In light of a rash of illegal occupations of vacant structures, Portland police want property owners to get “trespass agreements” so that officers can enter the premises and arrest squatters immediately.

Otherwise, Lt. Robert King of the Portland Police Bureau said, officers must contact owners first and ask them to swear out complaints.

Individuals allied with Occupy Portland and a subgroup’s members calling themselves Blazing Arrow have been squatting in vacant structures to protest what they believe are “illegal” foreclosures.

Police began suggesting trespass agreements after arresting Derek Charles Zika on Sunday for squatting in a new duplex on the 500 block of Northeast Bryant Street on property that formerly belonged to Alicia Jackson. Zika, 24, was charged with first-degree burglary and first-degree criminal trespassing and booked into the Multnomah County jail.

Adrian Guerrero, a spokesman for Blazing Arrow, said the duplex was built on what should legally be Jackson’s property. Members of his group therefore felt entitled to claim the duplex as a “community center.”

“Because the duplex was on her land, she decided to give it back to the community,” Guerrero said.

“The police came in tonight protecting the banks and the developers that are selling out our community and profiting out of the pockets of working people,” Jackson said in a Blazing Arrow press release. “Developers should not be allowed to profit from stolen land.”

However, police do not see it that way. They say the debate over whether foreclosures are proper is a moral and philosophical matter and that trespassing is a straightforward, black-and-white matter of law. At least half a dozen of these trespassing offenses have taken place in recent days, according to King, the public information officer for the police bureau.

“There have been many, many foreclosures,” he said. “Occupy folks have been taking advantage of that.”

Guerrero said Jackson inherited the home from her uncle, including a “predatory” loan he took out when he refinanced his home loan to pay for some basement windows. She left the home under the threat of foreclosure. The land was eventually sold to a developer.

Bankers and developers out to gentrify traditional neighborhoods are the “real villains,” Guerrero said. “If anyone should be getting a trespass agreement, it should be Ms. Jackson.”

Given that such sentiments are out there, and that people are expressing themselves through trespassing, King said it’s a good idea for property owners to protect themselves.

A trespass agreement basically is a pre-emptive complaint. It eliminates the need for police and the property owner to process a complaint after an offense has taken place.

“Most of what we are seeing is residential squatters,” King said.

Guerrero said that is Blazing Arrow’s strategy for now. However, King said vacant commercial spaces have attracted squatters as well, so business owners should be on guard.

King said property owners can visit their neighborhood precinct or visit to obtain a trespass agreement.

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Occupy Portland made an . This time, it was in Shemanski Park, a name that led many Portlanders wondering: “Wait, what and where is Shemanski Park?”

If you live in Portland, chances are you’ve been there before and had no idea what its name was. Chances are, most of the Occupiers didn’t know what the block they were descending on was called. Most of the cops probably also said “Shemanki what?” when they got the call. Why? Everyone just thinks of it as part of the Park Blocks. While the collective name “Park Blocks” is the most bandied-about term for the stretch of nicely green land that goes through downtown Portland, it turns out that the individual bits of the Park Blocks actually have names. Shemanski Park is the area around the Shemanski Fountain, just south of Southwest Salmon Street. The block with the Abe Lincoln statue? That’s called Lincoln Square. The block with the Teddy Roosevelt statue? Roosevelt Square.

Shemanski Fountain was the gift of Polish immigrant Joseph Shemanski in 1926. The bronze statue within the fountain is called Rebecca at the Well. The elms that surround Shemanski Park, Lincoln Square, and the rest of it are not native to Oregon. However, it is one of the larger groves of elms in North America, as Portland’s collection of the trees were west of the Rocky Mountains and not wiped out by Dutch elm disease like their eastern brethren were. The whole area has been designated as a public space since 1852, a mere one year after Portland was incorporated, and seven whole years before Oregon statehood. However, folks in 1852 didn’t really have an idea of “parks” back then. It was originally cleared of trees entirely and turned into a plank road. Some twenty years later, the city re-worked it as green space and introduced the non-native elms to the area.

The man who redesigned the area to be a nice, Occupy-able park was none other than Fredrick Law Olmsted. Olmsted is probably the single most famous park developer in American history, designing numerous open spaces throughout the U.S., most famously New York’s Central Park. Olmsted’s sons would carry on his legacy as the Olmsted Brothers landscape design company.

So, that’s what Shemanski Park is. It’s a bit of Portland designed by the greatest landscape architect in American history, a public space whose usage predates statehood, and an area where you can look around and hang out with mostly-extinct trees. But it’s fine if you just call it “the Park Blocks.” Everyone else does.

Photo by via Flickr

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The Steel Bridge was awash with protesters today, attempting to (among other things) raise awareness of its “structurally deficient” status. The bridge is old, but before we consign it to the dustbin of history, let’s take a few moments to reflect on why the Steel Bridge is one of the neatest bridges in Bridgetown.

