THE "LETTERS TO THE EDITOR" ARE BELOW THE EDITORIAL
OBITUARIES ARE BELOW THE LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

From The Editor
Prostitution
Just off 82nd Avenue, near S.E. Duke Street, police arrest a woman on charges of soliciting for prostitution. (Photo by David F. Ashton)

Earth to City Council: We need those zones back!

 

Last December, in our editorial composed largely of a well-research report on the subject by our correspondent David F. Ashton, we pointed out that although residents and law enforcement personnel along S.E. 82nd “Avenue of Roses” found that Portland’s “Prostitution Free Zone” and “Drug Free Zone” ordinances were working well, and having the needed effect along this major street, the City Council let the ordinances expire.

 

The rationale for this lapse by our city government was apparently that there could be an infringement on the rights of prostitutes and drug users, plus a study reportedly found lack of evidence of the effectiveness of the ordinances. Oddly, the study on which these conclusions were based concentrated entirely on “Old Town” in Northwest Portland, mostly on the drug matter, and did not even consider S.E. 82nd Avenue, where the major problem was and is prostitution.

 

So, what has happened since these ordinances were allowed to lapse?  Once again, David Ashton has been reporting on that at his www.eastpdxnews.com. Although 82nd is outside the primary service area of THE BEE, it’s the nearest major commercial street, and frankly ladies and gentlemen, 82nd is NOT that far away! With David’s permission we quote from his most recent report, which had the depressing title, “Prostitution blooms on Avenue of Roses”….

 

Even though it’s vastly understaffed, the Portland Police Bureau Drug and Vice Division (DVD) goes after the fifty or so local sex-for-sale pushers, commonly known as pimps.

 

We learned from Sgt. Doug Justice, the man who currently heads DVD, how their three-person “division” doesn’t have the manpower to go after street-level prostitution. “We leave that to the precincts.”

 

On any afternoon or evening these days, along 82nd Avenue of Roses, it seems like we’re seeing more and more “girls on the stroll” – prostitutes, slowly walking along, or hanging out at bus stops as bus after bus rolls by.

 

“It’s not your imagination,” said Portland Police Bureau East Precinct Officer Rich Steinbronn who, along with Officer Michael Gallagher and a team of cops, was working a prostitution mission on the day we spoke. “Prostitution has been steadily increasing – and with nice weather, it’s really taken off. Typically they really don’t like working in the rain. But if they’re forced to, they'll work in any kind of weather.”

 

It isn’t necessarily the way these prostitutes wear their hair, dress, or are made up that makes them stand out as being different from female pedestrians – as we learned from Gallagher, as we watched the action on 82nd Avenue, while hidden in an undercover police vehicle. “Normally, women who walk along a street don’t keep looking around trying to make eye contact with passing cars,” he commented.

 

As we waited for officers and decoys to get into position, the officers candidly admitted they’ll never put an end to street prostitution. “Street prostitution ‘imports crime’ – it brings individuals into a neighborhood for the purpose of committing an illegal act,” Gallagher said.

 

“Unlike a ‘john’ (customer) who sets up a ‘date’ (sex-for-money meeting) from a CraigsList ad in a motel room or apartment,” Steinbronn added, “these johns will drive the prostitute around the corner and into the neighborhoods alongside 82nd Avenue. They’ll take care of their business in a church parking lot, in front of a school, just along a side street. They leave behind used condoms.”

 

Beyond negative impacts on neighborhoods, the officers say they’ve seen an alarming rise in the number of young girls – as young as 14 years of age – being pressured into prostitution.

 

With all of the team in place, we watched as this particular “female decoy mission” or “john mission” swung into action.

 

We watched a female Portland Police Officer, dressed in very ordinary, casual clothing – not a flashy, attention-getting costume – slowly walk up and down 82nd Avenue. Unlike some actual street prostitutes we’ve observed, these female undercover officers don’t shout, wave, or point at passing cars.

 

Within minutes, though, we saw the driver of a car on 82nd Avenue slow down and make eye contact with the undercover officer. The driver turned into a side street and slowly drove past the undercover vehicle, and then turned into a restaurant parking lot. He motioned for the female undercover officer to walk over to him.

