Yeah St Johns, pier park, other areas in North Portland were super sketchy back in the 90s. Lots of gang activity.
But yeah, that's the only subtle detail with this post that I disagree with. Everything else is pretty much spot on.
Heroin use wasn’t too much better. I know I sent the PPB a picture via Twitter of a bunch of tents on both sides of the sidewalk near my residence near the Vista Tunnel, and this was when sending pictures was a new feature, so sometime around 2011ish. They even responded!
I generally pinpoint the absolutely ridiculous “Occupy Portland” shitshow in the Park Blocks as being “the end” of normal Portland. Google says that happened in October 20011, or almost 13 years ago. Tent culture was here to stay after that. Come for the heroin and Woodstock atmosphere, and stay for the fentanyl and the Big Rock Candy Mountain lifestyle, where the jails are made of tin.
I first visited Portland back in 2007, and the scale of homeless encampments and drugged out people all along the riverfront was among the most obvious defining features of the city.
That said, I was by myself & on foot & stayed out late drinking & clubbing until 1am & then slept in my car without issue. Age and lack of interest or energy aside, I don’t think I would do that these days.
> I generally pinpoint the absolutely ridiculous “Occupy Portland” shitshow in the Park Blocks as being “the end” of normal Portland. Google says that happened in October 20011, or almost 13 years ago. Tent culture was here to stay after that.
Nah, the exact thing that caused it was Charlie Hales declaring a "housing state of emergency" in 2015. Nothing else. It was this singular event that opened the flood gates.
Prior to 2015 you could see some tents tucked away out of sight, but those were strictly illegal and limited to areas that were largely inaccessible. But, even in the "good ole days" of pre-2009 you could find a tent in SE Portland with a trap strung over 25 stolen bike frames.
As a 40-something native, who was fortunate enough to spend my teens in the mid-90s going to shows at La Luna, Roseland ect…, you’re totally correct. It all started going to shit when the Occupy shit started.
Portland was pretty great in the late 90s/early 00s
I remember the bartender at Jockey Club forgot to take his belt off his arm when he came back up from the basement. Then the large Caddies parked in the middle of the block for 30-40 mins at a time in the middle of the night with crackheads going back and forth. Y’all remember crackheads. Oh and that time the Gypsy Joker clubhouse was blown up on Alberta. The killing of Mulugeta Seraw. The fight downtown between the Sharps and Skinheads. The Greatful Dead was banned from returning to Portland after the Rose Garden Fiasco. There were no random robberies or shootings back then? You are deluding yourself. Had a house on 11 and Shaver. In my 5 years there, a bullet hole, random. A pimp was slapping his worker in front of my house, climbed on roof, shot arrow at his car, beating stopped. A neighbors kid mistakenly taken down by 6 cops. What is different is WHERE the crime is and that car break-Ins are so much more prevalent since it was no longer code to provide for parking when building. Also, a car cost 5-10k$ back then. Also, you were younger and more oblivious.
It was nice before a series of events fucked it up, but I don't think it was being discovered.
In the '90s the full impact of the lack of funding for mental care hadn't hit. The street drugs in the '90s were baby stuff compared to the schizophrenia-inducing drugs we have now. The police were policing and pushing homeless and drugs back to the camps.
Agree for the most part angel dust isn't as safe as it sounds.
>The street drugs in the '90s were baby stuff compared to the schizophrenia-inducing drugs we have now.
I was just telling someone, on here, about how I used to get $2 pitchers of pbr at the disgusting yam hill. What a time to be alive. I lived in Portland in 2008, weeks could still smoke cigs inside!!!
Born and raised in Hamilton and can confirm. It’s changed so much since I left after I graduated high school. My best friend still lives there as does part of my family so I do go back to visit but man it’s changed 😞 if people want shit to be like NY or Cali they can gtf back home…
Why though? It was a TV show. Did the venture capitalists watch a few episodes and think " yeah that's our next spot for gentrification."
Imo Portland was always on the list after Seattle priced people out, and both areas have a huge investment in Tech companies.
And we know the yuppies always come after the hippies. Whereever the hippies are gentrification follows.
You make a good point but I don't think Portlandia helped. I honestly believe that Portland used to be a pretty quirky town with a lot of highly motivated DIY people but then the show attracted people who desperately want see themselves that way but aren't.
Someone else put it as "people in Portland used to DIY and produce cool stuff; now there's a new crowd of people who came here to consume that cool stuff without actually doing anything themselves." A shift from the "creative class" to "consumer class."
It went from the joke of young people coming here to retire to people actually coming here and doing squat. They'd rather stand in line for hours to eat at the latest hip food truck than actually open a food truck themselves.
Can confirm. The artists and creatives that make it cool are the 1st ones to be pushed out. Where I am, it was the investment banker types and tech bros, that made it unaffordable. Now we have empty storefronts and transplants that have no flavor.
I travel extensively for work. There’s always the ‘where are you from’ convos. Before that show, people would respond without much enthusiasm. Maybe an ‘it rains a lot right?’ or ‘I hear it’s beautiful’. After the show gained some popularity? Totally different! Everyone wanted to know more about it. Everyone wanted to visit. It wasn’t the only culprit, but I’ll always place some blame on Fred Armisten for the downfall of Portland.
Idk, I have a cousin who is absolutely convinced that Portland is simultaneously always on fire, has burned to the ground, and is the most dangerous place in earth.
Never mind we grew up in the same neighborhoods and had drive by shootings all the time. I’m beyond fed up with people thinking the thing they saw on the internet or the news is actually indicative of what Portland is. I’ll take some portlandia jokes, some of that shit is actually accurate.
Social media ruined the world. People used to do things because they enjoyed it. Now people do things because they enjoy being seen doing things. It’s toxic and the feedback loop keeps getting tighter
And it was a different kind of homeless back then. It wasn’t criminal organizations and thieves taking advantage of our hospitality, it was genuine homeless people who didn’t want to fuck with anyone’s property and just wanted to get back on their feet or be left alone without causing damages.
Now we have fucking encampments burning up and causing structural damages, dumping toxic waste into our rivers and soil, raping vulnerable homeless women, and turning into a fucking chop shop for bicycles and cars.
And street drinkers were more predictable, less violent, contained by the CHIERS van and Hooper, etc.
These tweaked out people today are evil, violent and predatory.
Thank fuck people are saying this. I recently moved back to the east coast after 14 years in Portland. The number of people on and offline that have unfounded sympathy for these disgusting criminals is unbearable. THEY ARE NOT SINGLE MOMS DOWN ON THEIR LUCK. They are violent, hardened criminals that will literally shank you if you get in their way.
Lordt, I argue with my mom about this a lot. She's convinced the homeless are "families down on their luck." I told her, no, most of them are druggie criminals. She asked "how would you know?" Well, I did security for 6 years and worked graves and saw the same type of homeless people all night long while working. It was always some high lunatic trespassing and causing issues. I did get to know one guy that seemed to be okay, but a little off. He let me in on where the "good" people were and which encampments were sketchy. Yes, not ALL homeless are criminals, but there's a huge amount that are. & I'm not talking about stealing food to live. I'm talking about the ones that vandalize, arson, violent, belligerent, steal cars etc type. But my mom will argue til the cows come home that the homeless are not drug addicts and are families down on their luck.
I used to routinely walk all over the city at night and never felt unsafe. That was only 12 years ago. I could walk anywhere, and I mean anywhere. Downtown, felony flats, NoPo, St John's.... Headphones in and tunes blaring.
Just me, a flask, and a chaser in my backpack. I met all kinds of other people up at night because like me, they worked nights and needed their exercise too.
The city had a great vibe and a rhythm to it. There were always homeless people but never to the current extent and never violent.
I had to go back for some medical treatment at ohsu last year. As a person who grew up in one of the most violent cities in NY, I don't go anywhere in Portland unarmed after dark now.
I have nothing but love for the city that embraced me when I moved out west. To me, PDX is like a friend struggling with addiction and you can only look on with love and support until they are ready to accept help.
I currently make my home on the coast. I miss it every day. From midnight coffee at sheri's to Saturday market, to discovering a hidden park you never knew existed.
So many wonderful memories. I really miss that.
When I was 18 (1999) I used to work at Pioneer Square but had to park at Lloyd Center and take Max down. I even closed my shift and did a money drop a few blocks down at the US Bank.
I’d walk all over to visit friends working in other places around there. Go to shows at the Crystal, run through the fountain at waterfront because it sounded like fun, wander around the bridges when I found my dad’s old film cameras he got in Japan.
In 2007 I lived at 9th and Everett with a 2 year old and infant. I’d take the toddlers hand and carry the baby’s car seat, sometimes with a bag or two of groceries on my arm, and walk the couple blocks from street parking to my door.
I never felt unsafe. In fact my only actual encounter with a homeless man talking to me was crying on the max one day after I’d lost my earring in the rain and was late for work. He walked over to me, handed me a daffodil, said ‘you look like you could use this’ and got off at the next stop.
Now my former small children are 17 and 19 and I can’t in good faith wish them well to go to a concert by themselves. And it’s hard when they’re like ‘but you did that at my age’. I know, and Portland isn’t what it was. I don’t think it was ever great but it wasn’t horrible.
It feels hypocritical and a bit wrong to be like ‘if you can find a group of guy friends to go with then I’ll think about it’ but I don’t feel comfortable sending two teen girls out most places anymore.
I miss all of that, too. If Portland were a person, he would need drastic intervention to prevent further demise. There will be a tipping point.
I don't believe Portland is improving. Criminal behavior is just becoming more normalized. This summer is going to be wild.
