Malicious Maple Burl Theft Willamette Park 6/7/23

[Nance WDOG]

Happened again early this morning by the bridge below Park Street trail!

SEE SOMETHING, SAY SOMETHING

The Corvallis Police Department is working with the Corvallis Parks and Recreation Department to investigate incidents of Big Leaf Maple tree burl thefts within Willamette Park. The incidents occurred in January 2023 and again in May 2023. If you witnessed these incidents or have information please contact Officer Peyton Sassaman at 541-766-6924 and reference case 2023-03748. 

See our press release at the link below for more information. 

https://www.corvallisoregon.gov/police/page/maple-burl-thefts-willamette-park

[James Bombardier]

I don't know if the city has made a conscious decision about allowing the homeless to occupy Willamette park but I saw 4-5 separate dumpings of clean (going in/not out) personal belongings and lots of new trails into the lowlands on my just finished walk trough the park.

These are all within a few blocks of each other along the park road/trail on the East side of the baseball and soccer, etc playing fields.

I have contacted the City Parks department with this information just before composing this message

[James Bombardier]

Hello Nancy,

You didn't do a Reply-All so your response to me didn't also go back to the South Corvallis group.  That said, I have fixed that by sending my response to you back into the group conversation as well as back to you personally.

Thanks for the background and context for the annual infiltration of homeless into Willamette park.

The intent of my call to the Parks folk and my original message was to point out an "ounce of prevention" opportunity and ask about why the city continues to pay the pounds of cure it is doing with their current homeless whack-a-mole policies.

While I understand the desire to have encampments near the current homeless services has an appeal, why are there not other facilities and service centers and some ongoing management of the encampments?....ounce of prevention approach

/end contextual rant by the guy with the I Support Public Banking sign in his front yard because he thinks that our society  is motivated by the wrong incentives

James

On Jun 8, 2023, at 6:08 PM, Nancy Rohn <nancy.roh...@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi James,

   It's my understanding that once these camps have been located, the city must "tag/flag" them to move and give them a certain amount of time to do so.  Parks and Rec have their hands full trying to keep up the parks and the mowing and striping of fields,   repairs to buildings, equipment, facilities and then on top of it breaking up campsites and hauling away tons of garbage.  Clearing campsites has to be coordinated with members of the police department.  I was told by law enforcement that they cannot use work release/community service folks for clean-ups because it takes specialized training to work around potentially hazardous materials (needles, feces, etc.).  Yet the city put out a request for citizens to come help clean up the encampments along the river a couple months ago.  So, they must only be concerned with the health and welfare of people doing required community service as an alternative to being jailed and not the general public/ civilians.  Conflicting messages.  Maybe the Parks Dept. will respond w/the current protocols.

   There are multiple reasons why all of us should be concerned with campers in the park.  FIRE is a big concern.  Garbage piles.  And my favorite, being a dog owner, is having just about every dog I've owned attracted to the smell and loving to roll in human feces.  And when you're out in the woods, you aren't going to hike 100+ yds. to use the porta-potties staged near the soccer/baseball fields.  And for some of these folks with mental health issues they don't always locate the toilet area very far from the living space/food prep areas.  So, when you encounter homeless folks, make sure they know about the Day Time Drop-in Center on 4th St..  I know it's inconvenient for the Center to close at 1pm and not be open on the weekends and holidays.  They are working with limitations like staff shortages also.  Homeless folks should be able to do some laundry and possibly get clean clothing and food at the men's shelter across the street from the south side Co-op. 

    Let us know if you hear from Park and Rec people.  Nancy

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[Stephanie Cyr]

I just listened to the city council meeting from last Monday. I don't know if others were aware,  but I was shocked to hear council members are once again discussing allowing overnight camping in city parks in response to ORS 195.530. They need to have a plan in place by 7/1 and it appears they waited until this late date to do anything. 

