For more than 15 years the Portland City Government has been intermittently trying to doing away with North Precinct and combine it with Northeast several miles away. Now, using the recession-caused budget shortfalls as the impetus, they’ve finally accomplished their goal. To me is seems that using money as the justification is somewhat disingenuous as the savings, at least in the short term, are dubious and an Assistant Chief from PPB told North Portlanders at a town meeting that even if the money magically appeared to closed the budget gap, the city would still want to go through with this plan.
Maybe administratively it makes sense, though I spoke with at least one police sergeant who thought not.
The day the city counsel voted on the new precinct plan, I spoke to a few local business owners to see how they felt about the decision. Pattie Dietz, owner of a popular St John’s Cafe was unhappy with the vote, but willing to see how things played out.
You can read my whole report here at the Portland Sentinel.
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