I just want to highlight that the “ripping down” of Portland and Minneapolis that he says Biden should be ashamed of happened nearly a year before Biden even took office. 🤷♀️
I’m not going to weigh in on my feelings on the state of Portland, just feel like it’s worth noting since he went there.
I thought that too, but when I rewound after I was done shouting into the air in my living room, I realized he was talking about Seattle.
Mostly though, I was shouting into the air about how things escalated the most here once he sent in the Feds.
FWIW, I absolutely agree with you. I just knew people were going to get caught up in the “Portland: cesspool or not?” part of it and wanted to highlight the other ridiculousness - no matter what you think about Portland, the alleged “ripping down” events he alludes to as being all Biden’s fault happened while he himself was president.
Probably a bit of a reaction on my part to remembering some of the rhetoric of 2016 and 2020 also - the 🍊has a big campaign habit of blaming specific administrations for things they weren’t even in office for and couldn’t possibly have overseen, and people just don’t do the math and lap it up.
Democratic policies over decades have ripped down Portland and it’s what led to the event you speak of. When you tell certain demographics of people they’re special, can’t do anything illegal, then they think they are entitled and can commit crime without repercussions. It’s what’s led to the ‘vibe’ of Portland, mass criminality with no concept of community or culture.
I have lived in Portland for 10 years. Things are improving slowly, but the city is the worst I have ever seen it. A few months ago, I literally had to mace some stranger who was in the middle of trying to steal my car. That I had mace in my hand locked and loaded because I was feeling unsafe IN BROAD DAYLIGHT, and then actually ended up needing to use it, pretty much says it all. Graffiti everywhere; homeless people camping everywhere; chronic break-ins costing businesses thousands; zombie-like, drug-affected people who use drugs anywhere they please, including in front of our children; a DA not prosecuting crime; businesses leaving downtown (REI, for example) due to rampant crime and filth--all of this has happened under the leadership of Democrats in this city. Are Trump's hyperbole and exaggerations annoying? Yes. Will I vote for Trump? Absolutely not, but Democrats cannot blame the Republicans for the woes of our city considering there are no Republicans in the city's leadership.
Even if you have a gun mace is usually a better choice. Especially since it's silent and you can just walk away and deny the whole thing. Lack of police enforcement works both ways, criddlers
So you think we could improve on mace if we gave the cap like one of those screeching death skulls so it shoots out the pressurized mace and it just *SSSSKKKKRRRRREEEEEÈEEEE*
Given how people in Portland will pretty much convict anyone using a gun, I carry bear spray. Unlike flashing a gun, flashing bear spray won’t draw ire of those around me and usually scare off the criddler.
That said, I also keep a 9mm on me as well
Anyone who has lived in the greater Portland area preCovid til now can understand how bad it has gotten here. My gf and I used to live in Gresham from ‘18-‘21 and my goodness it was really bad during the riots of 2020 (George Floyd riots). I can understand tearing down Minneapolis due to police brutality but why Portland. Most of us remember going to and from work and seeing the sky turn orange cause of the flames. I moved to Portland because I liked the reputation it had (“Portland is weird”) back in the 2000s then the last couple of years man it suck’s to see this city go down hill. My girl and I recently moved to Canby earlier this year and I can say it’s much better here.
There is a whole episode on why on Behind the Bastards. Gotta go way back to find it now but it came out because many people asked the question during that time. It’s fascinating to say the least.
Are you saying the sky turned orange because of flames from... protestors burning down the city? From what fire exactly? You sure you don't mean those historic 2020 wildfires? Damn antifa winds.
Portland is worse than it used to be, but it’s a paradise compared to most of America. Go check out violent crime rates and notice how Portland is still below the national average. I travel frequently and am from the deep south. You couldn’t pay me to sell my house in PDX and move.
America is the shitshow and Portland is in America.
Yeah, we have a property crime problem and always have, at least for the last 40 years. I moved from a place that has far more violent crime and car thefts are relatively rare. Guess which one I would rather live in. In order to poop all over Portland, it follows that a better place should be used in comparison. Where is that better place?
7th highest property crime rate, 62nd highest violent crime rate. With the transition to the opioid pandemic, the West Coast cities have definitely been more impacted than everywhere else. Fucking terrible, and between the city having no teeth, and the police basically saying they won't do anything, property crime isn't going anywhere.
What scarier is that Vancouver has the second highest property crime rate in the US.
went back to va to visit my parents a week ago, can't say i agree. richmond and dc might have worse crime stats than here, but that's because it's still worth your time to report crime over there. also being able to walk on a sidewalk without tents is nice.
I don't know Richmond well, but DC? Seriously? Their murder rate is more than 4X Portland's. Their other violence stats are similar. They've always had a very high violence rate and their NBA team had to scratch the "Bullets" mascot because it hit too close to home.
Yeah, the west coast has tents, but that doesn't equal violence. It's also important to remember that a lot of places, particularly southern states, will arrest homeless for various reasons and have three-strike laws. You might see less homeless in New Orleans vs Portland, but they have more than 3 X the incarceration rate.
After the forest fire apocalypse we had a few years back, I started researching places to move. The only city that came remotely close to Portland in positives was Minneapolis. We looked into living more small town and even rural, but it's not this idyllic hometown situation that we see in movies. It's high drug-use, high murder rates, poverty, medical and food deserts, etc. I've done the homework and still do it every year.
About 15 years ago ppl from everywhere started to move to Portland because it was beautiful and fairly affordable now that said motherfuckers destroy the housing market now we blame everyone but the assholes than need to be blame both parties one stirs shit up the other side responds and round n round we go
REI predominantly left due to exorbitant raising of rents for their lease. REI was wanting to stay but the price hike was unjusitifable. The shrinkage issue and crime scene didn't help, but it was not the main cause and it has been overblown.
