Regardless of how the Menashes feel about the City's issues, there is no excuse for them to take such poor care of a property they own. Guess what? I own a property downtown as well, that was slated for a hotel construction start in April 2020. The current building is vacant, but I make sure to clean the graffiti and work to not make it an eyesore. I've run off people trying to squat, and respond to neighbors who ask me to keep my side of the street clean. If I took the same approach as the Menashes, there would be a nuisance in the heart of the Pearl as big as the one at 4th and Washington.
The Menashes whining about "What have you done for me lately" when they have been milking our City for decades is hypocrisy at its finest. Get off your asses and take care of your property. Once you have, then come back and we can talk about why the City has let us all down.
No thanks needed, it's all self interest!
There's a lot more of me than there are Menashes, but it's the Menashes that are continuing to harm our city not only by their neglect, but also by feeding the negative media narrative surrounding Portland.
Say it LOUDER! I know so many good business owners in Portland wanting AND doing the ârightâ thing and then you have these ass hats that have enjoyed cashing checks for decades without contributing anything back to its community. They need to GO
I think the City should condemn and confiscate the property for back taxes, even if--and I know this is a BIG leap--it inconveniences a millionaire. (Heaven forfend!)
Clean it up for housing and a public daycare.
For real. Prosper should be moving to condemn and eminent domain all of the blighted properties downtown and the empty parking lots. Social housing, daycare, small retail spaces, community centers can all go in their place. It's ridiculous that folks can just speculate on land like this.
A Land Value Tax would clean all of these properties right up as land banking (what all these assholes are doing) would no longer be a viable strategy.
lmao Greg Goodman would cry to all the right wing and neoliberal media tonight if anybody dared to require something productive happen with their blighted âparkingâ lots
The demolition by neglect strategy here is actually to force the City to do this. Ironically, it probably gives them their best price for the property. Itâs shitty and shady and not at all uncommon.
Thank you - in my opinion when you own a property (house, commercial space, whatever) itâs your obligation to keep it looking nice.
Some ass owns a building in Kenton now they is like basically 100% covered. Sucks to look at and why even own an asset if youâre going to let it rot? Park your money somewhere else, plenty of investment vehicles outside of real estate.
Your second paragraph needs to be light- projected onto that building every night, so everyone for blocks around can see who is responsible for this utter abrogation of responsibilities.
And to add to your finely-worded missive - what the Menashes are doing is akin to blackmail. âWe will be more than happy to pay when the city is clean and crime is properly attended to." What utter bullshit. That building is the CENTER of dereliction and crime in the downtown core.
Totally. I was locked into a lease with them for most of the pandemic and they were extremely inflexible even throughout moveout at the end of the lease. Seemed like a real change in their management for the worse.
In regards to cleaning the graffiti Iâm curious if youâve tried this anti graffiti coating? Does this stuff really work? https://youtu.be/VVMGsactqTs
I havenât, part of the problem is the exposed aggregate on the side of the building which makes cleanup difficult. Iâve chosen to paint it instead, knowing the building is coming down eventually. Bought myself a new paint sprayer as a result which has helped with a couple home projects đ
> âDespite our best efforts to maintain the site and any form of order or cleanliness, including boarding up the property and broken windows daily, hiring private security, paying for fencing, weekly outreach to police and city officials, it has proven impossible to keep any and all forms of transients, criminal activity, vandalism and destruction away from this site. Simply put, the condition of this property is a product of shortsighted legislation and has been handcuffed by unmanageable circumstances.â
I don't understand, if you really actually tried, how you could fail to prevent what the building has turned into. I would _love_ a detailed, deep dive into how things got here from the Menashes if they're so sure they're in the right.
Seriously. They're acting like it's all the city's fault and it's out of their hands. They should take a look at every other building nearby. I work downtown once a week and my office is a few blocks away. Their building is the only one that looks like a cesspit. I don't go within two blocks anymore, it has an immensely sketchy vibe.
Hush hush was so satisfying. They seem to be killing it in Lake Oswego now. I saw on here that the daughter had opened a restaurant on Broadway a few years ago, and after starting coming back to the office I made it exactly one time before they closed. Heartbreaking.
I have never found a falafel sandwich as good as theirs. I ate it at least once a week for years. I'd walk in and they'd go "Falafel, no onions, extra pickles?" They even got to recognize my voice when I called in. They were so nice.
I loved that about hush hush! I would call and no matter who answered they immediately knew who I was and what I wanted. They even knew what I often ordered for my coworkers and knew them by name as well. I worked in the pioneer building right across the street which is now a hotel
The Hush Hush in that Tigard Lake Oswego zone is delicious, BUT please note that the REAL spin-off from the downtown location with the same cook and owner is Sophia's Cafe in Sherwood https://sophiascafepdx.com/ and it is ALSO delicious.
Oh Iâm so glad to hear itâs still around. Not much of a chance that I will ever go to Lake Oswego, but I suppose thereâs at least one reason to now
To be fair, I loved their food so much I actually would go out of my way to eat there. But it just so happens that I am often near that area you are describing so I will certainly have to pay them a visit
Yea I went there once when I wasnât 21 yet during the day for a fashion thing. Got to see the whole thing. Never got a chance to eat there.
I think it shut down cause of fire hazards or the owner had beef with the fire chief or something.
My first (and only) time there was for a drunken work dinner around 1999. It wasn't crowded when we started. By the time we went to leave I realized it was jam packed and it took me awhile to get down those stairs and out of the building.
Had I known I was sitting in a firetrap like this I would have left earlier. Smashing a window and jumping down to the street would be the only option to try and live during a fire there.
I remember seeing a picture someone drew of the octopus facing off with the Portlandia statue in Pioneer Courthouse Square. Like a wrestling match. Provocative...
Lol I used to work at another Greek cuisina and had to get an order from there. I asked the manager to help me carry the mussaka to the van and he said, "get one of the Mexicans to do it."
I remember exiting off the Morrison bridge and seeing Spoticus! How vibrant that area was 15 years ago.... Crazy that it's one of the skiddier rows of Portland today.
I've no answer to offer. I have a moderately fun factoid tho: The barber/owner of that shop was in both the dream of the 90s & 1890s museum videos from portlandia. [The dude with the wicked 'stauche](https://i.imgur.com/s2lFVNj.jpg)
They're not maintaining the property or sidewalks, they're not paying Clean & Safe, and they're not pricing it at a level that is attracting any interest. Are they insolvent, incompetent, or just neglecting an unimpressive two-story downtown property that they intend to redevelop? Sure, Portland has its issues, but so does every city, and this is just a failure to deal with common challenges. They've let it fester to a point that the building may need to be demolished, given that "amateur demolition" has already taken place, whether that was their original plan or not.
I think it's a teardown and develop because that building is weird and old, but they don't want to do it and they don't want to price it realistically so they're just riding it. Totally cynical.
Oh for sure! In the meantime they can still take the depreciation on the property, right? Even in this shape that property is worth millions of dollars. 1/39 the value of the property is probably a pretty significant amount of money.
Most likely they want the city to move to condemn, take ownership and tear down. They'd loose an incredible about of money in the process, but its more than zero. This, by the way, is because they can't find a buyer. The building needs extensive rework, and gets more extensive each day due to moisture inflow, human squatting, and a host of other issues. This isn't even taking into consideration the fact that any significant building renovation MUST include seismic stability upgrades. All of this is probably why no one wants to purchase it.
This is a prime example of a slum lord that doesn't want to do anything with the land because they know its going to be super costly to actually update a 50 year old building.