 

It didn’t take long for the john to propose a sex act for a specific amount of money. The undercover officer made an innocuous gesture that signaled the “Custody Team” of uniformed officers to swoop in and make the arrest.

 

“It’s amazing how many guys go cruising 82nd Avenue looking for a prostitute,” Steinbronn remarked. “We would arrest many more johns during each mission, except for the time it takes for our custody team to process and transport each of these alleged prostitution customers to the Justice Center, and book them into jail.”

 

We noticed two females, dressed in inappropriately short skirts and low-cut blouses, wearing a great deal of makeup, strolling along in shoes with heels so high that most women would consider wearing them “cruel and unusual punishment”.  A man, dressed in prototypical zoot suit attire, walked with them.

 

The group seemed oblivious to the police cars roaring by with emergency lights flashing as another john got busted.

 

Officer Gallagher told us he recognizes the trio from past prostitution missions. He radioed to a marked patrol car, asking the officers to move them down the avenue so they can continue working their mission.

 

In all, their team arrested seven johns in one day, and eleven the next.

 

Asked why half of their missions are focused on arresting johns, Steinbronn explained, “Without the demand created by the johns, there wouldn’t be the supply of prostitutes working the street.”

 

Their missions are focused on curbing prostitution along 82nd Avenue this time, Steinbronn explained. “We found very few prostitutes working N.E. Sandy Boulevard, in the Parkrose area. They’ve really congregated along the length of 82nd Avenue, from Sandy Boulevard south to Clackamas County.”

 

We asked the officers why they think prostitution along 82nd Avenue of Roses is flourishing.

 

Choosing their words carefully, the officers told us that since certain Portland City ordinances were allowed to end, the number of prostitutes working has increased, because there is little consequence if they’re arrested.

 

“Let me illustrate it like this,” Steinbronn explained. “We arrested a gal yesterday. She was taken into custody and to jail. And, we arrested the same gal again today, still wearing the exact same clothes she had on yesterday.”

 

When a custody team officer asked why she was back out on the street again, hopping – unknowingly – into yet another undercover police car, Steinbronn says the cop reported she said, “I need to turn two tricks [sex acts] today. I don’t worry about you guys. I’ll be out [of jail] in a couple of hours.”

 

While reinstating Prostitution-free Zones won’t “cure” street-level prostitution, everyone with whom we’ve spoken in law enforcement says they were a good “tool” to reduce the prevalence of street-sex sales activity.

 

We’re told that since cities in the Seattle region have stepped up anti-prostitution enforcement and instituted ordinances, their rates of prostitution have dropped – and prostitutes themselves report that they’ve traveled south to work the Portland streets, because the demand is high here and the penalties are low.

 

Perhaps when the makeup of Portland’s city government changes in the new year, city leaders will once again revisit the Prostitution-free Zone ordinance. If they want to hear it, Portland’s own police officers will tell them that the zones really do help reduce the sex – openly for sale – on East Portland streets.

 

Thus, with our thanks, this up-to-date report by David F. Ashton on the consequences along S.E. 82nd of the decision by the Portland City Council last year to let the Prostitution Free Zone and Drug Free Zone ordinances lapse.

 

Worrying about the rights of those who choose (or are compelled by pimps) to break the law is all well and good, but we submit that the rights of those who live and work in the affected area rightfully take precedence. And, despite the expressed fears by the City Council, these ordinances have stood up in court, found fair to all concerned.

 

We call on the new Portland City Council, headed by its new Mayor, Sam Adams, to re-enact these valuable and supportable ordinances and take a step to meaningfully improve the quality of life for those who live and work near Portland’s “82nd Avenue of Roses”.

Letters to the Editor

 

Enjoying Sellwood-Westmoreland flower baskets…?

