Visited Portland, please explain the sacred homeless people and crazy bicyclists to me (Eugene: condo, motels)

[HRW]

Originally Posted by KJoe11

I don't get this. Portland/Oregon is a political liberal utopia.

Perhaps I was not clear. After two years, I do not consider Portland to be a liberal utopia. Rather, a place where the inmates run the asylum.

[KJoe11]

Originally Posted by HRW

Perhaps I was not clear. After two years, I do not consider Portland to be a liberal utopia. Rather, a place where the inmates run the asylum.

'Rather, a place where the inmates run the asylum' I am not seeing the difference.

I am sure this has been asked before but have you considered the burbs? Parts of Hillsboro is nice. It almost seems normal and doesn't smell like pee.

[Nor'wet]

Originally Posted by KJoe11

....and doesn't smell like pee.

You noticed that about downtown PDX also?

Much like being downwind of an outhouse.

[redguard57]

Just visited Portland again last weekend and the homeless problem did not seem extraordinary to me.

It does seem more dispersed than other cities where it's more concentrated. Still, the worst homelessness I ever saw was San Francisco in the 90s. Seriously aggressive, to the point they would try to grab your arm as you walked by. Pdx is far from that.

In my limited experience working with them, jobs are not what most of the homeless need. Many of them can't or won't hold a job even if you have them one. When I worked fast food as a kid, the manager would sometimes work with the shelter & give rehabilitating homeless jobs. 2 out of 3 of them couldn't handle it, would spaz out on the job, or just perform badly and not come back. 1 out of 3 would make it.

The reason those 2 out of 3 are homeless is because they're not capable of holding jobs... Therefore trying to place them in jobs won't help anything.

[Minervah]

Just visited Portland again last weekend and the homeless problem did not seem extraordinary to me.

It does seem more dispersed than other cities where it's more concentrated. Still, the worst homelessness I ever saw was San Francisco in the 90s. Seriously aggressive, to the point they would try to grab your arm as you walked by. Pdx is far from that

You seriously don't think that happens in Portland? That's the difference between visiting and actually living there especially if you have to run the gauntlet working downtown every day. I have had that happen to me when I lived in Portland.

[The Big Lebowski Dude]

Originally Posted by pdxMIKEpdx

So, public drug use isn't criminal?
How about littering, petty theft, auto theft and aggressive panhandling?

Is using the city streets and people's yards as a personal toilet, intimidating innocent people, spray painting graffiti considered criminal?

How about destruction of wild and wetlands, parking a trashy beat up RV on the public right of way, blocking sidewalks and the SWC with tents and illegal camps, and the unsafe discarding of drug needles and human excrement?

OH WAIT!

HEY! Those things ARE crimes!
People that do these things should be considered criminals!
It doesn't matter if they are caught, or if you want to look the other way because you have a "Big Heart"!

Plus, WE DON"T have to go on living like this.

There are solutions other than yours (constantly crying about it, but not doing anything because it's soooooo hard and feelings might get hurt), but you just don't want to admit that they might work....

Agree with all of this! Excellent post.

[KJoe11]

Originally Posted by pdxMIKEpdx

How can I or we justify treating the homeless like criminals?

So, public drug use isn't criminal?
How about littering, petty theft, auto theft and aggressive panhandling?

Is using the city streets and people's yards as a personal toilet, intimidating innocent people, spray painting graffiti considered criminal?

How about destruction of wild and wetlands, parking a trashy beat up RV on the public right of way, blocking sidewalks and the SWC with tents and illegal camps, and the unsafe discarding of drug needles and human excrement?

OH WAIT!

HEY! Those things ARE crimes!
People that do these things should be considered criminals!
It doesn't matter if they are caught, or if you want to look the other way because you have a "Big Heart"!

Plus, WE DON"T have to go on living like this.

There are solutions other than yours (constantly crying about it, but not doing anything because it's soooooo hard and feelings might get hurt), but you just don't want to admit that they might work....

Good, honest post. Anyone over 40 knows things were quite different a few decades ago. At that time, there was a small group of indigent in every city. Today, however, the handful of souls has turned into an army of indigents who are unwilling or unable to care of themselves. They rely on charitable giving.

Yet, many just refused to believe and accept that their political preference and beliefs caused this terrible result. And the insanity will continue. The West Coast mindset does not have the moral fortitude to do what is right.

[pdxex]

Hear hear.Portlanders just live in the 'burbs and bury their heads in the sand......and pretend.
I do not enjoy going back to visit.I have lived 31 years now in GASP Los angeles and find it less F'd up than Portland.Nice going Portland!!

[Urban Peasant]

Originally Posted by pdxex

Hear hear.Portlanders just live in the 'burbs and bury their heads in the sand......and pretend.
I do not enjoy going back to visit.I have lived 31 years now in GASP Los angeles and find it less F'd up than Portland.Nice going Portland!!

Was just in LA this past week and saw homeless in many places - in Watts, Florence, Hollywood, etc. I intended to avoid Skid Row at all costs and am glad I did. Still, looking at those massive tents camped out by the side of the road or rail line was unpleasant to look at. No, LA still has the that West Coast homeless problem just as every other major West Coast city has.

Was in Portland last year and the one part that made my stomach churn was Old Town which unfortunately houses Old Chinatown. If there were anyone that should be PO'd at Portland's homeless, it ought to be the Chinese who used to live in Chinatown but were driven out to 82nd Street and elsewhere by waves of homeless and mentally ill. That to me is a really sad loss.

You can't avoid homeless as they are everywhere but want to avoid huge clusters of homeless? Come here to the cities of the East Coast.

[Nurse Bishop]

//www.city-data.com/forum/searc...rchid=28485062

Heres my idea to clean up the entire west coast. Have an old tramp steamer stop in every west coast port offering the homeless a free vacation cruise. Except when they go ashore at a central American port the ship sails without them- problem solved.