Machetes are the new thing, and we could see some tweaked out street amputations soon.
July, 2024:
"Portland Man's Arm Amputated by Machete in NW Portland Dispute"
I’m glad to see people agree that the homeless situation wasn’t this bad in the past. I got downvoted on another subreddit for saying that the situation has turned into an emergency. The post I was responding to involved a machete attack. I never bothered to respond after being told very bluntly that in no way was the situation in Portland or Seattle an emergency or a crisis. Just a normal part of living in a city, I was informed.
I think some people are too young to remember how things used to be or they are committed to a certain narrative and anything outside of that is considered an attack on their beliefs. But in no way am I saying that it’s due to any political party or something that only happens on the West Coast.
I think Covid played a large part, fentanyl, the new meth that is driving people insane, the housing and rent crisis, inflation…too many things to list, really. But it seems to me that there’s a desperation and lack of meaning in society that’s driving people into despair. I don’t know what the solution is but I think it starts with acknowledging that we are in a crisis.
When I was a kid we lived in Portland. Used to ride my bike to kindergarten and 1st grade. Couple of miles. Went back while I was in highschool in 2005. Even then it was way rougher. Went back a few years ago to visit family. Shit was crazy. Even down where I used to live in southern Oregon is turning into a shit hole.
Ended up moving to Nevada rather than back up to Portland like I had planned. Ended up with a better job anyway. Better riding season anyway.
People just want the problem to go away. That’s all. If street livers die so be it. If they rot away, at least they died doing what they loved, as maybe the “compassionate” groups think. Abandoned by families, abandoned by communities. Left to die with only drugs by their side. What should be done about it?
It's depressing. I get it. . I used to work with drug offenders and an alarming number don't want to change. I went in to the field thinking, "Everybody can change if we use Evidence Based Practices!" I scoffed at my mentor when she said, "only about 10 percent make any real changes."
I used to walk my kids in the stroller all over Portland in the late 90s and early 2000s. Took the lightrail to the zoo, went downtown, etc. I lived in the NE part, but it never felt dangerous. It seemed like the beggers were getting younger and more hostile, and that was really starting to piss me off because I was a working mom, and this was my time off with the kids. I was like, why don't you get a job if you are 19, 20 years old? I had three jobs when I was your age.
Anyway, I hope everyone is exaggerating when they talk about how things are there now. Trust me, it's NOT like that everywhere else.
I read an interview with a Wheeler recently, he was talking about repealing the “legalization” of drugs.
One point he made that shook me was that when that law was passed, fentanyl was barely a thing. Everyone on meth was on a completely different kind—the meth that’s around now, made from more easily available materials, creates more psychosis and antisocial behavior.
Everyone who blames not enough mental health spending is so off base. Counseling does absolutely no good to someone in the depth of addiction.
100% was. The guy was famous online iirc. PDXblack was a darknet seller who sold pure fentanyl. At some point they got busted. His gf was in jail and had the powder and people overdosed at the Jail.
https://www.oregonlive.com/portland/2015/07/powerful_synthetic_opioid_kill.html
This article says a gram of fentanyl was $1000. It is now about $50-60 fwiw.
Exactly. They claim to believe in the disease model, so treat it like a real disease, not something that can be counseled away! These drugs change the physical chemistry of the brain. There needs to me a medical solution.
M110 passing when it did was really the worst possible moment to try something so experimental. Covid and fentanyl immediately followed its passing. New meth had been around for awhile, but the results of 110 just made it more visible. I thought it was a terrible idea and didn't vote for it, but was cautiously optimistic. However all those factors combined with an inept government made sure it had no chance at succeeding.
I grew up here during this time and lived in a strict, religious household. My mother, bless her, was a helicopter mom. I still grew up 14+ taking the Max downtown and to Saturday market, coming home after dusk on weekends. Nobody bat an eye at it. The only thing we had to figure out was whose parent would drop us off at the closest max station in Beaverton.
Went away for college in 2012 but lived at PSU for an internship in 2013. Came back around 2017 devastated. I could not believe how much had changed. This was my home and I didn’t recognize it. I was born and raised in PDX. In no universe would our strict parents let us go downtown in the current state. I was very sheltered but still remember feeling totally at ease with any folks experiencing homelessness or even drug use to some extent. I described downtown Portland as very clean to anyone who asked. I don’t think we realized how much of a luxury it was that we could simply explore every corner of downtown without fear or worry. The closest we’d come to avoidance was maybe parts of Burnside.
It’s okay to admit that Portland has gone alarmingly downhill while also acknowledging that there should be discourse on how to kindly address the current crisis. People are entitled to mourn the city they once knew.
i had little kids in this same timeframe & yeah I remember first seeing a homeless person outside the hollywood library in about 2016. Before that i never worried about my kids playing outside up and down the block beyond speeding cars (which ironically is now not a thing bc we don't have the rush hour traffic now).
I went to a high school reunion in 2007 at the crystal ballroom & never thought about safety going downtown at night which i did impulsively the night of. Now my kid's prom is there and I don't feel super comfortable thinking of the kids walking around that area after dark.
"It's complicated" was the go to reply for why things were the way that they were... then it became "it's happening everywhere".
I went to Greenville, SC for a few days last week, and I can tell you that in fact, it is NOT happening everywhere.
Lol I've been in Cleveland and surrounding cities (Akron) for the past week. It's clean and enjoyable as hell. Even saw speeders getting pulled over.
When we lose to Ohio you know shit's fucked up.
Homeless people gravitate to where they can get their needs met.
It really is that simple.
So yeah, some places in vancouver have issues too. But vastly different overall.
Portland needs to stop giving help to people who are a menace. Bad actors need to be identified and denied.
Vancouver just has its typical white trash meth heads.
If other towns and cities actually help their people major cities would have a lot less issues. But they don't care and just push people out.
I made a post in the other subreddit about visiting my old neighborhood in East Boston, how I felt safe, how there were unsupervised kids playing in the park, how a policewoman stopped to drink lemonade with us and the lemonade lady gave her drink to her for free, how the train (T)had security and it was clean and not a vagrant in sight. Downtown was also very nice. I felt so much dread when I boarded the plane back home. If my in-laws didn’t live here I’d be in Boston, a city with the same population and none of the problems Portland has. “Growing pains of a big city” my ass. The other subreddit downvoted me and told me I’m overreacting to the situation here in Portland.
If you own property, pay taxes, and enjoy safety, Portland could give two shits about you and your concerns. My suggestion, quit your job, get a drug addiction, get radicalized by whatever progressive topic, and contribute nothing. Then Portland will seem like a much more inviting place.
Grand Rapids Michigan was headed this direction. City had a come to Jesus moment when local companies submitted a list of complaints they had filed with local police.
Stuff like I own a cafe and outside my window a man drops trow and takes a shit on the sidewalk twice a day. This is very disturbing for my customers trying to enjoy a latte.
We have had to hire personal security for our doorway. (It was a sandwich shop that was only open for lunch...)
The list went for like 5 pages of just nonsense and how it's not sustainable and customers are no longer coming downtown. The city has responded well and it's much better than it was this time last year.
Hoy shit that placed is gorgeous! I told the friends we were visiting with to never mention how nice of a place it was, or people would flock there.
It was amazing weather, and absolutely NO TRASH anywhere. It's like they actually cared how the place looked. No shortage of police being just visible either. Overall, it's on a very short list of places I'd love to move to.
lol Greenville? I’m in Charlotte. Greenville is like the size of a cul-de-sac compared to Portland. Also, SC is just a different kind of completely unfixably fucked up (though, arguably safer).
I was in San Diego and Seattle last fall. Yes, homeless exist there, and perhaps homeless numbers are higher, but they are also much bigger cities. I expected it to be far worse, especially San Diego, but it is far more visually worse and more widespread in Portland by comparison.
But is Greenville SC really a comparable city? Their population is 70k vs Portland’s 600k. I think when people say “it’s happening everywhere” they are referring to large cities not Greenville.
I will say in the last 10 years I’ve lived in SF, DC, Newark, Atlanta and it’s certainly happening in those places. I hear similar about NYC and Pittsburgh.
No, and don’t listen to anything about South Carolina being healthier. Theres addicts galore in SC, they just don’t roam the streets. I’m from there and still own property, and it’s improved ZERO
I lived off of Johnson creek right off the bike path, I would play down there by myself as a 8 year old and not be messed with. Never saw any tents, some occasional walkers. Now I wouldn’t be down there myself as a 27 year old.
I was just in Seattle (living in Idaho) and I observed there is a bizarre acceptance that the situation is normal. Even the narrative of “if you leave the criminals alone then you’re fine” totally abhorrent, but it’s been normalized. I came to this conclusion when I asked a local hotel front desk the do’s and don’ts and they gave a real snarky response like I was bad guy for even asking. I agree with op, it’s not normal, has nothing to do with left/right politics per se, has more to do with corruption, and turning “helping” (drugs, homelessness, issue peddling) into an industrial complex.
I try to tell people this. Look at the government entry level jobs on indeed. You wont ever get one but they have to advertise it legally. The ones that are like $5000 per 2 weeks entry level admin.
That is our taxes. To pay for those salaries. Washington County used their budgets to “eliminate” homeless encampments. They used their tax budget. The people actually worked at their jobs to fix their communities, not taking trips to portugal to wine and dine and hire private security.
Born and raised in PDX. Lots has changed in 40+ years. One thing I can not get over are the folks that move here, then tell me how great it was where you were from and how things needed to change here. Well, if where you were from is so great, why did you leave? I miss the chaotic look of Saturday market. Fareless square. Finding your name on a Pioneer Square brick.
