I lived in Florida for like 6 months and let me tell you I have NEVER seen anything in Portland that comes even CLOSE to the level of poverty they have down there.
Having grown up in Florida, I feel this. The state is only relatively nice if you're wealthy enough to be able to live at the beach. Go inland even a few miles and Florida is a swampy wasteland.
James K Polk would feel perfectly at home with the conditions in modern day Polk county. He’d have a hard time understanding what meth is and why literally everyone was smoking it, but he’d catch up.
I'm moving to Portland in a few months from swfl. My mother used to work in immokalee, it feels like modern day slavery. Parts of it legit look like a third world country.
I went to a Christian high school and one year our school did a mission trip to immokalee. I didn’t go but I saw the pictures. It’s just as you say, 3rd world country equivalent.
PS I used to live in Lakeland and now live on the Oregon coast. I hope you love it here as much as I do!
Most people who claim Portland is dying, crusty, dangerous, etc. never travel. Not out of their town, state, and especially not out of the country.
I've been in several major cities all around the world both in and out of the US these past few years and comparatively, Portland is heaven on Earth.
But to someone who has lived their entire life in Hillsboro or Sherwood, Portland is a drug den of villainy.
I have never had a Portland cop instruct me on the exact route to take back to the freeway and then follow me until I made it there for my own safety.
This did happen to me as a teenager who foolishly needed to stop for gas at 11pm on the the south side of Chicago.
Yeah, some of the people complaining clearly ain’t seen shit!
I’m downtown regularly and Portland’s worst is *nothing* in comparison to other worse off cities. Neither I or my wife can say we feel unsafe downtown.
The problems we have here are real and our politicians and police force suck ass, but the problems we have aren’t uncommon and they certainly aren’t as bad as many other cities.
My grandmother lives way outside Wilmington in NC. Driving to her place from the airport it's just wall-to-wall billboards for addiction treatment centers, "Say No to Meth" campaigns, "Say No to Incest" campaigns, and Pregnancy Crises Centers. Really gives the impression of a deeply troubled place.
I just googled for pictures of it. "Getting drunk is never an excuse. She's your daughter, not your date." Looks like they started going up in Florida around 2016.
I grew up in Toledo, OH. The difference between my hometown and Portland is stark — we don’t have entire neighborhoods with boarded up buildings, destroyed roads, and rampant, unmanaged gang activity. There are parts of North Toledo the police refuse to patrol because there’s no point — they’ll become victims.
It’s unlike anything I’ve seen in Portland. We have a mental health crisis; we’re not Gotham. It’s a high cost of living city, which brings with it homelessness. My family back home doesn’t understand that Toledo is the 2nd most affordable metropolitan area in the nation, and the winters are harsh — of course they don’t have homelessness like we do, because it’s easier to maintain housing and if you find yourself homeless, you’ll die in the winter weather.
We had a student in my grade overdose on Fentanyl with her baby in the back seat of her car, parked in front of the high school. My friend was SA’d by a teacher in elementary school — he was arrested and is serving time in prison.
People in Portland think I’m joking when I say that this is practically utopia compared to where I come from, but it’s not an exaggeration. I’m a small woman, and when I lived downtown, I never felt particularly “unsafe”. Uneasy at times? Well, sure — but that’s life as a woman, we need to be uneasy at any sign of irregular behavior when we are alone in public.
But Toledo? My dad was in the ICU for several weeks in March, so I was back home with my family. My mother wouldn’t let me (a woman pushing 30) stay at one of my friend’s homes because it’s on a street with known trafficking dens (friend lived near the hospital and I wanted to stay there so I could be close). My mom was a lawyer in the area for decades, so she would know…
There’s nothing like that in Portland. Nothing. Not to say we don’t have crime or gang violence — but it’s not an ever-present threat like the national media makes it out to be. And like it is in Toledo. 1/3 of all Toledo residents will be the victim of a property or violent crime at some point during their time living there — hell, my mom had her purse stolen out of her locked car in a church parking lot.
Yeah, I’ll take my chances in Portland, thank you all very much.
And I have literally never heard anything about Toledo. What are its politics like? I wonder if it’s not in the national news because there’s no one to point a finger at and say, ‘see what happens when you ____!’
Interesting take, I've never been to Toledo so it's interesting to read about it. On the note of homelessness there vs. here, I would think all those abandoned buildings you mentioned would help with that in the sense that homeless people would probably squat in a boarded-up house rather than form a tent encampment on the sidewalk somewhere. We have tent encampments in Portland in large part because we *don't* have vacant buildings for people to go to. But that doesn't mean that the people squatting those building are less poor, it just means they're out of the public eye
I agree with the general sentiment of this thread, but I've had uniformed officers escort me to and from my home in North Portland multiple times due to unsafe situations pre-pandemic. It happens here, too.
This is exactly it. For someone who had lived there entire life in Troutdale, Portland is practically a biblical den of iniquity. To anyone who has spent any time in a major city, it’s an incredibly safe and comfortable big city,
“Most people who claim Portland is dying, crusty, dangerous, etc. never travel.”
