How did the idea for a community court in Clackamas County originate?
Our program is focused on a high-crime low-income neighborhood in outer southeast Portland that bears a disproportionate share of low-level crime and drug- and alcohol-affected individuals and families. The neighborhood has suffered because of its undesirability to businesses and individuals who might otherwise be able to afford investments in the neighborhood. Here’s an aside: I was a planning commissioner in Portland and Portland’s unusual for its aggressive planning. Long before I became a judge I was involved in efforts to try to turn neighborhoods around that were on that downward spiral, and something I observed is that one of the keys to turning around a neighborhood is to attract people who are willing to invest in it, who are willing to live there and fix up their houses and so on. So that’s in play here. We had a neighborhood association that was well organized because of the efforts of just two or three people really, longtime residents who became active with working with th
