Portland going where?

[yaya97]

Hello All,
While from Seattle originally, I have been a huge Portland fan for many years.
I am very aware that media often portrays the city as one with an overbearing homeless population among other issues and this issue seems to be ongoing with no signs of improvement.

But I also read an interesting article a few weeks back that Portland is starting to show signs of a comeback with a brighter future.

So, my question is what are your thoughts? Is Portland going up, down or stable?
Many thanks!

[Hemlock140]

Like you, we are in the Seattle area and go down to Portland several times a year, including every spring to buy our annuals and vegetable starts at Portland Nursery. After forgoing that trip during Covid, we were shocked to go down in 2022 and find the homeless and graffiti problems to be worse than Seattle. We keep track of the situation and when there last a few weeks ago saw no difference, but apparently Multnomah county has a new comprehensive plan to address it, just being started. There is hope for Portland going up in the future, but not yet from what we saw. It won't stop us from going there, but some of our favorite places have closed up due to the crime.

[ccjarider]

Until there is change in the thinking of PDX population - (i.e. Progressive mentality and lacking understanding of how human nature works); no visibility to significant improvement.

[texasdiver]

There are a lot of areas that had homeless encampments during the pandemic that have now been cleaned up. Like the area at the base of the Hawthorne Bridge and along I-405. Also the stretch along I-84 looks better. It is something of a whack-a-mole phenomena though.

Portland has always had its rough edges. To my eye, things are looking better. But we aren't back to say 2018.

[EasyBeezy]

Originally Posted by texasdiver

There are a lot of areas that had homeless encampments during the pandemic that have now been cleaned up. Like the area at the base of the Hawthorne Bridge and along I-405. Also the stretch along I-84 looks better. It is something of a whack-a-mole phenomena though.

Portland has always had its rough edges. To my eye, things are looking better. But we aren't back to say 2018.

I would agree with this synopsis. They stopped sweeping the homeless camps during COVID, which ended up making the problem much more evident as they collected articles in one location over extended periods of time and went from tents to makeshift shelters. Also, measure 110 didn't help, nor did the unfortunately timed arrival of Fentanyl. Now, in 2024, they do sweeps regularly again, drugs are again illegal (or will be as of 9/1) and the police seem to have more support from the community after they saw what happened when a bunch of police left for greener pastures and the remaining police could no longer properly address crime. The graffiti is still terrible, both in quality and quantity.

All of the most entrenched large encampments have been permanently cleared. It seems that the remaining homeless are starting to make more of an effort to hide, like they used to. I saw them interview a homeless guy on the local news the other day and he said he'd been swept 8 times since the beginning of the year. He stated that he was so tired of it and he's starting to consider seeking more formal shelter to escape the constant cycle of sweeps. That sounds like progress to me.

[yaya97]

Many thanks for the amazing answers! It’s possible things are going perhaps in the right direction!

[Jimrob1]

I visited Portland last month and I definitely noticed things looked better. It had been a year since my previous visit, and there was noticeable improvement. I saw less homeless and tents in and around the city. The city looked like cleanups had taken place. I do think many in Portland , have had quite enough of the past foolishness. So my view is the city is slowly getting back on track. Let's hope things continue to improve.

[Wile E. Coyote]

I had not been downtown since 2022. I was down there a couple days ago. I saw one tent instead of 500. I know someone who's brother is schizophrenic and has lived homeless in Portland for a few decades who now has his first apartment. Imagine housing for the homeless because that's what is happening.

It's getting all cleaned up.

[oregonwoodsmoke]

I can't imagine Portland getting back on track until they develop the will to deal with the homeless.

If the legalization of drugs is repealed, that helps. At least the druggies will be more discrete and not shooting up on the sidewalks and leaving needles everywhere.

[EasyBeezy]

Originally Posted by oregonwoodsmoke

I can't imagine Portland getting back on track until they develop the will to deal with the homeless.

If the legalization of drugs is repealed, that helps. At least the druggies will be more discrete and not shooting up on the sidewalks and leaving needles everywhere.

I actually haven't seen a needle in a really long time. I saw an interview with a Fent user on channel 8 some months ago, and he was talking about how Fentanyl is mostly smoked and how many of the junkies had switched to smoking, and their health had improved as a result. Then they brought on one of those harm reduction health worker people and they basically said the same thing, and that they were encouraging the drug users to smoke instead. It's a dark world we live in, isn't it?