By James Huffman

If you visit Alexis Restaurant on West Burnside, you will find a framed copy of a commentary I published in The Oregonian more than a year ago. (Or, if you are worried about visiting Chinatown, you can read it here.) It's about my friends Gerry Tsirimiagos and Alexis Bakouros and their struggles to keep the doors of a Portland institution open. Now it looks like they are giving up the struggle. Gerry hopes to sell to someone who will keep the place open. He's even willing to stay on as host extraordinaire for a while.

But the circumstances that have driven Gerry and Alexis to consider ending their 34-year run on the edge of Chinatown will make it difficult for anyone else to succeed.

The problem for Alexis and other businesses in Chinatown, including now closed Ping (in which I was an investor), is that longtime customers stopped coming. They stopped coming because Chinatown is a mess, and at the heart of that mess is RightToDreamToo (R2D2), an illegal homeless camp the "city that works" has tolerated for nearly four years.

Actually our fearless leaders have not just tolerated the camp. They have encouraged it, praised it and helped arrange for nearly a million dollars to support it. There was a plan to move it in 2013, but the more influential folks in the Pearl District objected. So it remains an open sore in Chinatown while jobs that would help get the R2D2 campers off the streets are lost to dying businesses.

Last month, Mayor Charlie Hales wrote in this paper that "(n)o one is above the law." He was referring to Uber's defiance of the city's taxi licensing rules. Although Uber seems like a great innovation, I'm fully on board with the mayor's proclaimed dedication to the rule of law. So, Mr. Mayor, what about the clearly illegal homeless camp? Why are they above the law?

If Gerry decided to put tables on the sidewalk in front of his restaurant, you can bet city enforcers would be there within hours with a citation for unlawful use of public property. Yet unlawful use of private property a block away is celebrated by the mayor as the work of a "unique community ... doing valid work in a special way that no government agency ever thought of," and R2D2 is lauded by Commissioner Steve Novick as "an extraordinary organization."

What is truly extraordinary is that Alexis restaurant has defied the odds for restaurants anywhere in Portland by thriving for 34 years in one of the city's most neglected neighborhoods. What is truly extraordinary is that our mayor encourages unlawful use of private property in the heart of the city while declaring his commitment to the rule of law in this newspaper.

Just before Christmas, my son and I had dinner at Alexis and spent most of the evening talking with Gerry. He's had it. Enough is enough, though never enough to dissuade Gerry from dashing to the door to welcome the few visitors and thank those departing. Life has more to offer than butting your head against a city government that is totally unresponsive to the needs of your neighborhood.

More than two years ago, my son and I met with city policy assistant Matthew Robinson in the mayor's office. We showed him what the camp had done to Ping's business. He promised to get back to us. After hearing nothing for a couple of months, I contacted Robinson and was told things were slowed down due to a lawsuit. Since then, I have made numerous attempts to communicate with the mayor's people about their plans for the camp and have learned only that Robinson is no longer working on that matter. His replacement has been unresponsive.

I have long since written off my investment in Ping. Unlike my ever-optimistic son, I doubt that even family ties will get me to make any other business investments in this city.

As for Gerry and Alexis, I'm sad, but not worried. These guys are the classic American success story — law-abiding entrepreneurs willing to work long hours to make a better life for their families. The demise of Alexis Restaurant would be a wrenching emotional loss for them, but the same initiative and self-reliance that made their restaurant a success from the beginning will carry them forward with Alexis Foods, and more hard-earned time in their Greek homeland.

The real losers in this unfortunate saga are the citizens of Portland.

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James Huffman is dean emeritus of Lewis & Clark Law School.