1. It’s a vertical lift bridge! The weights in the towers go down, and the middle part goes up. That’s actually really unusual. (a site for people who really like bridges) turns up a paltry 232 of them in These United States, and that’s including all of the old ones that have been replaced.
2. It’s very old! Ninety-nine years, to be exact, with a 100th birthday coming up. The Hawthorne Bridge gets all the glory as being the oldest extant bridge in Portland, but the Steel is right behind it as being the second-oldest vertical lift bridge in the U.S., after the Hawthorne.
3. It’s the second Steel Bridge! The first one opened in 1888 and was the first bridge made of steel on the west coast, hence the name. It was a double-decker bridge, like the present day Steel, but instead of using the vertical lift style, that was a swing-span bridge. The whole thing proved massive and unwieldy, and had to be replaced by a newer bridge that would bear its same name.
4. It has independently moving lifts! In fact, it’s the only double-decker bridge in the entire world where each bit can move independently. That thing where the Steel Bridge can move the bottom bit but keep the top steady? No other bridge can do that. The Steel Bridge’s independent counterweights are unique in the very literal sense of the word.
5. It has been on fire! In 1913 exhaust from a train ignited several timbers in the lower deck, and the bridge suddenly caught fire.
6. It has been (partially) underwater! The lower deck of the bridge is one of the lower bridge surfaces in Portland, so during the 1948 and 1996 floods, the lower deck was partially submerged, but still usable.
7. It can have lots of different vehicles on it at one time! The Steel Bridge could presumably have a boat underneath it, bicycles, pedestrians, and trains on the lower deck, light rail and cars on the upper deck, and a plane or helicopter flying above it. Presumably, you could also take a horse across. People have done that before. It’s one of the only places in the world where such a vast assortment of vehicles could be crammed into such a small space.

Recently, the bridge has been having some problems. Last year the lower deck had to be closed because of motor problems, and as noted in the main story, it’s been rated “structurally deficient” by the advocacy group Transportation for America. While the iconic and unique Portland bridge remains in service, there is no apparent solution to its potential long-term problems.

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Protesters against job cuts gathered this morning on the eastern side of the Steel Bridge near Portland’s Rose Quarter.

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Demonstrators plan to line the Steel Bridge Thursday morning in order to raise awareness about its “structurally deficient” status and recent cuts to the Portland Bureau of Transportation’s discretionary budget. Meanwhile, a group from the Oregon chapter of the is preparing to put a plaque on the 99-year-old bridge to recognize it as an “important piece of infrastructure.”

Both actions aim to increase awareness of what activists perceive as a problem in Oregon and the nation as a whole: Bridges, roads and highway are in danger of falling into disrepair because a traditional funding source for maintenance – the gas tax – is failing to keep pace with demand.

A solution, however, isn’t evident. A different funding mechanism would take a long time to establish, and an infrastructure funding package proposed as part of President Barack Obama’s jobs bill was rejected in Congress recently.

The Steel Bridge is only one of several downtown bridges rated either “structurally deficient” or “functionally obsolete” by infrastructure advocacy group Transportation for America. A group of union representatives and employment advocates plan to demonstrate at the bridge under the banner of “” – an organization that fights unemployment and foreclosures. The protest was planned in tandem with an “Occupy Portland” protest regarding foreclosures scheduled for the same day.

“While this is a day of action around the country about jobs and infrastructure, it’s also day of action for the Occupy movement, so it made sense to coordinate with them,” Laborers Local 483 spokeswoman Megan Hise said.

“The idea is to use the bridge as a symbol of a disconnect: We have work that needs doing and we have unemployed people,” We Are Oregon communications director Angus Maguire said.

The Laborers Local 483 union will be represented at the event. The union has 300 members in PBOT, which recently announced upcoming budget cuts of $16 million.

“This will inevitably lead to a contraction in the department and significant layoffs for our members,” Hise said. “This is the first public event we’re doing to raise community awareness.”

We Are Oregon is not targeting a specific piece of legislation or even a specific agency. Hise said the group acknowledges that PBOT, for example, simply lacks gas tax revenue.

“We’re just getting started with the ‘solutions’ part of the campaign,” Hise said. “The first step is recognizing that there’s a problem.”

Transportation agencies, however, have long known that a problem exists.

“The problem at hand is that transportation (maintenance) is funded by an unsustainable and unstable source of money,” PBOT spokesman Dan Anderson said. “We’ve known this for years, and we’re forecasting that things will only get worse.”

Replacement of the “structurally deficient” Sellwood Bridge has been a high priority for years. Prep work is set to begin next month, but Multnomah County lacks money to tackle any similar efforts anytime soon, spokesman Mike Pullen said.