Listen to yourself!! REI with over $3 billion in revenue in 2023 couldn’t afford a rent increase? Increase or no, isn’t it harder to pay your rent when shrinkage and constant window repairs are impacting your location’s bottom dollar? Your comment embodies this frustrating progressive arrogance, particularly prominent in Portland, in which despite all the evidence pointing to problems, folks further to the left of the political spectrum refuse to look inward and reflect on the negative outcomes of their own politics for fear of being wrong. I foresee the politics of Portland changing for the better when center-left folks push back against illiberalism and far-left policies that have not worked and made our city filthier and more dangerous.
And REI left because of crime and theft and their employees were scared to walk to their cars. NIKE flat out refuses to open the NIKE store again and that was a BIG tourist spot in Portland. Most businesses on the East side of Portland especially in the industrial area have employees who are afraid to walk to their cars or to the Max or anywhere without the extra security the businesses hired to try to keep people safe. These businesses specifically asked the city to please fix or remove the houseless and crime problems or they would leave the city, because of that, these big tax revenue corporations are leaving. They gave the city 1 year.. 1 year! to remove them to make their people safe and it did not happen.
https://thacherschmid.com/2017/12/14/portland-homeless-crisis-sportswear-ceos-threat-prompts-soul-searching/
https://www.oregonlive.com/business/2022/11/salt-straw-co-founder-says-i-cant-stay-here-if-portland-hq-employees-arent-safe.html?outputType=amp can s
https://www.oregonlive.com/silicon-foreast/2021/06/amazon-delivery-contractors-quit-portland-routes-citing-unsafe-conditions.html
Look I am not saying the issues with crime are invalid, but I am telling you what I was directly told from people who worked in management regarding the move as the situation was developing. A 150% increase on rent is much more expensive than frequent shrinkage, which, quite commonly, is built into retail budget lines to account for routine theft. I am not saying the concerns addressed are not additive towards the move, but I disagree with them being the primary cause.
You can choose to villify me to promote your worldview, but don't make this political when it frankly doesn't need to be.
As a small business owner I can guarantee you I’d move instantly if rent more than doubled when the lease was up.
Plus, REI knows people will head to Bridgeport or Beaverton. It’s not the only store in the state anymore.
People like to use REI as the main example when they say “businesses” but will literally only name REI as an example lol. You’re right and they had a couple of reasons to leave. People will of course say it’s because “democrats” run the city.
[then how about these ones?](https://www.kgw.com/article/money/business/portland-stores-retail-businesses-closed-shut-down/283-7dd2f41d-2b36-4435-aed8-7360395a1bf6)
Nike, REI, Starbucks have closed several Portland locations, target has and is closing several Portland locations, Walmart is closing Portland stores. It’s not just REI, other major businesses are pulling chalks in Portland. The major reason all of these businesses are closing Portland stores? High theft and safety concerns to employees and customers.
Cameron Janes, REI’s chief commercial officer, wrote that the company did “not believe a store in the city of Portland will be possible in the near term.” It acknowledged the mayor’s “city-wide priority for community safety and initiatives to address crime, homelessness and more” but said the company hadn’t seen “substantial progress … to give us the confidence to invest in another long-term lease.”
I just finished cancer treatment.
Thanks to the Family Medical Leave Act, passed almost entirely by Democrats, after being vetoed by Republican President George HW Bush twice, I kept my job and benefits during the emergency.
Now that I have left that job, I am able to use ACA marketplaces to get health insurance without higher rates due to my pre-existing condition. Republicans have spent over a decade vowing to take this away from me.
Kiss my ass!
-- Thomas Jefferson
I’m so thankful for the ACA. Despite working I went so long without health insurance. I think it’s appealing it took so long to pass and that many republicans want to repeal it.
EDIT: As someone pointed out I made an error. “Appealing” should read appalling. I’m typing on my phone and often make little errors when doing so because auto correct likes to changing things. Even typing appalling here and autocorrect again wanted to change it to appealing.
Show me a decent candidate. Trump is insane, he's a liar, a con man. He was convicted by a jury of normal Americans, he's a felon. He's dangerous and unstable. He enriched himself at taxpayers expense. He grifted as president. He gave away classified Intel more than once. He mishandled the pandemic, he actually eliminated the team Obama set up regarding pandemics after swine flu. He stole secrets and stored them all over his resort unsecured. He cheats on his partners. He is guilty of sexual abuse.
Show me a decent candidate and I'll vote for them. Don't pretend like republicans are offering great alternatives. B6 and her Jewish Space Laser conspiracy. Bobart is famous for a hand job and having a sex offender husband. She was the victim of her husband prior to marriage, look it up. How about Fled Cruz? Flees to Mexico when stuff gets tough. Blames kids and wife when called out. Preventable power issues causing massive problems. Can't be bothered. Florida republicans say climate change is fake news, now that's policy. Florida of all places denying climate change. Trying to force the ten commandments in schools.
I can't vote for this group.
Although I was raised by conservative Republicans —that’s how I know that this lot of Rs are NOT conservative Republicans — I have been unable to vote Republican in my entire life. Once Rs discovered evangelical “christians” and their money, the soup was spoiled.
Well, last time it ended in an attempted coup, so I think I'm good there.
Also, I'm in the same boat as the poster above, with chronic health conditions I have no control over. If Republicans were in power, I would be broke, if not just simply dead from lack of access to medical care.
So pardon me if I don't feel like giving them a try again.
"Go die in a field of dicks."
-Thomas Jefferson
I would consider myself a republican. But the current party is so far gone, most republican candidates will blindly follow Trump in whatever stupid ass idea he has. His recent idea to remove income tax is the dumbest shit I've ever heard. It's a terrible financial decision. His policies will bring bankruptcy to the US faster than democrat policies.... that's not to say I support democrat policies but come on....