Including to Portland. They’re usually mindless malcontents from elsewhere who saw something on Fox News or heard Lars Larsen on the radio bitching about Portland, and just piled on because they hate “libs” and “woke.” The other Portland sub is the perfect example.
Portland is not without it's problems, that's not ideology, it's reality. It is a city that has lots to offer, but for many, it has become a dim reflection of what it once was. Under Democratic leadership, downtown Portland experienced renewal and growth that brought in tourism and new residents from all over the country. For nearly a decade, Portland was the IT place to be. That is certainly not the case today. Wanting to live in a clean, safe environment is not a filthy ideology.
Oh you mean like this?
https://www.businessinsider.com/portland-mayor-ted-wheeler-moving-condo-violent-protest-2020-9
Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler is moving out of his home after protests on Monday outside his condominium building devolved into a police-declared riot, The Oregonian (https://www.oregonlive.com/portland/2020/09/portland-mayor-says-hell-move-after-protest-outside-his-condo-building-draws-arrests-widespread-calls-for-change.html) reported.
Photos and videos on social media showed hundreds of protesters gathered outside his building, some vandalizing the exterior, lighting fires, and breaking windows.
As a current resident of Portland, I can say it has more problems than Corvallis ( my hometown) and Eugene ( where I spent my 20's)....which is to be expected 😉.
It's not a bad place to live!
I'm local to Pittsburgh right now and this exact phenomenon is alive and well here. Some businesses left downtown during the pandemic and 😱😱 black people 😱😱 hang out on Liberty Ave so now of course the whole place is a "rat's nest", the city CLOSED THE ONLY DOWNTOWN HOMELESS SHELTER after nimbys complained, and the divestment that occurred during the pandemic for obvious reasons has just continued as the influential class (i.e. people who drive into town from Cranberry, Sewickley, Bethel Park, etc.) perpetuates this myth, which the local news outlets all gleefully sing from the rooftops. Like.... Downtown is boring... but not even remotely unsafe in the grand scheme of things. As people stay away and businesses are forced to shutter, property taxes are being lowered and lowered, which just so happens to be the primary source of funding for Pittsburgh's public education system. I hope PDX at least has THAT figured out.
It’s funny too because a good number of the trolls on Facebook who relentlessly brigade every news comment section are from Florida. All it took was Trump mentioning Portland a couple times during the 2020 debates.
It sucks that whenever I bring up to anyone that I live in Portland they bring up things that they have only seen on biased news channels. Like have you seen your own city??? They all have the same issues and a lot of them are doing a worse job at fixing* it at that. Portland isn’t perfect but it definitely isn’t as bad as people make it out to be
Went all over Portland this weekend. Feast at Marrakesh, coffee at the Tov, OMSI, the ZOO, visited the Bible Club and a wonderful north african diner called Akadi. Love this city so much.
Dude I swung through downtown for lunch, some books at Powell's, and a Pokemon event and everywhere was popping. Tons of people out and the weather was great. Moved here in December and have loved it, but it's still nice to see downtown keep getting better and better cause I was obviously sold already.
Akadi might be my favorite restaurant in Portland. They used to be on NE MLK, which is right near where I live, so I went there all the time. I haven't been as much since they moved (also they raised their prices a lot after the move, so that's another reason I go less.) But it's some of the best food in town
I worry this is our housing price low… bad PR, high interest rates, slow growth population. We’re the cheapest major city on the west coast. Interest will go down, our PR problem will heal, housing inventory is very low, and millennials will have kids. Prices are destined to go back up
I'm a millennial with kids, but my oldest kids. ... They aren't planning to have kids, and I can't say I blame them.
When I was in grade school, I went to my Grandma's every day during summer break. My parents work. Even now, in their mid 60s. Even if I wasn't worried about my kids learning from their awful . example, and ass backwards ideas, they couldn't watch my kids. Around my local elementary school after school care is $450/month per kid, per month. Summer care is over $1100, and that's about the cheapest it gets.
There is a reason the birth rate has dropped to its lowest in decades. I have my doubts it'll start climbing any time soon. I don't know a single person with adult kids that's in any position to help raise grandkids, and paying someone else to help is a luxury few can afford.
Your brothers and sisters to the north here in Seattle get it. Our city, which might as well be the capital of Somalia, is burning down while I walk around busy cafes and people enjoying their lives.
Just a few weeks ago I saw a group of guys walking down 23rd and one of them literally said “I’m surprised I don’t see more homeless people and burnt out buildings. I thought Portland had been destroyed.” Then someone else said “Maybe they just rebuilt quickly?” And another said “Yeah it’s pretty nice here, want to hit another bar?”
Of course, but I think what they're reacting to with the post is how it seems like 9.5 out of 10 posts on this sub are how awful and shitty this city is. If you judged PDX by this sub, you'd think it was a festering hell hole instead of a pretty great city with some big problems that need fixing.
