Oregon Governor Plans to Save Portland with More Police, Less Drugs

Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek in the coming months will press to increase police presence in downtown Portland, outlaw public drug consumption, take protective plywood off of buildings and step up social services for those struggling on the streets of the state’s largest city.

As part of a push to rejuvenate a once-thriving downtown that has become a nationwide punching bag for its highly visible challenges, Kotek is also recommending offering tax relief to downtown businesses. She wants to pour millions into graffiti and trash cleanup on state-managed highways and hopes to declare a 90-day state of emergency to refocus officials at all levels of government on a festering fentanyl addiction crisis, Oregon Public Broadcasting reports.

The recommendations are the most prominent takeaways to emerge from Kotek’s Portland Central City Task Force , a sprawling group made up of more than 40 businesspeople, politicians and others with a stake in downtown Portland. The task force, announced in August, set an aggressive four-month timeline for finding ways to make quick progress on the city’s largest challenges.

Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler in August asked Kotek to send nearly 100 state troopers to downtown Portland, to assist a city police force that says it is stretched too thin. Kotek agreed to a small fraction of that number. Her task force is recommending continuing that partnership, adding downtown park rangers, and looking into adding more non-sworn employees who can respond to low-level incidents. Kotek also wants to ensure that the state’s police academy is training enough recruits. Wheeler told crowd members Monday that his bureau has seen recent success in staffing up, hiring 261 personnel in the last year.