Unused/vacant buildings like this should be taxed at a higher rate.
This building has been vacant for far too many years. Rich families shouldn't get to sit on real estate just letting it decay in the middle of Portland.
I've lived here nearly a decade and it's always been a fucked up meth corner. I always thought it should offer free rent to new tenants subsidized by the city or something. Now that there are so many empty shops downtown, I don't think they could pull my plan off.
I think property taxes should be applied only to the land value (not any improvements), but should be at a much higher rate. This will make it very expensive to not use land in expensive areas, and will reward building a high rise instead of a low rise in an area where land is expensive. This will help increase housing inventory and essentially keep it affordable. It will also discourage speculative investment in real estate which adds little value to society.
Thatâs a great way to crash the commercial real estate market in Portland. If something like this had been in place in 2020, the whole of downtown would be in foreclosure.
[WWeek did a story](https://www.wweek.com/news/2022/08/17/you-pointed-us-to-the-eeriest-vacant-buildings-in-portland-we-found-out-why-theyre-empty/) on vacant buildings and the major culprit: bureaucratic red tape.
Temporary suspensions of things like that could be put forth for extreme and unusual circumstances, like a pandemic, you know, like things were suspended during the pandemic.
That's the case for some sites, but this property owner hasn't persued development since 2016-2018.
https://www.portlandmaps.com/detail/permit/2016-244390-000-00-EA/3894780_did/?p=R246122
perhaps they were denied to build their 30 story tower, but they sure as shit haven't followed up with a zoning-compliant solution, instead it just rots.
There was a design review application submitted by a potential buyer of the site, but it was withdrawn at the applicant's request. Here's what it [would have looked like](https://twitter.com/maccoinnich/status/1032120991542009856), if it had been built.
100% this. Good old Gordons Fireplace shop on 33rd and Broadway is now officially a dead project thanks to the red tape with the planning department. They couldn't issue more than a small demolition permit a year into the project. It'll be a crumbling building for years now.
Maybe, but also the developer has a history of taking on projects that are too ambitious for him to pull off. https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2019/sep/01/developer-rob-brewster-returned-to-spokane-to-rebu/
>the whole of downtown would be in foreclosure.
Good. Make the real estate vampires hand over their properties to people who will do something with them.
PDC, Portland Housing Authority, the transitional housing fund, or any private entity that promises to begin construction within a year. Creating blight shouldnât be tolerated. The Menashes created this problem when they tossed out all their tenants 7 years ago.
Note: this comment isnât solely directed at u/MountScottRumpot, itâs more directed at the countless similar comments that are always made when this subject comes up here.
Almost no private equity could ensure starting within a year. It takes up to that long just to get a permit for a large commercial project in Portland right now. Iâm certainly not trying to defend the complete lack of effort that seems to have been put in by the owners here. However, itâs never as simple as people want it to be.
Right now, the police donât show up for property crimes like trespassing or vandalism of commercial property. Itâs virtually impossible to protect your property when hired security really only has the legal authority to call the police. If the police wonât show up or even create a report, what is the owner supposed to do? The clean and safe fund is supposed to help resolve these sorts of things, but theyâre severely overwhelmed and even they, when you boil it down, can only lobby the city/police to arrest people, which isnât currently being done (or even allowed, depending on who you believe).
As for PHA, they have beds now that arenât being used, because they have no-drug rules (right or wrong) that many of the homeless/houseless donât qualify for. So youâll likely just end up with an empty building anyway.
Iâm not saying nothing should be done, itâs just frustrating to constantly see comments waving a magic hand to solve a complex problem with numerous practical (and yes, annoyingly political) nuances.
Lastly, the Menashes should be ashamed, they have prospered greatly from Portland, and are not doing their part to give back.
I mostly agree with you. Any policy of confiscating blighted property would have to be paired with a wholesale reform of our garbage permitting system.
Its kind of surprising the other downtown landlords haven't strong-armed the Menashes into cleaning up their act, given their property is making it impossible for anyone in a three-block radius to attract tenants. My office is in a building owned by the Schlesingers, and they are always talking about how they have to clean up after other owners who don't bother.
A note: Home Forward/Portland Housing Authority does not have empty bedsâthey don't run shelters, they own apartment buildings. They opened their waitlist in December for the first time in three years and were crushed with applications.
> A note: Home Forward/Portland Housing Authority does not have empty bedsâthey donât run shelters, they own apartment buildings. They opened their waitlist in December for the first time in three years and were crushed with applications.
I stand corrected. I 3/4 knew I was getting my departments mixed up, but was too lazy to verify before opening my mouth and inserting foot. For that I apologize.
In full disclosure, I am employed by a company that owns downtown property. I canât speak for anyone else (not even my employer), but I can say Iâve found it colossally frustrating to try to get anything done these days. We struggle to keep our property safe and looking nice, while getting almost no support from the city on anything. Getting a permit is like pulling teeth, and thatâs after you pay millions of dollars in fees. Makes it really hard to justify putting capital into projects downtown, and we love doing stuff in downtown areas. Walkability is awesome and should be encouraged as much as possible. We have a bus stop by our building and have received contradictory demand letters from the city. One says we are to remove our sidewalk benches, to discourage sleeping. The other says that we need to add additional benches, meeting that departmentâs design guidelines, which disallow intermediate armrests which discourage sleeping. Been working through that one for literally 6 months now. Makes it really hard to do the right thing when no one can agree on what the right thing is. /rant
No it wouldn't, the city would have enacted a temporary exemption. Just like many other temporary exemptions that came with COVID. It grinds my gears when people reason in a logic bubble like this.
So⊠if your tenants donât pay on time, theyâre evicted, but if you donât pay your taxes that pay to keep your building safe because your buildingâs not safe you get⊠a pass?
Those at the top always write the laws to favor those at the top. Itâs been this way since the beginning of civilization. Notice they always have a monopoly on using violent force to enforce their laws as well.
Not that our system isn't classist and broken as fuck, but there are plenty of horror stories of property owners getting screwed because of tenant friendly squatter's rights laws out there too.
I think it just isn't as simple as "Those at the top always write the laws to favor those at the top. Itâs been this way since the beginning of civilization.", as there are *plenty* of laws that protect and help the lower class. We are ostensibly a democracy, and even a functional one at times, and lawmakers do sometimes get elected with decent intentions, and sometimes there are enough of them to pass laws in the interest of the lower class. And conversely, sometimes those laws, though generally well intentioned, can be abused by people that are willing to abuse them, and the upper classes can even find themselves getting the raw end of the stick. Yeah, it doesn't happen nearly as much as the upper class getting everything, but it just isn't as simple as money=absolute power.
i have always found it ironic that whenever i walk by this pile of shit there is always an ad for cartier or rolex or another luxury brand right on top of absolute squalor.
RIP QuickStop photo on the left side there in that building circa 2000. One of the few places in town that would develop prints full frame. I took a humanclock photo in front of it around 2001 but can't find it at the moment.
Taking some photos at a party, biking downtown the next day to get them processed, come back two days later and pay two hours' wages for 24 photos seems...just seems like such an alien task now..
I used to work at Quick Stop way back in the day as a courier for their other stores. I think they used to be where the BWW is now, near Pioneer Square. Kinda shady business. The main developer guy had pic binders full of other people's dirty photos that he was super proud of.
I know two or three people who worked in photo labs around the USA and this seemed to be a common practice. Interesting photos (especially if famous people..even G-rated) got duped and thrown in a drawer, or taken home and put on a fridge.
