Thursday, July 14, 2016

Latest version: At this link.

  See the 2013 article. (PDF)



Poor city management in Portland:

Portland pays police to
discourage park visitors.

G:\BU_PHOTO\2016-06-28_Jordan_Elliot_McClure__Summers_Park_police\IMG_0112_Police_in_Summers_Park_EDITED_3.jpg
 
Photo by Jordan Elliott McClure
  • Above: Typical photo of police in Summers Park, taken Monday, June 27, 2016. Four Portland Police are standing close together. One of the 4 is looking toward the camera. Other photos taken at the same time show 3 police cars parked next to the park, as though there has been a major crime.

    The police walk around leisurely; it's an easy job. The police go to groups sitting on the grass, trying to find some reason to give a citation.

    In 2013, the Portland Parks Department hired Park Rangers to discourage Summers Park visitors. The Park Rangers would go to each group and demand to smell their drinks, to test for alcohol. (See the 2013 article. (PDF)

    Now police wearing guns discourage visitors to Summers Park.

  • City Managers plan to prevent use of the Summers Park covered space by enclosing it with a fence. That will prevent a charity agency, called Food not Bombs, from providing meals for homeless people. The charity has been in operation in Summers Park for more than 14 years. It rains much of the year in Portland. Food not Bombs uses the covered space when it is raining.

    The city's estimate of the cost of the fence: $18,000.

    As explained below, discouraging use of Portland parks seems to be a general policy of the Portland Parks Department, apparently to avoid work.

  • Summers Park is Portland's most popular park. See below for examples of the kind of wonderful experiences that happen in Summers Park. The location is in central Portland 18 blocks east from the Willamette River, as shown in the Parks Department web page. Part of the reason Summers Park is so popular may be that it is centrally located.

Eventually, a movie

Portland's poor city management is being documented by Jordan Elliott McClure. You can see some of his videos at his YouTube channel. His intention is to imitate the extremely successful films of Michael Moore. This is one of the interviews, un-edited: Corruption Exposed: Portland, OR, Hinson Baptist Church, Food Not Bombs.


Plan to comment?
Save the linked web pages.

The web pages being discussed can be changed at any time. I've saved copies of all the pages. If you wish to comment on or react to the issues, it may be useful for you to save the web pages. Perhaps the best way to save web pages is to use the free Firefox web browser and the free Mozilla Archive Format browser add-on.

I helped Paolo Amadini edit the documentation of the Mozilla Archive Format browser extension. Paolo is Italian and lives in Milan, Italy; English is not his native language. I didn't do any of the programming.


Portland City Managers are
involved in FRAUD, residents say.

Definition of fraud: A deliberate deception used to get a desired result.

At present, it isn't clear how much Portland City Managers are knowingly participating in fraud, and how much they are being deceived. Apparently, however, Portland Parks and Recreation managers intentionally try to discourage visitors to Portland parks as a way of reducing their work.

Neighbors in the houses surrounding Summers Park told me and other people the same story:

Each person who agreed to be involved in the fraud called the police several times a day. It was common that, together, they would call the police perhaps 40 times a day. (I don't know about now.)

The callers would make dishonest or wildly exaggerated complaints. By the time the police arrived, the reported incident would no longer exist, supposedly because the police were late in arriving. But actually it never happened, or was exaggerated.

The police telephone call tracking system is so simple it is easily abused. The police have no way of knowing that some people were calling several times a day. (I was told that by someone in the Portland police department.)

Theory   I spent hours talking with people who live across a street from Summers Park. No one has a complete understanding of why people do destructive and crazy things. This is a theory:

Initially, over a period of years, some of the neighbors talked together about things they saw in Summers Park they didn't like. Eventually, over years, they began blaming most of the unhappiness in their lives on things they saw in Summers Park.

For example, I had a long conversation with one man who lives across a street from Summers Park. To me, he seemed a very unhappy person in general, not because of what happens in the park. He told me that he had seen a drug transaction in the park just across from his house. I asked him how he knew it was a drug transaction; I didn't get a reply that I thought was logical. Then he told me that the incident he was describing happened 20 years ago!

One reason the neighbors were so open about discussing their fraud is that they justified the fraud by saying that, if they didn't engage in fraud, the police wouldn't do what they wanted.

Eventually, I was told, they had a meeting with a police manager and convinced him that there were serious problems. The police manager didn't check the truth of the claims. The manager assigned police to Summers Park.

