I love in Portland and I didn’t even know about this garbage dump — I mean neighborhood.

And no mortgage!

This could be the wave of the future. I am all for it.

Ummm, I think that speaks more to your ignorance than to the obscurity of the village. You should leave the pearl district once in a while.

I also live in Portland, Im glad this is working out. My bet is Chriskalani lives in one of the suburbs of Portland, which is not really Portland.

I live in Texas and I didn’t know there was a person named Chris Kalani in Portland who was a complete asshole.

I didn’t even know about the cretin…I mean chriskalani…living in Portland.

chriskalani,

I have a hunch no matter where you loved, you wouldn’t know much !
This is a great thing and I hope it doesn’t get spoiled. I believe a place of your own to live should be a basic right like the air we breathe.

Is this place located in the middle of a composting-yard or something?

Yeah, Sunderland Yard is also a leaf composting site. Probably makes it really convenient for villagers to grow their own food.

So where is the waste going?

Well, as long as we’re all being so judgemental, I’ll join in, too.

Yes, I think it’s great that folks have a place to call their own (for as long as it lasts) and have established rules for living there. It’s admirable. I don’t wish homelessness on anyone.

But I’m a Texan living in Portland and I find the whole damn city to be a bit of a garbage dump (to use chriskalani’s description). Since the city allows no outward growth, houses are built on top of each other. And for some reason, people leave all manor of shit in their yards. Not to mention some of the horrible paint choices. Purple houses? Cmon!!

But hey, to each his own.

I guess it’s all a matter of what floats your boat, Texan. There are many people who find Texas-style development, with its sprawl and the problems that come with it (air pollution, a lifetime spent in a car) as a pretty rotten way to live.

Clearly there are millions in Texas who disagree. But Portland is one of the only cities in the US that has even tried any different style of development. The result is a city that ranks as one of the most livable in the country.

Is it just me…Or does it smell like hippies in here?

OK…Dignity Village…When I look at your official website it seems that you have a very nice start on a community, but I have a problem…in more than half of the pictures I see “borrowed” shopping carts….These are expensive and cost ALL consumers money when you “borrow” them.

Texan in hippieland -

just goes to show that one man’s trash is another man’s treasure, since I moved to Portland to get away from suburban sprawl! I came from a city where there’s lots of outward growth and I hated it. Also, what’s wrong with purple paint? I think it makes houses cheerful; I’d much rather live in a neighborhood with a few houses I don’t like than in a neighborhood where all the houses look the same…

What’s funny about this is, of course, that Portland has won many awards for best city planning. I don’t remember hearing about Texas cities much in that context.

Workman, I certainly don’t want to be argumentative, as I can appreciate the desire to reduce air pollution and “sprawl” as you put it. But with the ridiculous traffic situation in Portland (partially based on an overly-congested urban center) I find it takes longer to get 5 miles here than it does 15 miles in Dallas. Traffic here, to put it mildly, sucks. And congesting houses into a smaller area does NOT reduce pollution. It only contains it and makes it more intense in a given area. People are moving to Portland. Trying to force them into one, small contained area is ludicrous. Plus, there’s aesthetics to consider. (Which was my point in my original comment) Do you truly believe that flag lots and houses with cars parked in the yard or all over the streets is a better way to live? You may. And if so, that’s cool. I just think that Portland, while trying to maintain the beauty of the surrounding rural areas, is destroying itself from within and trying to pretend that the population isn’t growing. But, certainly, it’s just my opinion. I respect your right to disagree.

Well isn’t this just too funny….we have an ex-Texan living in Oregon, and now and ex-Oregonian living in Texas. I’ll tell you what buddy, after living in both places just as you have, I’m more than happy to switch with you. I’ve had just about enough of this horrible social-caste fueled urban sprawl with no other objective than to move the rich closer to the shopping malls and further from the “stench” of the ghettos. And may I ask you how long it’s been since you’ve been to Dallas? Have you ever tried getting anywhere in rush hour traffic? I have to drive through that hellhole nearly monthly, and the only way I can hope to make the straight shot through in less than four hours is to travel in the dead of night. Thanks god I found this little safe haven that is Austin…The traffic may suck but at least the place has a heart.

Personally, I think that this is a wonderful thing. Everyone should have a place to call HOME. I would rather see a purple or whatever color housed shanty town, tucked somewhere, safely. Just to better protect, not neccasarily hide. Then see homeless people on the streets freezing and defenceless against the elements. I live in Colorado, it can get pretty tough to keep warm, even with a home. I hope them the best of luck, they deserve at least that much, a Home.

