PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — The governor’s race comes to the Lents neighborhood, where unaffiliated candidate Betsy Johnson told voters that the neighborhood is “ground zero” for lawlessness in Portland.
The Lents neighborhood has the third most crime reports of any Portland neighborhood, according to PPB’s crime map. The people who spoke to Johnson on Thursday say they have felt it for years, detailing how they’ve watched drug use and drug deals on their front steps.
“This community has been ground zero for way too long. You’ve taken an abusive amount of the hit of all of the issues, homelessness, crime, drugs,” Johnson said.
Johnson reiterated her opposition to Measure 110 and her hopes to repeal it, though she understands only voters could do that. She also says she’d use the governor’s office to clean camps along state highways and land, as well as fund Oregon State Police to the best of her ability.
“On the first day, I’d tell ODOT load up the dump trucks and the paint wagons, we’re coming up here and we’re going to take this crap off the sides of the roads,” Johnson said.
Johnson says she’d testify to Portland City Council about the issues she sees.
“Oregon cannot succeed if Portland fails and Portland right now, by every measure, is failing and I think there is a state interest in making this city work,” she said.
Living in Portland for three decades, restaurant owner and Lents neighborhood resident Lydia Massaad says the last few years have been the hardest to get through.
“I’m not letting them take over the street. People tell us, ‘move from Portland.’ I’m not moving. We’ve been there for 33 years, they need to move,” she said.
KOIN 6 News reached out to Democrat Tina Kotek and Republican Christine Drazan about Johnson’s visit.
Drazan’s camp points to a decade of one-party rule that has enabled lawlessness in Portland and goes on to say that “Tina Kotek and Betsy Johnson have undercut our law enforcement and weakened public safety.”
Johnson also said she supports getting rid of Measure 110.
Kotek’s camp said that “Drazan and Johnson are trying to distract voters from their own failed records on homelessness. They both voted against protecting people from evictions – even during the pandemic.”
Kotek says her priorities are to create pathways to permanent homes, build more housing, prioritize racial equity in home ownership and prevent people at risk from losing their homes.
