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Old 06-10-2021, 06:45 AM
 
Location: Portland, Oregon
9,555 posts, read 16,621,020 times
Reputation: 14610

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Quote:
Originally Posted by T. Damon View Post
I’m from the area originally, haven’t lived there for decades but have always had a foot in the door with friends and relatives. It was absolutely one of my top five favorite cities until about three years ago. My brother and his family live in Sellwood for decades which is (or was?) a cool hipster area similar to where I live in San Diego and he absolutely hates what has happened to the city and is traumatized to what it has become and won’t even go near downtown even though he can practically walk to it. He is the polar opposite of the Proud Boys nutcases but would place his trust in them a million times faster than the virulent, perpetually rioting and destructive antifa and homeless druggie dregs of the earth that defines the city today.

I trust his assessment and even though I have many other family and friends in addition to him to visit I won’t be getting near the city until a transformative miracle happens to the leadership and woke population that takes the reins of the city away from the anarchists. I honestly doubt that it will happen, at least not in my lifetime.
Excellent post. I feel the exact same way and could not have said it better. I sadly don't think Portland will transform itself in my lifetime. It would take a big change in leadership and residents also to fix Portland. I can understand your brother's feelings.
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Old 06-14-2021, 04:53 PM
 
Location: Phoenix, AZ
89 posts, read 60,671 times
Reputation: 184
Quote:
Originally Posted by redguard57 View Post
It's the PEOPLE. It's not just the city leadership, half of whom are new as of 2021 anyway.
Little column A, little column B - I agree.

Quote:
Originally Posted by redguard57 View Post
That's not what I saw. The city core is definitely getting better than it was compared to 6 months ago and 3 months ago. When I went last week, the museums were open. The Pearl had people walking around. When they end covid restrictions for good I think there will be a slow and steady improvement, but it'll take 1-2 years to get back to what it was pre-covid.
The downtown as a whole I'm sure is improving with regards to businesses reopening and having more folks going out in the city (but then again, the baseline was practically zero during COVID so anything is an improvement). What the difference is, is that the homeless situation is way worse. Walking around the Pearl by my old apartment that I lived in until mid-2020, it's gotten crazy. The underpass used to have a couple tents, maybe a half block with a few here and there. Now it's cluttered with them and there's been fires and such that I've seen. I used to jog around that route - now, if I still lived there I flat out couldn't, nor would I really desire to.

Quote:
Originally Posted by redguard57 View Post
Eventually, they will find a place to put the homeless camps and start moving them out. They will eventually remove or paint over the grafitti.
Key word being "eventually" here. It's been years upon years and they haven't figured it out. It's just been getting worse and seemingly going more and more unchecked. Obviously COVID accelerated things, but we can't use that as a crutch for everything.

All in all, I still think Portland has a ton of potential. I'd definitely move back to Oregon again, but I would also tell people to be very careful and selective about where they choose to live.
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Old 06-14-2021, 05:41 PM
 
Location: Oregon, formerly Texas
10,113 posts, read 7,318,645 times
Reputation: 17206
Quote:
Originally Posted by pantstofry View Post
Little column A, little column B - I agree.



The downtown as a whole I'm sure is improving with regards to businesses reopening and having more folks going out in the city (but then again, the baseline was practically zero during COVID so anything is an improvement). What the difference is, is that the homeless situation is way worse. Walking around the Pearl by my old apartment that I lived in until mid-2020, it's gotten crazy. The underpass used to have a couple tents, maybe a half block with a few here and there. Now it's cluttered with them and there's been fires and such that I've seen. I used to jog around that route - now, if I still lived there I flat out couldn't, nor would I really desire to.



Key word being "eventually" here. It's been years upon years and they haven't figured it out. It's just been getting worse and seemingly going more and more unchecked. Obviously COVID accelerated things, but we can't use that as a crutch for everything.

All in all, I still think Portland has a ton of potential. I'd definitely move back to Oregon again, but I would also tell people to be very careful and selective about where they choose to live.
It's not just Portland though. Portland it's more concentrated and visible. because it's bigger.

But try travelling around the PNW. Go to Longview, Walla Walla, McMinnville, Roseburg, Bend, Eugene etc.. I have been. I'll be going to NorCal and Seattle area soon, and will be interested to see if they're the same. From what friends have told me, communities like Bellingham are the same way.

There are homeless camps in its big towns, its small towns, EVERYwhere. I live in a medium sized Oregon town and our homeless camps and random RV /car-camping communities have EXPLODED ever since the pandemic. Quintupled in size at least. Areas that used to have the occasional onsie or twosie car camper now have 10-20. I've never seen this kind of thing in my life... SO MANY people living in tents and out of vehicles. People who can afford a little better living in motels. The motels I've been staying in... it's clear some of these car campers scrape enough money to buy a few days or a week every now and then in the rooms so they can get showers, etc...

The cities are doing nothing. Republican and Democratic areas of the PNW alike.