Hippie,

I moved to Portland in June. So I am familiar with Dallas traffic. I also lived in Austin, which coincidentally now has WORSE traffic even though it’s smaller. Wanna know why? When I lived there in the 80s, much like Portland, there was a “NO GROWTH” movement. They protested the building of Mopac, hoping (I guess) that without the highway, people would stop moving there. They didn’t stop. Fortunately, the highway got built anyway… or Austin traffic would be even worse.

I would agree with you, however, that Austin, unlike Dallas, DOES have a heart. It’s a great city. Like Portland, it has good people and a great culture. So back off on the hostility, man. We simply disagree as to what is the best way to deal with overpopulation.

And for the record, when in Dallas, I lived at several locations within 635. I never ran from poor people. But I don’t particularly care for my neighbors to have ugly shit in their yard, whether they’re poor or not.

This is no more dignified than a zoo.
I do not like the idea of allowing homeless people to build shantytowns on public land.
If Portland can’t or won’t create zoning for low-income homeowners, setting up a “Hooverville” a la 1932 isn’t dignified for anyone. Almost no one who is chronically homeless is that way because of poverty or joblessness. Most of them live on the street because they’re mentally ill to some extent and/or substance abusers.
Allowing them to set up a shantytown just gives the “do-gooders” a smug sense of having done something without really doing anything except to give soccer moms a place to drive past in the Hummer and point out to their children as a situation to avoid by exercising middle-class values.
And the next generation is going to derive from this a very weird definition of “dignity” that is going to change a good word for how to treat other people into a punchline.
And what’s a hippieland?

As another ex-Texan (a “Tex-ile”, of course) living in Portland, I feel obligated to respond here. “Texan-in-hippieland” certainly has the right to have his/her own opinions, but I will have to chime in.

Dignity Village was a response to homeless people being evicted from their “homes” where they were erected by the police repeatedly. It is not the solution for homelessness. The issue really should be the root causes of homelessness and how they can be solved and not in criticizing how some people have chosen to cope with our society who would prefer to minimalize and “disappear” homelessness (if you can’t see it, it doesn’t exist, right?) At least the meager belongings and dignities of these people who chose to abide by the DV rules are not confiscated repeatedly by the “authorities” in blue. Having a place to live without what many of us take for granted (a more permanent roof over our heads) and not have to be as concerned what will happen to you and your belongings if you have to leave them to go to a social security office or an emergency room or (OMG) a job have tremendous value if you are living over the edge of what many of us think of as “normal”. It would be better if everyone had the right to adequate “normal” housing, but the fact is that our current system doesn’t allow that. Dignity Village allows for people to have some control of their living situation. Is it ideal? Hell no. Is it better than trying to fend for yourself under the Burnside Bridge? Hell yeah.

On the other subject “hippietown” brought up. Arguing about whose traffic is worse is not the issue; wondering why people have to get into their cars at all should be the issue…Portland has an amazing public transportation system and a small core that allows for an amazing combination of public transport plus bicycle to prevent the need to ever get into the traffic jams that “hippietown” suggests. Urban Growth Boundaries (like Portland’s) prevent the sprawl that has destroyed what used to be a very nice little city (Austin). Austin’s traffic is far, far worse than Portland’s will ever be. Mopac was built in the late 70’s, and is a sidebar… loop 360 is the next level out and is now bumper to bumper, not to mention all the new toll roads… that’s what we need in Portland… more toll roads so SUV’s can be bumper to bumper for a fee!

Buy a Trimet pass and a bike, and you’ll see, hippietown. Some of us moved here to escape people like you.

But hey, to each his own.

Signed,
Sonya
(Decidedly NOT a hippie, living in a purple house in SE PDX. No really, it’s purple.)