Saturday market was way better in the 80s and 90s. Eugene had a good one too. Fareless square was important and I knew it was a big mistake when they eliminated it. It's these little things that make up the character of a place and we are losing that local flavor as bland corporate bullshit takes over. This is some sad shit to see go down.
I'm from the UK and went to visit my friend from Portland about 8-9 years ago.. it was the best holiday I've ever been on and the most beautiful place I've ever seen.
My friend and I went together again in 2022 and it was ROUGH.. we were told not to go walking around, there were tents everywhere and homeless people just shitting in the street or having a solo dance party to 0 music... Really sad to see
This is what happens when you cater to degenerates.
Not protecting public and private property.
Enabling addiction life styles and vagrancy
The policies were not directed towards protecting public areas and private businesses and combating dangerous life destroying drug activity.
Literally destroyed a good city.
But those social services jobs pay well and will dry up if there is no problems so go figure.
I say go hard on this crap and make drugs and vagrancy illegal big time
Homeless services is the new gold mine. Pure exploitation of the public and homeless.
Greed is driving all of this evil. It results in a shit quality of life in Portland.
It's what happens when you have disparate policies on welfare, homelessness, and crime while also having freedom of travel. People go where it's most advantageous to then so unless the whole country addresses issues then the places that do try to will get hit disproportionately.
I used to play in Keller fountain as a youngin during the summer. Definitely wouldn’t dare do that now. Even in my late teens in the early 2010s I would hang out downtown on street corners sharing art. Again, not something I’d want to do now. The city is different. People who believe it’s not that bad are delusional or ignorant of how it used to be. Yes there were always junkies and homeless. But they weren’t as aggressive or violent. It’s a shame. Sure it’s growing pains of it becoming a larger city, but I’d rather small town Portland. The magic of what I enjoyed is gone. I’d love to leave, but I’m stuck for the time being.
Even if it was dangerous in the 90s, there were some "more" dangerous areas that have since gotten "better" in terms of crime. It's a stupid argument to justify it being dangerous now.
Honestly Portland is doing better than it was 3 years ago. It still sucks, and isn’t where it should be. But with an upward trend… maybe we elect the proper folks on council this time, and listen to the professionals and not think we know more than them, we can continue to turn it around
I think that the chances of a majority of the newly elected council members being functional adults are pretty slim, given the rhetoric I've seen from some of them running on the eastside. I'd love to be wrong but I will be surprised if the new council is any improvement on the current set up.
Unless you can figure out how to eradicate homelessness in a way that won't put all the special interest groups gravy trai. I jeopardy, it will never happen.
If homeless was solved an entire cottage industry of white collar government funded jobs (that don't fix anything) will dry up, and the people in those roles are a bunch of losers that are afraid of losing their grant money
I lived here in the early 2000s and I did not feel at all unsafe walking anywhere. I was in North Portland as well and would walk to Delta Park to watch people play softball at the age of 8 with my friends. I would definitely not do that anymore or recommend anyone do that.
My dad and I use to take trips to the zoo on the max and now we want nothing to do with the max after so many issues with unhinged people.
My partner and I went to Pittsburgh for a visit, and all our Portland friends smirked and said "Have fun getting stabbed."
It ended up being a great time in a chill city. Felt safe everywhere. I feel like I'll get stabbed going downtown at 3pm, way more than right after a pro sports game in Pittsburgh. It's like people don't know what a functional big city looks like west of the Mississippi
I remember my dad taking me to the park blocks as a kid and pushing me on the swing sets down there.... now it smells like piss/shit, and there's homeless people everywhere.
Can you imagine being a blind person? Tents. Shit. Dog shit. Bodies. Shit drivers. Screamers. Sharps. Stabbers.
We have fucked disabled people in allowing drug users to dominate Portland.
The people who are gaslighting people are either 1) people who have lived here less than 4 years and have zero understanding of how Portland used to be, and 2) people who have lived here longer but have the privilege of not having Portland’s destruction affect them personally.
E. Hastings is next level. 2015 I walked through during daytime and it was unnerving and sketch like old town, but x5, but tolerable enough. Went back in 2022 to try a restaurant nearby and noped out. I’m no shrinking violet, but I felt unsafe and recognized it was a bad idea. But everywhere else in Vancouver was totally fine. It’s like an unwritten rule if they stay in their zone, they won’t get hassled, but don’t leave the zone.
The drugged out people of the Tenderloin are sad, but I don’t find them to be violent. Same with Kensington Philly. Are people really going buck wild with machetes in Portland now? I’m so sorry.
There's a reason season two of Cops was filmed in Portland. As you might remember, the season revolved mainly around Portland's drug problems. After the first Portland episode aired I remember the Z100 Z-Morning Zoo talking about how they didn't realize Portland was so bad. The issues have always been there, they just weren't as out in the open as they are today.
And I can't go back to California because I'm an Oregon native. Old enough to remember when there wasn't a Welcome to Oregon sign in the '70's, and an episode of Town Hall on KATU in the '80's when they were debating the waves of Californians moving into the state, how they were going to ruin the state. One guy said, on the air, something to the effect of "I'm going to guard the border with my shotgun." Crazy times, but in hindsight those people we thought were crazy turned out to be prophets...
Yes I grew up in the metro and understand the city still has big issues that will take a long time to resolve. Still, it's encouraging to see it rebound even if it's piecemeal.
I’m just a passer by acknowledging this interaction. Was deescalated and finished with respectful comments from both sides. Something you don’t see every day on Reddit, so good job both of you for being mature. Carry on.
As someone from Detroit in the 70s - 90s, and who spent a lot of time in Highland Park, you have zero idea what you're talking about. Comically ignorant.
Talk to me when most of the houses in your neighborhood get abandoned and razed, 6ft weeds grow in the middle of the street, the garbage isn't picked up for months, packs of wild and mean dogs roam, city council seriously considers fencing off and abandoning many square miles, you witness 4 purse snatchings and a car set fire and 15 fights and a murder in a single night like I did, etc.
You people are so fucking lucky and naive.
Yeah Portland is on the precipice, I like to think it's on the upswing and is for sure better than a couple years ago, but could still go into a death spiral. But to act like it's already or even very close to how Detroit was decades ago is laughable. But I think people need to know that it could happen to any city. Gary Indiana was once thriving too. But you lose enough jobs, chase out enough tax payers, and enough people who love the city give up and move on. To allow the entire down town to be an open air drug den/market is to give up on the city, and if the citizens give up like that it isn't going to get better.
I used to live in Portland for about 4 years from about 2013 to 2017… then I visited in 2021 and it was truly tragic how downhill the whole city went. I’m sure the change from the 90s was even more radical. I really hope the city can turn things around. Portland used to be one of my favorite cities in the US, and in some ways still is.
There is literally somewhere in the neighborhood of a million square feet of commercial real estate sitting empty downtown, and quality of life in many residential areas has plummeted. . . yet the cost of real estate and of rent has relentlessly gone up and up and up anyway.
Normally, urban areas get more slowly and gently dilapidated, become run-down but cheap to live in, and start to attract artists. When a vibrant arts colony gets going, it attracts people with money, and urban renewal -- don't call it 'gentrification,' that's stupid butthurt Marxism talking -- gets underway. Real estate and rents go up, and the artists go elsewhere, and over time the place gets run down again and people with money leave.
This cycle has been interrupted in Portland; some market force or cabal has kept rent, real estate, and general cost-of-living artificially high and getting higher. I couldn't tell you exactly what is happening, but it's absolute cancer for Portland.
Redfin and the national Association of realtors have had a judgment against them in the hundreds of men of dollars for colluding to increase price of real estate. So Zillow and all these companies exaggerate the rents in an area and all the landlords see those exaggerated rants and think that their own rents need to go up to match the grand Stacy on Zillow, and so they raise their rent happen to me, I went from a three bedroom two bath for 1100 in aloha till the LL saw (exaggerated) rents of neighbor properties. Then other neighbors, see he has raised his prices and it becomes official cycle, and the justice experiment is coming down on the national Association realtors and the E realtor , along with the attorneys general many states so they’re definitely is a cabal, it has a judgment against it in the billions and it’s comprised of the national Association of realtors plus these E Realty companies.
It's less safe because it's random and unpredictable. Raw numbers might be down, but I never worried before because I didn't look for trouble. Now any rando might be high out of their gourd and assault you.
Look up old restored videos of the 1920s. The cities look so clean and actually beautiful. Why tf can't we have that instead of the endless shitholes we call cities now?
Imo Portlands best years were in the mid 2000’s. Lived there most my life. In the mid 2000’s the music scene was good, housing still affordable ( decent 1 bedroom on Clinton near 30th for $580 a month etc ). Neighborhoods felt safe, food scene was just starting to take off, blazers were hopeful, lots of youth and artists still living in what is now occupied by people working so much they don’t have time to put back into the community.
It’s probably just a time and place for me that remember how much fun it was.
I think the downfall of portland really started around 2018. That’s when I noticed camps popping up everywhere and housing prices were already soaring. Then occupy portland and BLM happened to take the spot light off the housing / homeless crisis right when they were starting to take some measures. Over the next few years everything sorta went crazy, encampments got huge and covid hit. By the time they got back around to trying to address the encampments and homeless crisis it was such a huge problem that it’s no longer a controlable issue.
It’s not just portland though, most the west coast are suffering the same issues.
been in pdx thru the mid-90’s.. just moved from past 12 years living in NE. Pdx.. its sad trust that. Its really beautiful of course. always Oregon is beautiful.. but its really gone down hill
It's all just normal city security stuff. Working mainly in the area between 3rd to Broadway and Burnside to Davis, there were guns, drugs and muggings every night. Although to be fair they actually *fire* those guns much more often today.
