Why should tourists coming to Portland this summer pay a hotel fee to witness what has happened to our once-beautiful city? With homeless camps and tents in every park, median and walking trail; with needles, fentanyl, weapons and feces every few feet. Should we be advertising how little we care for our unhoused, addicted and mentally challenged?

All God’s children, on every corner holding a cardboard sign, deserve better. Why not arrest the criminals, shelter the unhoused and place our mentally ill in our community in institutions where they can be treated instead of leaving them on the streets to be exploited?

To charge our tourists extra to witness what we have to see every day is ludicrous.

Lester Babin
Portland