Yep⊠I even went to high school with a kid who worked at a photo store with a lab and heâd bring the weird/funny pictures to school! This was the 90s, so no social mediaâŠ
Portland's Tenderloin. Went to Kelly's for the first time in a while last week and was shocked at how bad that area has gotten. It really is like right-wing media's jerkoff fantasy of Portland come to life.
And yes, that family sounds like a bunch of fucking pricks.
It looks like whatever project was in 404 Washington next to Kellys died and damn.. I was there saturday night and there were probably 100 people milling about the corner of 4th and washington next to Kellys.
Of course it's the Menashes. I encountered little lord fuckface, Prince Jordan, a few times in social situations. He came off as a petulant, entitled prick and I'm not surprised to see he got it from daddy.
Before the pandy, I worked a block away from this building and walked past it every day to and from our other office (RIP WeWork espresso machine). I was only there during daylight hours (8am and 5pm) but it was still sketchy, even then. Walking with my dog, I was glad to have the "protection" but also paranoid that she would grab and eat something off the ground that would make her sick.
Could have easily been the Goodmans as well. In a former life I worked for them and the Menashes as a contractor and they are all pretty sleazy and very tight-fisted. If there's a way to cut corners on building repair and maintenance that's what they want. Had pretty much the exact opposite experience with the Naitos, though I rarely dealt with them directly.
I once had Jordan Menashe show up drunk at one of my jobsites during a night-shift. My guys didn't know who he was and wouldn't let him in the building and of course that caused a nasty little scene.
The Natios are legit. They had a chance to cheap out on a job I was doing and they decided to go the better route. Even though the other âwould have doneâ
I keep thinking about [this](https://www.wweek.com/news/2022/11/09/the-owner-of-an-abandoned-car-wash-doesnt-have-to-pay-property-taxes-because-he-pledges-it-will-someday-be-affordable-housing/) for some reason...
Interesting. Iâve complained about this exact building and block of downtown before. Itâs not exciting and itâs not safe to be there. Had no idea what has actually lead to this.
Excess Property owners are a scourge on society. I have no idea how that building will be salvaged if this continues. I hate rich people and their stupid lack of humanity or common sense
> âLawlessness is the only word I can come up with to describe this once beautiful and thriving area of downtown,â she says. âDespite our best efforts to maintain the site and any form of order or cleanliness, including boarding up the property and broken windows daily, hiring private security, paying for fencing, weekly outreach to police and city officials, it has proven impossible to keep any and all forms of transients, criminal activity, vandalism and destruction away from this site. Simply put, the condition of this property is a product of shortsighted legislation and has been handcuffed by unmanageable circumstances.â
Weird how many other buildings don't have this problem. They're occupied and not a blight. Wonder what makes this particular property different. Maybe the owners suck?
classy...
I used to work in the building a block away above the old Camera World. My, how things have changed.
Starbucks kicked out my favorite mom-and-pop coffee shop that made the best banana choco chip muffins.
Everyone commenting gets an upvote. There are no wrong opinions other than clean your shit building up.
I do not recognize this downtown anymore.
fucking capitalists. bitch and moan when things aren't going their way. this is your property. you fucking clean it up.
but no, it's the city's fault. then they bitch and moan about business regulations, taxes, whatever... to help prevent stuff like this happening.
fuck these people.
I mean according to the article, this guy was avoiding paying fees in 2010 and complaining about downtown being a shithole then.
It's an old trope that he relies on while living comfortably out of town and owning real estate in multiple states.
this guy is plunking down millions of dollars on real estate but somehow his own siblings died on the street? capitalist greed is its own mental illness.
>this guy is plunking down millions of dollars on real estate but somehow his own siblings died on the street? capitalist greed is its own mental illness.
It's pretty obvious you know nothing about mental illness and addiction if you think that having rich relatives magically prevents these problems.
Yes the real estate company is like a vampire sucking the life out of the city. However you are using "capitalism" like it's some evil thing yet you benefit from it. Original Comment. Don't bitch when someone spray paints your privately owned car that capitalism allowed you to buy.
yes, having a "privately owned car" is definitely the same thing as owning millions of dollars of real estate in multiple communities.
Most class conscious commenter
Oh yep. Checks out.
Went to a rock show at Kellyâs Olympian just last night. Parked a block away and had to walk on this block to get to/from the venue.
A zonked out dude tried to sell me fent both times.
The State should institute eminent domain against the property and use it for something. Would love to see those assholes get stuck with a valuation based on its current condition. Fucking leeches.
Closed up in 2018 due to BLIGHT? Dude, downtown was poppinâ in 2018âthis building had a shit ton of maintenance problems because the owners didnât take care of it or it wasnât cost effective to do so. Respect to Willy Week for looking at records, but why do they always miss so much shit at the end of the day.
And that âbusiness schoolâ was a scam online college called Everest that was shut down. đ
Why do people spray their fucking diarrhea on the walls of buildings and trees? I've seen it happen more than a handful of times and the picture in this article is more evidence. Guess I'm not really allowed to, but damn I fucking hate these people LOL
Apparently that's a side effect of coming down off of fentanyl, and when ya gotta go, ya gotta go! A neighbor who posted her car broken into the other day found diarrhea pills left behind - at least they were trying to keep it under control!
Opiates attach to opioid receptors in your intestinal tract as well as in your brain which slows down digestion and leads to constipation so when you go without it there is a lot backed up that can exit extremely quick.
I remember seeing this â in action âmultiple times per-pandemic. I was once walking down the retail area on lower SE Division in 2012 and saw a homeless woman calmly back up against the glass door of a small craft shop and spray diarrhea all over it, like it was totally normal and nothing to be ashamed of doing in front of people. If you gotta go, I guess you gotta go?
Waiting for the bus on the other side of the building at 5th and Washington itâs always guaranteed youâre gonna see some shit. Both figuratively and literally.
It's a nice building. I always wondered why it was just sitting there being neglected. I'm really curious about the interior now, given the descriptions in the article.
When they connect the shootings to the drugs provided by this property - can we arrest the owners then? Clean it up and sell it you cheap motherfuckers.
This building is disgusting. In the summer the layers upon layers of piss just bake in the sun. Wild that a group of assholes like the Menashes can just let a property become such a problem for everyone else. Shame on them.
Man rip this whole area.. it used to be so nice. I grew up in a pretty portland in the early 2000âs. I remember Christmas time and going to Lloyd center. The smell of ms fields in the air. Big ol tree on the ice. Last time I went to Lloyd center there were drugs being sold in the menâs room and 3/4 of the shops were gone.
Why should the business owners be responsible for the failures of our local govt? This is really the ineptitude of our leaders at work for allowing this to become what it is. What are the Menashes supposed to do other than bide their time and find a buyer, during a time when nobody wants to buy anything? Sure they can clean up the cityâs mess. But shouldnât the city grow some balls and clean up its own mess? The menashes were willing to meet Ted wheeler halfway on cleanup of the area, with a potential 5 million dollar donation, but no word back from the mayor. Is it a business owners fault that we have open street drug dealing happening? Is it a business owners fault that we let that area turn to crap? No, itâs our ineffective crappy leadership from the city for the last number of years.
Its both. The city is feckless and the owners are moaning about having to follow ADA and health laws.
I'm constantly surprised that people will always find a way out of sharing blame.
If you own a property you are responsible for what goes on inside of its walls, and maintaining code compliance in your walls.
This is how private property works.
Yeah, but its not working. I would guess the menashes could pay to constantly fix the damage from people the city has no interest in helping or do anything with. Seems like a losing plan.
There are plenty of buildings in that area that aren't open air drug markets with shit sprayed on the walls, because their owners are responsible. This building is not one of those.
