Increasing Crime in Port Angeles: Perception vs. Reality
According to statistics, crime and homelessness in Port Angeles are down. But try telling that to the people who live and work downtown.
Nathan West said:
“Our businesses are being negatively impacted by the environment being created as the result of transients.
They are directly impacting the comfort level of the businesses. Sometimes, we hear about it daily.”
Leslie Robertson, moderator of the newly formed group, Revitalize Port Angeles, has talked to about 25 downtown business owners. She said:
“When you start talking to people, you hear it over and over and over again. They're not feeling safe, and it's getting worse.”
She thinks we need a second downtown resources officer, “so people feel safe when going there.”
Maybe. Or as one commenter said at the end of the linked article:
“Why not just rotate one officer each shift to walk the downtown area instead of riding around all day in a police cruiser?”
Nathan West said:
“Our businesses are being negatively impacted by the environment being created as the result of transients.
They are directly impacting the comfort level of the businesses. Sometimes, we hear about it daily.”
Leslie Robertson, moderator of the newly formed group, Revitalize Port Angeles, has talked to about 25 downtown business owners. She said:
“When you start talking to people, you hear it over and over and over again. They're not feeling safe, and it's getting worse.”
She thinks we need a second downtown resources officer, “so people feel safe when going there.”
Maybe. Or as one commenter said at the end of the linked article:
“Why not just rotate one officer each shift to walk the downtown area instead of riding around all day in a police cruiser?”
posted by Tom Harper at 11:27 AM
19 Comments:
Please don't bring back Officer Segway. That was a joke and any meth head could shuffle off faster than Fatso on his Segway.
Finally! Maybe we're starting to get somewhere. The real issue has finally been acknowledged in Port Angeles: Perception vs Reality.
As we have seen, Port Angeles civic leadership is content to say everything is just fine in Port Angeles. Chamber, PADA, City Council, Port. All say things don't really need to change. They are happy to feed misinformation to anyone that will listen, as long as they keep getting paid by the taxpayers.
We remember the recent fluff piece of contrived and manipulated data that HAD to have been provided by these same people that resulted in the rating of Port Angeles being among the "Top 5 Places to Live in the US."
Compare that perception with that of the downtown merchants quoted for this article "Things are bad, and getting worse".
Both cannot be true.
So, we see yet again the perception vs the reality. The efforts by the civic leadership to say what ever they need to, to convince people everything is fine in Port Angeles, when clearly, the reality is that Port Angeles has real serious problems.
Has this worked out, yet? After all these years?
Well, I'll agree with Bob Lumens with one thing. There's always been panhandling and there always will be.
But I think he's missing the point here. Yes, there are a lot of panhandlers in Pioneer Square. Thing is Pioneer Square is a very small part of downtown Seattle. Whereas here there's only one part of downtown Port Angeles. You either go downtown or you don't. I know plenty of people who avoid Pioneer Square, and I know plenty of people who avoid downtown Port Angeles. I'm usually one of them.
Furthermore, there may be a lot of panhandlers in Seattle, but there's also a lot of people. The ratio of panhandlers to people just going about there day is much higher there.
I can walk around Seattle without being hassled. I can easily avoid panhandlers there. Or I can stop, listen to their music or stories and throw down some money. If I feel like it.
Here the pandhandlers are impossible to avoid. Walking down the street or across, say, Swain's parking lot or even in downtown Safeway there's usually just me and the panhandler. Soon as they spot this lone person walking they move in with their hands out. And it happens to me all the damn time.
And it's not just panhandlers. There are plenty of people with behavioral problems downtown. Always have been. I've seen drunks, druggies, domestic fights, burn outs, crazies and they aren't always peaceful. I've seen those in Seattle too, but they're mixed in with a huge crowd of people. There's nothing quite like being alone on a street with someone screaming paranoid ravings at you.
So, Bob, you go right on believing this is nothing. Instead of listening to people and wondering if they have a point you go and stick your head in the sand like you've been doing. In the meantime I will be someplace else besides downtown.