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[Athena Stairs]

Hello Dear Community,

I am also concerned that the people who are using drugs and/or are mentally unstable are camped right on top of our shopping zones/city functional areas and repeatedly asking for handouts to pay for their habits and/or being randomly violent/destructive to shop owners, individuals, and businesses.

Giving people without housing a good and safe place to stay is important. But I agree that more thought and effort needs to be invested to find better location solutions. For example, those with drug and mental issues should not necessarily be camped with those people down on their luck but more highly functional.

Another difficult issue is that did you know that other states have been known to pay homeless from their communities to come to the West Coast? So we are taking on other communities' problems without compensation or supports to absorb these populations.

We also face the issue that the better care and services we provide increases the population of homeless people moving here. I spoke with one disabled gentleman along the river who told me that Eugene sent him up here to get access to better medical services. He just sits by the river every day waiting to hear from a doctor and an opening in our limited housing.

Having homeless camps downtown, or even in town, with "hands-off" policies and without proper case management is not a longterm solution. We need community zones where they can rest and shelter well and feel able to be contributive. This needs to include easy access to transportation.

Additionally, other nearby towns have more violence among their homeless populations. People who are seeking safer locations to dwell in like Corvallis are a target group for marauders. The homeless are a vulnerable group of people who need better protection.

These are real people with real needs and instead of integrating them appropriately for ours to be a wholistically thriving society, we are ignoring what's going on behind these scenes and allowing a visual and functional mess on many levels to continue propagating.

This isn't just a city, but a state level issue. It is also an interstate and a country-to-world issue.

Throughout our world's lands is a large and growing group of disenfranchised people who are being taught that society does not care about them and that the only way to survive is by harsher - and even at times underhanded and dangerous - means. The message being propagated by our lack of help's intervention is an "us against them" philosophy.

This isn't just a poverty issue, but with current and inflation and prior economic blows to our systems, this also affects every person and family considered middle class and wealthy.

These days, there are no real buffers against any one of us suddenly becoming homeless. The question is, how do we create and what effective supports do we put in place so that we and our current homeless could and can climb back out of poverty helped, unhindered, and unmolested?

Also, how do we create a mutually beneficial partnership so that the homeless can feel a part of and proud to contribute to society?

What do we do as a society to treat our homeless more humanely while leading with good functional and moral boundaries to help reempowering them to step up and act accountably? 

How do we create a longterm structure of support between community members so that if and when we have any glitch in our governing system, we can help lift each other and recover our infrastructure's stability in any given emergency?

The growing homeless population is an indication that we have some major gaps in our societal functional foundation already.

Addressing this issue well for the benefit of all is an immediate and essential necessity.

Athena

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[James Bombardier]

Thanks for the comprehensive response Athena.

I tell people that humanity is going through a civilization war about public/private finance with the China/Russia axis on one side and the "West", with the face of America, on the other.

The America I grew up in had the original motto of E Pluribus Unum (Out Of Many, One) which was changed in the early 1950's to  In God We Trust in order to fight "godless communism".  Unfortunately, the God that was given motto-hood is the God of Mammon that never forgives debts and maintains the inherited private finance oligarchy that sets the rules by how we live....its top down, not bottom up.

In the early 1970's I participated in the "last attempt at" comprehensive public policy planning at the state level called the Washington 2000 project.  Think tanks provide those services to the private side of our society exclusively now and social services are costs that the profit oriented folk want to see eliminated.  We can argue all day about the balance of support society should provide and the consummate social responsibilities that go along with those benefits but unless/until control over finance is turned into a public utility (NOT to be given to the current set of mostly financialized puppets we call Congress critters), financial control to do things the public wants will not happen.

Back to our local situation.  You are correct to point out that we are creating the situation we have by our humanity but not managing it well because of stovepipe funding, jurisdiction excuses and the lack of comprehensive planning/coordination.....its a feature, not a bug, of what the elite have made of America through the media brainwashing....sad.