 

Editor,

 

I hope everyone is enjoying our colorful flower baskets near the businesses of Sellwood and Westmoreland! In order to keep them watered, and thus colorful and alive all the way to Labor Day, we need to raise more money – an additional $8,000 to keep them growing until September. We have already raised $12,000; keeping them watered DAILY (which is necessary in summer weather) is not cheap! The Sellwood-Westmoreland Business Alliance has sponsored them for the past two years, and this is the first year the project has expanded again to serve Sellwood. Each basket costs a total of $275 for the season. We have had many community and business donations in all sorts of amounts, from $75 to $275; any amount will be appreciated. If readers would like to help with the flower basket project, mail check to: SWBA, P.O. Box 82103, Portland, OR 97282. Make check payable to SWBA or the Sellwood-Westmoreland Business Alliance. Thanks for your help keeping the community bright and colorful this summer!

 

Lynne Murphy

for the SWBA

Via e-mail

 

 

How to make a conventional VCR work with digital TV?

 

Editor,

 

Thank you for the helpful article [“From the Editor”, July BEE] on the confusion caused by the digital TV changes that are coming next year. Would it be possible to follow that up with some information on how our VCR’s will be impacted? I do not have cable, and currently receive fine digital reception with an attic antenna, but I record most programs on my VCR and watch them later. I suspect I will have to get something to replace my VCR next year. I have not seen this issue discussed anywhere and any information you could provide would be helpful.

 

Rod Bell

via e-mail

 

EDITOR’S NOTE: Your VCR will continue to work, but after next February’s switch to digital broadcasting, you will not be able to program the VCR to tape more than one show on one channel at a time. You will have to have a digital converter for the VCR, and then either tune the VCR to channel 3 or 4 (whichever you set the converter box for), OR you can connect the video output of the converter box to the video input on the VCR. But, you will have to do a couple of things when you set the VCR to record a program. First, the VCR’s own converter box needs to be set (in its menu) NOT to turn itself off. Apparently this “energy saving” feature is being built into most of the converter boxes – certainly the ones I have been buying at Radio Shack do – and, by default, they seem to be set to turn themselves off after 4 hours of operation. There will be a setting in the timer section of the box’s menu (on my Radio Shack boxes, paradoxically it is called “off” on the timer menu) which allows the box, once turned on, to stay on indefinitely. Set it that way, so the source of the VCR's programming does not shut itself off before the recording starts, or while it is in progress! Second, set the converter box to the channel on which the program is going to be which you want to record. Then, just program the VCR to record the output of the converter box (ch. 3 or 4, or video input) at the specified hour, and you should record the program. At this time, few if any converter boxes have the capability of being set to change stations at a particular time, though perhaps such a box will be made available by retailers in advance of next February.

 

 

Truckload of Styrofoam recycled

 

Editor:

 

We would like to thank the community for bringing us its block Styrofoam for recycling June 25.  We had such an enormous response that Wallace Books and the Moreland Farmers Market had to rent a 17 foot U-Haul truck to transport the Styrofoam to the recycling center.  The truck was filled to capacity!  This month’s Styrofoam drop-off date will be August 27th, at the Moreland Farmers Market, at Bybee Boulevard at S.E. 14th, on the Wilhelm’s Portland Memorial parking lot, from 3:30-7:30 pm.  This applies only to clean block Styrofoam. If anyone in the community has a large truck and would be willing to lend the truck for the transporting of the Styrofoam to the recycling center, to avoid the rental charges for this service, please contact Julie Wallace, 503/702-9297.

 

In addition, Project Linkage is again providing rides for seniors and people with disabilities to and from the Moreland Farmers Market. The schedule:

 

Group 1 -- Kirkland Union Manor
July 30, Aug 13, 27, Sept 10, 24 -- Pick up time 3-3:10

Group II -- St. Anthony Village, Villa St. Margaret, Kenilworth Park Plaza, Holgate House
July 30,Aug 13, 27, Sept 10, 24 -- Pick up time 2:45-3:30

Group III -- Weidler Commons, Laurelhurst Village, Sacred Heart Villa, Westmoreland’s
Union Manor
Aug 6, 20, Sept 3, 17 -- Pickup Time 2:45-3:30

Those wanting to take advantage of these rides should call 503/249-0471 to reserve.