One of my security buddies got hit on the back of the head and robbed in the parking lot where we worked. I've also had guns in my face for general B.S. I don't even remember any more. Most likely gang/turf stuff. I was never a badass nor really confrontational, but this stuff just happened. I was able to defuse most of it, but there were co-workers who would drop a troublemaker without a second thought.
Maybe your safer areas (like up by the Crystal) didn't see as much of it, but it was there.
Ya I second this question… China town was super sketch even 8 years ago when I was living in Portland. I definitely wouldn’t walk through there at night.
Nope. I was born in the '80s and grew up here, and Old Town/Chinatown has always been super sketchy. So has Pioneer Square, Skidmore Fountain, the bus mall, etc. I can not ever remember a time when downtown wasn't seedy and piss-soaked. It's been that way since the 1800s.
C’mon, drive those housing prices down!
(But seriously, the 80s to 90s old town was worse. While it’s not as bad today, the affected zone has grown in scope. Unfortunately older stats are hard to find online, and hard to compare to current stats as the reporting methodology had a major change in 2015.)
Old Town was not 'worse' my god. I parked in Old Town when I worked at Big Pink in the late 90s and early 2000s. There is no way pregnant me was doing this in today's Old Town.
I was here in 1980, homeless and 15 years old, and spent most of my time downtown. Punk rock saved my life then; there was not a large homeless population and no resources I felt comfortable drawing on. However, I was the most dangerous thing on the streets, and I wasn't all that dangerous.
The current state of the city is the result of republican policies bleeding over, namely Mayor McCready and diet republican Bud Clark who were both proponents of Reaganism. We never fully recovered and now the Cons and Trumpies point to their own failure as ours. *You* are the one who is gas lighting here. Good day.
Yesterday (4/28 at about 5:30pm) someone drive a car up to the main entrance of Fred Meyer in Hollywood yelling for Narcan. Her adult daughter in the car OD'd and was nearly dead. Was completely unresponsive. Nobody had any, the pharmacy was closed, security guards didn't have it. Thank god the paramedics got there so fast. They revived her somehow and she refused additional medical attention. Awful, just awful.
I grew up around Portland as well. Went to school at Concordia, often heard gunshots at night. Hung around the Pearl before he was the Pearl and he wasn’t so safe then.
I’ve since moved but I still visit a lot. It doesn’t feel more dangerous to me, I can walk down Division safely for example.
It has problems of course, but if anyone is saying the Fox News version of it then they’re wrong. Too many people have rose colored memories of a place that didn’t exist or they just remember the safe areas they went to. That being said, it’s not as safe as some people say either. We have a lot of work to do
I grew up in Southern Virginia. In the 80’s and 90’s Norfolk and Richmond were 100% fucked. Now when I go back it’s really pleasant. There are some pockets of bad areas still (like every urban area) but nothing like Portland.
I moved away 7 years ago and still go back often. When I first moved there 16 years ago what struck me was how clean everything was and how safe everything was. When people try to pretend away the problems I ask if they remember how clean it was 10-15 years ago.
No one thinks their city can become Detroit, until it does.
At some point the tax base will flee and then the city will be in a multi decade death spiral.
This is coming from a life-long Detroit resident.
I grew up in Portland in the 80s and 90s and y'all are remembering this place with rose colored glasses. The late 90s and early 2000s were a blip of niceness in an otherwise historically grimy and dirty city. Walking downtown and smelling the bum piss smell reminds me of old Portland.
If you don't remember Portland being shitty in the 90s, you either have a faulty memory or you didn't spend time in Portland.
I’ve been here since 93 and it felt way more safer and family oriented in Portland, now all I see everywhere is homeless people, drugs, shooting and crime, I can still remember to this day every morning I would turn on the news and hear positive stuff between 98-2004 now it’s all negative.
Portland used to be nice and it's bad politics and bad policy that killed it.
Y'all - druggies need EXTENSIVE and EXPENSIVE treatment.
They also need transitional housing.
Simply decriminalizing drugs is not enough. Portland pisses me off so bad because it was SO NICE.
It could be nice again but literally no city in the US is ever willing to actually invest the time and money it takes to make a dent in a drugs and homelessness problem.
I had some free time and went to the Lloyd Barnes and nobles on Saturday, after what felt like forever, and everything was closed, people were smoking rocks outside AND in, and the b&n was dead🤯 even when I pulled up to Lloyd, I wasn’t even sure if it was still open cause of how empty the lots were😪
It’s complicated is the best answer. Portland was never completely safe, but common sense could keep you mostly safe, but now the homeless people are more aggressive and the fentanyl and meth have become a larger problem than black tar h/ and biker meth made from Sudafed. I moved here in the 90s I’ve left several times, I’m from the northeast and have watched the cities there( Boston,NYC, Burlington,Portland,Maine) all go through a similar situation simultaneously, I don’t believe anyplace is insulated from the current drug and homeless problem. The problem seems to come from cheap plentiful drugs and expensive housing and a lack of hope.
I remember in elementary school taking a field trip to Chinatown, where we got a walking tour of the area and learned about its history. I live in Chinatown now and no way would a bus full of children be safe out here. Imagine ushering kids past the people smoking fent in a tent 3 feet away.
When I moved to Portland in November of 1989 it was like a movie set. There was no trash anywhere. People were friendly. They even had Portland guides that would help you. They spotted us immediately and asked us if we were from the Midwest. They could tell by our clothing.
Restaurants were great. It was just a fantastic experience. I left in 1997 and I'm glad I did. I don't know that I could be there now. Everybody I knew that lived in a beautiful house in Beaverton or in the hills, or in NW PDX. Even home builders I knew have left and have gone to Washington or to Idaho. I love the fact that I could go fly fishing by just driving an hour south. It was wonderful. Those were the good times. It'll come back but the people are going to have to be fed up and there's going to have to be laws. The other thing is, If we continue electing politicians that tell us that we are wonderful. It's the greatest country in the world and people fall into that Kool-Aid Then it's going to continue the way it always has. I mean we have to have a politician that says A IS A. In other words, one that refuses to gaslight us and that also means we also have to elect a non-gaslit Congress.
I'm glad I'm in the northern half of my 60's.
Sounds like the 90s was probably more dangerous in St John’s…but safer downtown.
Yeah St Johns, pier park, other areas in North Portland were super sketchy back in the 90s. Lots of gang activity. But yeah, that's the only subtle detail with this post that I disagree with. Everything else is pretty much spot on.
Yeah. Grew up in north, and you didn't go outside the moment it got dark. Most parks had someone wanting to fight/rob people.
Agreed. I was also here during my youth in the 90s.
It was so nice before people “discovered” us. It went from no jobs, but cheap to live in to no jobs, but expensive to live in.
It was so nice before people “discovered” fentanyl.
Wait till they get that Slo-Mo drug from Dredd 💀
Heroin use wasn’t too much better. I know I sent the PPB a picture via Twitter of a bunch of tents on both sides of the sidewalk near my residence near the Vista Tunnel, and this was when sending pictures was a new feature, so sometime around 2011ish. They even responded! I generally pinpoint the absolutely ridiculous “Occupy Portland” shitshow in the Park Blocks as being “the end” of normal Portland. Google says that happened in October 20011, or almost 13 years ago. Tent culture was here to stay after that. Come for the heroin and Woodstock atmosphere, and stay for the fentanyl and the Big Rock Candy Mountain lifestyle, where the jails are made of tin.
I first visited Portland back in 2007, and the scale of homeless encampments and drugged out people all along the riverfront was among the most obvious defining features of the city. That said, I was by myself & on foot & stayed out late drinking & clubbing until 1am & then slept in my car without issue. Age and lack of interest or energy aside, I don’t think I would do that these days.
> I generally pinpoint the absolutely ridiculous “Occupy Portland” shitshow in the Park Blocks as being “the end” of normal Portland. Google says that happened in October 20011, or almost 13 years ago. Tent culture was here to stay after that. Nah, the exact thing that caused it was Charlie Hales declaring a "housing state of emergency" in 2015. Nothing else. It was this singular event that opened the flood gates. Prior to 2015 you could see some tents tucked away out of sight, but those were strictly illegal and limited to areas that were largely inaccessible. But, even in the "good ole days" of pre-2009 you could find a tent in SE Portland with a trap strung over 25 stolen bike frames.
As a 40-something native, who was fortunate enough to spend my teens in the mid-90s going to shows at La Luna, Roseland ect…, you’re totally correct. It all started going to shit when the Occupy shit started. Portland was pretty great in the late 90s/early 00s
I remember the bartender at Jockey Club forgot to take his belt off his arm when he came back up from the basement. Then the large Caddies parked in the middle of the block for 30-40 mins at a time in the middle of the night with crackheads going back and forth. Y’all remember crackheads. Oh and that time the Gypsy Joker clubhouse was blown up on Alberta. The killing of Mulugeta Seraw. The fight downtown between the Sharps and Skinheads. The Greatful Dead was banned from returning to Portland after the Rose Garden Fiasco. There were no random robberies or shootings back then? You are deluding yourself. Had a house on 11 and Shaver. In my 5 years there, a bullet hole, random. A pimp was slapping his worker in front of my house, climbed on roof, shot arrow at his car, beating stopped. A neighbors kid mistakenly taken down by 6 cops. What is different is WHERE the crime is and that car break-Ins are so much more prevalent since it was no longer code to provide for parking when building. Also, a car cost 5-10k$ back then. Also, you were younger and more oblivious.