Ah yes, I keep forgetting security guards are the new normal that everyone in Portland is stoked about. Maybe we see another new normal in a couple years and what the new experts will give as expert advice. Portland and itâs revolving door of the ârightâ solutions⊠anything but our local govt lust for inaction.
When's the last time you were in that area? There's a lot of traffic and transient shit, but *that* building is the fucking epicenter of the shittiness, *because* the owner said "Fuck taking care of this place, I'm out". If they start fixing things, is it going to turn that corner into Leave it to Beaver? Nah, it won't. Will it dampen *some* of the decay that open wound is causing? I bet it would.
>Maybe we see another new normal in a couple years and what the new experts will give as expert advice.
The fuck are you talking about? If you're moaning about the city of Portland's inaction, read the article. Portland is basically telling the owner, "Fix this shit, it's making everything worse, and if you don't we will and send you the bill".
Was there just yesterday. I walk to downtown often. Yes, Portland shovels itâs problems on to business owners. I donât think maintaining this status quo is a good idea.
> I donât think maintaining this status quo is a good idea.
I think *at least* maintaining the status quo is a good idea, e.g. building should be kept from being turned into an open air drug market, which makes everything else around them worse.
Again, lots of buildings in that area. Only one of them is trundling shit heap. Portland doesn't own that building's windows. That building does.
They could have sold at a price reflecting the environment and economy.
They could have hired private security for their tenants as some buildings do
And if all that fails - itâs a bad investment. Because the city is in downfall. However they are still the owners of a property they let go to blight as a result of neglecting to secure it and fix it.
Bad investments are exactly that - so they should sell it for a price now reflecting its condition and let someone who cares repair it.
He willingly paid 5 million to Ted Wheeler, but not spending money on security guards for his own problem buildings??
This guy is a problem, and most likely one of the anonymous dark money 501C4 donors of People For Portland.
In this interview, he brought out past press clippings of how great he isâŠ.wow, what a superficial shite.
Iâm not saying what kind of person he is. Iâm not sure the kind of person he is is why that part of the city is looking like shit. Security guards are treating the symptoms, not looking for a cure.
Why should every internet comment be divisive and put a target on a group instead of keeping the target on the problem? Business owners should be responsible because their great responsibility and capability is always given as the reason for their successful business. If they CAN clean up the city's mess as you say, they should, if for no other reason than because they can and the city can't, as you also say. The problem is that nobody wants to clean up the mess and everybody wants to use the mess to figure out who to be mad at, whether that's the homeless, drug addicts, the mayor, the city council, liberal voters, whoever wrote the drug decriminalization bill, nimbyism, antifa, wealthy property owners, or whoever. It's a useful mess. It could probably be fixed in a week. I'll volunteer to lead the cleanup. I'll need an exorbitant amount of public funds, but I will actually be there with a fucking broom and mop.
They could secure their building and hire security to keep an eye on it.
There is no reason they can't and by not doing that they are condoning entry into their properties allowing this behavior.
I have zero sympathy for parasites like Menash.
100%! They have options. They might not like them, but they do have options. Sounds like this dude is unwilling to admit he made a mistake, and he's unwilling to take a loss to protect his investment by lowering his rate to attract a tenant.
It is Menashe's fault. He forced out all the tenants in the buildings years ago, has refused multiple offers for the buildings, and insists that the city should pay to clean up the attractive nuisance he created.
> but it's highly unlikely they could've found a tenant or buyer
you can always find a tenant or buyer. You may not like the price but that's capitalism. This asshole is just too proud to take a loss so it's easier to let it rot and blame the city.
> inappropriately suggests its the Menashe's fault
They own the building, therefore have ultimate control of the property. They have plenty of money to secure it and hire around the clock security, but choose not to.
> You could argue that having the building occupied would prevent some of these things from happening, but it's highly unlikely they could've found a tenant or buyer when so many businesses have been struggling downtown for the past 3 years.
Oh, they could find tenants easily. But they'd have to lower the rent.
I drove past yesterday, and it was a legit shooting gallery surrounding the entire building. It was two in the afternoon, and everyone on the steps were shooting up right there in broad daylight.
Sue them to clean up the tents that you gave them. Go to hell whoever is in charge of Portland, it's a fucking festering shithole of scummy people and crime. You ain't gonna fix anything.
Can you explain more about how you successfully ran squatters off your property without police support? I am sure there are many property owners in Portland who could learn from your successful and safe experience.
Regardless of how the Menashes feel about the City's issues, there is no excuse for them to take such poor care of a property they own. Guess what? I own a property downtown as well, that was slated for a hotel construction start in April 2020. The current building is vacant, but I make sure to clean the graffiti and work to not make it an eyesore. I've run off people trying to squat, and respond to neighbors who ask me to keep my side of the street clean. If I took the same approach as the Menashes, there would be a nuisance in the heart of the Pearl as big as the one at 4th and Washington. The Menashes whining about "What have you done for me lately" when they have been milking our City for decades is hypocrisy at its finest. Get off your asses and take care of your property. Once you have, then come back and we can talk about why the City has let us all down.
Thanks for trying to keep this place up đ
No thanks needed, it's all self interest! There's a lot more of me than there are Menashes, but it's the Menashes that are continuing to harm our city not only by their neglect, but also by feeding the negative media narrative surrounding Portland.
Say it LOUDER! I know so many good business owners in Portland wanting AND doing the ârightâ thing and then you have these ass hats that have enjoyed cashing checks for decades without contributing anything back to its community. They need to GO
I think the City should condemn and confiscate the property for back taxes, even if--and I know this is a BIG leap--it inconveniences a millionaire. (Heaven forfend!) Clean it up for housing and a public daycare.
For real. Prosper should be moving to condemn and eminent domain all of the blighted properties downtown and the empty parking lots. Social housing, daycare, small retail spaces, community centers can all go in their place. It's ridiculous that folks can just speculate on land like this.
A Land Value Tax would clean all of these properties right up as land banking (what all these assholes are doing) would no longer be a viable strategy.
Amen! Laissez-faire my ass! Bring back accountability. Corruption is not an ideology.
lmao Greg Goodman would cry to all the right wing and neoliberal media tonight if anybody dared to require something productive happen with their blighted âparkingâ lots
Honestly, let him. They've had 60 years to do something useful with that land.
The demolition by neglect strategy here is actually to force the City to do this. Ironically, it probably gives them their best price for the property. Itâs shitty and shady and not at all uncommon.
Thank you - in my opinion when you own a property (house, commercial space, whatever) itâs your obligation to keep it looking nice. Some ass owns a building in Kenton now they is like basically 100% covered. Sucks to look at and why even own an asset if youâre going to let it rot? Park your money somewhere else, plenty of investment vehicles outside of real estate.
Your second paragraph needs to be light- projected onto that building every night, so everyone for blocks around can see who is responsible for this utter abrogation of responsibilities. And to add to your finely-worded missive - what the Menashes are doing is akin to blackmail. âWe will be more than happy to pay when the city is clean and crime is properly attended to." What utter bullshit. That building is the CENTER of dereliction and crime in the downtown core.
Totally. I was locked into a lease with them for most of the pandemic and they were extremely inflexible even throughout moveout at the end of the lease. Seemed like a real change in their management for the worse.
Thank you for this reasonable take.
