So tonight's big story is Old Town.
Have you been down there lately?
Do you know why they call it Old Town?
I want to read a quick
description from Travel Portland.
This is the one that's online right now.
The city's oldest neighborhood is filled with
surprises from authentic Chinese restaurants,
teahouses and a city block
sized traditional garden.
Portland's original downtown is a
bustling entertainment district
and street wear shopping hub.
That's one way to.
Put it, yeah, it is full of surprises.
I'll admit that,
but I think you're missing a few details.
For instance,
Old Town currently is nothing like that
at all and is actually a total disaster.
Its streets are lined with tents and
homelessness and suffering and addiction,
mental illness and violence.
The businesses are struggling
not just to stay open,
but to keep their workers safe.
Same goes for some of the
nonprofits that are down there,
and some of the people who live in that area.
Or commute through.
There are terrified or are becoming
victims of some of this violence now
been wanting to do a story on Old
Town for some time now because we
know that it's less of a bustling
entertainment district and more like a
humanitarian crisis with lives on the line.
And I'm not.
I'm not overstating that over the summer.
Just a few examples here over the
summer and out of town visitor,
a tourist was chased by a woman
and stabbed in the street.
The attack was random,
unprovoked and it happened in the
middle of the day or this story in
late August when two women and a boy,
a 6 year old,
were attacked by a woman with a hatchet
and an axe while they waited in line
for pizza or all of the shootings
that we've seen down in that area.
Like this one we reported on when five
people were shot at a vigil in Old Town
while those people were down at the vigil.
Remembering their friend who
was killed after being shot in
Old Town in the last year.
There have been five homicides
in Old Town the year before.
There were zero.
There have been 20 shootings
over the past year in Old Town,
more than twice the number that
we saw there the year before,
and the vast majority of those
70% of them were just in the last
six months and let me give you
an example of just one of those
shootings like the vigil shooting
that I mentioned just a moment ago.
A drive by that was caught on
her on hotel surveillance camera.
I know what kind of gun that is.
And that counts all those shots that
counts as one shooting in the books.
That is the real Old Town,
or should I say Chinatown, right?
That's the other name that it
goes by because of its rich
history of Chinese influence.
Remember what travel Portland said?
The authentic Chinese restaurants teahouses
in a city block sized traditional garden,
well that traditional garden
is a treasure in this city,
or at least it's supposed to be.
This is footage from the KGW vault.
When launch, Sue opened 21 years ago.
Everything inside was shipped from China.
This was a huge deal.
It's about as authentic as you can
get in EU S everyone in town got
all dressed up and the city bragged
about it during the grand opening.
It's
a whole different experience when
you're here alone, and the lighting is
illuminating certain parts of trees.
Certain parts of rocks, things like that.
It's just a very tranquil it.
It's a transports you to another realm.
Really, this garden has surpassed anything
that we thought it was going to be.
Yeah, it was a big deal.
Our story featured former mayor
Bud Clark walking around with
a camcorder in one hand and a
glass of wine in the other hand.
Check him out.
This project was built on a full city block,
a very valuable city owned land
in a city full of politicians who
claim to respect and honor the
Pacific influence on our culture.
Here from the generations of Asian
immigrants and their relatives.
But 21 years and that grand
opening was a long time ago,
things have changed.
The executive director of Lawn
Sue sent out this letter to
everyone involved with the garden,
explaining that the situation there is.
Dyer, I'll let her explain the details.
This is Elizabeth, not.
I have had staff in the last week assaulted.
I have had staff in their cars,
chased with people chasing
after them with metal pipes.
We had somebody die on the
streets right next to launch
Sue we have had gunshots.
All of this is too much to
ignore and not address.
We will do what is necessary
for us to keep our staff or
visitors and our volunteers safe.
So what does that mean?
They're going to do whatever they have to do.
Well, what it's meant so far is that
they've had to hire private security,
and then they've already had to increase
the patrols of that security 'cause things
were worse than they even thought they were.
They've been partnering with
nonprofits to clean up the sidewalks
outside the city isn't doing it.
They are the workers who work there.
And the volunteers who work there
have had to use the buddy system if
they want to use public transit,
you can really get a sense of the gardens.
Tranquil influence, can't you?
They sent us some of the
most recent incident.
Reports from the past the past few weeks I
want to read a couple of them for you here.
A staff member was verbally
threatened by a homeless woman.
A staff member was physically
assaulted on their way to work.
A staff member was chased, leaving work.
A tent caught fire outside.
Someone was publicly using
drugs in the front Plaza.
A man was found dead in his tent.
A trash can was stolen outside and
they sent us a video of a woman
using a rock tide up in her sleeve
to smash the front door.
I mean, it's one thing when
you start to become numb,
it's like Oh yes, Oh my gosh,
there was another attack.
There was another forced entry.
And then you just start thinking
about one after another after another.
It's it's enough.
It's just too much.
Do you feel forgotten about
by the people in this city?
That's a great question, I don't.
Know that we are forgotten about.
I feel like people see what is happening.
I just am not convinced there's an
urgency to addressing what is happening.
How urgent is this now?
It is extremely urgent.
So with that urgency,
what is the city doing in Old Town?
I'm told the Mayor's office
organizes a weekly program,
a Problem Solvers meeting with
the leaders down in that area,
which does sound promising,
but I hear that the only things they're
really focusing on are things that the
city considers to be quote unquote,
solvable problems.
One of the examples I was given
was an issue with parking.
In fact, when I asked Elizabeth
Nye about those meetings,
she got a little bit upset.
If I if I gave you the power as
police chief or as the mayor,
what do you think? Do you need?
We need more police down here?
Do we need more resources to get people care?
Do we need? I don't know.
I'm going to tell you something.
Some of the.
Conversation is shifted to everybody
knows what the problems are, so don't
come to me unless you have solutions.
That's what we're being told.
Well, I don't have the solutions.
My job is to run lawn, Sue.
Your job is to show up and make our
city safe so that we can do that.
And all of this in a place that's supposed
to bring calm and tranquility to our city.
The contradiction is glaring.
And just so you fully understand what
the people down there are dealing with,
many of those people who
work there are volunteers.
Most of them are older people,
many of them are Chinese Americans,
and this pandemic has made things
especially tense for them.
If you can believe it,
they are still facing racism
surrounding the coronavirus.
People are actually paying money to
go to a Chinese garden and then yell
racist slurs at the workers there.
And anti maskers are regularly throwing
fits because they have a mask policy.
The venue is outside so people
think they can go there and maybe
not have to wear a mask,
but it's hard to be socially distant
so they require them and people get
mad and yell at those volunteers
morale is at an all time low.
And to be honest,
there's no light on the horizon,
or in other words,
a bustling entertainment district
that's full of surprises.