On Monday, June 20, 2016, I talked with 6 police in the park. There were 4 police cars. It was a kind of police presence that would seem appropriate if there had been multiple murders. Instead, looking around Summers Park and talking with people, it was its usual gentle place.

Since the 6 police were standing in a circle talking with each other and me, it was clear they thought there was no reason for police to be there.

Sometimes a church is Christian in name only. The owner of the Hinson Baptist Church at 1137 SE 20th Ave, Portland, OR 97214 also owns many of the houses across Taylor Street from Summers Park. Owners can charge higher rent if they can somehow arrange that few people use the park.

Apparently Hinson Baptist Church church is more interested in money than Christianity. That kind of behavior has been common for centuries. Martin Luther complained in the year 1517.

If people who own houses across from Summers Park can convince the city to make the park a place of very few visitors, they would be able to sell their houses for higher prices. That would increase the profit from buying houses that cost less because they are across from the park.

Three years ago, Portland City managers hired poorly trained park rangers to harass Summers park visitors. The rangers would go to each group and ask to smell their drinks to detect alcohol, for example.

See the 2013 article. (PDF) It was distributed to Portland park officials, the Portland mayor, and all Portland City Council Members.

Now harassment by the city is much worse.

Now, police with guns discourage visitors to Summers Park. As I mentioned above, recently, on June 20, 2016, I talked for several minutes with 6 police. They had been standing in a circle talking with each other for perhaps 20 minutes and I joined them.

I told the police they were being involved in fraud. One of them justified their presence. However, the fact that they were standing in a circle talking with each other indicated that they saw no reason to be concerned about anything in the park.

The police presence in Summers Park on Monday is huge. The intent, we have been told by Portland police, is to discourage the social group that calls itself Monday Funday. (The full name of Summers Park is Colonel Summers Park. One of the people who writes for Monday Funday calls it "col. sanders park".)

Quote from a Monday Funday Facebook page: "... blatant disrespect and bullying from our Portland Police Bureau yesterday."

My observation: Monday Funday is the friendliest, most gentle social group I have known. I had a very friendly conversation with a Portland Police Lieutenant in Summers Park that lasted more than 40 minutes. He said that police were in Summers Park especially to discourage Monday Funday. When I asked why, he told me only this: A 16-year-old girl was found to be drinking alcohol, and an off-leash dog ran out into the street and was killed by a car.

Yes, underage drinking and off-leash dogs are negative events. However, using those events as a justification for police interference that discourages all visitors to Summers Park is wildly illogical.

Police departments deserve a huge amount of respect. Having police deal with relatively minor issues damages that respect. If a city wants to deal with minor issues, other methods besides police control must be found.

What are the facts about negative events in Summers Park? The Portland Police need better methods of collecting information, so that citizens are not able to play unfriendly games.


Why the corruption?

We don't know why the Portland City government is paying to be destructive toward park visitors. We have theories and information:
  1. Bribery? Is someone paying Portland City managers to be destructive?

  2. Justifying their assignments? I've had several friendly conversations with Portland Police in Summers Park. One impression I have is that they don't want to accept any painful ideas that the Portland Police Department may be badly managed. If 6 police are assigned to walk around Summers Park with guns, they want to believe that they are doing something sensible and useful. They tend to block any awareness that what they are doing may be motivated by fraud.

  3. Portland Police Department management is sometimes weak. The Portland Police Department has sometimes seemed to be very badly managed.

    Here's a recent story: Portland police chief resigns after lying about shooting his friend in the back. (June 28, 2016)

    Amazing:

    1. The Portland Chief of Police didn't handle a gun well. He shot his friend!

    2. He lied.

    3. The Portland Chief of Police, now former chief, is so socially limited that he assumed that his friend would support the lie. Supporting the lie would have required his friend to lie, also. That would have been a difficult lie; how could someone shoot himself in the back?

    4. He didn't understand government procedures well enough to know that lying would not help him, but would make things worse.

    Managing a police department is extremely mentally challenging. Only someone who is socially sophisticated and who has a long history of thinking carefully and logically should try to manage a police department.

    Good police department management requires that police try to minimize their work by acting in socially powerful in ways to encourage respect for the law. That reduces the crime and expense. There is a conflict of interest: Some people who work for the police department want more work, not less.

    In the more than 30 years I lived near Summers Park, I experienced only 2 incidents requiring police action:

    1. This first story is about an excellent policeman and sloppy Portland Police Department management. Someone threw paint on a building across the street from where we lived. Our car was parked in front of that building. The vandal also threw paint on our car. The building owner called the police.