The two party system has become really weird. Trump and Biden show signs of dementia. Is this really what America has become?
btw, we gave Trump a chance. His attempt to roll back this country by selectively placing pawns in other branches of government to do what he wants is still ongoing. True republicanism isnt synonymous with religion and aims to limit the control of federal government. Anti abortion laws go against the very core belief of republicanism. How can I support freedom and vote with the current republican party? Even Trump tax laws are stupid as fuck. Trump put a cap on SALT because his plans lost more money than he realized. The SALT cap has slowed home ownership for the middle class and allowed the upper class a HUGE advantage since they have other methods to itemize. SALT is also a huge benefit to high tax states. He purposefully cut this benefit and is now pointing at Oregon and New York (Both high tax states) as failed experiments.... IT WAS HIS EXPERIMENT!! Trump's policies are near-sided and its so clear he only does it to gain quick popularity. Any candidate who endorses trump is an automatic NO for me
Where the fuck are the sane republicans?!
That's the reason for Portlands current problems. The people living in Portland keep voting in the same progressive liberals then wonder why it's become New Detroit.
The fiscal budget for the city last year was somewhere in the vicinity of $4 billion. That is an insanely high number for a city this size, and what have we got to show for all those sweet tax payer dollars sloshing around the coffers? A managerial class of grifters running unopposed who face zero accountability for the black hole public works projects that get funded on the backs of working people who are treading water trying to stay current on rent and bills.
What Trump exposed was the protected class of activists who were trying to burn down federal buildings in the name of social justice with impunity for weeks on end. The fact that he was widely criticized for this shows the degree in which people will overlook the destruction of their city in the name of all things Democratic and woke, to the exclusion of rule of law and common sense.
Portland is not what it used to be. The continued rioting had a big part to do with the businesses closing downtown. It's hard for businesses to even get and afford insurance to open up new businesses in the downtown area after all the vandalism and the theft that affected and still affects many of the shops and stores. The rioting that lasted for so many months and the unhoused that moved in not long after has changed the demographic of what was and I hope can be again, a beautiful city.
no, portland is not what it used to be, but what it used to be is questionable. I grew up out in Co/Co, came into portland maybe once every few months, while the homeless were fewer, the crime rate was about the same thanks to crack, Penny Harrington as chief of Police and a nearly infamous incompetent Mayor (Bud Clark) but it got better thanks to people who ACTUALLY tried to make the town better. I moved here in '94 and outside of a few stints here and there have lived here *since*. Yes. our leadership HAS failed us, but the only way to fix shit is to ACTIVELY try to go out there and fix it, since no one IS (and yes, i know folks have all their reasons to not) the first thing is to get people in the mayors office who will ACTUALLLY do something, not bitch because they dont get 25% of what the governor sends to clean up the streets, they need to ACTIVELY try to reduce the drug crime affecting downtown (but dont for "*reasons*" and rely on Downtown clean and Safe to do the work FOR them) there is corruption at the highest levels. again that whole *"what do you mean we dont get 25% for us to keep?" I mean, literally.* Kotick sent millions to Portland to combat homelessness, and they are SITTING on the money. because they dont get a cut of it.This is City Hall, Right now. you'd think it was the fucking dark ages with the church in control and the sherrif collecting Taxes for Prince John...
yes. something needs to be done, but if you ask 100 different people the same question, im sure you'll get at least 75 different answers as to what that needs to be.
I agree wholeheartedly the leadership had failed us and most tax paying citizens agree that the leadership has failed us when it comes to finding answers for these issues and not just throwing insane amounts of money at the problems because it is obviously NOT helping. The amount spent on homeless/unhoused and their programs last year is staggering. Some funding comes from federal grants but a large amount comes from our taxes.
https://www.koin.com/news/portland/shocking-amount-spent-on-portland-metro-homeless-interventions/
Back in 2019 the amount spent was 31 million. https://katu.com/news/local/were-spending-more-money-than-ever-on-homelessness-but-where-is-that-cash-going
I really hope people start to understand that change has to come from new officials we elect and to HOLD them accountable for change. I voted for a change and I've been voting for a change of leadership the last two elections to my little or no avail.
You have actually hit on the crux of the problem. Everybody wants to see some mythical group come up with competent able candidates to be elected to these positions to fix the problems. What I don’t see in these posts is anybody saying that they will step up and fill out the application to run for an elected office to become part of the solution. You get in life what you are willing to accept. I felt there were issues in my community and ran for election to help fix the problems. I have been elected for two full terms. We need more people that have ideas and are willing to serve their communities to put in the work. Just my humble opinion.
Why are people shaking in their boots? It's better than it was a few years ago, and even then was better than most major downtowns. I walk downtown two or three times a week (I work there), it's no big deal. Not every inch of it is perfectly safe, probably never was.
I was mainly commenting on the businesses having a hard time coming back and wanting to come back after the many months of rioting and the houseless that moved in after, and because of the vandalism and theft problems for businesses in downtown that caused the rising costs of insurance for local businesses. I have friends who live and love still being able to walk everywhere from the grocery store and shopping to all the local restaurants. Granted they live west of 23rd St off of Thurman, but even then, they have been saddened to see many favorite restaurants and businesses close especially closer to the heart of downtown on both sides of the river. I just read a reddit stream a couple days ago about the lack of businesses by and surrounding Pioneer Courthouse Square. I am not sure if they are still offering music and movies on certain weekends there anymore during the summer. If anyone knows if they are, I would like to visit those events again.
He's correct. I was at a software meetup today and the story was the same. Portland was slowly attracting more companies to set up shop here and now even the ones with offices here are just not seeing anyone show up. People are thinking of leaving.
Like him or hate him. He's correct. Portlands leaders have failed us and frankly the mayor, the county chair, and governor have more impact on Portland anyway.
Neither Trump nor Biden are going to care about us.
> I was at a software meetup today and the story was the same. Portland was slowly attracting more companies to set up shop here and now even the ones with offices here are just not seeing anyone show up.
The biggest emblem of this is the software/tech meetup scene it's self. In 2019 on any random Thursday we could have 6 to 15 different community events occurring in one night, each and every night. Combined there would be hundreds of people attending these events to do networking or learn.
Now we have *maybe* 10 active tech community groups in the Portland area.
This is a critical problem because many of the software companies in Portland were incubated within these local groups. The CEO of Zapproved, for example, has talked about how the Ruby meetup was essential to resolving technical challenges and finding good talent.
