EPD has recently started to have bike patrols on the bike paths, Wednesday through Sunday, mostly to protect the folks who drive there from other neighborhoods. Unfortunately, they won't go down onto the river's edge (fear?, laziness?) They also won't come out at night and clear the camps, even when they are right on the bike path, which emboldens these folks to feel that they have effectively privatized our public space. Like any "property owner" they vigorously defend their space, often getting physical with anyone who approaches these camps.

I watch drug deals go down from the RV's. If I report them, EPD ignores them in part because the DA won't prosecute and in part because EPD WON'T do enforcement in the Whiteaker. Women get harassed along the bike paths, and EPD ignores it. It's so bad that I know of rapes that go unreported out of a feeling that nothing will come of reporting it.