Dawn Redlich was in her apartment in Old Town on May 30 watching TV when Portland police used tear gas on protesters outside. It was a temperate night and a little breezy, she said, and gas wafted into her open windows.
“The night it happened and into the next afternoon I had a real scratchy nose, itchy throat, burning in the eyes,” she said.
Redlich is one of the many people living in the downtown area experiencing the side effects of more than 60 days of ongoing protests.
For two months, protesters have gathered every night to demand an end to systemic racism and police violence in the wake of the killing of George Floyd.
Right-wing media and the federal government report that Portland is “a city under siege” and downtown has become a flashpoint of civil unrest over police violence.
“If the Federal Government and its brilliant Law Enforcement (Homeland) didn’t go into Portland one week ago, there would be no Portland -- It would be burned and beaten to the ground,” President Donald Trump tweeted Wednesday.
For the vast majority of Portlanders, these hyperbolic declarations are demonstrably false.
But people living in and around downtown Portland tell a different story, one that includes long nights of explosions and tear gas drifting through windows.
Redlich filed a claim against the City of Portland after the tear gas episode, and according to her attorney Michael Fuller, the city has agreed to pay her $500.
Another of Fuller’s clients, Monique Jefferson, also filed a claim against the city after gas entered her apartment near the Portland Art Museum on May 31. According to Fuller, the gas caused severe and ongoing burning in her chest, throat and nose, as well as ear pain.
The city agreed to pay Jefferson $1,000.
The “unprecedented” use of tear gas has even prompted regulators to require the city to test stormwater in the area of the protests.
Barbara Shaw lives at RiverPlace Condominiums on the waterfront, about half a mile from the federal courthouse and justice center, the focal points of the nightly protests.
While she can’t see the demonstrations, she said, “I can see some smoke rising from that area and often the acrid, irritating aftermath of some sort of explosive material is carried on the wind right into my bedroom.”
Shaw can also hear the muted sound of explosives nightly, she said.
For people experiencing homelessness in the downtown area, the police response to the protests is disturbing and disruptive, said Juliana Lukasik, the senior director of public affairs for Central City Concern, a nonprofit that works with people impacted by homelessness.
She said that when the protests were more wide-ranging, the effects of the floating tear gas and the loud noises employed by authorities were especially harmful to people who are living outside in the area of downtown.
Now that the response has been corralled into a two-block area, things are somewhat better, she said. But it isn’t only the physical issues that worry Lukasik.
“The anxiety of having this constant fear of the response to the protesters is very, very detrimental to our houseless community,” she said.
“We’re deeply concerned,” she said. “Not by the protesters, the majority of them are peaceful — what is incredibly disruptive and triggering is the response.”
Thomas Chambers lives in KOIN Tower, three blocks from the Justice Center. From his balcony, he can see the nightly demonstrations.
“It would be nice if the rioting after midnight would stop,” Chambers said, “but I can’t say the noise is all that bothersome.”
According to Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf, federal officials or Portland police have declared unlawful assemblies or a riot in downtown Portland 16 times since July 4. A Portland Police Bureau spokesperson said that agency has declared a riot in downtown nine times since the protests began in late May.
What Chambers does find disturbing is the noise of flash bangs set off by police.
“They sound like little bombs going off,” he said, “and again, it is after midnight.”
And the sounds carry. Redlich, who lives 12 blocks from the Justice Center, said she hears flash bangs every night.
She also lives close to a helicopter pad, she said, adding that recently she hears helicopters all night long.
Redlich’s cat and dog are still scared, but “I don’t feel like it’s under siege,” she said.
Redlich, Shaw and Chambers do all agree that downtown feels unwelcoming.
Previously, Shaw said, she took advantage of living near the city center by taking classes at Portland State University, exercising at 24-Hour Fitness and visiting the library.
“I rarely got in my car,” Shaw said. “Now, I rarely go downtown.”
Shaw drew a connection between the pandemic and the downtown protests.
“I don’t think that this would be happening if the downtown were functioning normally,” she said. “The fact that the downtown has blocks of empty commercial buildings with very few people on the street day and night must have created just the right void to allow BLM protests to become destructive political theater night after night.”
For Redlich, the issue isn’t the protests.
“I think the homeless problem makes me feel more under siege than the protests,” she said.
She believes somewhat more people are camping on the street during the pandemic, and that people willing to commit crimes downtown are emboldened by the knowledge that police are busy.
“I keep pepper spray in my pocket,” she said.
On the night of May 29 into May 30, a peaceful protest turned chaotic, erupting into smashed windows and looting. But since then, Portland police have reported few crimes of opportunity.
Issues with burglaries downtown predate the nightly protests. In April, authorities said burglars were targeting downtown businesses that shuttered as the coronavirus pandemic continued.
Chambers said he is saddened by the changes he’s seen downtown.
“People worked for decades to build a wonderful city core,” he said, “and it seems to be disappearing in a matter of months.”
Even though the coronavirus has closed many downtown businesses, Chambers said he thinks the protests have made things worse.
“Downtown could be empty,” he said, “without looking like a war zone.”
-- Lizzy Acker
503-221-8052, lacker@oregonian.com, @lizzzyacker
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