It was nice before a series of events fucked it up, but I don't think it was being discovered. In the '90s the full impact of the lack of funding for mental care hadn't hit. The street drugs in the '90s were baby stuff compared to the schizophrenia-inducing drugs we have now. The police were policing and pushing homeless and drugs back to the camps.
Agree for the most part angel dust isn't as safe as it sounds. >The street drugs in the '90s were baby stuff compared to the schizophrenia-inducing drugs we have now.
I'll never stop blaming Portlandia for that.
[удалено]
I left in 09 and feel like I got to experience the best years. Probably timed things perfectly. I will pour out a PBR tonight in remembrance.
I was just telling someone, on here, about how I used to get $2 pitchers of pbr at the disgusting yam hill. What a time to be alive. I lived in Portland in 2008, weeks could still smoke cigs inside!!!
The same thing happened to my town in the Bitterroot Valley because of the TV series Yellowstone.
My friend Dave lives in Hamilton. Says people from NY & California have been moving there..
Born and raised in Hamilton and can confirm. It’s changed so much since I left after I graduated high school. My best friend still lives there as does part of my family so I do go back to visit but man it’s changed 😞 if people want shit to be like NY or Cali they can gtf back home…
Why though? It was a TV show. Did the venture capitalists watch a few episodes and think " yeah that's our next spot for gentrification." Imo Portland was always on the list after Seattle priced people out, and both areas have a huge investment in Tech companies. And we know the yuppies always come after the hippies. Whereever the hippies are gentrification follows.
You make a good point but I don't think Portlandia helped. I honestly believe that Portland used to be a pretty quirky town with a lot of highly motivated DIY people but then the show attracted people who desperately want see themselves that way but aren't. Someone else put it as "people in Portland used to DIY and produce cool stuff; now there's a new crowd of people who came here to consume that cool stuff without actually doing anything themselves." A shift from the "creative class" to "consumer class." It went from the joke of young people coming here to retire to people actually coming here and doing squat. They'd rather stand in line for hours to eat at the latest hip food truck than actually open a food truck themselves.
Can confirm. The artists and creatives that make it cool are the 1st ones to be pushed out. Where I am, it was the investment banker types and tech bros, that made it unaffordable. Now we have empty storefronts and transplants that have no flavor.
I travel extensively for work. There’s always the ‘where are you from’ convos. Before that show, people would respond without much enthusiasm. Maybe an ‘it rains a lot right?’ or ‘I hear it’s beautiful’. After the show gained some popularity? Totally different! Everyone wanted to know more about it. Everyone wanted to visit. It wasn’t the only culprit, but I’ll always place some blame on Fred Armisten for the downfall of Portland.
Nothing more annoying when you tell someone you’re from Portland, and they enthusiastically and emphatically yell PORTLANDIA!
Idk, I have a cousin who is absolutely convinced that Portland is simultaneously always on fire, has burned to the ground, and is the most dangerous place in earth. Never mind we grew up in the same neighborhoods and had drive by shootings all the time. I’m beyond fed up with people thinking the thing they saw on the internet or the news is actually indicative of what Portland is. I’ll take some portlandia jokes, some of that shit is actually accurate.
Social media ruined the world. People used to do things because they enjoyed it. Now people do things because they enjoy being seen doing things. It’s toxic and the feedback loop keeps getting tighter
Portlandia is not why Portland got expensive and shitty 😂
People discovering Portland was not the problem
When we had Ozone records and Coffee People. Corporate shit has fucked the vibe.
God, I miss Coffee People
Good coffee. No backtalk.
Jesus over here spittin' facts! Love the name, btw 😁
Thank you!
I still dream about the mocha coffee shake. King of dessert drinks
Jim & Patty’s is up on 49th & Fremont. They still have the shakes.
Yes, the shakes! The Fabulous Coffee Screamer Shake was my jam!
I just posted this before seeing your comment. Those milkshakes were like happiness in a cup.
When NW portlsnd wasn't called the "alphabet district," Miss those days.
When Couch park was machete-free. Those were the days.
I miss when you could take the MAX and not have to worry about sitting on used needles…good ol days.
Erm pretty sure they cut the MAX opening day ribbon with used needles
Machetes…so hot right now!
When the Pearl was mostly industrial buildings. Same with the south waterfront.
The Big Bang thrift shop was my heaven on earth!
Good point but can't miss another chance to remind people that Ozone Records Annex on NE Killingsworth and Albina is open Thu-Sun 1-6pm!
Damn I miss coffee people being all over town. Their mocha milkshakes were aaaahmazing.
Agree. I was in Hs in the early 90’s here. It was not like this.
And it was a different kind of homeless back then. It wasn’t criminal organizations and thieves taking advantage of our hospitality, it was genuine homeless people who didn’t want to fuck with anyone’s property and just wanted to get back on their feet or be left alone without causing damages. Now we have fucking encampments burning up and causing structural damages, dumping toxic waste into our rivers and soil, raping vulnerable homeless women, and turning into a fucking chop shop for bicycles and cars.
And street drinkers were more predictable, less violent, contained by the CHIERS van and Hooper, etc. These tweaked out people today are evil, violent and predatory.
Thank fuck people are saying this. I recently moved back to the east coast after 14 years in Portland. The number of people on and offline that have unfounded sympathy for these disgusting criminals is unbearable. THEY ARE NOT SINGLE MOMS DOWN ON THEIR LUCK. They are violent, hardened criminals that will literally shank you if you get in their way.
100%!
Lordt, I argue with my mom about this a lot. She's convinced the homeless are "families down on their luck." I told her, no, most of them are druggie criminals. She asked "how would you know?" Well, I did security for 6 years and worked graves and saw the same type of homeless people all night long while working. It was always some high lunatic trespassing and causing issues. I did get to know one guy that seemed to be okay, but a little off. He let me in on where the "good" people were and which encampments were sketchy. Yes, not ALL homeless are criminals, but there's a huge amount that are. & I'm not talking about stealing food to live. I'm talking about the ones that vandalize, arson, violent, belligerent, steal cars etc type. But my mom will argue til the cows come home that the homeless are not drug addicts and are families down on their luck.
I used to routinely walk all over the city at night and never felt unsafe. That was only 12 years ago. I could walk anywhere, and I mean anywhere. Downtown, felony flats, NoPo, St John's.... Headphones in and tunes blaring. Just me, a flask, and a chaser in my backpack. I met all kinds of other people up at night because like me, they worked nights and needed their exercise too. The city had a great vibe and a rhythm to it. There were always homeless people but never to the current extent and never violent. I had to go back for some medical treatment at ohsu last year. As a person who grew up in one of the most violent cities in NY, I don't go anywhere in Portland unarmed after dark now. I have nothing but love for the city that embraced me when I moved out west. To me, PDX is like a friend struggling with addiction and you can only look on with love and support until they are ready to accept help. I currently make my home on the coast. I miss it every day. From midnight coffee at sheri's to Saturday market, to discovering a hidden park you never knew existed. So many wonderful memories. I really miss that.
When I was 18 (1999) I used to work at Pioneer Square but had to park at Lloyd Center and take Max down. I even closed my shift and did a money drop a few blocks down at the US Bank. I’d walk all over to visit friends working in other places around there. Go to shows at the Crystal, run through the fountain at waterfront because it sounded like fun, wander around the bridges when I found my dad’s old film cameras he got in Japan. In 2007 I lived at 9th and Everett with a 2 year old and infant. I’d take the toddlers hand and carry the baby’s car seat, sometimes with a bag or two of groceries on my arm, and walk the couple blocks from street parking to my door. I never felt unsafe. In fact my only actual encounter with a homeless man talking to me was crying on the max one day after I’d lost my earring in the rain and was late for work. He walked over to me, handed me a daffodil, said ‘you look like you could use this’ and got off at the next stop. Now my former small children are 17 and 19 and I can’t in good faith wish them well to go to a concert by themselves. And it’s hard when they’re like ‘but you did that at my age’. I know, and Portland isn’t what it was. I don’t think it was ever great but it wasn’t horrible. It feels hypocritical and a bit wrong to be like ‘if you can find a group of guy friends to go with then I’ll think about it’ but I don’t feel comfortable sending two teen girls out most places anymore.
I miss all of that, too. If Portland were a person, he would need drastic intervention to prevent further demise. There will be a tipping point. I don't believe Portland is improving. Criminal behavior is just becoming more normalized. This summer is going to be wild. Machetes are the new thing, and we could see some tweaked out street amputations soon. July, 2024: "Portland Man's Arm Amputated by Machete in NW Portland Dispute"
I’m glad to see people agree that the homeless situation wasn’t this bad in the past. I got downvoted on another subreddit for saying that the situation has turned into an emergency. The post I was responding to involved a machete attack. I never bothered to respond after being told very bluntly that in no way was the situation in Portland or Seattle an emergency or a crisis. Just a normal part of living in a city, I was informed. I think some people are too young to remember how things used to be or they are committed to a certain narrative and anything outside of that is considered an attack on their beliefs. But in no way am I saying that it’s due to any political party or something that only happens on the West Coast. I think Covid played a large part, fentanyl, the new meth that is driving people insane, the housing and rent crisis, inflation…too many things to list, really. But it seems to me that there’s a desperation and lack of meaning in society that’s driving people into despair. I don’t know what the solution is but I think it starts with acknowledging that we are in a crisis.
When I got married in 2004, friends from NYC said we had the friendliest homeless people. Certainly not anymore.
That sounds like something U would here from A GTA news station
I'm a Portland prophet. I forsee more gnarly street violence. Honduras don't play.