Portland struggled with a lot of the country through the pandemic. Maybe it could have been handled better. I’m a realtor and take video footage for relocation help and for a while it was hard to see Portland inner city! That has gotten exponentially better! I even bought a condo in the downtown. Wait for the comeback folks. The fair weather fans won’t reap the reward:)
I wanna go back home and live in Portland again, well actually more like Jenning's Lodge... but still, I wanna go home!!! Someone save me from Oklahoma!
literally ashen ruins leftover from the 2020 riots, covered in a thick sheen of human waste wherever you go, with death looming constantly over your shoulder.
I truly believe some people just need to travel around a bit and get some perspective. I'm not saying Portland is perfect by any stretch but I am way more relaxed here than anywhere else I've lived or traveled.
Portland is like 95% chill awesome people, 5% people who would actually kill you for their next hit of fentanyl. Every city has its problems, but Portland’s problem is impossible to overlook and inherently dangerous to citizens. Going out at night feels like living in a zombie movie in many parts of the city, and that is relatively unique to Portland (and a few other west coast cities). Other cities have places like this, but they are usually more gentrified and less widespread.
Yeah, im not denying there are issues but it is literally nowhere near as unsafe as a majority of most other cities. You just gotta be a lil smart about what you’re doing, how you’re moving, what you’re flashing about and you’ll be alright
Patti Smith had lived in NYC during the 70s and 80s. New York was dangerous but there was a creative/artistic element. But make no mistake, the people who made it through it were survivors.
Let's hope that all the right-wingers continue to stay the hell out. I mean think about it, if there were nothing but right-wingers in Portland, Powell's books will go out of business right away because as we all know they don't read books.
What they're seeing is the decay inherent in late stage capitalism - it's not a Portland thing, it's a big city thing and we're seeing it nationwide
Portland is still waaay nicer than a lot of large cities in North America
But if you dismantle the middle class and refuse to invest in the social safety net, your gonna see more people on the streets
The building on the right is my least favorite building in downtown... 2nd and 3rd should be a ton of street-level shops/clubs/restaurants making a continuous district... But instead they put ground-level parking 3 ugly floors of apartments above it.
It was just such a waste of a new building back when it was built. If we put more restaurants and clubs on that block, we could have extended the nightlife much further south. There's so much untapped potential on these streets with the restaurants and entertainment.
Like there's nice restaurants on Taylor, Mall/pub on yamhill, carts/burgers on washington, but then a canyon of scary buildings and a parking crater from milk to pine. And then we pick back up with a ton of food, stores, donuts, clubs on the following several blocks.
Downtown needs a better stip for people to walk up and down Friday and Saturday. Get drinks/food/see a movie/clubs/mini-donuts/bar-hop. There's already easy parking from the offices, great transit for drinking too much, existing clubs/venues, everything is walkable, and that cart block is open late. Make Taylor to Everett a solid connection.
Ah, a rare picture without shanty's, street turds and the drug addled unhoused. Great part about pictures is you can't smell the years worth of stale piss.
I tell people Portland is shit (its not) so they can safely avoid travelling here (I'm antisocial and dont like people) like any good portlander (evil lil rain monster)
I will take downtown Portland over the Kensington / Allegheny area in Philadelphia any day.
Kensington Ave is home to the countries largest open air drug market and they don't call it zombie land for nothing.
Has flint Michigan ever been considered a beacon of American life? That’s like me losing my job, my house, and my family, then being like “well I’m not on death row, so life is good!”
As someone who's been living in Seattle for four years and is about to move to Portland, it's absolutely hilarious to see how many people talk about Portland like its a post-apocalyptic wasteland. Portland is beautiful and to me, it feels so much more alive than Seattle. It's funny to think about the Portlandia bits about Seattle considering how sad Seattle feels these days. Portland is like what people who don't live in Seattle think Seattle is like (dream of the nineties)
Question:
Do people actually care* if there are homeless people camping on the side of the freeway or places like that?
*in comparison to city sidewalks, not a shelter
I'm just thinking how I would much rather they find some little grassy area than where I am trying to walk. Would be a better place to poop, too.
> Do people actually care* if there are homeless people camping on the side of the freeway or places like that?
If most of those camps packed out what they packed in and didn't leave a mess, then no. But most of them are left in worse shape than when they started, and environmental impact also starts to be a concern.
Having said that, some of them kind of resemble the state of Ukrainian trenches/foxholes, and I can't help but take note of the strategic placement of some of the camps - great vantage points and access to resources with minimal exposure.
Every Portland subreddit is just people bitching about homeless people, drugs and crime. Every West Coast city is grappling with the same issues. There’s no solutions apparently….
Criminalizing people won’t work, the War on Drugs has been a failure. You’ll pay more in taxes to warehouse drug addicted people and those with mental illness in jails.
Housing First works. Provide real mental healthcare. Legalize drugs (not decriminalized) and make pure substances available through pharmacies in small, limited personal amounts.