      The policeman who answered the call took the time to research our license plate number and discover our address. He rang our doorbell. He explained everything very clearly. He provided very helpful context that indicated it was unlikely that there would be problems in the future. The paint was not yet dry; it required only about 1 1/2 hours to clean the car.

      I've had a technology support business for more than 30 years. We often have to call technology companies for information about their products, or problems with their products. We have a policy that, if someone provides excellent support, we will ask for the phone number of the support person's supervisor and give thanks for the help.

      I called the Portland Police Department, gave the name of the excellent officer, and said I wanted to tell his supervisor of the excellent service. The receptionist was amazingly uncooperative. I was unable to find a way to talk with someone about how much I appreciated the policeman's help.

      I've experienced that in other organizations; by being uncooperative the receptionist can minimize her work.

    2. Someone in the apartment building where I lived had a mental breakdown. He was banging on the walls enough to break them. I called Portland Police. The policeman who came to help was extremely professional. He already knew the man who was having the breakdown. He was gentle and understanding with him.

  4. Portland City management is weak. One story: [Portland Mayor] Hales blames the media to distract from his failures. (July 1, 2016)

    Portland Mayor Charlie Hales seems to be a somewhat logically-minded person who has been overwhelmed by the enormous complexity of being mayor of Portland. That is apparently why he didn't choose to seek a 2nd term. Part of the complexity is apparently due to insufficient management by previous mayors.

    Portland has what is known as a "weak mayor" city management system. A Portland mayor cannot demand cooperation. As has been mentioned in news stories over many years, Portland City Council members often engage in what one story called "personal projects".

    City Commissioner Dan Saltzman decided that all Portland clubs should have sprinkler systems. He got the other members of the Portland City Council to approve a new law with no public involvement. The new law was illegal under state law. The Portland City Council drove some clubs out of business because the clubs were forced by the city to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars without sufficient notice.

    A news story, Inside an Illegal Crackdown by the Fire Bureau That Put Portland Nightclubs Out of Business (July 6, 2016) gives the impression that Commissioner Saltzman still doesn't understand what he did that was poor, anti-democratic management:

    1. Commissioner Saltzman didn't know the state law. Neither did the other commissioners.

    2. He caused a huge amount of trouble for some club owners.

    3. Commissioner Saltzman made $1,575,974 in 2014 from his downtown Portland real estate interests, the Oregonian newspaper reported. (May 14, 2015) Why does Saltzman need to be a City Commissioner? His pay as commissioner was "roughly 1/16th" of his profits from his real estate company that year. Did he benefit financially because he drove some clubs out of business?

    4. His response shows no concern about the problems he created.

    5. The clubs could have had a longer time to install sprinklers. They had been without sprinklers for many years.

    6. The public could have been made aware of the plans.

    7. He caused popular clubs to close.

  5. Concern about having jobs? The police may be far more concerned about having jobs than about effective police department management.

    One of the Park Rangers in Summers Park indicated he agreed there was fraud, but told me he would not concern himself with the fraud;  he was just happy to have a job.

  6. Jealousy? Those of us who are genuinely interested in Summers Park have arrived at one theory again and again: Possibly the people arranging the fraud are jealous of the happiness they see in Summers Park.

    Perhaps they have never had such happiness in their own lives. Perhaps they want to pretend that something bad is happening in the park, rather than be aware that something bad is happening inside themselves.

  7. Targets for anger? The people in Summers Park are usually not the kind of people who would understand hostility or know how to defend themselves from hostility. So, angry people choose to use them as targets for their anger.

  8. The Portland Parks Department is poorly managed. The neighbors around Summers Park learned that Portland Parks & Recreation had already enclosed the rain shelter in nearby Powell Park in a way that prevents its use.

    Somehow it has become a policy of the Portland Parks Department to manage Summers Park by eliminating visitors to the park, exactly the opposite of the healthy purpose of having a Parks Department.

    It is easier to manage a park with few visitors. Sometimes city officials think about making their work easier and simpler, rather than managing for effectiveness.

    The Parks Department used a fake survey to justify interfering in Summers Park. See the 2nd page of the 2013 article. (PDF). I handed Portland City Commissioner Amanda Fritz a copy of that document in 2013 and told her what made me believe that the actions of the Parks Department were based on intentionally faked surveys. She took the copy but didn't respond.

