Cover Story | Downtown
Dillon Green skates behind his mixed breed dog, Katara, toward Riverfront Park: “Sometimes we ask for leftovers because we’re hungry.”
“OUR KIDS, OUR PROBLEM,” CONTINUED...
“
The mayor says he’s “angry” about violence in the city’s core. Indeed, few on the streets downtown are angels, “street kid” or otherwise. As midnight approaches on a crisp Thursday and Coulter’s group panhandles outside the darkened Ridpath Hotel, others down the street, mostly in their late 20s or 30s, explain their own home-
We’re not trying to move them on. We’re trying to move them into a life that’s better for themselves.” lessness and meth addictions. They look over their shoulders. One trades marijuana for a cigarette. Another wears a black necktie to indicate he’s got “a product to sell.” Bar patrons inch toward the far edge of the sidewalk as they pass the group. Just a block away and two weeks earlier, a KXLY cameraman caught video of a teenager punching a man, knocking him to the ground and running away with other teens, laughing the whole time. That night, the same group reportedly broke into and stole from Sport Town near Main and Stevens. Last
24 INLANDER OCTOBER 3, 2013
summer, a bouncer at the nearby Jimmy’z on Sprague said he was jumped by a group of 20 teenagers after getting off work, landing him in the hospital. And within the past year, the owners of both the 3-month-old cafe Beignets and downtown mainstay the Blue Spark blamed their closures on young loiterers. Up a few blocks, at the skate park under the freeway, even experienced young homeless people say the violence and drug use are too rough to risk. But the statistics alone warrant a closer look at downtown. There have been small increases in some types of violent crime: two commercial robberies to last year’s one; two more assaults than there had been by this time in 2012. But violent crime overall — including homicide, rape, robbery and assault — is down nearly 5 percent citywide and about 12 percent downtown. And while property crime is up across the city, it’s down downtown. On a weeknight in the downtown core, marked and unmarked officers patrol. During the day, bike cops and officers on foot are out too. “Overall, I believe our downtown is safe, but … I am not pleased with where we are at this point,” says Mayor David Condon. “We have a significant amount of work to do.” Bridget Cannon, programs director at the downtown youth shelter Crosswalk, says the problems of downtown aren’t new, though she blames media and social media for exaggerat-
ing them this year. She points out that Crosswalk keeps kids overnight, so those punching Satellite patrons aren’t also staying at her shelter. Late last month, she and the shelter’s kids gathered to talk about recent violence. The kids were worried they’d get lumped in with those making trouble, Cannon says, so they suggested signing pacts of nonviolence or doing a downtown cleanup. Cannon calls teenagers and young adults on the street “completely disconnected, meaning they’re not enrolled in school, they’re not employed, they’re doing absolutely nothing.” And changing that may be harder than it seems to most. Cannon points to a difficult job market and the problems people can face renting a house or apartment without a job. “I’m not making an excuse by any means [for those who are violent],” she says, “but if you want to know who they are, that’s part of the picture.”
The fear alone has been enough to spark a community discussion, with business owners, police and the City Council taking action on the threat — real or perceived — they believe the so-called “street kids” pose. First, businesses took matters into their own hands. Across the street from the Macy’s