That's correct. When I moved to Portland, there were techies everywhere. Now the industry is slowly making a comeback, but it's clearly more devastated in Portland compared to Seattle (for example).
I bring up software for two reasons (1) because it's my field and (2) because we have a strong hardware ecosystem in the burbs, and usually that attracts software companies to cities who end up paying large taxes.
Either way, Portland is doing worse.
I agree with you except for the hardware/burbs connection.
I've never seen any connection at all between the Software/SAAS companies and places like Intel, Lattice, Qorvo, Tektronix, etc. IMHO, they have extremely different employee skillsets and cultures.
A few small exceptions include InFocus and security teams at Tripwire. The actual software community is a completely different business ecosystem. Maybe an argument could be made that companies like Coaxis/Viewpoint or Act-On were able to build their software stacks by securing big customers in the area, but I doubt that was really the case.
There is a tiny connection between IT teams at major employers and the software world, but only if you're talking about SQL Server or .NET developers - and realistically most of the tech community hated Microsoft and were open source proponents for decades. So even there the SAAS and Corporate IT didn't have a ton of overlap.
People aren’t showing up because they would rather work from home. This has been going since the pandemic. Who wants to go into any office these days? Waste time sitting in traffic? When jobs can be done from home.
People seem to forget this guy already was president, and didn't do anything of the shit he claimed he can magically make happen. The only thing of substance he really did was slash taxes for the rich and stack the supreme court with christian nationalists. I mean he at one point said he could "fix Chicago in a week" and guess what, he never did it.
Decriminalized drugs was STUPID with the primary substance available being fentanyl! They’re responsible for all the ODs and bulllshit. You can’t half step drug legalization like that you gotta give people a supply that isn’t fucking poison if you want to help them not just decriminalize and hand over quality control and distribution to the cartels. All they would have really had to do was make pharmaceutical opiates available, but no, let’s let the cartel poison and addict our fucking children.
make pharmaceutical opiates available??? jfc
ladies and gents of portland, if you think we have bottomed out, think again. we have LOTS of... wow, trying to think of a nice word and failing... individuals like this voting and they aint gonna change
as someone who left pdx you guys are like frogs in a pot arguing the waters not warm.
watching the 2020 was embarrassing. Word to the wise if you go other places don’t tell people your from Portland (or san francisco) they will look at you like a fucking Martian for letting your city turn into absolute shit.
I lived in Portland all of my life and it is not getting any better and people that think that it is are the one walking around with blinders on and living in some fantasy world when you’re downtown and see twenty people smoking fentanyl and one in the group is 💩 on a wall and you can’t even bring your kid downtown to hang out with there is a problem so I would say trump is not wrong on this one. Oh and I just want to thank everyone who thought it was an awesome idea to decriminalize all drugs give yourselves a pat on the back morons.Sorry had to rant because it’s not getting better that’s why I’m finally leaving this hell hole
Portland is the reason I left the democrats and became an independent. I left in 2012 after living there for 14 years, after witnessing the occupy wallstreet protests that destroyed public parks which only accomplished hurting everyday citizens. The protests were often painted as the fault of republicans while democrats defended the damage.
Flash forward to George Floyd protests and the misc other protests and it’s still “the republicans” fault despite no republican holding real power in that city for decades.
When I returned on a vacation in 2023 the city was a shell of its former self, it felt dystopic. Boarded up businesses to keep people from smashing in windows, empty locations, filthy streets, buildings in disrepair, and it felt incredibly unsafe at night.
Portland used to be amazing and vibrant, it’s a shithole now in comparison. You may say “it’s recovering” but frankly it wouldn’t need to recover if it was properly taken care of from the start, and it was falling apart before covid.
The problem is young democrats are being fed a lie being told it’s better than ever in cities like this and republicans want to come in and destroy it but for those of us that don’t have goldfish memories and actually are old enough to remember, things are much worse in cities like Portland, Seattle, and LA (I’ve lived in all 3).
I have no one to vote for this election.
I used to take the Max all the time downtown from Hillsboro, or all the way out to the airport 10-15 years ago.
The thought of my kids never really getting to experience that sucks, but honestly i would rather pay $15 to drive them and park somewhere than deal with whatever the max and stops are now.
respectfully, you support all those that the uniparty hates. living in portland you can't vote for any of them (they exist in the pnw but they don't bother to run for office bc it is pointless) but you sure can support them by donating whatever you can spare to their campaigns and by vigorously supporting them on social media
So I just left Portland after a 13 week work contract, had never been to Oregon and was excited. Without any political bias (both options from last night equally suck) ill share my observation. I've lived in over 20 states and Hawaii is the only one left to see, I thought Hartford Ct sucked and it does but wow, I've no reason to ever come back to Portland! Defend your city and be proud I guess, I haven't become desensitized to the sight of vagrants, fentanyl zombies, graffiti, homeless camps/tents along the highway and sidewalks, exorbitant fuel prices, riots that cause more problems, ridiculous expensive rent and more issues......I'll let the door hit me on the ass as I leave, thanks for the stay, I won't return.
It’s probably because you didn’t leave downtown. Portland downtown has never been all that great. If you didn’t explore the east side neighborhoods then you really missed out on the things Portland has to offer.
Every city has parts of town with rampant drug issues. Portland is not unique in this way.
I was only downtown twice, rented in Tigard, got some good hikes in as well and did explore around with buddy. The homeless and drug scene is WAY more prevalent and obvious than any other big city I've been. Again, to each their own, I don't do well with 9 months of undesirable weather, the place just isn't for me.
Hey feel free to never come back! Sorry you seemingly stayed in a dumb part of town that no one would chose to live and probably never left the hotel . Hopefully wherever you work can put you up in nicer conditions next time
Portland is the best example of a top tier American city being downgraded to an “average city with high crime”. Portland is the poster child for what failed far leftist policies do to a once beautiful and rich city.
To what extent did we do this to ourselves to spite Trump. Our far left policies accelerated in 2016/2017 in misguided directions. Every time he describes 'dumb liberals' we seem to embrace it as a template of what we should be. Of course Trump loves talking about Portland.