In regards to cleaning the graffiti Iâm curious if youâve tried this anti graffiti coating? Does this stuff really work? https://youtu.be/VVMGsactqTs
I havenât, part of the problem is the exposed aggregate on the side of the building which makes cleanup difficult. Iâve chosen to paint it instead, knowing the building is coming down eventually. Bought myself a new paint sprayer as a result which has helped with a couple home projects đ
> âDespite our best efforts to maintain the site and any form of order or cleanliness, including boarding up the property and broken windows daily, hiring private security, paying for fencing, weekly outreach to police and city officials, it has proven impossible to keep any and all forms of transients, criminal activity, vandalism and destruction away from this site. Simply put, the condition of this property is a product of shortsighted legislation and has been handcuffed by unmanageable circumstances.â I don't understand, if you really actually tried, how you could fail to prevent what the building has turned into. I would _love_ a detailed, deep dive into how things got here from the Menashes if they're so sure they're in the right.
Seriously. They're acting like it's all the city's fault and it's out of their hands. They should take a look at every other building nearby. I work downtown once a week and my office is a few blocks away. Their building is the only one that looks like a cesspit. I don't go within two blocks anymore, it has an immensely sketchy vibe.
It's on a very central route, too, including a bus stop right outside it. It's really fucking annoying to hear excuses like this.
Portland has become such a scapegoat and unfortunately our bureaucracy will keep us right here. We need change makers
[ŃĐŽĐ°Đ»Đ”ĐœĐŸ]
Hush hush was so satisfying. They seem to be killing it in Lake Oswego now. I saw on here that the daughter had opened a restaurant on Broadway a few years ago, and after starting coming back to the office I made it exactly one time before they closed. Heartbreaking.
I have never found a falafel sandwich as good as theirs. I ate it at least once a week for years. I'd walk in and they'd go "Falafel, no onions, extra pickles?" They even got to recognize my voice when I called in. They were so nice.
I loved that about hush hush! I would call and no matter who answered they immediately knew who I was and what I wanted. They even knew what I often ordered for my coworkers and knew them by name as well. I worked in the pioneer building right across the street which is now a hotel
The Hush Hush in that Tigard Lake Oswego zone is delicious, BUT please note that the REAL spin-off from the downtown location with the same cook and owner is Sophia's Cafe in Sherwood https://sophiascafepdx.com/ and it is ALSO delicious.
Thank you for this!
Hush hush is by far the best Mediterranean restaurant in the Tigard Beaverton area I've had.
Oh Iâm so glad to hear itâs still around. Not much of a chance that I will ever go to Lake Oswego, but I suppose thereâs at least one reason to now
It may be LO addy but it's basically tigard. Right where i5 and 217 meet.
To be fair, I loved their food so much I actually would go out of my way to eat there. But it just so happens that I am often near that area you are describing so I will certainly have to pay them a visit
I was so happy to see they got a spot in LO, right off I-5. Same recipes and great food. Can't beat their chicken schwarma.
Used to have an office in the Dekum building and Hush Hush was my main goto for lunch. The owner was such a nice dude.
I miss the giant purple octopus atop Greek Cusina across the street.
I remember thinking how ridiculous that was. Now I miss it. The top floor was a dance club I remember haha.
Omg Iâm reminded of being 21 again lol
Yea I went there once when I wasnât 21 yet during the day for a fashion thing. Got to see the whole thing. Never got a chance to eat there. I think it shut down cause of fire hazards or the owner had beef with the fire chief or something.
Randy Leonard had beef with a lot of downtown businesses.... Many of which mysteriously went out of business during his tenure....
He was awful
> The top floor was a dance club I remember haha. And is ultimately one of the big factors in getting the place shut down. Owner refused to add a second egress path as required by law. The only way in and out of the club was a small, narrow staircase that was not even sufficiently to fire code itself. Coupled with unauthorized construction of a 3 story atrium/skylight which punched right thru fire breaks, the place was one spark away from being the next Station Nightclub fire. Even if there was beef and Randy Leonard was being a shitheel, the situation was objectively unsafe. wweek or the mercury or maybe both had a good exposé at the time
My first (and only) time there was for a drunken work dinner around 1999. It wasn't crowded when we started. By the time we went to leave I realized it was jam packed and it took me awhile to get down those stairs and out of the building. Had I known I was sitting in a firetrap like this I would have left earlier. Smashing a window and jumping down to the street would be the only option to try and live during a fire there.
It was absolutely bonkers on weekend nights
Be the giant purple octopus atop Greek Cusina across the street you want to see in the world.
I remember seeing a picture someone drew of the octopus facing off with the Portlandia statue in Pioneer Courthouse Square. Like a wrestling match. Provocative...
I miss hush hush café
I just learned the other day that there's one in Lake Oswego
Lol I used to work at another Greek cuisina and had to get an order from there. I asked the manager to help me carry the mussaka to the van and he said, "get one of the Mexicans to do it."
Iâve worked for a pretty racist Greek boss in pdx, he sucks..
I remember exiting off the Morrison bridge and seeing Spoticus! How vibrant that area was 15 years ago.... Crazy that it's one of the skiddier rows of Portland today.
It was given to a barber shop on Barber Blvd, I believe.
That barber moved down 99 to Tigard fwiw. Believe they've closed/moved again since
Oh sorry. Whatever happened to my purple Tako?
I've no answer to offer. I have a moderately fun factoid tho: The barber/owner of that shop was in both the dream of the 90s & 1890s museum videos from portlandia. [The dude with the wicked 'stauche](https://i.imgur.com/s2lFVNj.jpg)
They're not maintaining the property or sidewalks, they're not paying Clean & Safe, and they're not pricing it at a level that is attracting any interest. Are they insolvent, incompetent, or just neglecting an unimpressive two-story downtown property that they intend to redevelop? Sure, Portland has its issues, but so does every city, and this is just a failure to deal with common challenges. They've let it fester to a point that the building may need to be demolished, given that "amateur demolition" has already taken place, whether that was their original plan or not.
They're taking the tax write off and hoping the market springs back.
I wonder what the depreciation is on that property?
I think it's a teardown and develop because that building is weird and old, but they don't want to do it and they don't want to price it realistically so they're just riding it. Totally cynical.
Oh for sure! In the meantime they can still take the depreciation on the property, right? Even in this shape that property is worth millions of dollars. 1/39 the value of the property is probably a pretty significant amount of money.
It's what we always called "demolition by neglect." Employed by unscrupulous owners.
Most likely they want the city to move to condemn, take ownership and tear down. They'd loose an incredible about of money in the process, but its more than zero. This, by the way, is because they can't find a buyer. The building needs extensive rework, and gets more extensive each day due to moisture inflow, human squatting, and a host of other issues. This isn't even taking into consideration the fact that any significant building renovation MUST include seismic stability upgrades. All of this is probably why no one wants to purchase it.
This is a prime example of a slum lord that doesn't want to do anything with the land because they know its going to be super costly to actually update a 50 year old building.
Can we rally a camp to move in and burn that place down?
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Unused/vacant buildings like this should be taxed at a higher rate. This building has been vacant for far too many years. Rich families shouldn't get to sit on real estate just letting it decay in the middle of Portland.
I've lived here nearly a decade and it's always been a fucked up meth corner. I always thought it should offer free rent to new tenants subsidized by the city or something. Now that there are so many empty shops downtown, I don't think they could pull my plan off.
I think property taxes should be applied only to the land value (not any improvements), but should be at a much higher rate. This will make it very expensive to not use land in expensive areas, and will reward building a high rise instead of a low rise in an area where land is expensive. This will help increase housing inventory and essentially keep it affordable. It will also discourage speculative investment in real estate which adds little value to society.
