Tuesday, August 19, 2008

THANK YOU local businesses.

Montavilla & East Tabor Business Assoc backed our petition today - THANK YOU!

Thank you to Ty & Alema and the rest of the members of the METBA for allowing us to present the petition and talk with your group about our efforts. We appreciate all that you are doing and ask that our neighbors support our local businesses. We would love to help you and collaborate on additional efforts on how we combat crime in our community.

Members of METBA are looking into working with Trimet on cleaning up the bus stops, also how to get rid of those pay phones in those strategic locations which are being monopolized & used primarily by criminals. They are also going to look at how other neighborhoods (Burnside) addressed similar issues not too long ago.

A representative from McDonald's was in attendance and updated us on their efforts, in addition to signing the Trespass Agreement - they have permanently closed off the 2 entrances from 82nd Ave, so there is only 1 main entrance on SE Stark, they have keypad locks on the bathroom doors & the combos change daily. So far they have not committed to hiring a security guard but may be looking into to security cameras. Their are committed in their efforts and will start attending the METBA mtgs now that they are aware of them. We THANK them once again for all of their efforts. An idea that we suggested is why not utilize some of the parking lot & create a play structure/area similar to other McDonald's - wouldn't that be great for next summer to have families & kids in the lot, instead of the crime that we all have been dealing with?

Also Amanda Fritz (she is running for Sam Adams soon to be vacated position) attended the meeting as well and it was great to hear that she had heard of us and supported our efforts. She realizes how this area needs to have a stronger voice in city hall. We appreciate her words of support and outreach.

We appreciate all that the businesses are doing & we will continue to outreach to the local businesses. We hope that others with parking lots where crime is happening will sign "Trespass Agreements" - Wendy's, Safeway, Walgreen's - we have outreached to Officer Stephen Mirau to see how he/we can make this happen.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Wow, thank you MIA for your amazing work. It takes a lot of time and effort to do what you're doing, and it's much appreciated.

It is good to hear from businesses (like McDonald's) what specific steps they are taking/have taken (like closing the entrances, changing the combo lock), rather than a vague, "We're working on it."

Hopefully other businesses will sign trespass agreements. Chinese Village is another one to look at.