Category Archives: Crime prevention

Friends of Last Thursday Seek Community Input

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Friends of Last Thursday, the organization tasked with taking responsibility for the administration of the monthly street festival, is seeking feedback from the communities surrounding Alberta and the Last Thursday participants. This is your opportunity to explain what is good about LT and what needs to change.

From FoLT:

Friends of Last Thursday (FoLT) is on the move! Tasked by the city to localize stewardship of Last Thursday within the Alberta community, FoLT began hands on engagement during May Last Thursday to extremely positive result. Infractions were down, the street was reopened in record time and the FoLT Ambassador program made great progress in its education and outreach component. One of the cornerstones of the FoLT mission is to help create a safer event, which means working with participants to gain their compliance with city and county safety laws, including observance of ADA, parking, noise, fire and food handling codes, zero tolerance for open containers, and a Leave No Trace refuse goal. Also of high priority is engendering greater neighborhood respect. FoLT has listened to the concerns of our neighbors and is actively working to educate Last Thursday participants in the ways in which they can exert the lightest possible impact on our community.

FoLT Letter and Community Survey

Meeting to Address Additional Regulation of Liquor Licensees

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PUBLIC MEETING:
Proposed Changes to City Code Time Place and Manner Regulations of Alcohol Licensed Establishments (PCC 14B.120)

What: Community members are invited to a public meeting to learn about the proposed changes to local regulations of liquor licensed establishments, ask questions and submit testimony or comments. Comments may also be submitted in writing to the contact above.

When: June 28th, 2011 at 6pm

Where: Portland Building, Room C
1120 SW 5th Ave Portland, OR 97204

Why:
The City of Portland will be proposing changes to the city code that allows local regulation of liquor licensed establishments and is seeking comments from community members. Enacted as an avenue for neighbors and local enforcement agencies to address problem establishments, the Time Place and Manner code has been effective in addressing many livability and public safety issues that arise out of the sale of alcohol. The goal is to work with the licensee to address the issues before they become egregious. However, there are several areas that the City’s authority is insufficient to address problems. The proposed changes will expand the authority slightly to allow:

• Drug activity, prostitution, overcrowding, and serious incidents involving death or the risk of death to be considered nuisance activities for the purpose of this code.
• A violation and abatement process if three nuisance incidents occur in 60 days (rather than 30 days currently allowed).
• A violation and abatement process in the event that a serious incident occurs at an establishment.

The proposed changes have been reviewed and supported by the Time Place and Manner Oversight Committee, which includes community and industry representation. Time Place and Manner is a reasonable process to a responsive licensee and has been effective in mitigating harm. These changes will help to better serve the communities of Portland, and ensure that licensed establishments do not act irresponsibly or negligently at the cost of the community. It will also allow the City of Portland to take intervening steps with a premise earlier and avoid more serious problems from occurring. This is the only avenue to address problems at licensed establishments at the local level. All other regulatory authority is held by the state Oregon Liquor Control Commission.

The proposed changes are viewable online at www.portlandonline.com/oni. A second meeting will be held in July as well. If you would like to hear more, or would like to comment on the proposed changes please attend the public meeting or contact Theresa Marchetti.

Theresa Marchetti
Liquor Licensing Specialist – ONI
1221 SW 4th Ave Ste 110
Portland OR 97204
503-823-3092
theresa.marchetti@portlandoregon.govTo view applications currently in process go to http://www.portlandonline.com/oni/index.cfm?&c=48007

Press Conference to Maintain Anti-Gang Funding

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A news conference on the need to protect federal law enforcement programs that help fight gang violence will be held 10:30 a.m., Thursday, April 28th at the Portland Police Bureau North Precinct, 449 NE Emerson Street. With gang violence on the increase, now is not the time to decrease federal law enforcement programs.

Attending will be:

Senator Ron Wyden;
Multnomah County Sheriff Dan Staton;
Multnomah County Commissioner Loretta Smith;
Commander James C. Ferraris, Portland Police Bureau;
Gang Resistance Education And Training Program members;
City of Portland officials

SALT Committee to Discuss FoLT Agreement

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The new community leadership organization (Friends of Last Thursday, or FoLT) which seeks to lead the planning of Last Thursday with city mentorship is seeking community members to serve on its steering committee. Last week FoLT distributed an agreement for prospective members to sign indicating that they are supporters of the event and will work to keep it going without additional regulation. A number of community members have expressed concerns that the bar for participating with FoLT in an oversight role as laid out in the agreement is too high.

The FoLT steering committee is apparently down to six members at present, after two of them, Bill Leissner and Jeanne Giles, were removed due to their refusal to sign the agreement. Mr. Leissner said in an email that he and Jeanne were the most outspoken members concerning neighborhood impacts and that he understands that the Community Impact Committee has been eliminated. There will be a discussion of Last Thursday issues at the Northeast Coalition of Neighborhoods’ SALT (Safety and Livability Team) meeting tonight, Monday April 18th, 6:30 pm at NECN, 4815 NE 7th avenue.

View the calendar announcement here.

Read the Friends of Last Thursday agreement here.