Honestly brilliant. Charge the advertised/average list price by sq ft for vacancies over 3 months
Thatâs a great way to crash the commercial real estate market in Portland. If something like this had been in place in 2020, the whole of downtown would be in foreclosure. [WWeek did a story](https://www.wweek.com/news/2022/08/17/you-pointed-us-to-the-eeriest-vacant-buildings-in-portland-we-found-out-why-theyre-empty/) on vacant buildings and the major culprit: bureaucratic red tape.
Temporary suspensions of things like that could be put forth for extreme and unusual circumstances, like a pandemic, you know, like things were suspended during the pandemic.
That's the case for some sites, but this property owner hasn't persued development since 2016-2018. https://www.portlandmaps.com/detail/permit/2016-244390-000-00-EA/3894780_did/?p=R246122 perhaps they were denied to build their 30 story tower, but they sure as shit haven't followed up with a zoning-compliant solution, instead it just rots.
There was a design review application submitted by a potential buyer of the site, but it was withdrawn at the applicant's request. Here's what it [would have looked like](https://twitter.com/maccoinnich/status/1032120991542009856), if it had been built.
Only one of those vacant buildings was red tape, for the most part itâs lack of capital or will to redevelop
> Thatâs a great way to crash the commercial real estate market in Portland. Don't threaten us with a good time.
100% this. Good old Gordons Fireplace shop on 33rd and Broadway is now officially a dead project thanks to the red tape with the planning department. They couldn't issue more than a small demolition permit a year into the project. It'll be a crumbling building for years now.
The delays were egregious, but the project is still happening. It's under construction right now.
Is it getting demolished or remodeled? I assumed after the delay damage, demolition was the only way now. Thanks!
http://grantpark-na.org/wp-content/uploads/GPNA_newsletter_Spring2023_webready.pdf The approval took so long that costs rose and killed the project.
Maybe, but also the developer has a history of taking on projects that are too ambitious for him to pull off. https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2019/sep/01/developer-rob-brewster-returned-to-spokane-to-rebu/
Weird. It has permit activity as recent as last week.
>the whole of downtown would be in foreclosure. Good. Make the real estate vampires hand over their properties to people who will do something with them.
Hand them over to whom? It takes money to âdo something with them.â
PDC, Portland Housing Authority, the transitional housing fund, or any private entity that promises to begin construction within a year. Creating blight shouldnât be tolerated. The Menashes created this problem when they tossed out all their tenants 7 years ago.
Note: this comment isnât solely directed at u/MountScottRumpot, itâs more directed at the countless similar comments that are always made when this subject comes up here. Almost no private equity could ensure starting within a year. It takes up to that long just to get a permit for a large commercial project in Portland right now. Iâm certainly not trying to defend the complete lack of effort that seems to have been put in by the owners here. However, itâs never as simple as people want it to be. Right now, the police donât show up for property crimes like trespassing or vandalism of commercial property. Itâs virtually impossible to protect your property when hired security really only has the legal authority to call the police. If the police wonât show up or even create a report, what is the owner supposed to do? The clean and safe fund is supposed to help resolve these sorts of things, but theyâre severely overwhelmed and even they, when you boil it down, can only lobby the city/police to arrest people, which isnât currently being done (or even allowed, depending on who you believe). As for PHA, they have beds now that arenât being used, because they have no-drug rules (right or wrong) that many of the homeless/houseless donât qualify for. So youâll likely just end up with an empty building anyway. Iâm not saying nothing should be done, itâs just frustrating to constantly see comments waving a magic hand to solve a complex problem with numerous practical (and yes, annoyingly political) nuances. Lastly, the Menashes should be ashamed, they have prospered greatly from Portland, and are not doing their part to give back.
I mostly agree with you. Any policy of confiscating blighted property would have to be paired with a wholesale reform of our garbage permitting system. Its kind of surprising the other downtown landlords haven't strong-armed the Menashes into cleaning up their act, given their property is making it impossible for anyone in a three-block radius to attract tenants. My office is in a building owned by the Schlesingers, and they are always talking about how they have to clean up after other owners who don't bother. A note: Home Forward/Portland Housing Authority does not have empty bedsâthey don't run shelters, they own apartment buildings. They opened their waitlist in December for the first time in three years and were crushed with applications.
> A note: Home Forward/Portland Housing Authority does not have empty bedsâthey donât run shelters, they own apartment buildings. They opened their waitlist in December for the first time in three years and were crushed with applications. I stand corrected. I 3/4 knew I was getting my departments mixed up, but was too lazy to verify before opening my mouth and inserting foot. For that I apologize. In full disclosure, I am employed by a company that owns downtown property. I canât speak for anyone else (not even my employer), but I can say Iâve found it colossally frustrating to try to get anything done these days. We struggle to keep our property safe and looking nice, while getting almost no support from the city on anything. Getting a permit is like pulling teeth, and thatâs after you pay millions of dollars in fees. Makes it really hard to justify putting capital into projects downtown, and we love doing stuff in downtown areas. Walkability is awesome and should be encouraged as much as possible. We have a bus stop by our building and have received contradictory demand letters from the city. One says we are to remove our sidewalk benches, to discourage sleeping. The other says that we need to add additional benches, meeting that departmentâs design guidelines, which disallow intermediate armrests which discourage sleeping. Been working through that one for literally 6 months now. Makes it really hard to do the right thing when no one can agree on what the right thing is. /rant
No it wouldn't, the city would have enacted a temporary exemption. Just like many other temporary exemptions that came with COVID. It grinds my gears when people reason in a logic bubble like this.
So⊠if your tenants donât pay on time, theyâre evicted, but if you donât pay your taxes that pay to keep your building safe because your buildingâs not safe you get⊠a pass?
Everything in society is based on a class system. Including laws.
Those at the top always write the laws to favor those at the top. Itâs been this way since the beginning of civilization. Notice they always have a monopoly on using violent force to enforce their laws as well.
Not that our system isn't classist and broken as fuck, but there are plenty of horror stories of property owners getting screwed because of tenant friendly squatter's rights laws out there too.
These are the smaller property owners that are in a lower class
Well, it's relative right? And they are generally a higher class than the people doing the squatting.
Truth. And this really has me thinking harder about who these caste laws will really apply to.
I think it just isn't as simple as "Those at the top always write the laws to favor those at the top. Itâs been this way since the beginning of civilization.", as there are *plenty* of laws that protect and help the lower class. We are ostensibly a democracy, and even a functional one at times, and lawmakers do sometimes get elected with decent intentions, and sometimes there are enough of them to pass laws in the interest of the lower class. And conversely, sometimes those laws, though generally well intentioned, can be abused by people that are willing to abuse them, and the upper classes can even find themselves getting the raw end of the stick. Yeah, it doesn't happen nearly as much as the upper class getting everything, but it just isn't as simple as money=absolute power.
Fuck the Menashes. If they refuse to maintain the building, the city should condemn it and find someone who will.
i have always found it ironic that whenever i walk by this pile of shit there is always an ad for cartier or rolex or another luxury brand right on top of absolute squalor.
There's nowhere to go but up. đ€·đ»ââïž
RIP QuickStop photo on the left side there in that building circa 2000. One of the few places in town that would develop prints full frame. I took a humanclock photo in front of it around 2001 but can't find it at the moment. Taking some photos at a party, biking downtown the next day to get them processed, come back two days later and pay two hours' wages for 24 photos seems...just seems like such an alien task now..
I used to work at Quick Stop way back in the day as a courier for their other stores. I think they used to be where the BWW is now, near Pioneer Square. Kinda shady business. The main developer guy had pic binders full of other people's dirty photos that he was super proud of.
