Portland has continued to witness a variety of gun violence related tragedies this year. We are still reeling from 2 weekends ago, when a person was killed in front of children who were also injured, a police officer killed someone, and a deadly mass shooting occurred targeting racial justice advocates.
It’s all so sad and shows that we will need to take on the various forms of violence that continue to be on the rise – from gun violence to traffic violence to domestic violence – carefully and without a reactionary, one size fits all solution. We need an all-hands-on deck approach where every City bureau is diving in deep to collaborate and be a part of the solution. We must stay focused on long term solutions that address the root cause of this violence while responsibly acting with urgency to mitigate the violence in the short term.
On Tuesday, March 1st at 5:00pm, we invite you to watch a virtual forum on gun violence with residents from the Mt. Scott-Arleta neighborhood.
Beginning last October in response to a drastic rise in reported shootings in the Mt. Scott-Arleta neighborhood and a local community eager to see their ideas implemented, the City of Portland piloted a violence hot spot intervention in collaboration with multiple bureaus.
During the event, we will review the results of the first 3 months of data collected following the violence hot spot intervention from October – December of 2021, answer questions from the community, and talk about what potential next steps could look like.
Joining Commissioner Hardesty will be Mt. Scott-Arleta Neighborhood Association Chair Matchu Williams, Boston University School of Public Health’s Dr. Jonathan Jay, and City staff who have worked on this pilot project.
Event info and registration here: https://bit.ly/3BTtA1J