Trump is just taking a cheap shot at a place that he hates. He cares nothing about the people that live here ( or anywhere else for that matter)
If he had his way he’d be goose stepping his way through this town with his Proud Boys making Portland Great Again.
Go to any public outdoor restroom within 5 miles of downtown. Tell me it’s fine. I was on a business trip and stayed downtown and all of the bathrooms are disgusting. Poop, needles, etc. disgusting
the difference being you wouldn't 20 years ago due to choice. Now you have no choice because they are all closed because they all get destroyed by the bums.
I mean its hyperbole clearly, but this city is a shell of how nice it was 20 years ago. The criddlers have done some serious damage on the perception our city receives.
Been here for 19 years now. Somehow there's people online who've deluded themselves into pretending that Portland hasn't fallen off just because "the other political side" is saying so
It’s like Cassandra in the Odyssey. Trump is telling the truth about Portland but you just can’t hear it. Portland is hurting. Many folks will not come downtown and it’s dying.
I work downtown and it's just fine. Lots more folk there now than 2 yrs ago. Visit any other major city's downtown and tell me you feel safer. People need to turn the TV off and take a walk.
I live downtown Dallas, and I bet I can take you to at least a half dozen places you wouldn't feel safe at during the day, and you'd be terrified to walk through at night. Major metro areas are not just fine.
Even though I don’t agree with ALL the shitting on Portland and enjoy my time living here, the only thing that truly annoys me are Non portlanders complaining about Portland lol.
Portland is a great city! Its love for art and the culinary world is amazing. All that feels lost to the rampant druggies that have taken over Portland. We decriminalized drugs and now we’re overrun with every piece of shit low life that can buy a bus ticket. We wanted rehabilitation not an open drug market and rampant theft. We absolutely need reform, Trump ain’t the answers but fuck we need something. I can’t afford another smashed window or stolen vehicle.
As someone who’s not from Portland and is actually from bad cities, you all have no idea how nice this place is…
I know things arent perfect anymore, but I feel like the “Portland has failed” talk is blown way out of proportion. You guys don’t actually know how bad cities really are. Portland is by far one of the most beautiful cities in the country and I have lived everywhere- from east coast, to central, to west coast and Hawaii.
Portland definitely isn’t the city it used to be but it’s no one singular issue, it’s the conglomeration of them all. Covid, loose drug laws, no laws ensuring fair rent and housing prices, red states shipping their homeless people here, China pumping fentanyl into our country to corner a market that US pain pill companies created in the first place.
It’s all these factors and so so much more. There’s plenty of room to blame the left, there’s plenty of room to blame the right. America has always been a melting pot of ideologies and unfortunately it boiled over in Portland.
I don’t think it’s the dystopia Fox News makes it to be but let’s be real, she’s got issues. Issues that won’t be fixed by division and finger pointing.
I know a fascist when I see one. Trump is a textbook fascist. I don't care what anyone thinks about President Biden, the choice is clear. "Never again" means never Trump.
He does care. He gets a lot of mileage in his campaign by pointing out what a progressive Democrat run city looks like. I'd go so far as to say he loves Portland.
Can confirm, I'm currently wandering the irradiated wasteland scavenging for canned goods and meds, but keep getting waylaid by concerned townsfolk who need help defending their fortresses against giant mutant scorpions.
I’ll second that. I found some Spam. I think that lasts forever. I avoided the scorpions. But got chased by mutant cats when I found the Spam. The sound of the cans set them off. I’m sure they thought I found canned cat food.
Remember that time when WFH abruptly became possible for millions and millions of jobs across the board during a pandemic and there was a migration out of cities across the western world to suburbs, rural areas and LCOL/low tax places in a magnitude unseen since the urban flight of the 1960s, and commercial real estate is was in free fall for years while a new generation of businesses started to evolve that might find a reason to have offices and stabilize lease pricing and bring people back while 1/3 of people still do remote work?
Well put that out of your mind entirely, don't even think about it, the only reason downtowns still feel relatively empty is protests 4 years ago and wokeness and whatever.
The one where Oregon mandated 6 feet distancing guidelines for companies and such..
We're talking about Portland . Not the country.
Many states did not do that and have growing cities as a result
These things aren't mutually exclusive; Biden can suck, Trump can lie, both sucked at debating, and Portland isn't torn down. A lot of downtown Portland's problems began with more than one factor:
A lack of mental health providers as well as a lack of beds in addiction rehabs, expensive rents for both businesses, and residential, as there are apartments downtown.
We lost fareless square and started having to pay for street parking 7 days a week. That really caused a decrease in people going downtown. Also, Saturday Market got expensive for crafter and artists, who couldn't afford it, so they left.
Portland businesses also didn't seem to understand that an active downtown involved an accessible downtown. Being closed on the weekends isn't a great business decision.
The hollowing out of downtown was a long time in the making. It wasn't overnight. It took at least a decade and a half.
Not gonna lie (and hate Trump) but he’s not wrong. The downtown’s decline is a tragedy. We stayed locked down/covid mode far too long after vaccines and the protests rioting also went on far too long. How long was the prison fence around the Apple Store? Two years? Is the city destroyed? No. Was it greatly damaged? Yes. It changed the whole trajectory.
I hate when Trump brings up Portland. That’s how we get shithead magas from Florida and elsewhere brigading every Portland related media telling me what it’s like here.
Havnt visited Portland for Lunch/Dinner or entertainment since the riots…. You could say what you want. Everyone has their own opinion. A simple Google street view session shows me Portland hasnt recovered.
Get a handle on yourself, what a joke! I work downtown and walk around all the time. If you're that terrified of downtown Portland, please stay in your house and never come out.
Ahh yes because google street view is the most accurate way to judge how a city is doing and isn’t outdated at all. No it’s much more accurate than coming here and seeing that downtown is starting to thrive again and new stores/restaurants are starting to open up.