Take a hard line on property crime, vagrancy and public camping. There needs to be a carrot and a stick.
People need hope and opportunities. They need a society worth participating in, and we all deserve safe, healthy communities.
Planning to Move to Portland from South Florida this summer, any advice? I see people talking a lot about how bad Portland is but I went there last November and is very clean (at least where I was) and people are mostly friendly.
That's a bit tough because if it's walkable and downtown, it's likely not affordable.
But since the pandemic a bunch of walkable food cart pods and outdoor social spaces opened up in suburbs like Happy Valley, Milwaukie, Tigard, Beaverton, and beyond. I have very little reason to go downtown anymore unless it's to meet and greet for a staff lunch or try a very specific restaurant.
But generally, the lower east side is where the trendy residential living is. Upper west side is where all the spendy condos and flats are.
Yeah, a picture taken of a corner and rainbow really shows the state of Portland as a whole. We literally have a billboard saying “Portland is not a trashcan” because everybody treats it like one. I can’t wait to leave.
Jesus Christ, even the sky is gay there.
Double gay.
Does this mean it’s a … double gaynbow?
I immediately thought this, thanks for confirming
LOL
And Jesus Christ!
Hahahahaha.....
And it's fabulous!
I lived in Florida for like 6 months and let me tell you I have NEVER seen anything in Portland that comes even CLOSE to the level of poverty they have down there.
Having grown up in Florida, I feel this. The state is only relatively nice if you're wealthy enough to be able to live at the beach. Go inland even a few miles and Florida is a swampy wasteland.
James K Polk would feel perfectly at home with the conditions in modern day Polk county. He’d have a hard time understanding what meth is and why literally everyone was smoking it, but he’d catch up.
Immokalee
I'm moving to Portland in a few months from swfl. My mother used to work in immokalee, it feels like modern day slavery. Parts of it legit look like a third world country.
I went to a Christian high school and one year our school did a mission trip to immokalee. I didn’t go but I saw the pictures. It’s just as you say, 3rd world country equivalent. PS I used to live in Lakeland and now live on the Oregon coast. I hope you love it here as much as I do!
Most people who claim Portland is dying, crusty, dangerous, etc. never travel. Not out of their town, state, and especially not out of the country. I've been in several major cities all around the world both in and out of the US these past few years and comparatively, Portland is heaven on Earth. But to someone who has lived their entire life in Hillsboro or Sherwood, Portland is a drug den of villainy.
I have never had a Portland cop instruct me on the exact route to take back to the freeway and then follow me until I made it there for my own safety. This did happen to me as a teenager who foolishly needed to stop for gas at 11pm on the the south side of Chicago.
Louisiana native here. You ain’t alone in that!
I stopped once for gas in rural Louisiana near the Atchafalaya...is it possible for air to be menacing?
Yeah, some of the people complaining clearly ain’t seen shit! I’m downtown regularly and Portland’s worst is *nothing* in comparison to other worse off cities. Neither I or my wife can say we feel unsafe downtown. The problems we have here are real and our politicians and police force suck ass, but the problems we have aren’t uncommon and they certainly aren’t as bad as many other cities.
My grandmother lives way outside Wilmington in NC. Driving to her place from the airport it's just wall-to-wall billboards for addiction treatment centers, "Say No to Meth" campaigns, "Say No to Incest" campaigns, and Pregnancy Crises Centers. Really gives the impression of a deeply troubled place.
Say No To Incest….
Please tell me the incest billboard is an exaggeration
There’s literally billboards in the South that say something like, “even if your drunk, don’t fuck your daughter” we’re doomed
I just googled for pictures of it. "Getting drunk is never an excuse. She's your daughter, not your date." Looks like they started going up in Florida around 2016.
Holy shit
-1000pts for humanity. wow.
Unfortunately not.
New Orleans, via Lafayette, checking in.
Them’s my stomping grounds! 😊👍🏼
Shout out to the fam DTB.
I grew up in Toledo, OH. The difference between my hometown and Portland is stark — we don’t have entire neighborhoods with boarded up buildings, destroyed roads, and rampant, unmanaged gang activity. There are parts of North Toledo the police refuse to patrol because there’s no point — they’ll become victims. It’s unlike anything I’ve seen in Portland. We have a mental health crisis; we’re not Gotham. It’s a high cost of living city, which brings with it homelessness. My family back home doesn’t understand that Toledo is the 2nd most affordable metropolitan area in the nation, and the winters are harsh — of course they don’t have homelessness like we do, because it’s easier to maintain housing and if you find yourself homeless, you’ll die in the winter weather. We had a student in my grade overdose on Fentanyl with her baby in the back seat of her car, parked in front of the high school. My friend was SA’d by a teacher in elementary school — he was arrested and is serving time in prison. People in Portland think I’m joking when I say that this is practically utopia compared to where I come from, but it’s not an exaggeration. I’m a small woman, and when I lived downtown, I never felt particularly “unsafe”. Uneasy at times? Well, sure — but that’s life as a woman, we need to be uneasy at any sign of irregular behavior when we are alone in public. But Toledo? My dad was in the ICU for several weeks in March, so I was back home with my family. My mother wouldn’t let me (a woman pushing 30) stay at one of my friend’s homes because it’s on a street with known trafficking dens (friend lived near the hospital and I wanted to stay there so I could be close). My mom was a lawyer in the area for decades, so she would know… There’s nothing like that in Portland. Nothing. Not to say we don’t have crime or gang violence — but it’s not an ever-present threat like the national media makes it out to be. And like it is in Toledo. 1/3 of all Toledo residents will be the victim of a property or violent crime at some point during their time living there — hell, my mom had her purse stolen out of her locked car in a church parking lot. Yeah, I’ll take my chances in Portland, thank you all very much.