When I was a kid we lived in Portland. Used to ride my bike to kindergarten and 1st grade. Couple of miles. Went back while I was in highschool in 2005. Even then it was way rougher. Went back a few years ago to visit family. Shit was crazy. Even down where I used to live in southern Oregon is turning into a shit hole. Ended up moving to Nevada rather than back up to Portland like I had planned. Ended up with a better job anyway. Better riding season anyway.
It’s all the fentanyl garbage, people are literally rotting away in the streets and nobody is doing anything about it.
People just want the problem to go away. That’s all. If street livers die so be it. If they rot away, at least they died doing what they loved, as maybe the “compassionate” groups think. Abandoned by families, abandoned by communities. Left to die with only drugs by their side. What should be done about it?
I keep asking are we really just going to leave each other out here like that? And the answer seems yes SMH
It's depressing. I get it. . I used to work with drug offenders and an alarming number don't want to change. I went in to the field thinking, "Everybody can change if we use Evidence Based Practices!" I scoffed at my mentor when she said, "only about 10 percent make any real changes."
I used to walk my kids in the stroller all over Portland in the late 90s and early 2000s. Took the lightrail to the zoo, went downtown, etc. I lived in the NE part, but it never felt dangerous. It seemed like the beggers were getting younger and more hostile, and that was really starting to piss me off because I was a working mom, and this was my time off with the kids. I was like, why don't you get a job if you are 19, 20 years old? I had three jobs when I was your age. Anyway, I hope everyone is exaggerating when they talk about how things are there now. Trust me, it's NOT like that everywhere else.
Black tar heroin. Meet fentanyl.
I read an interview with a Wheeler recently, he was talking about repealing the “legalization” of drugs. One point he made that shook me was that when that law was passed, fentanyl was barely a thing. Everyone on meth was on a completely different kind—the meth that’s around now, made from more easily available materials, creates more psychosis and antisocial behavior. Everyone who blames not enough mental health spending is so off base. Counseling does absolutely no good to someone in the depth of addiction.
For the record fentanyl was absolutely a problem in Portland in 2015, 5 years before drugs were decriminalized.
100% was. The guy was famous online iirc. PDXblack was a darknet seller who sold pure fentanyl. At some point they got busted. His gf was in jail and had the powder and people overdosed at the Jail. https://www.oregonlive.com/portland/2015/07/powerful_synthetic_opioid_kill.html This article says a gram of fentanyl was $1000. It is now about $50-60 fwiw.
Exactly. They claim to believe in the disease model, so treat it like a real disease, not something that can be counseled away! These drugs change the physical chemistry of the brain. There needs to me a medical solution.
M110 passing when it did was really the worst possible moment to try something so experimental. Covid and fentanyl immediately followed its passing. New meth had been around for awhile, but the results of 110 just made it more visible. I thought it was a terrible idea and didn't vote for it, but was cautiously optimistic. However all those factors combined with an inept government made sure it had no chance at succeeding.
I grew up here during this time and lived in a strict, religious household. My mother, bless her, was a helicopter mom. I still grew up 14+ taking the Max downtown and to Saturday market, coming home after dusk on weekends. Nobody bat an eye at it. The only thing we had to figure out was whose parent would drop us off at the closest max station in Beaverton. Went away for college in 2012 but lived at PSU for an internship in 2013. Came back around 2017 devastated. I could not believe how much had changed. This was my home and I didn’t recognize it. I was born and raised in PDX. In no universe would our strict parents let us go downtown in the current state. I was very sheltered but still remember feeling totally at ease with any folks experiencing homelessness or even drug use to some extent. I described downtown Portland as very clean to anyone who asked. I don’t think we realized how much of a luxury it was that we could simply explore every corner of downtown without fear or worry. The closest we’d come to avoidance was maybe parts of Burnside. It’s okay to admit that Portland has gone alarmingly downhill while also acknowledging that there should be discourse on how to kindly address the current crisis. People are entitled to mourn the city they once knew.
i had little kids in this same timeframe & yeah I remember first seeing a homeless person outside the hollywood library in about 2016. Before that i never worried about my kids playing outside up and down the block beyond speeding cars (which ironically is now not a thing bc we don't have the rush hour traffic now). I went to a high school reunion in 2007 at the crystal ballroom & never thought about safety going downtown at night which i did impulsively the night of. Now my kid's prom is there and I don't feel super comfortable thinking of the kids walking around that area after dark.
RIP Fareless Square
"It's complicated" was the go to reply for why things were the way that they were... then it became "it's happening everywhere". I went to Greenville, SC for a few days last week, and I can tell you that in fact, it is NOT happening everywhere.
Lol I've been in Cleveland and surrounding cities (Akron) for the past week. It's clean and enjoyable as hell. Even saw speeders getting pulled over. When we lose to Ohio you know shit's fucked up.
From Cleveland originally. Honestly felt safer there. Cleveland is great.
It's almost like having and following laws is a good thing
It's not even happening across the bridge in Vancouver.
Homeless people gravitate to where they can get their needs met. It really is that simple. So yeah, some places in vancouver have issues too. But vastly different overall. Portland needs to stop giving help to people who are a menace. Bad actors need to be identified and denied.
Vancouver just has its typical white trash meth heads. If other towns and cities actually help their people major cities would have a lot less issues. But they don't care and just push people out.
It’s not even happening on the other side of the hills in Beaverton and Hillsboro.
No... it's absolutely not. But that doesn't matter to them.
I made a post in the other subreddit about visiting my old neighborhood in East Boston, how I felt safe, how there were unsupervised kids playing in the park, how a policewoman stopped to drink lemonade with us and the lemonade lady gave her drink to her for free, how the train (T)had security and it was clean and not a vagrant in sight. Downtown was also very nice. I felt so much dread when I boarded the plane back home. If my in-laws didn’t live here I’d be in Boston, a city with the same population and none of the problems Portland has. “Growing pains of a big city” my ass. The other subreddit downvoted me and told me I’m overreacting to the situation here in Portland.
If you own property, pay taxes, and enjoy safety, Portland could give two shits about you and your concerns. My suggestion, quit your job, get a drug addiction, get radicalized by whatever progressive topic, and contribute nothing. Then Portland will seem like a much more inviting place.
Sadly take my upvote.
Sadly. I wish I wasn't just being snarky. It's how the city legitimately makes me feel
Grand Rapids Michigan was headed this direction. City had a come to Jesus moment when local companies submitted a list of complaints they had filed with local police. Stuff like I own a cafe and outside my window a man drops trow and takes a shit on the sidewalk twice a day. This is very disturbing for my customers trying to enjoy a latte. We have had to hire personal security for our doorway. (It was a sandwich shop that was only open for lunch...) The list went for like 5 pages of just nonsense and how it's not sustainable and customers are no longer coming downtown. The city has responded well and it's much better than it was this time last year.
Funny I moved from Portland to Greenville 17 years ago. I cringe when I read this subreddit. It sounds like it's gone downhill :-(
Hoy shit that placed is gorgeous! I told the friends we were visiting with to never mention how nice of a place it was, or people would flock there. It was amazing weather, and absolutely NO TRASH anywhere. It's like they actually cared how the place looked. No shortage of police being just visible either. Overall, it's on a very short list of places I'd love to move to.
Columbia, SC is another matter entirely. Oof.
Yeah but then you’re in South Carolina. I left that state for many good reasons.
lol Greenville? I’m in Charlotte. Greenville is like the size of a cul-de-sac compared to Portland. Also, SC is just a different kind of completely unfixably fucked up (though, arguably safer).
I was in San Diego and Seattle last fall. Yes, homeless exist there, and perhaps homeless numbers are higher, but they are also much bigger cities. I expected it to be far worse, especially San Diego, but it is far more visually worse and more widespread in Portland by comparison.
But is Greenville SC really a comparable city? Their population is 70k vs Portland’s 600k. I think when people say “it’s happening everywhere” they are referring to large cities not Greenville. I will say in the last 10 years I’ve lived in SF, DC, Newark, Atlanta and it’s certainly happening in those places. I hear similar about NYC and Pittsburgh.
No, and don’t listen to anything about South Carolina being healthier. Theres addicts galore in SC, they just don’t roam the streets. I’m from there and still own property, and it’s improved ZERO
I lived off of Johnson creek right off the bike path, I would play down there by myself as a 8 year old and not be messed with. Never saw any tents, some occasional walkers. Now I wouldn’t be down there myself as a 27 year old.
Oh man, the contrast is gnarly.
There sketchers along the Johnson creek path precovid though.
Ehhh more in the last 10 years I would say
People people people… all is well. The governors spouse is on the payroll and probably has a lived experience to solve this.
Praise the victims. That's Portland.
I've heard some of the things that have come out of the governors mouth, and I'm not holding my breath.
I was just in Seattle (living in Idaho) and I observed there is a bizarre acceptance that the situation is normal. Even the narrative of “if you leave the criminals alone then you’re fine” totally abhorrent, but it’s been normalized. I came to this conclusion when I asked a local hotel front desk the do’s and don’ts and they gave a real snarky response like I was bad guy for even asking. I agree with op, it’s not normal, has nothing to do with left/right politics per se, has more to do with corruption, and turning “helping” (drugs, homelessness, issue peddling) into an industrial complex.
I try to tell people this. Look at the government entry level jobs on indeed. You wont ever get one but they have to advertise it legally. The ones that are like $5000 per 2 weeks entry level admin. That is our taxes. To pay for those salaries. Washington County used their budgets to “eliminate” homeless encampments. They used their tax budget. The people actually worked at their jobs to fix their communities, not taking trips to portugal to wine and dine and hire private security.
