck operators off the Eastern Prom last year?  Or the city’s mishandlig of the Neo-Nazi Rally in Portland on April 1, 2023 for which the city had no response to its inaction during the event.  Bury this policy toward “campers” as deep as possible for fear of a backlash.  A troubling pattern indeed by ICM West.

Please visit previous post herein for more backgrond information on the subject of the tenters in the tent village behind Trader Joe’s, 87 Marginal Way, Portland.