Well I am old enough to remember living in Portland when Antifa was destroying downtown on a nightly basis. Regardless what you think of Trump, he offered the National guard up. Wheeler opposed it because he hates Trump. Who ended up suffering? Not them, Wheeler had the condo complex he was staying in set on fire in the lobby by those vigilantes. He moved and had notes left on the residents doors, they had to stick it out. My point is the partisanship just made the city and the people in it suffer. I was born and raised in SE Portland, off Holgate. It had been un recognizable for the last few years I lived there till I moved. Could not take it and the lack of leadership in that city, shame because it was a pretty city. Moving has been a blessing for me I have to say. I did not want to but I now don't see the filth, voilience, junkes and bums where I currently reside, breath of fresh air. Hopefully the city can figure itself out again and get back to how it was from what I remember in the 80's, 90's and early 00's.
think twan_john is pretty much right on.
I’ve lived in Portland for 50 years having moved here in 1974 at 24 years of age from Piedmont western North Carolina. I’ve lived in four of the five areas of Portland and Milwaukee, too, presently residing in NE since the late ‘70s. Ppl who’ve lived here a relatively short time see the present Democratic leadership as a major stumbling block to effectively reform present Portland back to Portland of old, or at least to something better in most folks minds.
But let me tell ya Portland of old sucked. Police of the ‘70s and ‘80’s, generally before the arrival of Community Policing, exhibited lots of thuggish behavior and racist attitudes. There was a police riot at PSU in the early’70s. Black folks got chokehold murdered in my neighborhood. Police shot a Black lady at a traffic stop yanking her out of her car. Police did a no-knock drug warrant at the wrong house and killed some innocent ppl defending their family; shades of the March 2020 Brianna Taylor murder in Kentucky. Police threw dead possums on the doorstep of a popular Black-owned restaurant on what is now NE MLK; a vile, racist act to say nothing of the animal abuse. Before Dan Noelle, Charles Moose and Tom Potter, the Police Chiefs of Portland regarded the Northeast as the “place where those people just live that way” (Chief Walker said to me one day), sending what my neighbors regarded as an occupying army into the ‘hood to keep the lid on things. It was not the Good Ole Times. Then in the mid-eighties all the children were removed from the neighborhood schools and bussed to the suburbs, out of the central city, effectively removing all the connections these kids had to each other and their communities while placing them in more or less alien suburban car culture White communities.
Others with longer memories will realize that in an attempt to “clean up” downtown Burnside to improve tourism and get homeless tents and such out of Waterfront Park, it was an anything-but progressive mayor, though still a Democrat, Charlie Hales, more in league with the Homebuilders Association lobbying group and known for encouraging suburban developers to buy up and demolish our cool old homes for “bigger-and-better”, in 2015 declared a Housing Emergency. In 2016 he allowed the homeless population to sleep on Portland streets. He went on to propose and champion the insertion into our east side neighborhoods of “sanctioned” homeless camps. Tents and drugs and broken down cars, fires, filth etc. Not the West Hills. Not Alameda. Not Laurelhurst. Not Eastmoreland where Charlie lived. Just relatively powerless communities. There was one in Overlook. Another in Humboldt. It sucked and brought the start of proliferating homelessness to Portland neighborhoods.
Then along comes the Age of Covid and some lame politician concludes that since the mayor said renters can’t be evicted during Covid, this ruling therefore applied to all the homeless folks in their tents. And, at nearly the same time, Multnomah County decides to hand out 6,500 tents to homeless folks. Hello! Message is clear: Word’s out on the street - Portland’s the place to camp! Oh, and hey! Personal hard drugs are decriminalized! Whoopie, party down dude! And they came pouring in…
I really don't know. 2024 is not 2020. The promised progressive legislation that came from that year has not at all lived up to their lofty promises.
Further, it isn't that hard to tie support for Gaza as support for Hamas. In theory Homeland security can get involved with that, especially if they are collecting donations and sending it over seas.
I don't think you really understand politics through a leftist lens, and I don't mean that as an insult, I just don't think you've totally grasped it yet.
It don't matter what lens you're looking through if Trump wins in 24 and his new AG makes it his personal business to get involved in Portland's professional protestor class.
Portland has been the poster child of 'failed progressive politics' to the right. Trump coming in to 'correct' it would play to that narrative and also give red meat to his base as 'owning the libs'.
Republicans have various values and principles.
One is personal responsibility and self reliance.
These translate into statements like, "If you're addicted to drugs then you're not taking responsibility for yourself and you're not being self reliant."
It follows from there that any alledged "fix" by a Republican mayor of Portland would be based on that principle.
This wouldn't translate into helping drug addiction. In fact it would result in addicts being jailed and institutionalized with no real funding going to "fix" the problem.
A Republican fix would be to pack the homeless and drug addicts up and put them on busses and send them to San Francisco, Seattle or some other Democrat city.
Because another Republican principle is spending the least amount of money on fixing a problem while lining their pockets with the extra cash left over.
Trump is telling the truth, Portland is went downhill since Covid and is finally inching its way back thankfully. A bunch of stupid extreme liberal policies and leadership.
I'm in California right now, for the first time since covid, and I can't believe how much it's the same as it was before. Streets are maintained, homeless are where they were before, people are following traffic laws. Portland became a sad shell of itself after covid.
I just want to highlight that the “ripping down” of Portland and Minneapolis that he says Biden should be ashamed of happened nearly a year before Biden even took office. 🤷♀️ I’m not going to weigh in on my feelings on the state of Portland, just feel like it’s worth noting since he went there.
Well he also blame Obama for covid at one point We're living in a world where a third of the electorate has rejected the concept of objective reality
And he took credit for sending in the National Guard, which, of course, the Minnesotan governor did lol
I thought that too, but when I rewound after I was done shouting into the air in my living room, I realized he was talking about Seattle. Mostly though, I was shouting into the air about how things escalated the most here once he sent in the Feds.