    The "survey" was given to a very small group of people who were already known to want the Parks Department to interfere with use of Summers Park. The Parks Department held a meeting in Summers Park in 2013. I wondered what they were doing and joined the meeting. That's how I learned of the interference. There were maybe 10 or 15 people in the meeting. Very near that group were 40 people who would have disagreed completely with what was said in the meeting. Perhaps 30 of those people joined a later meeting at Hinson Baptist Church and voiced their opinions. There is video available of that meeting.

    The "Buckman Community Association" mentioned on the Parks Department Summers Park web page, is mostly just one person, in my experience. Very few people in the Buckman area, where Summers Park is located, know the "Association" exists.

    Pretending that the "Buckman Community Association" is a real association with general public approval is part of the Portland City government's pretend democracy.

    The same kind of activity in another park: The Couch Park playground was removed. Here are quotes from a Google Maps comment by Tami Matthews, from 2 years ago:
    "Great parks, unless you happen to live in NW Portland and have children. The Couch Park playground was torn down without plans or discussion about a new one...

    "Great community centers if you're a stay-at-home parent and don't live in NW. Hillside, our only community center, is only open from M - F from 8 - 5. They have a great playground, but don't open it while they're closed on the weekends. In other words, completely unusable." (Hillside web page)
    Portland Parks & Recreation paid a consulting company to justify the removal of the Couch Park playground. The list of justifications is available online: Play Structure Assessment Summary (PDF file). Here are some of them:

    1. "Inadequate depth of ... wood chips..." Why not just put down more wood chips?

    2. "The most common type of protrusion hazard observed was bolt ends that extent more than 2 threads beyond the face of
      the structural surface." Flexible caps held on with silicon rubber or 5-minute epoxy would solve that problem?

    3. "Presences of termites on wood structure members at the northeast side of the play structure. The extent of the infestation is unknown..." Why was there insufficient maintenance in the past? Spray the wood with chlorine bleach? Reinforce anything weak? There are companies in Portland that sell used metal and wood.

    4. "Insufficient spacing between main playground structure and stage." Move something, rather than remove the entire playground? How is 7 feet of separation not enough for children?

    5. "A potential electrical hazard was noted at the two electrical receptacles that service the stage and adjacent lighting." Buy some new receptacles and install them?

    6. The other reasons given by the Parks Department for removing the popular playground seem similar: They would have been easy to fix.

    Did the Portland Parks Department hire a contractor to give the result wanted?

    The Parks Department web page for Couch Park says, "Due to safety concerns, and after years of close monitoring, Portland Parks & Recreation has closed the popular wooden play structure and wooden stage at the Couch Park playground."

    There were "years" of monitoring, but no maintenance? The Couch Park Playground FAQ says: "Metropolitan Learning Center student and staffs contributed to designing the structure in the 1970s". There are many, many houses and buildings in Portland that were built in the 1920s and 1930s. Those houses have been maintained.

    Suppose the Portland Parks Department had publicly asked for help to do each repair? I'm guessing there would have been enthusiastic volunteers. There could have been step-by-step renovations.

    The Portland Parks & Recreation web page that justifies removing the popular playground says "... the annual funding gap for repairing/renovation of existing assets is $36.5M." I suppose the "M" means millions? Or if that is that the Latin number, it means thousands. Giving the number in that way means that someone searching for the word "million" won't find the story.

    Portland Parks apparently says it needs $365 million for Portland Park maintenance over the next 10 years, in addition to the money it already receives. Quoting: "a ten-year total of$365M of unfunded maintenance projects". (Besides using an unusual way of stating the amount, that statement is missing a space.)

    The public should be able to see a document justifying needing $365 million over 10 years more than is already allocated.

    If you continue to research Parks planning, you are led to this: "For information on the process and rating criteria for CIP, please review the PP&R Capital Planning Manual." (PDF) That document says "Revised August 2009", almost 7 years ago.

    Removing the Couch Park play structures was extremely sad. According to an Oregonian news story, Candlelight vigil for Couch Park play structure... (April 24, 2014) Quotes:
    Dozens of notes in children’s handwriting hang from the beams, saying, “We love this play structure. Please don’t take it down,” and, “The Top Tower is where everyone would start a game, where kids would meet.”

    MLC parent Lorelei Mitchell called the closure “crushing” ...
    It would be interesting to know if there have been other Parks Department methods of reducing work.

    Is discouraging visitors a general policy of Portland Parks & Recreation?

  9. Pretend democracy   When we investigate the activities of city managers, we often see examples of pretend democracy. Managers pretend to be interested in public involvement, but actually do what they personally  want.

    One way Portland Parks got fake public agreement was by arranging "public" meetings in which only those who agreed with Portland Parks managers were notified to attend.

