Portland cops clear out of open-air drug market in city’s deserted downtown

Portland police spent the past week clearing a vacant mall in the city’s deserted downtown area in what was described as a scene from the dystopian HBO show The Last of Us.

The building had turned into an open-air drug market.

Dozens of local police officers entered the vacant shopping district around 7:30 a.m. Wednesday by blocking off the area and stretching crime scene tape well into the block.

An officer said that while they had not found any squatters, people had been hiding in the days before. Police have been patrolling the building 24 hours a day since last Friday.

The city’s Central Bike Squad showed officers using battering rams to break down doors and access locked rooms in the building, which city officials called “in crisis mode.”

Mayor Ted Wheeler said later that night, “The city is confident the construction site is clear of intruders. There were no direct threats during this process.’

Building owner Barry Menashe teams up with contractors and the police to board it up completely and try to get rid of some The Oregonian rampant drug trafficking.

The city has been working on a plan to secure the building with Menashe and his daughter Lauren, the president of his real estate company.

Menashe has offered in the past to let the city simply use it as a homeless shelter, but they have yet to set an official goal. Wheeler said “substantial modifications are likely to be required for future use.”

Eric Zimmerman, the city’s central policy adviser, would rather see the building boarded up than continue to serve as a drugstore.

“We gave them the go-ahead and said, ‘If you want to do 90-degree angles and cut the whole thing out, we’d be very supportive of that,'” Zimmerman said. “Even if it required us to give up the sidewalks — whatever it takes to make it safe.”

People passing by the building simply said to Zimmerman, ‘Good, and finally!’ in response to hearing what had happened. Many assumed that a murder had been committed.

Conservative journalist Andy Ngo openly suggested the building looked like a scene from the HBO video game adaptation The Last of Us.

It is unclear where the building will be used in the future as people wait to see what happens after the police secure it completely.

Dozens of local police officers entered the vacant shopping district around 7:30 a.m. Wednesday by blocking off the surrounding area and stretching crime scene tape well into the block

An officer said that while they had not found any squatters, people had been hiding in the days before. Police have been patrolling the building 24 hours a day since last Friday

People passing by the building simply said to Zimmerman, ‘Good, and finally!’ in response to hearing what had happened. Many assumed that a murder had been committed

The city’s Central Bike Squad showed officers using battering rams to break down doors and access locked rooms in the building, which city officials called “in crisis mode.”

Mayor Ted Wheeler said later that night, “The city is confident the construction site is clear of intruders. There were no direct threats during this process.’

“The hunger to be visionary or try new ideas has kind of subsided until we can stop the bleeding,” Zimmerman said of potential owners of the building in the future. “We’re just trying to get measured, so as not to put too many carts before the horse.”

The Democratic city has one of the most desolate boroughs in the United States, with rising crime rates and homelessness scaring locals and tourists alike.

In 2021, there were 90 homicides amid an increase in gun violence, breaking the previous record of 66 set more than three decades ago.

101 homicides were recorded in 2022 – a new record for the city.

Portland currently has more than 700 homeless camps scattered throughout the city within a radius of less than 250 square miles.

Some of the Pacific Northwest city’s most charming, trendy and expensive neighborhoods are now overrun by tent cities that crowd residential sidewalks and are littered with trash.

Portland currently has more than 700 homeless camps scattered throughout the city within a radius of less than 150 square miles, and the ordeal has also led to skyrocketing crime in the area

Some of the Pacific Northwest city’s most charming, trendy and expensive neighborhoods are now overrun by tent cities crowding housing sidewalks and littered with trash — and the problem is scaring away locals and tourists alike

The Portland City Council rushed to return money to the police force in November 2021, having been repaid by more than $15 million in 2020. Officials instead voted to add $5.4 million to the police budget.

When the police department was discharged in 2020, the Portland Police Department experienced a wave of retirements and layoffs.

Portland saw a dramatic increase in shootings and homicides following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

The city saw a 250 percent increase in homicides in the first six months after Floyd’s death and a nearly 175 percent increase in shootings.