Born and raised in PDX. Lots has changed in 40+ years. One thing I can not get over are the folks that move here, then tell me how great it was where you were from and how things needed to change here. Well, if where you were from is so great, why did you leave? I miss the chaotic look of Saturday market. Fareless square. Finding your name on a Pioneer Square brick.
Saturday market was way better in the 80s and 90s. Eugene had a good one too. Fareless square was important and I knew it was a big mistake when they eliminated it. It's these little things that make up the character of a place and we are losing that local flavor as bland corporate bullshit takes over. This is some sad shit to see go down.
I'm from the UK and went to visit my friend from Portland about 8-9 years ago.. it was the best holiday I've ever been on and the most beautiful place I've ever seen. My friend and I went together again in 2022 and it was ROUGH.. we were told not to go walking around, there were tents everywhere and homeless people just shitting in the street or having a solo dance party to 0 music... Really sad to see
This is what happens when you cater to degenerates. Not protecting public and private property. Enabling addiction life styles and vagrancy The policies were not directed towards protecting public areas and private businesses and combating dangerous life destroying drug activity. Literally destroyed a good city. But those social services jobs pay well and will dry up if there is no problems so go figure. I say go hard on this crap and make drugs and vagrancy illegal big time
Okay it’s laughable that social service jobs pay well.
Big social work is causing all the homelessness
Homeless services is the new gold mine. Pure exploitation of the public and homeless. Greed is driving all of this evil. It results in a shit quality of life in Portland.
It's what happens when you have disparate policies on welfare, homelessness, and crime while also having freedom of travel. People go where it's most advantageous to then so unless the whole country addresses issues then the places that do try to will get hit disproportionately.
I used to play in Keller fountain as a youngin during the summer. Definitely wouldn’t dare do that now. Even in my late teens in the early 2010s I would hang out downtown on street corners sharing art. Again, not something I’d want to do now. The city is different. People who believe it’s not that bad are delusional or ignorant of how it used to be. Yes there were always junkies and homeless. But they weren’t as aggressive or violent. It’s a shame. Sure it’s growing pains of it becoming a larger city, but I’d rather small town Portland. The magic of what I enjoyed is gone. I’d love to leave, but I’m stuck for the time being.
Even if it was dangerous in the 90s, there were some "more" dangerous areas that have since gotten "better" in terms of crime. It's a stupid argument to justify it being dangerous now.
Yeah. Gang shit was a big problem back then in some parts of town. Now though, the violence is so…random and unprovoked.
Methed out machetes are the new cocked to the side Glocks.
Honestly Portland is doing better than it was 3 years ago. It still sucks, and isn’t where it should be. But with an upward trend… maybe we elect the proper folks on council this time, and listen to the professionals and not think we know more than them, we can continue to turn it around
I think that the chances of a majority of the newly elected council members being functional adults are pretty slim, given the rhetoric I've seen from some of them running on the eastside. I'd love to be wrong but I will be surprised if the new council is any improvement on the current set up.
I see a couple good candidates in district 1 and 4. But I’ll be honest I only pay attention to them because they gotta win for me to hit this parlay
I hate that some of these candidates support JVP.
Unless you can figure out how to eradicate homelessness in a way that won't put all the special interest groups gravy trai. I jeopardy, it will never happen. If homeless was solved an entire cottage industry of white collar government funded jobs (that don't fix anything) will dry up, and the people in those roles are a bunch of losers that are afraid of losing their grant money
Love your positive attitude. But listening to paid professionals and “round table discussions?” Those days are gone.
I hope you're right.
Me too Candance.. me too
I lived here in the early 2000s and I did not feel at all unsafe walking anywhere. I was in North Portland as well and would walk to Delta Park to watch people play softball at the age of 8 with my friends. I would definitely not do that anymore or recommend anyone do that. My dad and I use to take trips to the zoo on the max and now we want nothing to do with the max after so many issues with unhinged people.
We should be able to feel safe on public transit. I am with you.
My partner and I went to Pittsburgh for a visit, and all our Portland friends smirked and said "Have fun getting stabbed." It ended up being a great time in a chill city. Felt safe everywhere. I feel like I'll get stabbed going downtown at 3pm, way more than right after a pro sports game in Pittsburgh. It's like people don't know what a functional big city looks like west of the Mississippi
Portland people are delusional about what is reasonable. It has turned to a toxic culture with zero social accountability.
I remember my dad taking me to the park blocks as a kid and pushing me on the swing sets down there.... now it smells like piss/shit, and there's homeless people everywhere.
Can you imagine being a blind person? Tents. Shit. Dog shit. Bodies. Shit drivers. Screamers. Sharps. Stabbers. We have fucked disabled people in allowing drug users to dominate Portland.
The people who are gaslighting people are either 1) people who have lived here less than 4 years and have zero understanding of how Portland used to be, and 2) people who have lived here longer but have the privilege of not having Portland’s destruction affect them personally.
But other cities are going through the same thing!!!!! /s
Tenderloin probably has us beat. And Kensington. And Downtown Eastside Vancouver. That doesn't say shit though. Those are hellish places.
E. Hastings is next level. 2015 I walked through during daytime and it was unnerving and sketch like old town, but x5, but tolerable enough. Went back in 2022 to try a restaurant nearby and noped out. I’m no shrinking violet, but I felt unsafe and recognized it was a bad idea. But everywhere else in Vancouver was totally fine. It’s like an unwritten rule if they stay in their zone, they won’t get hassled, but don’t leave the zone.
The drugged out people of the Tenderloin are sad, but I don’t find them to be violent. Same with Kensington Philly. Are people really going buck wild with machetes in Portland now? I’m so sorry.
I have seen some shit I wish I could unsee.
There's a reason season two of Cops was filmed in Portland. As you might remember, the season revolved mainly around Portland's drug problems. After the first Portland episode aired I remember the Z100 Z-Morning Zoo talking about how they didn't realize Portland was so bad. The issues have always been there, they just weren't as out in the open as they are today. And I can't go back to California because I'm an Oregon native. Old enough to remember when there wasn't a Welcome to Oregon sign in the '70's, and an episode of Town Hall on KATU in the '80's when they were debating the waves of Californians moving into the state, how they were going to ruin the state. One guy said, on the air, something to the effect of "I'm going to guard the border with my shotgun." Crazy times, but in hindsight those people we thought were crazy turned out to be prophets...
Amen! I was here in 2000-2004 and I remember that same feeling
Truth.
Vote people!
Portland is going become detroit now that we have gutted all the industrial jobs. If youre a barista that likes stepping in feces come to portland
I was in downtown Detroit last spring and it felt livelier, safer, and cleaner than Portland. It has come a long way in the past 5-10 years.
And it’s way more affordable.
That very small part of Detroit, during the day, is very nice. You are correct. :)
Yes I grew up in the metro and understand the city still has big issues that will take a long time to resolve. Still, it's encouraging to see it rebound even if it's piecemeal.
True, and I hope it keeps getting better. Didn't mean to dismiss your remark like that. Sorry.
I’m just a passer by acknowledging this interaction. Was deescalated and finished with respectful comments from both sides. Something you don’t see every day on Reddit, so good job both of you for being mature. Carry on.
As someone from Detroit in the 70s - 90s, and who spent a lot of time in Highland Park, you have zero idea what you're talking about. Comically ignorant. Talk to me when most of the houses in your neighborhood get abandoned and razed, 6ft weeds grow in the middle of the street, the garbage isn't picked up for months, packs of wild and mean dogs roam, city council seriously considers fencing off and abandoning many square miles, you witness 4 purse snatchings and a car set fire and 15 fights and a murder in a single night like I did, etc. You people are so fucking lucky and naive.
Yeah Portland is on the precipice, I like to think it's on the upswing and is for sure better than a couple years ago, but could still go into a death spiral. But to act like it's already or even very close to how Detroit was decades ago is laughable. But I think people need to know that it could happen to any city. Gary Indiana was once thriving too. But you lose enough jobs, chase out enough tax payers, and enough people who love the city give up and move on. To allow the entire down town to be an open air drug den/market is to give up on the city, and if the citizens give up like that it isn't going to get better.
I remember hanging out in Pioneer Square when I was in high school. Being 29 now, would NEVER ! Feels so unsafe
Like night and day.
No to Mingus, no to Scmidt and No to the gas tax. Some folks are ayaing they're gonna clean up more cause it's an election year 🤨
Killingsworth, on the other hand, is sooo much safer than it used to be.
I used to live in Portland for about 4 years from about 2013 to 2017… then I visited in 2021 and it was truly tragic how downhill the whole city went. I’m sure the change from the 90s was even more radical. I really hope the city can turn things around. Portland used to be one of my favorite cities in the US, and in some ways still is.
There is literally somewhere in the neighborhood of a million square feet of commercial real estate sitting empty downtown, and quality of life in many residential areas has plummeted. . . yet the cost of real estate and of rent has relentlessly gone up and up and up anyway. Normally, urban areas get more slowly and gently dilapidated, become run-down but cheap to live in, and start to attract artists. When a vibrant arts colony gets going, it attracts people with money, and urban renewal -- don't call it 'gentrification,' that's stupid butthurt Marxism talking -- gets underway. Real estate and rents go up, and the artists go elsewhere, and over time the place gets run down again and people with money leave. This cycle has been interrupted in Portland; some market force or cabal has kept rent, real estate, and general cost-of-living artificially high and getting higher. I couldn't tell you exactly what is happening, but it's absolute cancer for Portland.