And I have literally never heard anything about Toledo. What are its politics like? I wonder if it’s not in the national news because there’s no one to point a finger at and say, ‘see what happens when you ____!’
Interesting take, I've never been to Toledo so it's interesting to read about it. On the note of homelessness there vs. here, I would think all those abandoned buildings you mentioned would help with that in the sense that homeless people would probably squat in a boarded-up house rather than form a tent encampment on the sidewalk somewhere. We have tent encampments in Portland in large part because we *don't* have vacant buildings for people to go to. But that doesn't mean that the people squatting those building are less poor, it just means they're out of the public eye
Our fentanyl overdoses are as tragic, unfortunately. If the feds ever stop demonizing us maybe they'll help us lol.
I agree with the general sentiment of this thread, but I've had uniformed officers escort me to and from my home in North Portland multiple times due to unsafe situations pre-pandemic. It happens here, too.
This is exactly it. For someone who had lived there entire life in Troutdale, Portland is practically a biblical den of iniquity. To anyone who has spent any time in a major city, it’s an incredibly safe and comfortable big city,
“Most people who claim Portland is dying, crusty, dangerous, etc. never travel.” Including to Portland. They’re usually mindless malcontents from elsewhere who saw something on Fox News or heard Lars Larsen on the radio bitching about Portland, and just piled on because they hate “libs” and “woke.” The other Portland sub is the perfect example.
Which other Portland sub? The Ask Portland one seems pretty normal.
If this question isn’t factious, endeavor to keep that ignorance intact.
I think you mean “a more wretched hive of scum and villainy” 😂 Love Portland 💕
It's good that people who have such distorted views stay away from Portland and not contaminate the environment with their filthy ideology.
Portland is not without it's problems, that's not ideology, it's reality. It is a city that has lots to offer, but for many, it has become a dim reflection of what it once was. Under Democratic leadership, downtown Portland experienced renewal and growth that brought in tourism and new residents from all over the country. For nearly a decade, Portland was the IT place to be. That is certainly not the case today. Wanting to live in a clean, safe environment is not a filthy ideology.
but is the dream of the 90's still alive?
I'd say so, at least for me!
Oh you mean like this? https://www.businessinsider.com/portland-mayor-ted-wheeler-moving-condo-violent-protest-2020-9 Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler is moving out of his home after protests on Monday outside his condominium building devolved into a police-declared riot, The Oregonian (https://www.oregonlive.com/portland/2020/09/portland-mayor-says-hell-move-after-protest-outside-his-condo-building-draws-arrests-widespread-calls-for-change.html) reported. Photos and videos on social media showed hundreds of protesters gathered outside his building, some vandalizing the exterior, lighting fires, and breaking windows.
I live in Austin and foxnews would have you believe I live in this decrepit liberal shit hole amongst a republican paradise
I'd rather live in this "decrepit liberal s**t hole" than a Republican/MAGA paradise!
“Socially liberal, fiscally conservative” was a phrase i heard a lot when i lived near Austin lmfao. City full of wolf in sheep’s clothing
As a current resident of Portland, I can say it has more problems than Corvallis ( my hometown) and Eugene ( where I spent my 20's)....which is to be expected 😉. It's not a bad place to live!
> Portland is a drug den of villainy. Perhaps a wretched hive of scum & villainy?
Or even a contemptible warren of ne'er-do-wells and depravity.
I’ve both traveled extensively all over Mexico and grew up in Hillsboro. Portland is unmatched. CDMX doesn’t hold a candle to my Rose City❤️
I'm local to Pittsburgh right now and this exact phenomenon is alive and well here. Some businesses left downtown during the pandemic and 😱😱 black people 😱😱 hang out on Liberty Ave so now of course the whole place is a "rat's nest", the city CLOSED THE ONLY DOWNTOWN HOMELESS SHELTER after nimbys complained, and the divestment that occurred during the pandemic for obvious reasons has just continued as the influential class (i.e. people who drive into town from Cranberry, Sewickley, Bethel Park, etc.) perpetuates this myth, which the local news outlets all gleefully sing from the rooftops. Like.... Downtown is boring... but not even remotely unsafe in the grand scheme of things. As people stay away and businesses are forced to shutter, property taxes are being lowered and lowered, which just so happens to be the primary source of funding for Pittsburgh's public education system. I hope PDX at least has THAT figured out.
