Anatomy of a scene: Kotek’s bogus drug emergency

By Taxpayers Association of Oregon
OregonWatchdog.com

Earlier this year, Oregon Governor Tina Kotek announced a 90-Day State of Emergency over Fentanyl — which included targeting certain Portland downtown areas near I-405 that were overrun with drug dealers and crime that were exploiting the nearby bottle redemption centers.  Drug addicts would collect a few bottles and redeem them to buy cheap drugs (for mere dollars) and then overdose right at the bottle redemption center.

Governor Kotek’s much publicized emergency order closed the redemption centers.  Once the 90-day emergency ended, everything went back to normal.

The Taxpayers Association of Oregon twice drove by and took a photo of outside of one of those notorious bottle redemption centers at the center of the controversy and Kotek’s emergency order.  The situation is just as bad as it was before the emergency.

Nothing’s changed

— Open air drug use spotted both days that Taxpayers Association drove by.
— Graffiti calling people to “kill”.
— Several “No loitering” signs unheeded and unenforceable.
— Vandalized scooter vehicle.
— Trash everywhere.

A local shop owner told OPB “Absolutely nothing has changed.”

How many customers are going to visit the store on the other side of the wall shown, if you have to walk past open-air drug use, threats to kill and trash?

So sad, that Kotek gets to enjoy all the free press and praise-full government press releases without having to accomplish anything.

Local businesses need support and strong law enforcement presence.

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