I do not know how this problem exploded so bad in so short a time. But I can assure you it is NOT specific to Portland. It is just worse there.
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Old 06-18-2021, 12:59 PM
 
1,150 posts, read 624,656 times
Reputation: 673
Quote:
Originally Posted by curiousoutsider View Post
You won't get an honest answer because you dared to say "Fox news". To many in Portland those words are ear plugs and they can't accurately process anything that follows those words. Fox news could say "many buildings in Portland are made of bricks" and people in Portland would start looking for buildings without bricks to prove Fox wrong.

That being said, Fox cherry picks the streets they choose to show to prove a point, as do all "news" shows these days. The questions wasn't do you agree with Fox news, so much as it was has downtown Portland gone to crap? I was looking for honest answers to the question when I remembered how people in Portland would respond to something about Fox news.

I wish the people of Portland would react as negatively towards anarchists as they do a news channel they don't agree with.
No doubt.
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Old 06-18-2021, 03:02 PM
 
133 posts, read 108,209 times
Reputation: 258
Oregon is a beautiful state infested with horrible politics that are ruining it.
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Old 06-19-2021, 11:05 PM
 
1,066 posts, read 903,413 times
Reputation: 1221
Quote:
Originally Posted by curiousoutsider View Post
You won't get an honest answer because you dared to say "Fox news". To many in Portland those words are ear plugs and they can't accurately process anything that follows those words. Fox news could say "many buildings in Portland are made of bricks" and people in Portland would start looking for buildings without bricks to prove Fox wrong.

That being said, Fox cherry picks the streets they choose to show to prove a point, as do all "news" shows these days. The questions wasn't do you agree with Fox news, so much as it was has downtown Portland gone to crap? I was looking for honest answers to the question when I remembered how people in Portland would respond to something about Fox news.

I wish the people of Portland would react as negatively towards anarchists as they do a news channel they don't agree with.
I can assure you the dislike of Fox go well beyond Portland... And in this forum, which tilts heavily Trump level right, you found a lot of people trashing Fox? Oh my.
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Old 06-20-2021, 07:00 AM
 
Location: Portland, Oregon
9,555 posts, read 16,621,020 times
Reputation: 14610
Quote:
Originally Posted by SusVelo View Post
I can assure you the dislike of Fox go well beyond Portland... And in this forum, which tilts heavily Trump level right, you found a lot of people trashing Fox? Oh my.
That's true Fox is disliked well beyond Portland. Then you get in regions of the country where its the exact opposite. Here in Florida anytime I see a TV in public places Fox news seems to be on. Gyms for one every TV with the news is Fox. I never see CNN. Far to many Fox Right Wing People in Florida. I can't stand Fox and never have liked it, including alot of their followers that live in Florida. I also think CNN isn't any better anymore. Both networks seem to be nothing more, than Propaganda TV for their respective political party. To me that's not what I think of as Professional News Reporting, It really is Propaganda.
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Old 06-21-2021, 09:37 PM
 
Location: Europe/USA
91 posts, read 427,549 times
Reputation: 97
I have to agree with the Portland thing. I lived there from 2000 to 2009 and then from 2013 to the end of 2014. I am going next month to visit family and friends and I was told to stay FAR away from downtown PDX. Normally I would stay downtown but after reading many articles and listening to my friends talk about how horrible it is now, I will be staying in the burbs. Anyway, its cheaper and easier to park. I will however take a drive down there just to "see"... I expect to be totally shocked. This is just so sad as PDX has always been special to me.
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Old 06-21-2021, 10:58 PM
 
Location: South Park, San Diego
6,109 posts, read 10,965,379 times
Reputation: 12477
I don’t know if it’s comical, desperate or delusional but there was a full page add/spread in the NYT a couple of days ago extolling the “quirkiness” and “different viewpoints” that have always been a part of the PDX experience and to come on up and visit and “be yourselves” in supposedly not utterly abandoned and on a lifeline Portland. Put out and funded by the tourist authority I surmise.
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Old 06-22-2021, 01:49 PM
 
Location: Portland OR
2,686 posts, read 3,892,236 times
Reputation: 4939
Quote:
Originally Posted by T. Damon View Post
I don’t know if it’s comical, desperate or delusional but there was a full page add/spread in the NYT a couple of days ago extolling the “quirkiness” and “different viewpoints” that have always been a part of the PDX experience and to come on up and visit and “be yourselves” in supposedly not utterly abandoned and on a lifeline Portland. Put out and funded by the tourist authority I surmise.
People should review the ad. I am curious as to what others think of this attempt/expense to motivate tourists to visit.

Perhaps it is just me, but I would not be motivated to spend my $ and time by someone's attempt to rationalize the irrational.

Most folks are not interested in spending a vacation in full immersion into why others act the way they do. indeed, I think most regular folk would find it tiresome. Rather they want to see cool sites, enjoy nice weather, have some fun, learn some things and generally be relaxed and feel good.

In my opinion, the ad in no way made anyone feel good and want to get more.
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