What is being done to keep Springwater Trail safe?
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PORTLAND, Ore. – KATU News has heard a lot from its viewers after an earlier story this week about safety problems on the Springwater Trail. So on Friday it sent a news reporter along with a patrol squad.
Portland park rangers ran into plenty of people who seemed homeless or transient Friday along the Springwater Trail. It's perfectly legal to hang out in hidden spaces along the trail as long as nobody is drinking or camping.
Portland police and park rangers patrol the trail together, especially along problem areas like near 82nd Avenue.
"People interested in engaging in illegal activity, drinking, drugs, or illegal camping, know they can come down into these spots and hide and they'll be relatively unseen," said Brenton Chose, a park ranger.
Rangers say they try to patrol the problem spots at least once a day.
Responding to criticism from some people that say the city isn't doing enough to make the trail safe, Chose said: "I'd say we're trying as best as we can."
Rangers walk the problem stretches five days a week. The police do so less often – about three days a week.
But none of them do so 24/7.
Some people want more lights and emergency call boxes along the trail, but Chose said, "Because the trail is 20 miles long, you'd have to have a lot of lights and emergency call boxes. I think the efforts by the park rangers and police are really helping, and that's the right way to go."
Portland parks is adding 20 new rangers to the staff next week. Part of their job will be to patrol the Springwater Trail.
Armed and armored bicycles could cruise the trail?
Walkers, joggers, and bikers should have their CCW permit. A compact .380 is a real deterant.
I don't use that trail. I don't want my tax payer money to go something I don't use. Isn't that the current refrain from many in our society today - e.g., I don't have kids in school so why should I pay property taxes.Â
''Homeless or transient? Whatever happened to the word Bum? Did it become a P.C. Casualty?
 @disenchanted1Â
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There were also hobo and tramp and traveler and coolie and another for a cowboy but they all had different meanings to identify particular types of people. I think homeless or transient is both p.c. and a catch-all.
 @Icarus In my mind, there is a big difference between a homeless person and a transient.  A homeless person can simply be somebody that's fallen on hard times - somebody that's lost their job, a victim of abuse, etc. Â
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A transient is what's popularly known as "bums."  Chronic alcoholics, junkies and people suffering from severe mental illness that travel from city to city and have no intention to try to rejoin society.
Don't stop at 82nd. There are numerous homeless CAMPS as you travel east from there.'
Those of us in the Gresham-Damascus areas near the trail nearly all have dogs and fencing to keep the vagrants off of our property. I'm near the end of the paved portion of the trail and there are at least 3 encampments within a few minutes walk of here. It would be great to see some patrols out this way, or at the very least some maintenance to trim back the over grown sections, where predators can easily camp and hide in wait.
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I ride through the Rose Quarter and along the Springwater into Sellwood every day, and there are always people parked just south of the Ross Island bridge...I'm sure the rangers and police know they camp there...I never feel threatened there though....from Johnson Creek to way past 82nd is another story...
sorry....not parked, camped...
It sounds like the Rangers need to do some more nighttime sweeps.
This story doesn't mention the transient that randomly attacked a stranger on the Eastbank Esplanade yesterday (which connects with Springwater).
Look at the mess they make. Perhaps a weekly sweep along the trail with a dumptruck to pick up all the crap that is hauled in by the transients and druggies. If their "possessions" keep disappearing, perhaps they will too.
 @wonderingÂ
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People don't just "disappear" any more than they just "appear". People are born...they move about for a time...and then they die. A very few get fabulously wealthy while a much larger number end up on the streets including many veterans.Â
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Things and people only "appear" and "disappear" in magic acts and fairy tales.