I am just the piano player here folks....we tried to make a difference in the 1960's, with the Occupy movement and now the rest of the world is standing up to the cult that runs the Western part of our world.  I have been watching for 50+ years and never thought I would live to see what is happening in our world.  Americans need to take their country back from the global private money mafia and maybe even change the motto back to the original.

James

[Athena Stairs]

Thank you, James, for your thoughtful response. I appreciate your praise and insights.

I see the background history that you present as valid, but to only see and focus upon this can emphasize a sense of our communities and individuals being powerless.

The abilities that we have to collaborate together with grassroots movements, for example, have a power potential when joined together collectively that is greater than domination paradigms.

We can benefit by innovative, out-of-the-box thinking that understands such oligarchial dominion, yet can also envision the paths by which we can work around it to serve the needs of the many.

People stopped believing in our abilitues to cause change when we meet hard resistance fifty years ago to before then and into the present.

I think we need to create ways to succed and focus upon these, rather than upon past failures.

Athena

[Athena Stairs]

Sorry for the mispells.

Tiny print on a phone while doing errands makes it difficult to check.

I wish you all the best and cast my vote in the direction of our continuing to find ways to create a better future - despite the incessant and unnecessary road blocks put in our way.

[Evan Schmidt]

A heads up about a little southtown experience today-- had a young guy, mid twenties, clearly "transient" with neck tattoos on a bike come up right behind me this morning at the ATM in south town coop this morning, uncomfortably close behind me while I was operating the thing. I was depositing cash, a few hundred dollars in hand, he asked for money. I've been mugged a few times in other cities and it gave me that instant goose-bump vibe. He was a bit persistent about it after I said no, asking again and saying he hadn't eaten in two days. I said he could have one of the two little burritos I had bought for breakfast but he needed to give me space. He biked around in circles behind me smoking a cigarette, I deposited the money, and then I got in my truck and gave him the food. He didn't seem that excited about it (surprise surprise). A few minutes down the road I realized I left my headphones on the ATM, which I had taken off and placed on it when he first caught me by surprise. Turned right around and when I got back they were gone and he was too. Told the co-op about the incident but that was it. I'm convinced he had a strong moment of considering taking the money from me but thought better otherwise. Sad feeling like I gotta actually start watching my back around here...

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[Molly Monroe]

Just a few notes to add to this thread:

*Maple Burl Thefts in Willamette Park | Corvallis Oregon (I am so, so sad about this destruction to our park and the old-growth maples that may never recover).

*(Copied from a post on FB a few days ago) -  

SUSPICIOUS MAN @ RIVERBEND PARK!!

Please be cautious of your kids walking the neighborhood or going to the park alone. My 10-year-old was approached and followed by a man by the park when walking to her friends house. He was wearing a green shirt, black shorts and a black cap. She said he was maybe 30-40 years old. She also said a woman in a white car saw and warned her to stay away from the park because the same man had followed her daughters home from the bus stop.

I called and reported it to the police, who patrolled the area and did not find the man.

Please be on the lookout and report anything suspicious. This has me extremely stressed and my daughter feels unsafe being out and about now. If you have any info on this man or witnessed what happened, please reach out to me as I have a case open with the CPD.

*We have also had the battery and propane tank stolen off our tent trailer. I'm not implying these are directly related to the homeless population in the area but there is definitely an increase in crime and the need for an increase of patrolling in this area. Please reach out to CPD if you see anything suspicious, they are usually pretty quick to respond.

Thanks,

Molly~

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From: south-c...@googlegroups.com <south-c...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Evan Schmidt <schmidt....@gmail.com>
Sent: Sunday, June 11, 2023 9:36 PM
To: adapt...@gmail.com <adapt...@gmail.com>
Cc: James Bombardier <jhbomb...@comcast.net>; stef...@gmail.com <stef...@gmail.com>; Nancy Rohn <nancy.roh...@gmail.com>; south-corvallis <south-c...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: [south-corvallis] Willamette park homeless intrusion

 

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