Urban living not working out due to crime

[KayLR]

Add to all this the smash & grabs. In my former city (I've moved to one of those rural backwater towns) shoplifting and driving stolen cars into storefronts and stealing whatever they can (many times into pot stores). Then they sell the stuff, probably to help fund their habits, pay bills, whatever.

One pot storeowner in Seattle was interviewed on the news this morning. Their windows are constantly boarded and re-boarded up from (videorecorded) thieves smashing or driving stolen vehicles through the windows and walls to steal merch. They've been told by the city they cannot erect those concrete barriers in front to protect their property. So they'll likely close up and go elsewhere, leaving an eyesore behind.

This is why downtown Portland looks like a ghost town.

The police are bare bones, underfunded (or de-funded) and in many cases have their hands tied. Speeders and other scofflaws on the freeways are rampant because of the do-not-pursue policies.

It's just a shitshow.

[jp1]

If the store owners control the property in front of the store I don't think the city or police really have any say over whether they put big barriers in front of the store. Unless there are zoning rules about such things. And if rules like that exist then the business-owners need to fight to have that changed. Moving to the suburbs will just move the problem to the suburbs.

[iris lilies]

If the store owners control the property in front of the store I don't think the city or police really have any say over whether they put big barriers in front of the store. Unless there are zoning rules about such things. And if rules like that exist then the business-owners need to fight to have that changed. Moving to the suburbs will just move the problem to the suburbs.

Of course there are “zoning rules” against concrete barriers in front of stores. They have to do with sidewalk egress, that is not going to change with business owners “fighting to have that changed. “ This is naïve.

[jp1]

Do you have a link to these zoning rules against bollards?

[iris lilies]

Do you have a link to these zoning rules against bollards?

Nope. I know from years of doing work in my neighborhood that there are all kinds laws and ordinances detailing sidewalk access. Some of them are even federal.

For instance, there is a federal law about crosswalk material. A nearby neighborhood thought they had solved the crosswalk aesthetic problem by painting cobblestone images on the street, rather than using actual cobblestones. Cobblestones are forbidden. But that did not make the federal guidelines because… I can’t remember exactly, I think because it was supposed to be a different enough material from street pavement for unsighted people to distinguish.

It may be true that the kinds of “bollards “you are envisioning may not be what I’m thinking about. We have street bollards of many types all over the city of St.Louis and all of them are some degrees of hideous.

[ToomuchStuff]

A lot of the bollard issue is placement. Leaving enough room for wheelchairs, etc, as some put them in the middle of the sidewalks, effectively leaving not enough room for a wheelchair on it, but they tend to leave enough room for them in between.
Have a convenience store that did that after being driven into 8 times for the ATM. Late jeweler friend had to have them closer to the door (where the building would still be damaged), to not interfere with handicapped access, while a gun store moved them out in front of their sidewalk, right behind the parking stop blocks.

[ToomuchStuff]

Actually the joke I remember was one threatened to put them in, and turn those spots into handicapped parking, using the bollards as sign posts or time limited spots (posts for those allowed).

[gimmethesimplelife]

Add to all this the smash & grabs. In my former city (I've moved to one of those rural backwater towns) shoplifting and driving stolen cars into storefronts and stealing whatever they can (many times into pot stores). Then they sell the stuff, probably to help fund their habits, pay bills, whatever.

One pot storeowner in Seattle was interviewed on the news this morning. Their windows are constantly boarded and re-boarded up from (videorecorded) thieves smashing or driving stolen vehicles through the windows and walls to steal merch. They've been told by the city they cannot erect those concrete barriers in front to protect their property. So they'll likely close up and go elsewhere, leaving an eyesore behind.

This is why downtown Portland looks like a ghost town.

The police are bare bones, underfunded (or de-funded) and in many cases have their hands tied. Speeders and other scofflaws on the freeways are rampant because of the do-not-pursue policies.

It's just a shitshow.

That was the one wonderful thing of many that I loved about the Portland I knew from 1991 to 1996 - downtown. Downtown Portland was incredibly scenic and cool and human scaled all at the same time. I once even walked right on by Vera Katz, a former mayor of Portland, while walking around downtown. I miss that downtown, I really do - sadly I have seen online the pics of graffiti, vandalism, boarded up stores, broken windows, homeless tents, etc. This is not the Portland I knew! So glad if it absoutely had to decline, I was there when it worked and was affordable and was something extra special. Rob

[KayLR]

That was the one wonderful thing of many that I loved about the Portland I knew from 1991 to 1996 - downtown. Downtown Portland was incredibly scenic and cool and human scaled all at the same time. I once even walked right on by Vera Katz, a former mayor of Portland, while walking around downtown. I miss that downtown, I really do - sadly I have seen online the pics of graffiti, vandalism, boarded up stores, broken windows, homeless tents, etc. This is not the Portland I knew! So glad if it absoutely had to decline, I was there when it worked and was affordable and was something extra special. Rob

Yep, even the Elk has been vandalized.

Just a few years ago I was able to take my granddaughter Christmas shopping down there when it was still magical and stores like Nordstrom were lovely. Grateful we have that memory.

[KayLR]

https://komonews.com/news/local/redm...on-pursuit-law

The storeowners also contend these are groups of juveniles stealing cars and doing the crash-n-grabs. Since they're juveniles, even if they're caught, they're released and back at it quickly.