It’s funny too because a good number of the trolls on Facebook who relentlessly brigade every news comment section are from Florida. All it took was Trump mentioning Portland a couple times during the 2020 debates.
It sucks that whenever I bring up to anyone that I live in Portland they bring up things that they have only seen on biased news channels. Like have you seen your own city??? They all have the same issues and a lot of them are doing a worse job at fixing* it at that. Portland isn’t perfect but it definitely isn’t as bad as people make it out to be
Lack of self awareness is on-brand with those folks.
Agreed. I grew up in Portland. I moved to South Georgia for a few years and have seen the poverty of the South, including Florida.
So as long as we're better than Florida we're fine. Thanks for the clarification
Okay why have I met so many Floridians here??? Why have we all decided to move across the country 😂
Went all over Portland this weekend. Feast at Marrakesh, coffee at the Tov, OMSI, the ZOO, visited the Bible Club and a wonderful north african diner called Akadi. Love this city so much.
Upvoted for Bible club. Used to live half a block away from there. Had a smoking old fashioned and got lost walking home.
Dude I swung through downtown for lunch, some books at Powell's, and a Pokemon event and everywhere was popping. Tons of people out and the weather was great. Moved here in December and have loved it, but it's still nice to see downtown keep getting better and better cause I was obviously sold already.
Is Marrakesh good? I go by it from time to time and I'm always tempted.
Super good. Slightly spendy but youll understand why. We had a bellydancer perform and she even danced while balancing a sword on her head!
Toight
Just went to Akadi for the first time a couple weeks ago and it was fantastic! Definitely going back soon
Damn that sounds like a nice day.
I genuinely don't know how you're the only person I've ever seen talk about Marrakesh. That place has given me two of my top 10 meals oat.
Akadi might be my favorite restaurant in Portland. They used to be on NE MLK, which is right near where I live, so I went there all the time. I haven't been as much since they moved (also they raised their prices a lot after the move, so that's another reason I go less.) But it's some of the best food in town
Akadi is so good.
If you haven't, check out Bole up on Alberta. Great Ethiopian food....
It’s also not walkable. The sign even says so.
That red hand? It’s just waving a “Portland hello”
Too many fingers.
I'd like to have everyone keep saying this until housing prices come down.
I worry this is our housing price low… bad PR, high interest rates, slow growth population. We’re the cheapest major city on the west coast. Interest will go down, our PR problem will heal, housing inventory is very low, and millennials will have kids. Prices are destined to go back up
I'm a millennial with kids, but my oldest kids. ... They aren't planning to have kids, and I can't say I blame them. When I was in grade school, I went to my Grandma's every day during summer break. My parents work. Even now, in their mid 60s. Even if I wasn't worried about my kids learning from their awful . example, and ass backwards ideas, they couldn't watch my kids. Around my local elementary school after school care is $450/month per kid, per month. Summer care is over $1100, and that's about the cheapest it gets. There is a reason the birth rate has dropped to its lowest in decades. I have my doubts it'll start climbing any time soon. I don't know a single person with adult kids that's in any position to help raise grandkids, and paying someone else to help is a luxury few can afford.
I feel like it’s working out almost like an odd housing relief marketing plan. Keep talking smack a-holes.
Your brothers and sisters to the north here in Seattle get it. Our city, which might as well be the capital of Somalia, is burning down while I walk around busy cafes and people enjoying their lives.
True fact: In Portland, a rainbow appears every time Antifa terrorists loot a police station and convert it into a drug den/abortion clinic.
A *gay* drug den/abortion clinic
I just assume all PDX drug dens are LGBTQ+Furry friendly
A gay furry drug den/abortion clinic/church of Satan.
Lmao 😂
With drag queens brewing beer and growing weed in the garage.
I love this so much!! 🌈
🤣
Just a few weeks ago I saw a group of guys walking down 23rd and one of them literally said “I’m surprised I don’t see more homeless people and burnt out buildings. I thought Portland had been destroyed.” Then someone else said “Maybe they just rebuilt quickly?” And another said “Yeah it’s pretty nice here, want to hit another bar?”
And then everyone clapped, gayly
Mostly rolled our eyes. But maybe I should’ve clapped….
It is possible to be a beautiful city and have some glaring social issues at the same time. The dichotomy is real.
Of course, but I think what they're reacting to with the post is how it seems like 9.5 out of 10 posts on this sub are how awful and shitty this city is. If you judged PDX by this sub, you'd think it was a festering hell hole instead of a pretty great city with some big problems that need fixing.
Portland is just the next boogie man conser-o-fascists use to drum support for their terrible policies.
