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A growing homeless camp outside of Star Theater led co-owner Paul Park and his business partners to complain frequently to City Hall this summer. Like many downtown business owners, they were frustrated by the non-response.

(Courtesy of Star Theater)

The sidewalk outside Star Theater in Old Town this week was as clear as it's been in months -- no sleeping bags, people napping, overflowing shopping carts, or groups filling the walkway in front of the doors.

Relative quietude comes after tense summer months during which business owners, city officials, and homeless people grappled with sharing Portland's sidewalks, an annual jockey that has yet to find ongoing solutions.

This year, Mayor Charlie Hales tried evicting homeless campers from City Hall and cracking down on camping in public places. Dana Haynes, the mayor's spokesman, says the next step is to take a bill to the Oregon Legislature during the 2014 short session in an effort to toughen Portland's sidewalk laws. A similar effort by the Portland Business Alliance failed this summer.

"Has it been perfect? No," Haynes says. "It's been an ongoing struggle all summer; we still have business people in our community who call and say my place is really bad this week and you need to deal with it. We understand it's a real problem."

The city's response walks a line: enforcement without marginalizing vulnerable people or infringing on people's right to protest. But business owners remain frustrated.

Homeless people sit on the sidewalk outside Star Theater on the night of a show. Co-owner Paul Park says the prospect of walking through people to get to the door deterred would-be customers.

"The mayor displaced the problem, he didn't solve it," says Paul Park, co-owner of Star Theater. He and business partners for a month complained to police and City Hall about the growing camp in front of the music venue.

Each summer the number of people sleeping on Portland's sidewalks increases. Portland Police Bureau crime trends show assault, larceny, vandalism, disorderly conduct and liquor law violations spike from May through September. When rainy weather moves in, sidewalks clear as travelers move on to warmer weather and Portland's homeless move under bridges and roadways to stay dry, says police spokesman Sgt. Pete Simpson.



Advocates for the homeless say it's unfair to pin an increase in crime on people living on the street -- that lawbreakers are not synonymous with homeless.

Still, for a decade panhandlers and transients have topped downtown businesses' list of concerns, fueling the push for tougher enforcement.

"We're not unsympathetic to their situation," Park says. "But as business owners, there's a fine line."

The Portland Business Alliance has been in discussions with the mayor and outreach groups, working toward providing services to homeless people while keeping the sidewalks accessible, says Megan Doern spokeswoman for the alliance.

"We are continuing those discussions to develop a better solution than what we have now," she says.

Civility summit

The Portland Civility Summit will be 6 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 1, at Portland State University’s Smith Memorial Student Union Ballroom, 1825 S.W. Broadway, room 355.

The Downtown Public Safety Advisory Committee is hosting a civility summit on Oct. 1 in hopes of identifying solutions. For instance, Park suggests more day shelter space so people have a place to go during the day.

"It's become enough of an issue that many businesses are concerned about their viability, and it increasingly affects Portland's reputation with locals, tourists, visiting businesses and others," the group said in an email to downtown stakeholders.

Last week the situation outside Star Theater hit a tipping point when a crew setting up for the band Grouplove was reportedly maced by a man who witnesses say was with a group of homeless people.

"Your apathy on this issue is breeding intense resentment from everybody that visits, works, lives, or has a business downtown," Park wrote to the mayor's office following the incident. "Ordinary citizens are now becoming victims on the streets."

Park went through the same cyclic reporting process that has frustrated many downtown business owners: He calls Clean & Safe, whose representatives tell him to call the police. Police can do little since the city's sidewalk ordinance allows people to stay on the sidewalk as long as they're by furnishings, so officers tell him to call City Hall. Those officials tell him to call police.

Stacey Gibson, who owns five Subway sandwich shops in Portland, went through the same cycle. With little response, people in front of the shop at 1031 S.W. Sixth Ave. became increasingly aggressive, more open about drinking and using drugs, she says.

People sitting in front of Star Theater deter potential customers, says Paul Park, co-owner of the music venue. Owners were going to open up the back patio for daytime customers, but decided not to with the campers staying in front of the businesses.

"It's so frustrating," Gibson says. "They're very aggressive, they're very rude. They make it uncomfortable for our employees and our customers."

The mayor's office will be asking fellow commissioners to go to state lawmakers with legislation that would give Portland more control over its sidewalk laws, Haynes says.

This spring, the Portland Business Alliance's legislation with a similar goal passed the state House but died in a Senate committee. The effort reignited debate over the city's controversial "sit-lie law," which allowed police to ticket people for sitting or sleeping on public sidewalks. A circuit court judge in 2009 said it violated the state constitution.

Meanwhile, Haynes says, the mayor is looking to Commissioner Dan Saltzman's office for a proposal to bring more state and federal money to Portland for low-income housing, the focus of outreach groups' efforts for the past few years.

"You can say to a person, 'you can't live on the sidewalk,'" Haynes says. "But if you can say, 'and we have an option for you,' it's an infinitely better answer."

-- Sara Hottman