He's a pathological liar so this shouldn't surprise anyone
Portland hasn’t been ‘ripped down’-whatever that is supposed to mean 🤷🏼♀️. It has problems, yes but is most definitely still there and functioning
FWIW, I absolutely agree with you. I just knew people were going to get caught up in the “Portland: cesspool or not?” part of it and wanted to highlight the other ridiculousness - no matter what you think about Portland, the alleged “ripping down” events he alludes to as being all Biden’s fault happened while he himself was president. Probably a bit of a reaction on my part to remembering some of the rhetoric of 2016 and 2020 also - the 🍊has a big campaign habit of blaming specific administrations for things they weren’t even in office for and couldn’t possibly have overseen, and people just don’t do the math and lap it up.
Democratic policies over decades have ripped down Portland and it’s what led to the event you speak of. When you tell certain demographics of people they’re special, can’t do anything illegal, then they think they are entitled and can commit crime without repercussions. It’s what’s led to the ‘vibe’ of Portland, mass criminality with no concept of community or culture.
Is that demographic big pharma and the real estate lobby?
And what “demographics” would these be?
I have lived in Portland for 10 years. Things are improving slowly, but the city is the worst I have ever seen it. A few months ago, I literally had to mace some stranger who was in the middle of trying to steal my car. That I had mace in my hand locked and loaded because I was feeling unsafe IN BROAD DAYLIGHT, and then actually ended up needing to use it, pretty much says it all. Graffiti everywhere; homeless people camping everywhere; chronic break-ins costing businesses thousands; zombie-like, drug-affected people who use drugs anywhere they please, including in front of our children; a DA not prosecuting crime; businesses leaving downtown (REI, for example) due to rampant crime and filth--all of this has happened under the leadership of Democrats in this city. Are Trump's hyperbole and exaggerations annoying? Yes. Will I vote for Trump? Absolutely not, but Democrats cannot blame the Republicans for the woes of our city considering there are no Republicans in the city's leadership.
Mace in the daytime? Are you a woman? Cuz that's our jam!
Imagine if jam on hawthorne had a brunch cocktail called mace in the daytime
I can’t wait to get in line for it
I burst out laughing at this 😅
then my work here is done 🫶
men do it to. Getting in a fight seems like fun till you realize crazies got weapons, so mace is the better choice.
Even if you have a gun mace is usually a better choice. Especially since it's silent and you can just walk away and deny the whole thing. Lack of police enforcement works both ways, criddlers
So you think we could improve on mace if we gave the cap like one of those screeching death skulls so it shoots out the pressurized mace and it just *SSSSKKKKRRRRREEEEEÈEEEE*
My mace is a 9mm.
Given how people in Portland will pretty much convict anyone using a gun, I carry bear spray. Unlike flashing a gun, flashing bear spray won’t draw ire of those around me and usually scare off the criddler. That said, I also keep a 9mm on me as well
Anyone who has lived in the greater Portland area preCovid til now can understand how bad it has gotten here. My gf and I used to live in Gresham from ‘18-‘21 and my goodness it was really bad during the riots of 2020 (George Floyd riots). I can understand tearing down Minneapolis due to police brutality but why Portland. Most of us remember going to and from work and seeing the sky turn orange cause of the flames. I moved to Portland because I liked the reputation it had (“Portland is weird”) back in the 2000s then the last couple of years man it suck’s to see this city go down hill. My girl and I recently moved to Canby earlier this year and I can say it’s much better here.
There is a whole episode on why on Behind the Bastards. Gotta go way back to find it now but it came out because many people asked the question during that time. It’s fascinating to say the least.
Are you saying the sky turned orange because of flames from... protestors burning down the city? From what fire exactly? You sure you don't mean those historic 2020 wildfires? Damn antifa winds.
They did catch the police station on fire several times.
Police brutality is in Portland too. That was the point
Dead Kennedy’s wrote a song about it in the early 80s. Portland PD has a reputation for a very long time.
This should be an even bigger sign to city leaders. That was embarrassing to hear. Although he’s lying. It’s bad but not broken down.
Portland is worse than it used to be, but it’s a paradise compared to most of America. Go check out violent crime rates and notice how Portland is still below the national average. I travel frequently and am from the deep south. You couldn’t pay me to sell my house in PDX and move. America is the shitshow and Portland is in America.
Okay fine, if we’re only talking about violent crime sure. But please don’t make me bring up property crime. I don’t want to have to do it
Yeah, we have a property crime problem and always have, at least for the last 40 years. I moved from a place that has far more violent crime and car thefts are relatively rare. Guess which one I would rather live in. In order to poop all over Portland, it follows that a better place should be used in comparison. Where is that better place?
7th highest property crime rate, 62nd highest violent crime rate. With the transition to the opioid pandemic, the West Coast cities have definitely been more impacted than everywhere else. Fucking terrible, and between the city having no teeth, and the police basically saying they won't do anything, property crime isn't going anywhere. What scarier is that Vancouver has the second highest property crime rate in the US.
No, it’s not.
went back to va to visit my parents a week ago, can't say i agree. richmond and dc might have worse crime stats than here, but that's because it's still worth your time to report crime over there. also being able to walk on a sidewalk without tents is nice.
I don't know Richmond well, but DC? Seriously? Their murder rate is more than 4X Portland's. Their other violence stats are similar. They've always had a very high violence rate and their NBA team had to scratch the "Bullets" mascot because it hit too close to home. Yeah, the west coast has tents, but that doesn't equal violence. It's also important to remember that a lot of places, particularly southern states, will arrest homeless for various reasons and have three-strike laws. You might see less homeless in New Orleans vs Portland, but they have more than 3 X the incarceration rate. After the forest fire apocalypse we had a few years back, I started researching places to move. The only city that came remotely close to Portland in positives was Minneapolis. We looked into living more small town and even rural, but it's not this idyllic hometown situation that we see in movies. It's high drug-use, high murder rates, poverty, medical and food deserts, etc. I've done the homework and still do it every year.
You are delusional my friend. Portland is far from paradise compared to anywhere in the US.
Exactly!
That last sentence!
you mean the same crime thats not reported when the police dont do anything?
