Lars Larson: Portland’s leaders don’t act until the fire hits them

By Lars Larson,
NW and national radio host

Hard to imagine why taxpayers put up with the Keystone Cops antics of local government (in Portland and Multnomah county)

When governments see a problem…usually one it had a hand in creating, themselves…they often apply a solution that doesn’t solve anything and then have to spend more to solve their solution.

Case in point: Multnomah County spent literally millions of dollars of your tax money to buy more than 100-thousand tents and tarps and give them out to roughly 5-thousand drug addicted homeless living on the streets.

We know this because of the lawsuit filed by attorney John Dilorenzo on behalf of disabled people who can’t walk down city sidewalks BECAUSE of the tents and tarps.

Now, fires break out regularly in the addict camps…fueled by burning tents, tarps, sleeping bags and of course, propane tanks: those make it really dangerous.

Yesterday’s fire under the East end of the Morrison Bridge finally got City Hall’s attention.

Let me see if I have this right. The city encourages addicts to camp on public property by not enforcing the law and even giving out tents.

Fires predictably break out putting the addicts, nearby neighborhoods and the firefighters at risk.

City crews collect the debris and haul it to the landfill.

And Multnomah County hands out new tents and tarps.

Taxpayers get the bill, nothing gets solved, and voters keep these knuckleheads in their generously paid positions.