My wife and I recently returned to Portland for a Michael Bublé concert after a four-year hiatus from the city. We stayed downtown. What a great place for tourists and families with children to visit. Drunks on every street corner. Tent cities with trash everywhere. Open drug deals and usage. Folks passed out on every sidewalk and doorstep. People sharing needles. The smell of urine and human feces. Man, what a picture for a tourism TV spot.

You have 120 open sworn police officer positions available and just three of 60 recent applicants passed background checks. Perfect. No wonder we saw not one Portland police officer from Friday at noon to Sunday at noon anywhere downtown. Madness. How is that possible? Maybe the chief of police needs to get away from her desk and police downtown.

What a great image to share with America. What a great image for young children to see. Parents don’t dare sit at sidewalk restaurants to allow their kids to see the lawlessness and debauchery. Great for businesses, too.

I suggest the oh-so-smart mayor and commissioners go downtown and pick up some garbage (used needles and empty wine bottles). Wash vomit off sidewalks. Shovel human waste off sidewalks.

How is this acceptable to any taxpayer in Multnomah County? Taxpayers and businesses of the city of Portland? It should not be. Period. Shameful. Disgusting. Unhealthy. Sick. Socially unacceptable. Clean it up.

Jeff Sayre, Lewiston, Idaho