  10. Abusive actions by police increase the work for police. When police do things that are obviously unfriendly, people react. Those who have had especially bad childhoods may react by doing something illegal. Making trouble should not be a method of assuring police employment.

  11. Those who want government corruption want weak-minded officials. Often Portland City managers have seemed to be not thinking clearly.

  12. Often people are elected because of money, not because the voters understood and appreciated their abilities. Portland Commissioner Amanda Fritz told me that to run for re-election as a Portland City Commissioner, it costs $400,000.

Summers Park is, by far,
the most popular park
in Portland.

Summers Park is an extremely gentle and friendly place. Here are some examples of my experiences in the park:
  1. Monday, Fun Day   As I said above, Monday Funday is the friendliest, gentlest social group I have known. This is a quote from the Monday Funday Facebook page: "Tight ropers, hoola hoopers, hacky sackers, jugglers, glovers, skateboarding, dodge ball, and more!" Some of them sit in groups on the grass and talk.

    In times when the police have been less intense about discouraging Monday Funday, there have been perhaps 150 people from that group in Summers Park on Monday.

  2. 22 months and walking like an adult   In Summers Park, I saw a very little girl who was walking with the confidence and coordination of a healthy adult. I asked her father how old she was. He said, "22 months", about what I had guessed. One year and 10 months old!

    I told her father that her movements seemed surprisingly mature. He said, "The older children encourage her." That seemed a logically useful fact. But I noticed I didn't feel completely satisfied with that explanation.

    There is a slide in Summers Park that is perhaps 15 feet high. The little girl saw older children moving toward it and wanted to try it. She turned toward her father and, from perhaps 10 feet away, made a small "Come with me" motion with one hand. She didn't say anything. They walked together toward the slide.

    So then I had a more satisfying explanation. The little girl had an unusually attentive, unusually cooperative father.

  3. Take care of my snake? I happened to be standing near when a man approached a group sitting on the grass. He asked if someone would hold his pet snake while he visited a place that didn't allow snakes. A woman in the group took the snake and moved her hands continually so she could keep the snake in her hands as it crawled. When the snake owner returned, he said, “It was weird asking people I don't know, ‘Can you watch my snake.’ ” I was surprised that the woman was completely comfortable with the snake.

  4. Little boy kicking a soccer ball   A little boy and a woman were kicking a soccer ball to each other. She told me that he was 23 1/2 months old and that she was his grandmother. I was amazed that a small boy could kick a ball so accurately. He was kicking with the point of his very small foot. His grandmother said they often come to the park and kick the soccer ball to each other.

  5. A man was making huge soap bubbles in Summers Park. Some of them were 3 feet in diameter. He described the technology to me.

    A long way away, a woman and a small child were walking together. When the child saw the bubbles, he ran rapidly away from his mother and toward the bubbles. His mother followed.

    It made me laugh that it was intuitively understood by the child, his mother, and the man who was making the bubbles that a child should run at the bubbles and use his fingers to break them.

  6. Dog off leash   It was a typical Summers Park experience. A dog wasn't on a leash. The dog ran to some people sitting on the grass and went to their food. One of the people there merely picked up the food and moved it. Someone else there petted the dog.

    If that had been seen by one of the many Portland policemen in Summers Park now, the owner of the dog would have been issued a citation.

  7. We often talk with people about their children. Two things about those discussions are especially interesting to me: Sometimes children develop skills much sooner than adults have come to expect.

    Often children develop in very different ways; it is sometimes not easy to guess how or why they made their choices.

  8. A man with whom I had been talking climbed a tree faster than a squirrel. He went in just a few seconds into the highest branches that would support his weight, higher than 30 feet. He was barefoot. I didn't know that was possible.

  9. A man using a metal detector in Summers Park explained the latest technology to me.

  10. I cheered for a small girl doing gymnastics exercises. She was impressive. She could do somersaults easily. I wish I could do somersaults. (In a somersault a person's body revolves 360 degrees with feet passing over the head.)

Food not Bombs serves free meals
at 6:30 pm every Monday and Friday
in Summers Park.

Food not Bombs is an amazing organization that serves disadvantaged people, without any cost to the city. Food not Bombs also provides food that visitors can take home with them. The food is donated by companies that would otherwise discard it.

As was mentioned above, Portland City managers are trying to interfere with this volunteer organization. The Summers Park Food not Bombs has existed for more than 14 years. If Portland City managers prevent Food not Bombs operation in Summers Park, there is likely to be a huge hidden cost; people who would have been served in Summers Park will become more dependent on city agencies.