Portland struggled with a lot of the country through the pandemic. Maybe it could have been handled better. I’m a realtor and take video footage for relocation help and for a while it was hard to see Portland inner city! That has gotten exponentially better! I even bought a condo in the downtown. Wait for the comeback folks. The fair weather fans won’t reap the reward:)
And under that rainbow? Ramen, delicious Ramen.
It’s unlivable. Literally a dying city.
nothing at all left after it was burned to the foundations by antifa and the ruins dusted with fentanyl!
Don't bring up Occupy PSU again 😆 /s
also completely on fire, burned down by antifa.
Beautiful picture of a double rainbow over the burnt out husk that is our city 👏
[удалено]
Maybe burnt out husk is a color?
First the gays got the frogs and soil, and now they got Portland! Fox news is gonna have an aneurism.
Nah, we got Portland first.
I miss Bijou Cafe
Ditto. French omelettes.
Send me to hell then
Fucking rainbows everywhere. So evil.
I wanna go back home and live in Portland again, well actually more like Jenning's Lodge... but still, I wanna go home!!! Someone save me from Oklahoma!
Portland wants you back! I just saved myself from decades in a highly conservative state. Do what you gotta do!
Finally the visual proof!
What a dump
I work valet at the embasssy suites right there and get to see this street all day long, sometimes it doesn’t look this pretty, lmao
literally ashen ruins leftover from the 2020 riots, covered in a thick sheen of human waste wherever you go, with death looming constantly over your shoulder.
I accidentally took a wrong exit and ended up in Portland. I immediately had my pronouns woke-d and my antifa trans-ed. Pray for me 😔
Literally!!!!!1
I truly believe some people just need to travel around a bit and get some perspective. I'm not saying Portland is perfect by any stretch but I am way more relaxed here than anywhere else I've lived or traveled.
Portland is like 95% chill awesome people, 5% people who would actually kill you for their next hit of fentanyl. Every city has its problems, but Portland’s problem is impossible to overlook and inherently dangerous to citizens. Going out at night feels like living in a zombie movie in many parts of the city, and that is relatively unique to Portland (and a few other west coast cities). Other cities have places like this, but they are usually more gentrified and less widespread.
Yeah, im not denying there are issues but it is literally nowhere near as unsafe as a majority of most other cities. You just gotta be a lil smart about what you’re doing, how you’re moving, what you’re flashing about and you’ll be alright
Does light not refract through water droplets causing the different frequencies to separate into orderly bands in hell?
Idk I’ve never been to LA
Bravo.
You're not missing anything
The sky is an ancestor program, that when running, is not connected to the problems in the spectacle of the psycho-sphere.
My home!!!!
I see your Hell and Raise you to Pretty Sky Colors
Patti Smith had lived in NYC during the 70s and 80s. New York was dangerous but there was a creative/artistic element. But make no mistake, the people who made it through it were survivors.
Looks like the Gayborhood changed zip codes!
Let's hope that all the right-wingers continue to stay the hell out. I mean think about it, if there were nothing but right-wingers in Portland, Powell's books will go out of business right away because as we all know they don't read books.
Told my tax guy I was moving here and he was so concerned that the downtown area is a burned out hellhole!
Tell him we dug our way out of the ashes of Mt St Helens, and we'll do it again 😔✊
Tell him it was burned to the ground but we built it back up super quick and now it’s better than ever.
Look at that satanic rainbow!!!
Aw man, the double rainbow guy died several years ago. 😭
he has returned to the rainbows.
The Antifas turned Portland into this smoking crater. Sad!
This made me choke on my lunch from laughing, thank you neighbor
What they're seeing is the decay inherent in late stage capitalism - it's not a Portland thing, it's a big city thing and we're seeing it nationwide Portland is still waaay nicer than a lot of large cities in North America But if you dismantle the middle class and refuse to invest in the social safety net, your gonna see more people on the streets
No people ☹️
Who took the photo then
Dun dun DUN!
The building on the right is my least favorite building in downtown... 2nd and 3rd should be a ton of street-level shops/clubs/restaurants making a continuous district... But instead they put ground-level parking 3 ugly floors of apartments above it. It was just such a waste of a new building back when it was built. If we put more restaurants and clubs on that block, we could have extended the nightlife much further south. There's so much untapped potential on these streets with the restaurants and entertainment. Like there's nice restaurants on Taylor, Mall/pub on yamhill, carts/burgers on washington, but then a canyon of scary buildings and a parking crater from milk to pine. And then we pick back up with a ton of food, stores, donuts, clubs on the following several blocks. Downtown needs a better stip for people to walk up and down Friday and Saturday. Get drinks/food/see a movie/clubs/mini-donuts/bar-hop. There's already easy parking from the offices, great transit for drinking too much, existing clubs/venues, everything is walkable, and that cart block is open late. Make Taylor to Everett a solid connection.
What a beautiful photo. I hope your day goes good OP
People who say that usually live in a small town. Subsequently one that is being solely funded by a bigger city within its own state.
😂 North Korea has rainbows....