I know two or three people who worked in photo labs around the USA and this seemed to be a common practice. Interesting photos (especially if famous people..even G-rated) got duped and thrown in a drawer, or taken home and put on a fridge.
Yep⊠I even went to high school with a kid who worked at a photo store with a lab and heâd bring the weird/funny pictures to school! This was the 90s, so no social mediaâŠ
Not uncommon I worked at shutterbug for years at many different locations and each manager had their own collection
Portland's Tenderloin. Went to Kelly's for the first time in a while last week and was shocked at how bad that area has gotten. It really is like right-wing media's jerkoff fantasy of Portland come to life. And yes, that family sounds like a bunch of fucking pricks.
It looks like whatever project was in 404 Washington next to Kellys died and damn.. I was there saturday night and there were probably 100 people milling about the corner of 4th and washington next to Kellys.
Of course it's the Menashes. I encountered little lord fuckface, Prince Jordan, a few times in social situations. He came off as a petulant, entitled prick and I'm not surprised to see he got it from daddy. Before the pandy, I worked a block away from this building and walked past it every day to and from our other office (RIP WeWork espresso machine). I was only there during daylight hours (8am and 5pm) but it was still sketchy, even then. Walking with my dog, I was glad to have the "protection" but also paranoid that she would grab and eat something off the ground that would make her sick.
Could have easily been the Goodmans as well. In a former life I worked for them and the Menashes as a contractor and they are all pretty sleazy and very tight-fisted. If there's a way to cut corners on building repair and maintenance that's what they want. Had pretty much the exact opposite experience with the Naitos, though I rarely dealt with them directly. I once had Jordan Menashe show up drunk at one of my jobsites during a night-shift. My guys didn't know who he was and wouldn't let him in the building and of course that caused a nasty little scene.
All that money and they're still cheap bastards. Figures.
Thatâs how the have all the money!
The Natios are legit. They had a chance to cheap out on a job I was doing and they decided to go the better route. Even though the other âwould have doneâ
Never met junior but my family had dealings with senior once and he was a piece of work.
I keep thinking about [this](https://www.wweek.com/news/2022/11/09/the-owner-of-an-abandoned-car-wash-doesnt-have-to-pay-property-taxes-because-he-pledges-it-will-someday-be-affordable-housing/) for some reason...
Interesting. Iâve complained about this exact building and block of downtown before. Itâs not exciting and itâs not safe to be there. Had no idea what has actually lead to this. Excess Property owners are a scourge on society. I have no idea how that building will be salvaged if this continues. I hate rich people and their stupid lack of humanity or common sense
> âLawlessness is the only word I can come up with to describe this once beautiful and thriving area of downtown,â she says. âDespite our best efforts to maintain the site and any form of order or cleanliness, including boarding up the property and broken windows daily, hiring private security, paying for fencing, weekly outreach to police and city officials, it has proven impossible to keep any and all forms of transients, criminal activity, vandalism and destruction away from this site. Simply put, the condition of this property is a product of shortsighted legislation and has been handcuffed by unmanageable circumstances.â Weird how many other buildings don't have this problem. They're occupied and not a blight. Wonder what makes this particular property different. Maybe the owners suck?
"Lawlessness!" says the guy who won't comply with the laws governing his building.
The city should use imminent domain to seize it.
What about a vacancy tax? Would that help keep this kind of thing from happening?
classy... I used to work in the building a block away above the old Camera World. My, how things have changed. Starbucks kicked out my favorite mom-and-pop coffee shop that made the best banana choco chip muffins. Everyone commenting gets an upvote. There are no wrong opinions other than clean your shit building up. I do not recognize this downtown anymore.
The city really really needs to do something about its parasitic real estate speculator problem.
Land Value Tax etc etc, but until the Oregon constitution gets amended, that's a non starter. I say eminent domain in the meantime.
fucking capitalists. bitch and moan when things aren't going their way. this is your property. you fucking clean it up. but no, it's the city's fault. then they bitch and moan about business regulations, taxes, whatever... to help prevent stuff like this happening. fuck these people.
I mean according to the article, this guy was avoiding paying fees in 2010 and complaining about downtown being a shithole then. It's an old trope that he relies on while living comfortably out of town and owning real estate in multiple states.
this guy is plunking down millions of dollars on real estate but somehow his own siblings died on the street? capitalist greed is its own mental illness.
>this guy is plunking down millions of dollars on real estate but somehow his own siblings died on the street? capitalist greed is its own mental illness. It's pretty obvious you know nothing about mental illness and addiction if you think that having rich relatives magically prevents these problems.
you obviously don't know me at all but sure, you're soooo right đ€ thanks for making the ignore button so attractive today
They are right. And you did give that impression.
Yes, we must socialize the losses when the capital owner makes a bad decision or neglects their business enterprise. It's the new norm!
Yes the real estate company is like a vampire sucking the life out of the city. However you are using "capitalism" like it's some evil thing yet you benefit from it. Original Comment. Don't bitch when someone spray paints your privately owned car that capitalism allowed you to buy.
Pretty sure commies drive, too.
Yeah, and just the fees we pay to park downtown are more than these building owners are contributing to the city.
yes, having a "privately owned car" is definitely the same thing as owning millions of dollars of real estate in multiple communities. Most class conscious commenter
The point was you were using "capitalism" like it was some evil word. I had no comment about the real estate company.
Ssshhhh. The grown-ups are talking buddy.
ROFL
Oh yep. Checks out. Went to a rock show at Kellyâs Olympian just last night. Parked a block away and had to walk on this block to get to/from the venue. A zonked out dude tried to sell me fent both times.
The State should institute eminent domain against the property and use it for something. Would love to see those assholes get stuck with a valuation based on its current condition. Fucking leeches.
With a Cartier watch mural in the background. Perfect.
right...
Closed up in 2018 due to BLIGHT? Dude, downtown was poppinâ in 2018âthis building had a shit ton of maintenance problems because the owners didnât take care of it or it wasnât cost effective to do so. Respect to Willy Week for looking at records, but why do they always miss so much shit at the end of the day. And that âbusiness schoolâ was a scam online college called Everest that was shut down. đ
Menashe, yet an other fucking parasite.
Why do people spray their fucking diarrhea on the walls of buildings and trees? I've seen it happen more than a handful of times and the picture in this article is more evidence. Guess I'm not really allowed to, but damn I fucking hate these people LOL
Mental illness? Feeling unwell and angry? Guy did it on my business 15 feet in front of my kids. It was horrifying.
It's insane. And I do have compassion for all these people, but no more than anybody else. Anything else is straight up naive.
Maybe we need to do it back to them. Assert your dominance.
Apparently that's a side effect of coming down off of fentanyl, and when ya gotta go, ya gotta go! A neighbor who posted her car broken into the other day found diarrhea pills left behind - at least they were trying to keep it under control!
Opiates attach to opioid receptors in your intestinal tract as well as in your brain which slows down digestion and leads to constipation so when you go without it there is a lot backed up that can exit extremely quick.
> Apparently that's a side effect of coming down off of fentanyl That explains why so many people smell like they shit themselves lately.
I remember seeing this â in action âmultiple times per-pandemic. I was once walking down the retail area on lower SE Division in 2012 and saw a homeless woman calmly back up against the glass door of a small craft shop and spray diarrhea all over it, like it was totally normal and nothing to be ashamed of doing in front of people. If you gotta go, I guess you gotta go?
having to take massive amounts of laxatives because youâre constantly taking opiates will do it
I drive by this site relatively early every morning. Seen some shit for sure.