Here are a few of my experiences with the Summers Park Food not Bombs:
  1. One of the volunteers of Food not Bombs in Summers Park made vegan pizza. He even made the crust. A friend and I laughed and said that we wouldn't know where to find such good food in a restaurant; in Summers Park it was being served free to anyone who wanted to eat.

    (I don't normally eat the Food not Bombs food. I'm overweight and shouldn't have a meal that late. And, of course, I have plenty of money to buy food; the Food not Bombs food should go to people who need it.)

  2. A homeless man who comes to Food not Bombs frequently has had a life-long interest in history. He is helping me understand the history of the U.S. and of England.

  3. Some homeless people are well-educated. I learned that some homeless people are well-educated and seem to be likely to have good futures, but are temporarily incapacitated by trying to deal with the mental turmoil caused by difficult events in their childhoods.

  4. I learned that a social group can function very well without central leadership. Everyone volunteers to help where they can. No one is dominant.

  5. The kindness found at Food not Bombs makes disadvantaged people feel comfortable. They are then less likely to engage in destructive behavior. If Portland City managers prevent operation of the Food not Bombs in Summers Park, there is likely to be a lot of hidden taxpayer expense in dealing with disadvantaged people in other ways.

  6. The Hugging Revolution   Often when people at Food not Bombs in Summers Park say hello or goodbye, or just feel warm toward someone, they hug.

    In talk about how U.S. society could be improved, the suggestions usually include methods that would be expensive or time-consuming. It seems to me that if our society began to do more hugging when we feel warm toward each other, that would change our entire society for the better, in many areas, in many ways. We need that sense of closeness.

    It's already happening at Food not Bombs in Summers Park.

  7. Many more stories   I have far too many stories about my experiences at Food not Bombs in Summers Park to tell them all here.

Contrast the 2 methods:

1) Food not Bombs method
of helping low-income people

Management required by the city: Almost none. Food not Bombs just happens.

Effect on angry, unstable people: Free food and social interaction is calming.

Police action: None. Annoying people are asked to stop being annoying.

Cost to taxpayers: $0.00

2) City management method of
dealing with low-income people

Management required by the city: Hire a manager. He or she will need an office, staff, a secretary, and someone to manage public relations.

Effect on angry, unstable people: They tend to blame society and the city government for all the bad things that happened when they were children.

Police action: Moving people away without providing somewhere else for them to go tends to escalate the difficulty, and creates other difficulties.

Those who are doing the policing sometimes see the increased problems as job security.

Cost to taxpayers: For all the Portland parks, $1 million to begin?


A documentary that helps people
understand government corruption
could do well.

Michael Moore's films taught us something valuable. There is money in well-made documentaries. Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 made $120 million in the United States.

"Fahrenheit 9/11, now an event, took in more than $228 million in ticket sales worldwide, a record for a documentary, and sold 3 million DVDs, which brought in another $30 million in royalties."

"[Michael Moore] acquired most of the footage from television film libraries at little, if any, cost and did not pay any of the on-camera talent (except for himself)."

"Disney ... paid Moore a stunning $21 million."


About the author
of this article

I have extensive experience in Summers Park. A friend and I spent what he says was "300 to 500 hours" talking in Summers Park beginning in the early evening. We discussed issues important to our careers, such as the sociology of technology development. Summers Park was the most convenient place to meet.

When the police arrived at 10 pm and asked us to leave the park, we would often move to the sidewalk and continue talking for an hour or more.

Back then my wife and I lived 3 blocks from the park. We had a business in our apartment. We often walked to the park during the day.

A retired neighbor of ours walked her dog to Summers Park every night at midnight. She says she has never seen any problems.

She attended a meeting about Summers Park on October 13, 2015. She told me she thought the meeting was extremely dishonest. She said a neighbor of hers walked out of the meeting after 15 minutes saying it was dishonest.

The worst disturbance any of us saw, in all that time, was some drunks that were making too much noise at about 11 pm while my friend and I were talking. My friend went to them and convinced them to be quieter.

I'm writing a book about how people use their brains. Part of the book explains theories about why organizations have poor management. The main problem? Good management requires more thinking than most people want to do.


This review is the best understanding
of those with a genuine interest
in Summers Park.

More research would be helpful.

Suggestions for improvement are happily accepted.

Michael Jennings
Futurepower ®
futurepower.net

Email:
michaelj
(at sign)
futurepower.net
(Put on one line. Use @ instead of AT.)


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Portland pays police to discourage park visitors.

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