“The Sellwood Bridge (replacement) is what we call a ‘mega-project,’ ” he said. “We won’t really have other important bridge projects for the next few years.”

One bright spot is the increase in grant money being landed by agencies such as PBOT and the Oregon Department of Transportation. The eastside streetcar loop project was paid for primarily by a federal grant for more than $100 million, and the Moody Avenue construction project was paid for with federal stimulus money.

However, grants are not feasible ways to pay for system maintenance, which is what concerns Hise and the laborers’ union. Those grants tend to fund more progressive projects involving light-rail or bicycle-related improvements, or individual major freeway projects, Anderson said.

Maintenance projects are dependent on gas tax revenues, and Anderson said that despite support from diverse industry groups, the political will to raise the gas tax “just isn’t there.”

That may be old news to some industry professionals, but Maguire and his group believe that it’s now time to start increasing awareness.

“Specific changes have to happen; new funding sources have to happen,” Maguire said.

We Are Oregon’s demonstration will be timed to coincide with other protests in other states, he said.

The goal, once awareness is raised, is to generate an “emergency measure,” Hise said.

“If these cuts happen, the maintenance backlog will increase,” she said. “The quality of roads will be eroded. We need to start now to plan for the long term.”

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Today . The announcement is a reversal of Adams’ earlier willingness to ignore city ordinances regarding after-hours camping in public parks. Other issues aside, one thing that could have driven the mayor’s decision is that Occupy Portland has had a very real economic cost, one that could potentially increase.

As I’ve mentioned before, Parks Commissioner Nick Fish has already issued an open letter to the camp addressing an estimated $19,000 in damages to the historic park blocks. Come spring, the city will have a lot of grass to replace.

Also, police overtime by the Portland Police Department has already totaled over $18,000.  While this pales in comparison to figures in other cities such as New York’s $3.4 million, it’s not insignificant for a city that’s been struggling to keep public services funded. And those are just the already-totaled costs to public entities.

But Occupy Portland has another potential cost to downtown businesses. Even with Thanksgiving two weeks out, the holiday shopping season is under way. This is the biggest time of year for downtown retailers, with potential shoppers coming in from Portland’s other quadrants and various suburbs to do shopping in the city’s core.

If downtown’s image is compromised by conflict or , that could keep shoppers away (whether those concerns are justified is another matter). While completely informal and unscientific, a presently reads that a whopping 60 percent of respondents would stay away from downtown if Occupy Portland stays. In an already slow economy, a lack of consumer spending in the city’s retail core could be disastrous for local businesses.

Whether Occupy Portland will have any effect on retail performance remains to be seen. The camps have until midnight on Saturday to leave.

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In an open letter to Occupy Portland on Monday, Parks Commissioner Nick Fish claimed the demonstration is causing an estimated $19,000 in damage to Chapman and Lownsdale squares. Fish went out of his way to laud the efforts of the protesters, writing that he “support[s their] Constitutional right to conduct peaceful protests” and “applaud[s] Occupy Portland‘s commitment to nonviolence.”

Fish stressed, though, that it is his duty as parks commissioner to express his concern regarding the ongoing damages to the historic parks known as the Plaza Blocks and worried that Chapman and Lownsdale squares would not be restored to their former state until spring.

Acquired by the city in 1869, the two park blocks are indeed historic. While the two squares are now home to a diverse array of protesters, they used to be segregated along gender lines. was initially only accessible to women and children, functioning as something of a sanctuary in the male-dominated Portland of the 1800s. The all-female ginko trees stand as an arboreal reminder of the square’s history. One block away, was billed as a “gentlemen’s gathering place” and was used exclusively by men. With their proximity to City Hall and various courthouses, both squares have historically been sites for oration, protests, speeches, assemblies and public political events.

The squares feature several pieces of notable public art, but the most visible and (in)famous is the Thompson Elk, towering head-and-antlers above Main Street. Of late, the Elk has had more than a few flags, banners, and sundry other slogan-strewn bits draped upon it by Occupy Portland.

Dedicated in 1900, the Elk was considered something of an embarrassment to the city due to its disproportionately skinny body, large neck, and enormous antlers. The self-described Exalted Order of Elks were asked to attend its dedication, but dismissed the beast as “a monstrosity of art” due to the statue’s glaring anatomical errors. Despite the statue’s crimes against zoology, the statue was popular as a drinking fountain. Portlanders often dipped their cups and canteens into the fountains upper part to use as drinking water. The lower troughs were for horses and dogs.

Occupy Portland is by no means the first time Portlanders have taken over a public park as a form of political protest. In . That protest did not go nearly as smoothly as Occupy Portland, though. When students refused to dismantle their barricades and open the street, police responded with force and things got ugly. Thirty-one students and four police officers were treated for injuries.

By comparison, open letters about park cleanup seem tame.

by Rosa Say via Flickr

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