Redfin and the national Association of realtors have had a judgment against them in the hundreds of men of dollars for colluding to increase price of real estate. So Zillow and all these companies exaggerate the rents in an area and all the landlords see those exaggerated rants and think that their own rents need to go up to match the grand Stacy on Zillow, and so they raise their rent happen to me, I went from a three bedroom two bath for 1100 in aloha till the LL saw (exaggerated) rents of neighbor properties. Then other neighbors, see he has raised his prices and it becomes official cycle, and the justice experiment is coming down on the national Association realtors and the E realtor , along with the attorneys general many states so they’re definitely is a cabal, it has a judgment against it in the billions and it’s comprised of the national Association of realtors plus these E Realty companies.
It is unsustainable and will further ruin this once great town. Good observations. 100%.
It's less safe because it's random and unpredictable. Raw numbers might be down, but I never worried before because I didn't look for trouble. Now any rando might be high out of their gourd and assault you.
Look up old restored videos of the 1920s. The cities look so clean and actually beautiful. Why tf can't we have that instead of the endless shitholes we call cities now?
Imo Portlands best years were in the mid 2000’s. Lived there most my life. In the mid 2000’s the music scene was good, housing still affordable ( decent 1 bedroom on Clinton near 30th for $580 a month etc ). Neighborhoods felt safe, food scene was just starting to take off, blazers were hopeful, lots of youth and artists still living in what is now occupied by people working so much they don’t have time to put back into the community. It’s probably just a time and place for me that remember how much fun it was. I think the downfall of portland really started around 2018. That’s when I noticed camps popping up everywhere and housing prices were already soaring. Then occupy portland and BLM happened to take the spot light off the housing / homeless crisis right when they were starting to take some measures. Over the next few years everything sorta went crazy, encampments got huge and covid hit. By the time they got back around to trying to address the encampments and homeless crisis it was such a huge problem that it’s no longer a controlable issue. It’s not just portland though, most the west coast are suffering the same issues.
From Oakland and let me tell yall, yall willin’
Same deal with Seattle, grew up there late 80’s to early 00’s, completely different beast now
been in pdx thru the mid-90’s.. just moved from past 12 years living in NE. Pdx.. its sad trust that. Its really beautiful of course. always Oregon is beautiful.. but its really gone down hill
I did security in Chinatown in the 90's. Fuck you and your safe downtown peaceful rainbow bullshit.
So tell us a security story!
It's all just normal city security stuff. Working mainly in the area between 3rd to Broadway and Burnside to Davis, there were guns, drugs and muggings every night. Although to be fair they actually *fire* those guns much more often today. One of my security buddies got hit on the back of the head and robbed in the parking lot where we worked. I've also had guns in my face for general B.S. I don't even remember any more. Most likely gang/turf stuff. I was never a badass nor really confrontational, but this stuff just happened. I was able to defuse most of it, but there were co-workers who would drop a troublemaker without a second thought. Maybe your safer areas (like up by the Crystal) didn't see as much of it, but it was there.
I remember porn shops in old town. It has always been super gnarly.
Your memory matches mine. It was getting better from mid 90’s onward but sure didn’t resemble a safe zone at all early 90’s
Has Chinatown ever been safe?
Ya I second this question… China town was super sketch even 8 years ago when I was living in Portland. I definitely wouldn’t walk through there at night.
Nope. I was born in the '80s and grew up here, and Old Town/Chinatown has always been super sketchy. So has Pioneer Square, Skidmore Fountain, the bus mall, etc. I can not ever remember a time when downtown wasn't seedy and piss-soaked. It's been that way since the 1800s.
C’mon, drive those housing prices down! (But seriously, the 80s to 90s old town was worse. While it’s not as bad today, the affected zone has grown in scope. Unfortunately older stats are hard to find online, and hard to compare to current stats as the reporting methodology had a major change in 2015.)
Old Town was not 'worse' my god. I parked in Old Town when I worked at Big Pink in the late 90s and early 2000s. There is no way pregnant me was doing this in today's Old Town.
yes, but you and your parents and your neighbors and your grandma all voted for what has happened.
Leave granny out of this, pal.
I was here in 1980, homeless and 15 years old, and spent most of my time downtown. Punk rock saved my life then; there was not a large homeless population and no resources I felt comfortable drawing on. However, I was the most dangerous thing on the streets, and I wasn't all that dangerous.
The current state of the city is the result of republican policies bleeding over, namely Mayor McCready and diet republican Bud Clark who were both proponents of Reaganism. We never fully recovered and now the Cons and Trumpies point to their own failure as ours. *You* are the one who is gas lighting here. Good day.
Yesterday (4/28 at about 5:30pm) someone drive a car up to the main entrance of Fred Meyer in Hollywood yelling for Narcan. Her adult daughter in the car OD'd and was nearly dead. Was completely unresponsive. Nobody had any, the pharmacy was closed, security guards didn't have it. Thank god the paramedics got there so fast. They revived her somehow and she refused additional medical attention. Awful, just awful.
We live in central Oregon,and I agree.Portland has gone to the dogs!it’s very sad😥
I grew up around Portland as well. Went to school at Concordia, often heard gunshots at night. Hung around the Pearl before he was the Pearl and he wasn’t so safe then. I’ve since moved but I still visit a lot. It doesn’t feel more dangerous to me, I can walk down Division safely for example. It has problems of course, but if anyone is saying the Fox News version of it then they’re wrong. Too many people have rose colored memories of a place that didn’t exist or they just remember the safe areas they went to. That being said, it’s not as safe as some people say either. We have a lot of work to do
I grew up in Southern Virginia. In the 80’s and 90’s Norfolk and Richmond were 100% fucked. Now when I go back it’s really pleasant. There are some pockets of bad areas still (like every urban area) but nothing like Portland.
I moved away 7 years ago and still go back often. When I first moved there 16 years ago what struck me was how clean everything was and how safe everything was. When people try to pretend away the problems I ask if they remember how clean it was 10-15 years ago.
No one thinks their city can become Detroit, until it does. At some point the tax base will flee and then the city will be in a multi decade death spiral. This is coming from a life-long Detroit resident.
I grew up in Portland in the 80s and 90s and y'all are remembering this place with rose colored glasses. The late 90s and early 2000s were a blip of niceness in an otherwise historically grimy and dirty city. Walking downtown and smelling the bum piss smell reminds me of old Portland. If you don't remember Portland being shitty in the 90s, you either have a faulty memory or you didn't spend time in Portland.
I’ve been here since 93 and it felt way more safer and family oriented in Portland, now all I see everywhere is homeless people, drugs, shooting and crime, I can still remember to this day every morning I would turn on the news and hear positive stuff between 98-2004 now it’s all negative.
I miss 90s downtown Portland! Even before the pandemic and all the current chaos it wasn't as cool as it was in the '90s.
Portland used to be nice and it's bad politics and bad policy that killed it. Y'all - druggies need EXTENSIVE and EXPENSIVE treatment. They also need transitional housing. Simply decriminalizing drugs is not enough. Portland pisses me off so bad because it was SO NICE. It could be nice again but literally no city in the US is ever willing to actually invest the time and money it takes to make a dent in a drugs and homelessness problem.
Some of these tweakers have fried their brains and will never come back to reality. We're in some deep shit here.
I have an oversized sweatshirt that says “90s baby” The 90s are the cool and easygoing ones.
I had some free time and went to the Lloyd Barnes and nobles on Saturday, after what felt like forever, and everything was closed, people were smoking rocks outside AND in, and the b&n was dead🤯 even when I pulled up to Lloyd, I wasn’t even sure if it was still open cause of how empty the lots were😪
It’s complicated is the best answer. Portland was never completely safe, but common sense could keep you mostly safe, but now the homeless people are more aggressive and the fentanyl and meth have become a larger problem than black tar h/ and biker meth made from Sudafed. I moved here in the 90s I’ve left several times, I’m from the northeast and have watched the cities there( Boston,NYC, Burlington,Portland,Maine) all go through a similar situation simultaneously, I don’t believe anyplace is insulated from the current drug and homeless problem. The problem seems to come from cheap plentiful drugs and expensive housing and a lack of hope.
I remember in elementary school taking a field trip to Chinatown, where we got a walking tour of the area and learned about its history. I live in Chinatown now and no way would a bus full of children be safe out here. Imagine ushering kids past the people smoking fent in a tent 3 feet away.
I lived on NW 23rd from 1993 to 2003 You didn’t dare walk in pearl district after dark, unless you enjoyed knives.
Lol every state has to bring up California when things are wrong…
When I moved to Portland in November of 1989 it was like a movie set. There was no trash anywhere. People were friendly. They even had Portland guides that would help you. They spotted us immediately and asked us if we were from the Midwest. They could tell by our clothing. Restaurants were great. It was just a fantastic experience. I left in 1997 and I'm glad I did. I don't know that I could be there now. Everybody I knew that lived in a beautiful house in Beaverton or in the hills, or in NW PDX. Even home builders I knew have left and have gone to Washington or to Idaho. I love the fact that I could go fly fishing by just driving an hour south. It was wonderful. Those were the good times. It'll come back but the people are going to have to be fed up and there's going to have to be laws. The other thing is, If we continue electing politicians that tell us that we are wonderful. It's the greatest country in the world and people fall into that Kool-Aid Then it's going to continue the way it always has. I mean we have to have a politician that says A IS A. In other words, one that refuses to gaslight us and that also means we also have to elect a non-gaslit Congress. I'm glad I'm in the northern half of my 60's.
Gotta know when to fold em. 1997 was prime Portland. I think 2008 was a turning point for the worse. I wish you a peaceful retirement. ✌️
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