Is this in a safe area of Portland? Our 17 year old son would like to go with friends and we are not sure if we should accompany him or not.

I would accompany them and for them to go through if you do not want to. Even with security, there is always a risk.

Oh this is right by the organ bottle drop and there is at least three urban camping sites in that parking lot alone and the security when I was there was avoiding the homeless and transients.

It's pretty quiet and there's security on site