Businesses demand city crackdown on panhandlers

PORTLAND, Ore. – Business owners in a closed-door meeting Tuesday demanded that Mayor Sam Adams crackdown on aggressive panhandling in downtown Portland, which they said is causing their customers to go elsewhere.

“In our opinion they are very aggressive,” said Central Drug Pharmacy manager Shelley Bailey, one of nearly 70 business managers and owners asking the city for a new plan to make downtown customer-friendly.

 “We’ve had customers say they don’t want to walk on our side of the street,” she said.

Since 1903, Central Drug has been serving customers at the southeast corner of Southwest Fourth Avenue and Alder Street. Its store is near the landmark Greek Cusina.

“We’ve had customers tell us [that] unless we move our pharmacy, they’ll have to find a new pharmacy,” Bailey said.

She emphasized that it’s not the chronic homeless that’s causing trouble. It’s the young transients who pass through town.

Shaee Jackman, who is a homeless teenager, said that most of the people she hangs out with respect businesses. “We clean up after ourselves,” she said.

The owner of Geraldi’s, also on Fourth Avenue, said city leadership isn’t serving small businesses. “We used to have a double line (of people) going out the door in two directions. Now business is really down,” said Joan Wojciechowski.

In addition to aggressive panhandling, she said high rents, high fees, and difficult parking is shutting down businesses and forcing them to the suburbs.

“Small business is the backbone and we’re being stomped over,” she said.

Bailey said businesses are looking for leadership from Portland City Council. “All Portlanders, all Oregonians are losing with the lack of more aggressive solutions by City Council and the mayor,” she said.

The mayor and city commissioners declined to comment for this story, citing they were too busy.

A mayor’s representative said there will be public hearings about this issue.