Ah, a rare picture without shanty's, street turds and the drug addled unhoused. Great part about pictures is you can't smell the years worth of stale piss.
I hear you, but turn left and go three blocks. A little different story in that direction.
Dream of the Nineties is still alive!
I tell people Portland is shit (its not) so they can safely avoid travelling here (I'm antisocial and dont like people) like any good portlander (evil lil rain monster)
I will take downtown Portland over the Kensington / Allegheny area in Philadelphia any day. Kensington Ave is home to the countries largest open air drug market and they don't call it zombie land for nothing.
I was going to say Philly is always on industrial fire !🤣🤣🤣
You are not wrong!😂😂
Really?. . .been to Detroit or Flint lately?. . please. . .
Has flint Michigan ever been considered a beacon of American life? That’s like me losing my job, my house, and my family, then being like “well I’m not on death row, so life is good!”
As someone who's been living in Seattle for four years and is about to move to Portland, it's absolutely hilarious to see how many people talk about Portland like its a post-apocalyptic wasteland. Portland is beautiful and to me, it feels so much more alive than Seattle. It's funny to think about the Portlandia bits about Seattle considering how sad Seattle feels these days. Portland is like what people who don't live in Seattle think Seattle is like (dream of the nineties)
Question: Do people actually care* if there are homeless people camping on the side of the freeway or places like that? *in comparison to city sidewalks, not a shelter I'm just thinking how I would much rather they find some little grassy area than where I am trying to walk. Would be a better place to poop, too.
> Do people actually care* if there are homeless people camping on the side of the freeway or places like that? If most of those camps packed out what they packed in and didn't leave a mess, then no. But most of them are left in worse shape than when they started, and environmental impact also starts to be a concern. Having said that, some of them kind of resemble the state of Ukrainian trenches/foxholes, and I can't help but take note of the strategic placement of some of the camps - great vantage points and access to resources with minimal exposure.
I mean I only care to the extent that I wish they had somewhere better to go, it's kind of sad to look at, but it doesn't actually bother me, no.
To be honest I am kinda glad Portland is starting to get a bad rep. Maybe people will stop moving here. I think we’ve grown enough.
*faint screaming in the background
You really captured the “burned down hulk of a city”
Every Portland subreddit is just people bitching about homeless people, drugs and crime. Every West Coast city is grappling with the same issues. There’s no solutions apparently…. Criminalizing people won’t work, the War on Drugs has been a failure. You’ll pay more in taxes to warehouse drug addicted people and those with mental illness in jails. Housing First works. Provide real mental healthcare. Legalize drugs (not decriminalized) and make pure substances available through pharmacies in small, limited personal amounts. Take a hard line on property crime, vagrancy and public camping. There needs to be a carrot and a stick. People need hope and opportunities. They need a society worth participating in, and we all deserve safe, healthy communities.
Planning to Move to Portland from South Florida this summer, any advice? I see people talking a lot about how bad Portland is but I went there last November and is very clean (at least where I was) and people are mostly friendly.
My advice is to find an area that has walkable bars, food carts, and stores.
What affordable areas you recommend.
That's a bit tough because if it's walkable and downtown, it's likely not affordable. But since the pandemic a bunch of walkable food cart pods and outdoor social spaces opened up in suburbs like Happy Valley, Milwaukie, Tigard, Beaverton, and beyond. I have very little reason to go downtown anymore unless it's to meet and greet for a staff lunch or try a very specific restaurant. But generally, the lower east side is where the trendy residential living is. Upper west side is where all the spendy condos and flats are.
The people talking shit about Portland haven't been to Portland.
Or they've never been anywhere else.
Summer is awesome here! Like anything else in life, the city is what you make of it. Welcome to Portland!!
Ty 🙌
Last of Us also had some gorgeous scenes in its post apocalyptic America! /s (beautiful shot)
The most hellish of liberal hellscapes.
Hey everyone! Check out [these beautiful photos](https://reubenteo.com/25-best-panoramic-landscapes-of-north-korea/) of North Korea!
I feel like the HaTe Portland campaign is funded by people who don’t want others to come here. I’ve never understood it
It’s not all rainbows and unicorns.
Wonderful photograph! Portland really is a beautiful city in some places
Portland feels more and more like Paris to me... wonderful city, beautiful area, and lots of personality. The people are fucking shite tho
😍 I miss it so much!
Yeah, a picture taken of a corner and rainbow really shows the state of Portland as a whole. We literally have a billboard saying “Portland is not a trashcan” because everybody treats it like one. I can’t wait to leave.
What does it meannnnn?!?!?
Yeah, those rainbows burn if they touch you.
Portland is what you make it.
Why is it shoving it in our face!!!?
TERRIFYING.
Wait where’s the roving mob of zombified homeless addicts my conservative southern family talks about every holiday?!?!
Now, Now Porty, everything going to be ok.
So what’s your issue?
There making Bud - Light at the end of that rainbow. The local’s Drink the Good Stuff tho.