And another thing, the PDN seems to be on a tear to prove there isn't any problem in this town. In the meantime Peninsula Behavior has gotten huge in the last decade and the Salvation Army is constructing a new building for the homeless. The only growth downtown has been DSHS and the Lee Hotel. The Lee Hotel is part of Peninsula Housing another group that's gotten huge. Peninsula Housing is for low-income families, but also for developmentally disabled, which is what the Lee Hotel is mostly for. People in my social circle and obviously other people too have noticed a lot more people who are homeless, panhandling or have behavioral problems walking the streets.
In other words how can anyone say with a straight face that there isn't a problem when it's so obvious the problem is increasing rapidly? How can they say there isn't a problem when most of the visible growth and new construction in Port Angeles is to deal with social issues like these?
Speaking of Perception VS Reality problems downtown, Bob Lumens and the Downtown Association need to do some introspective soul searching themselves. I would rank them as a much larger problem and determent to downtown than any crime or safety issue. It looks like their abysmal track record has caught up them.
It's not just downtown! Pick any "nice" part of town, drive down an alley! No one cares. The entire town is a facade!
And DON'T attempt this accessment on foot. Pedestrians here are targets. After all, most homeless don't have cars. And they are useless pieces of shit, no?
Please, someone start a new blog, I changed my mind, we just need to educate the voters, get some new talent, etc. Just put on your frowny face when you are out, no one will bother you. Or just use the drive throughs. Frugal's da bomb!
The problem is bigger than just the PADA. If all the focus is put on Fredricks and Lumens, then nothing will really change.
It is the culture of lying to the public that has developed in Port Angeles.
Look back at any of the projects and proposals that have been discussed in Port Angeles. Graving Dock? Harbor Works? Cutlers Turd Tank? Pen Ply? Landfill bluff?
In all these, the public has raised serious and valid concerns, but the civic leadership has been very content to lead everyone astray with lies. Stonewall the public, and misrepresent reality to everyone.
So, here we are.
Lumens response and quote are classic!
What an inspiring business community leader!
He should use this when he campaigns for re-election to the PADA Board!
And Bard should have it and Bob's picture blown up into poster for tourists. It's sure to generate even more money to support downtown revitalization!
I haven't had many problems with others getting in my face but I have things stolen from me, more than anywhere else I've lived.
My last purchase in this town will be for a tank of gas to start me on my way to a remote part of Texas.
" Leslie Robertson, moderator of the newly formed group, Revitalize Port Angeles..."
Hunh? I guess I'm not a member of the "special group" that she is inviting to ask to revitalize Port Angeles.
I wonder if she is inviting the transients and homeless folk?
Or, do you have to own property in Port Angeles to be a member? Make more than a certain amount?
Do some peoples' opinions and suggestions count more than others?
Just curious.
Goldthwaite, Tx. ...
No property taxes.
Low electric rates.
No building permit to build a new home.
Isn’t officals everywhere demanding how you have to do things.
Cheaper gas than here.
Etc, etc, etc.
We are being shafted here.
Billy sez: "We are being shafted here".
Come on. You knew this long ago. Anybody who has been here for very long knows this. The place is a rat hole.
Only chumps stick their heads in the sand, and think Port Angeles has anything worth being here for.
Remember what the former MAYOR of Port Angeles said? That she gets depressed when she comes back to Port Angeles from going somewhere else?
Hello? Are we paying attention yet?
I hate being HERE.
I'm going to go spend thanksgiving with number one daughter and family in Oregon, the rest of you monkeys are in charge while I'm gone. :-)
Have a pleasant thanksgiving.
Fucking rain...
Are we sure they're homeless and not just hipsters?
Unemployment jumps up to over 8%.
Glad to see McEntire and crew are doing such a great job!
Saw the clip in the paper about the downtown crime spree. That the girl behind "Revitalkize Port Angeles" is blaming the poor folks at the Lee Hotel?
All good, and getting better!
Well, I don't think they can do much to reduce the crime downtown being as the jail is full. It is more likely homeless people and tweakers than it is the folks living in the Lee.
There is a few problems in my area but it is mostly stuff being stolen. Only once has someone badgered me when I was out on a walk but when I pulled a gun out of my pocket he suddenly remembered that he needed to be somewhere else.
10:50 - I don't think she was "blaming the poor folks at the Lee Hotel" -- she was blaming the lack of security at the Lee. The "manager" at the Lee stops in once a week to make sure the building didn't burn and there aren't any dead bodies in the hall. The Lee and the downtown both need more security and more patrolling.
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