 

Laura Wendel

Manager, Moreland Farmers Market

via e-mail

 

 

Annoyed at THE BEE

 

Editor,

 

I am disappointed in THE BEE. In April I submitted a birth announcement for a new grandson. When it didn’t appear in the May issue, I figured I had missed the deadline. I’ve lived in the Brooklyn area for 49 years and have been an avid reader of THE BEE since February 1958, at that time living in Sellwood. The announcement I wanted made was that “William Elijah Bradford arrived April 2, 2008, to Bill Bradford and Jennifer Tate. Welcoming the little (5 lb. 4 oz.) bundle of joy are Grandparents Karen Bradford  (Brooklyn neighborhood) and Glen and Nancy Anderson of Union, New Jersey, and brothers Jacob John Paul and Glen”. I look forward to THE BEE, but it doesn’t seem to have much local news anymore.

 

Karen Bradford

Brooklyn

via e-mail

 

EDITOR’S NOTE: As we have now explained to Ms. Bradford, THE BEE does not print birth announcements, engagements, or wedding announcements. We regret that this long established policy has been a disappointment to her, and we congratulate her on the grandchild which regrettably we cannot report having arrived. We confess to being baffled by the perception that we offer little local news, since as a matter of policy that is all we print in the newspaper. Perhaps she has gotten so absorbed in the ads that she has not been reading the articles. If that is the case, our advertisers, all of whom are also local, will hardly object!

 

 

“Green Team” assembling in Sellwood

 

Editor,

 

As chair of the SMILE Green Team, I wanted to extend an opportunity for my neighbors to enhance the sustainability within their own community and homes.  As reported in THE BEE regularly, there are many neighbors doing collaborative things with sustainability in mind.  The SMILE Green Team was set up to help facilitate those conversations, develop community projects and assist each other to green our own lives.  We aim to do this by supporting informal gatherings, encouraging local advocacy and educating each other about our passions and adventures! Some of our family-friendly initiatives include:

  • “Green Drinks” at The Muddy Rudder 6 pm, the evenings of SMILE meetings.
  • Green Festivals,
  • Community Gardens,
  • “Master Recycling”,
  • Water Recapture and Usage,
  • Renewable and Conservation of Energy,
  • Electric Vehicles,
  • Bike Boulevards,
  • The Portland Plan….and more!

For more information contact me at 971/322-8647, or e-mail: pk@amberwinds.net.

 

Philip Krain

Sellwood

via e-mail

 

 

Spelling variation led to incorrect conclusion

 

Editor,

 

I was forwarded a BEE article in December 2007 (I know, so long ago). Anyhow, the article was about prostitution in Portland, etc. In it, you mentioned Rehab’s Sisters and stated that they were no longer around.  Well we are around, but we’re called Rahab’s Sisters with an “A”. Rahab was a prostitute in the Bible, so it’s not Rehab, like rehabilitation. We’ve been open for four years, and run every Friday night from 7-10 pm. We are a ministry of hospitality and presence for prostituted and marginalized women; and we operate out of Saints Peter and Paul Episcopal Church which sits right on 82nd Avenue.  We also now have a sister organization, “The Crimson Cord”, also open on Friday nights.

 

Deidre

via e-mail 

 

All letters to the editor are subject to editing for clarity and available space, and all letters become property of THE BEE.

Obituary
Byron Orville Bousha

Byron Orville Bousha, a 50-year resident of Westmoreland, living in the same house at S.E. 13th near Bybee Boulevard the entire time, died on July 1st of kidney failure. He was born in Portland on July 7, 1933, and had served in the National Guard and the Coast Guard Auxiliary. He married Lael M. Barker in 1953, and was an electronic technician for the Portland Public Schools until hiss retirement in 1988. His is survived by his wife Lael, his daughter Cyntha Ann Tippery, and his son Terry R. Bousha, by ten grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren. A funeral service was conducted on the afternoon of July 7th at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints at the Moreland Ward Building, 7880 S.E. Milwaukie Avenue. Arrangments were by Wilhelm’s Portland Memorial. Rembrances are directed to the L.D.S. Missionary Fund, c/o Wilhelm’s Portland Memorial.

 



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