“Allowing them to set up a shantytown just gives the “do-gooders” a smug sense of having done something without really doing anything”
Dignity Village was originally created as a form of protest against the lack of homeless services and shelters in the Portland area. It’s actually an amazing example of grassroots work, considering the inhabitants “illegally” camped in downtown Portland and refused to move. When the police raided their tent city, they just set it back up again until the city council was forced to deal with their very public situation in a humane manner. When I first moved to Portland, the question of what to do with this renegade tent city was the hot topic. Residents, who themselves named the village, fought very hard, and all the naysayers said the project was just a pipe dream, that their sense of community would fail, and drugs and violence would dismantle the project. Despite living next to the airport on the outskirts of the city and having poor public transportation access, Dignity Village has QUIETLY (read: little intervention needed to deal with typical streetcrime) succeeded in giving the chronically homeless an established community with rules based on respect and consideration, and since they run it themselves they avoid intrusions from “homefull” outsiders trying to tell them how to live — which is a problem many homeless people have when they are making the transition into more permanent housing. Dignity Village, is, at its best, one of the most empowering environments for a homeless person to escape from an extremely dangerous and unforgiving street life and gives them a sense of belonging. As for the stolen shopping carts…seriously. Have you ever tramped around town with all of what you consider to be your important belongings? Probably not. Try it sometime and see how far you get carrying a house on your back.

With all the comments flying about (seemingly in response to my comment) I want to make sure no one thinks I’m an asshole or a liar. So let me respond to just a couple of things and I’ll shut up, I swear. I will not respond again. Promise.

1) First of all, please don’t think me a heartless bastard. If you read my initial comment, you’ll see that I actually think that Dignity Village is an admirable idea. Like you say, far better than folks living under the Burnside bridge.

2) I don’t agree that most all homeless people are mentally ill. I’ve made it a point to talk to some of them and try to learn more about their situations. Many have fallen upon some horrible circumstances. I also know FIRST HAND what it’s like to lose a job and how it destroys your self esteem and that makes it even harder to pick up and find another one. As I write this, I AM unemployed.

3) I made my initial comment because I thought it was interesting how everyone was so judgmental at the first guy for having an opinion. It also made me think about how trashy and congested it is here in Portland.

4) While I realize Portland has been honored for its city planning, I find that fact HILARIOUS since the street in front of my house changes names three times - in a straight line.

5) In 1981, when I lived in Austin, yes, Mopac was PARTIALLY built, but only from Barton Creek Mall up to around 183. And YES there was a “NO GROWTH” contingent.

6) I do not agree that Portland will NEVER have traffic as bad as Austin. People = congestion = traffic. I live in SW Portland. Guess what? No train. And with the incessant rain, I am NOT going to ride a bike. Portland needs more highways - period. (And since there are bike lanes, it’d be nice if the riders used them instead of the car lanes)

7) I agree that arguing about the traffic is not the point. I only brought it up in response to the previous comment (directed toward my beloved home state) about the “sprawl” in Texas. My point was that “sprawl” (as Portlanders call it) is one way of dealing with over-population. Urban congestion or (Urban Growth Boundaries) is another. I prefer less congestion.

Okay. My purple house comment was rude. Guilty. Hey, if you want your house to be purple… that’s cool (I just don’t get it)

Last thing I want is to be a dick. Hope I didn’t come off that way. I won’t comment anymore. Ya’ll have at it. Sorry if I enraged anyone.

Peace.

Pretty interesting to read this story and the below story on the same day…

http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0211/p13s02-wmgn.html

breathing is not a “right” … neither is housing …

Obviously these folks are now no longer homeless … great … now get a job …

Lively discussion. I have been to Dallas and Portland and didn’t care much for either of them.

BUT…if someone can squat on some land and keep warm and dry, why the fuck should I care?

Also, anyone that uses the word “do-gooders” as an insult is merely a heartless, brainless dweeb.

Well after reading the topic i thought of something more organized.This is organized but i was expecting more from it.

this shows dat this people still have quality way of thinking..speacially in organizing..live in peace..

The idea of government giving unearned land away is abhorrent in a just society.

More power to them.
If it’s working for them, then good.
They’re not hurting anyone, they seem to have a nice small community… let them be.

This is no solution. This is a case of individuals failing on many levels. I’m ashamed that this exists. Someone will get shit-face on cologne and shank a neighbor. This isn’t some quaint artist village. It’s where people crap in a bucket and call it home. All you liberal lovers of communism are welcome to live here. I’d rather keep attempting to live the American dream…the reason my family came to America wasn’t to live in 3rd world shanty town, fools.

Green Acers is the place to be, farm living is the life for me. land spreading out so far and wide, keep Manhattan just give me that country side.
Hey where is the Home Owners Association when you need them. Come on now! purple houses?
You know I’m just kidding folks! If president Bush stays’ in office much longer you’ll have to save a space for me, I’ve got some orange paint and I’m willing to share it.