First off thank you to all who came out specifically to sign our petition to reinstate the Prostitution Free Zone at the Montavilla Farmers Market yesterday. We had such a great turn out! It was great talking with our fellow neighbors about this particular issue - so many neighbors & families told us of their daily occurences of >not feeling safe >cleaning up condoms on their blocks >women now being harrassed by men as they walk alone or while waiting for a bus in the middle of the day >men being propositioned >condoms in the school yards of Bridger+Vestal schools >families feeling robbed of their security. We also were able to speak to some of the business owners on SE Stark and they all agreed to & signed the petition. The business are being affected greatly as well. We outreached via email to the Montavilla East Portland Business Assoc (METBA) however their website is currently down) because we want us to all be united in our efforts. We plan on attending the next Montavilla Neighborhood Assoc Meeting on Monday Aug 11 @7pm Montavilla Community Center - 8219 NE Glisan St to present & get their backing of the petition as well. We asked if a member of METBA will attend this meeting as well? Truly this needs to be a consolidated effort the Neighborhood Associations (Montavilla, Mt Tabor, Lents, South Tabor, etc) as well as the Business Associations (METBA, Think Hawthorne, Ave of the Roses.
Many of you are collecting signatures for us - thank you, we encourage you all to please do the same - just download the petition here. We also have a great double-sided hand out with info/important numbers/ upcoming meetings etc that you can download here as well too. We want to collect signatures at least for the next 2 weeks - please email us & we can arrange pick up.
This is a great start, we realize that reinstating the PFZ is one tool in trying to solve or deal with the crime of prostitution. We have personally seen and experience life in our neighborhood with the PFZ ordinance in place and now without it and we can attest that it was working! We will urge that our elected officials look at other tools to combat this issue, along with the community's involvement, but a priority reinstatement of the PFZ needs to happen immediately due to the recent stats from SE Precinct directly and from the critical safety violations that are affecting all of us.
Thank you again + stay tuned.
About Us.
- Montavilla In Action
- We are a group of residents of the Southeast area in both Montavilla and Mount Tabor that are deeply concerned about the recent changes to our community. We have noticed a blatant increase in several types of crime (prostitution, drug activity, etc) surrounding our neighborhoods and centering on 82nd Avenue. We urge all to join us & get involved to take back our streets. To make our schools & parks clean and safe from dirty needles & used condoms. We will be working with the Neighborhood Associations, the city, local businesses, churches and you to help find solutions to these problems. At the heart of the issue is that the Prostitution Free Zone was abandoned last Sept 2007 and since that time organized crime has made our neighborhoods into a turf war. Please help us, thank you.
2 comments:
Thanks for all your hard work on this issue. I've downloaded the petition as well as the handout and will be circulating them on my street. Hopefully we can bring criminal activity down significantly.
If you want to stop prostitution help get the prostitutes alternative career choices or work on making prostitution legal so they can work safely in brothels, don't just get them arrested for trying to make a living.
It might make me feel unsafe to walk around my neighborhood in a skirt, but I'm more anxious about cops than guys who think I'm up for sale. Please don't invite more cops into my neighborhood!
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