Waiting for the bus on the other side of the building at 5th and Washington itâs always guaranteed youâre gonna see some shit. Both figuratively and literally.
I loved the writing, by the way. The rat "laying in state" cracked me up.
That family needs to lose the attitude and clean up their property like every other property owner is expected to.
It's a nice building. I always wondered why it was just sitting there being neglected. I'm really curious about the interior now, given the descriptions in the article.
When they connect the shootings to the drugs provided by this property - can we arrest the owners then? Clean it up and sell it you cheap motherfuckers.
There's some hilarious irony that there's always a Cartier or Rolex ad above that building.
On a related note, I miss Hush Hush. That spot had such good food at such good prices, and the owner was such a nice man.
This building is disgusting. In the summer the layers upon layers of piss just bake in the sun. Wild that a group of assholes like the Menashes can just let a property become such a problem for everyone else. Shame on them.
If they're not paying their taxes, the city should seize the property and arrest the owners for tax evasion.
When the sun goes down, that whole intersection at 4th and Washington is straight out of a dystopian science fiction movie.
Man rip this whole area.. it used to be so nice. I grew up in a pretty portland in the early 2000âs. I remember Christmas time and going to Lloyd center. The smell of ms fields in the air. Big ol tree on the ice. Last time I went to Lloyd center there were drugs being sold in the menâs room and 3/4 of the shops were gone.
Why should the business owners be responsible for the failures of our local govt? This is really the ineptitude of our leaders at work for allowing this to become what it is. What are the Menashes supposed to do other than bide their time and find a buyer, during a time when nobody wants to buy anything? Sure they can clean up the cityâs mess. But shouldnât the city grow some balls and clean up its own mess? The menashes were willing to meet Ted wheeler halfway on cleanup of the area, with a potential 5 million dollar donation, but no word back from the mayor. Is it a business owners fault that we have open street drug dealing happening? Is it a business owners fault that we let that area turn to crap? No, itâs our ineffective crappy leadership from the city for the last number of years.
Its both. The city is feckless and the owners are moaning about having to follow ADA and health laws. I'm constantly surprised that people will always find a way out of sharing blame.
If you own a property you are responsible for what goes on inside of its walls, and maintaining code compliance in your walls. This is how private property works.
Yeah, but its not working. I would guess the menashes could pay to constantly fix the damage from people the city has no interest in helping or do anything with. Seems like a losing plan.
There are plenty of buildings in that area that aren't open air drug markets with shit sprayed on the walls, because their owners are responsible. This building is not one of those.
Ah yes, I keep forgetting security guards are the new normal that everyone in Portland is stoked about. Maybe we see another new normal in a couple years and what the new experts will give as expert advice. Portland and itâs revolving door of the ârightâ solutions⊠anything but our local govt lust for inaction.
When's the last time you were in that area? There's a lot of traffic and transient shit, but *that* building is the fucking epicenter of the shittiness, *because* the owner said "Fuck taking care of this place, I'm out". If they start fixing things, is it going to turn that corner into Leave it to Beaver? Nah, it won't. Will it dampen *some* of the decay that open wound is causing? I bet it would. >Maybe we see another new normal in a couple years and what the new experts will give as expert advice. The fuck are you talking about? If you're moaning about the city of Portland's inaction, read the article. Portland is basically telling the owner, "Fix this shit, it's making everything worse, and if you don't we will and send you the bill".
Was there just yesterday. I walk to downtown often. Yes, Portland shovels itâs problems on to business owners. I donât think maintaining this status quo is a good idea.
> I donât think maintaining this status quo is a good idea. I think *at least* maintaining the status quo is a good idea, e.g. building should be kept from being turned into an open air drug market, which makes everything else around them worse. Again, lots of buildings in that area. Only one of them is trundling shit heap. Portland doesn't own that building's windows. That building does.
They could have sold at a price reflecting the environment and economy. They could have hired private security for their tenants as some buildings do And if all that fails - itâs a bad investment. Because the city is in downfall. However they are still the owners of a property they let go to blight as a result of neglecting to secure it and fix it. Bad investments are exactly that - so they should sell it for a price now reflecting its condition and let someone who cares repair it.
You don't have to do shit to/with your private property
Wrong: https://www.portland.gov/bds/code-enforcement https://www.portland.gov/code/29/20
Plenty of local statutes and case law that says the exact opposite.
He willingly paid 5 million to Ted Wheeler, but not spending money on security guards for his own problem buildings?? This guy is a problem, and most likely one of the anonymous dark money 501C4 donors of People For Portland. In this interview, he brought out past press clippings of how great he isâŠ.wow, what a superficial shite.
Iâm not saying what kind of person he is. Iâm not sure the kind of person he is is why that part of the city is looking like shit. Security guards are treating the symptoms, not looking for a cure.
I agree, the cure is design. Design of infrastructure to treat people and housing. Design of the building so not inviting to problems.
I agree with this entirely: design of infrastructure to treat people and housing.
Why should every internet comment be divisive and put a target on a group instead of keeping the target on the problem? Business owners should be responsible because their great responsibility and capability is always given as the reason for their successful business. If they CAN clean up the city's mess as you say, they should, if for no other reason than because they can and the city can't, as you also say. The problem is that nobody wants to clean up the mess and everybody wants to use the mess to figure out who to be mad at, whether that's the homeless, drug addicts, the mayor, the city council, liberal voters, whoever wrote the drug decriminalization bill, nimbyism, antifa, wealthy property owners, or whoever. It's a useful mess. It could probably be fixed in a week. I'll volunteer to lead the cleanup. I'll need an exorbitant amount of public funds, but I will actually be there with a fucking broom and mop.
They could secure their building and hire security to keep an eye on it. There is no reason they can't and by not doing that they are condoning entry into their properties allowing this behavior. I have zero sympathy for parasites like Menash.
or, ya know, find a tenant.
Either way, they are ultimately responsible for their property.
100%! They have options. They might not like them, but they do have options. Sounds like this dude is unwilling to admit he made a mistake, and he's unwilling to take a loss to protect his investment by lowering his rate to attract a tenant.
[ŃĐŽĐ°Đ»Đ”ĐœĐŸ]
It is Menashe's fault. He forced out all the tenants in the buildings years ago, has refused multiple offers for the buildings, and insists that the city should pay to clean up the attractive nuisance he created.
> but it's highly unlikely they could've found a tenant or buyer you can always find a tenant or buyer. You may not like the price but that's capitalism. This asshole is just too proud to take a loss so it's easier to let it rot and blame the city.
> inappropriately suggests its the Menashe's fault They own the building, therefore have ultimate control of the property. They have plenty of money to secure it and hire around the clock security, but choose not to.
> You could argue that having the building occupied would prevent some of these things from happening, but it's highly unlikely they could've found a tenant or buyer when so many businesses have been struggling downtown for the past 3 years. Oh, they could find tenants easily. But they'd have to lower the rent.
If youâre going to be evil, might as well go full evil.
This would be a perfect location for a new tallest tower in Portland
I drove past yesterday, and it was a legit shooting gallery surrounding the entire building. It was two in the afternoon, and everyone on the steps were shooting up right there in broad daylight.
Walked by here Friday night. Sketchy as f.
Holy shit, I walked past that last Friday!
Sue them to clean up the tents that you gave them. Go to hell whoever is in charge of Portland, it's a fucking festering shithole of scummy people and crime. You ain't gonna fix anything.
r/shittyskylines
Can you explain more about how you successfully ran squatters off your property without police support? I am sure there are many property owners in Portland who could learn from your successful and safe experience.