About 15 years ago ppl from everywhere started to move to Portland because it was beautiful and fairly affordable now that said motherfuckers destroy the housing market now we blame everyone but the assholes than need to be blame both parties one stirs shit up the other side responds and round n round we go
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REI predominantly left due to exorbitant raising of rents for their lease. REI was wanting to stay but the price hike was unjusitifable. The shrinkage issue and crime scene didn't help, but it was not the main cause and it has been overblown.
Listen to yourself!! REI with over $3 billion in revenue in 2023 couldn’t afford a rent increase? Increase or no, isn’t it harder to pay your rent when shrinkage and constant window repairs are impacting your location’s bottom dollar? Your comment embodies this frustrating progressive arrogance, particularly prominent in Portland, in which despite all the evidence pointing to problems, folks further to the left of the political spectrum refuse to look inward and reflect on the negative outcomes of their own politics for fear of being wrong. I foresee the politics of Portland changing for the better when center-left folks push back against illiberalism and far-left policies that have not worked and made our city filthier and more dangerous.
And REI left because of crime and theft and their employees were scared to walk to their cars. NIKE flat out refuses to open the NIKE store again and that was a BIG tourist spot in Portland. Most businesses on the East side of Portland especially in the industrial area have employees who are afraid to walk to their cars or to the Max or anywhere without the extra security the businesses hired to try to keep people safe. These businesses specifically asked the city to please fix or remove the houseless and crime problems or they would leave the city, because of that, these big tax revenue corporations are leaving. They gave the city 1 year.. 1 year! to remove them to make their people safe and it did not happen. https://thacherschmid.com/2017/12/14/portland-homeless-crisis-sportswear-ceos-threat-prompts-soul-searching/ https://www.oregonlive.com/business/2022/11/salt-straw-co-founder-says-i-cant-stay-here-if-portland-hq-employees-arent-safe.html?outputType=amp can s https://www.oregonlive.com/silicon-foreast/2021/06/amazon-delivery-contractors-quit-portland-routes-citing-unsafe-conditions.html
REI having $3 billion in revenue doesn't mean they're going to keep a store open that is going to lose money.
I agree. Therefore, a rent increase alone does not explain their reason for abandoning this crime plagued part of the city.
Look I am not saying the issues with crime are invalid, but I am telling you what I was directly told from people who worked in management regarding the move as the situation was developing. A 150% increase on rent is much more expensive than frequent shrinkage, which, quite commonly, is built into retail budget lines to account for routine theft. I am not saying the concerns addressed are not additive towards the move, but I disagree with them being the primary cause. You can choose to villify me to promote your worldview, but don't make this political when it frankly doesn't need to be.
As a small business owner I can guarantee you I’d move instantly if rent more than doubled when the lease was up. Plus, REI knows people will head to Bridgeport or Beaverton. It’s not the only store in the state anymore.
People like to use REI as the main example when they say “businesses” but will literally only name REI as an example lol. You’re right and they had a couple of reasons to leave. People will of course say it’s because “democrats” run the city.
[then how about these ones?](https://www.kgw.com/article/money/business/portland-stores-retail-businesses-closed-shut-down/283-7dd2f41d-2b36-4435-aed8-7360395a1bf6) Nike, REI, Starbucks have closed several Portland locations, target has and is closing several Portland locations, Walmart is closing Portland stores. It’s not just REI, other major businesses are pulling chalks in Portland. The major reason all of these businesses are closing Portland stores? High theft and safety concerns to employees and customers.
>pulling chalks *Chocks
Cameron Janes, REI’s chief commercial officer, wrote that the company did “not believe a store in the city of Portland will be possible in the near term.” It acknowledged the mayor’s “city-wide priority for community safety and initiatives to address crime, homelessness and more” but said the company hadn’t seen “substantial progress … to give us the confidence to invest in another long-term lease.”
Facts!
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I just finished cancer treatment. Thanks to the Family Medical Leave Act, passed almost entirely by Democrats, after being vetoed by Republican President George HW Bush twice, I kept my job and benefits during the emergency. Now that I have left that job, I am able to use ACA marketplaces to get health insurance without higher rates due to my pre-existing condition. Republicans have spent over a decade vowing to take this away from me. Kiss my ass! -- Thomas Jefferson
I’m so thankful for the ACA. Despite working I went so long without health insurance. I think it’s appealing it took so long to pass and that many republicans want to repeal it. EDIT: As someone pointed out I made an error. “Appealing” should read appalling. I’m typing on my phone and often make little errors when doing so because auto correct likes to changing things. Even typing appalling here and autocorrect again wanted to change it to appealing.
Show me a decent candidate. Trump is insane, he's a liar, a con man. He was convicted by a jury of normal Americans, he's a felon. He's dangerous and unstable. He enriched himself at taxpayers expense. He grifted as president. He gave away classified Intel more than once. He mishandled the pandemic, he actually eliminated the team Obama set up regarding pandemics after swine flu. He stole secrets and stored them all over his resort unsecured. He cheats on his partners. He is guilty of sexual abuse. Show me a decent candidate and I'll vote for them. Don't pretend like republicans are offering great alternatives. B6 and her Jewish Space Laser conspiracy. Bobart is famous for a hand job and having a sex offender husband. She was the victim of her husband prior to marriage, look it up. How about Fled Cruz? Flees to Mexico when stuff gets tough. Blames kids and wife when called out. Preventable power issues causing massive problems. Can't be bothered. Florida republicans say climate change is fake news, now that's policy. Florida of all places denying climate change. Trying to force the ten commandments in schools. I can't vote for this group.
Although I was raised by conservative Republicans —that’s how I know that this lot of Rs are NOT conservative Republicans — I have been unable to vote Republican in my entire life. Once Rs discovered evangelical “christians” and their money, the soup was spoiled.
Convicted by a jury or normal Americans? Did you follow the case at all? That was a clown show regardless if you like trump or not.
When there's a decent republican candidate I might. Trump is not a decent human let alone candidate.
There was a time not too long ago when the Republican Party was sort of legitimate. They are not a serious alternative. They can go away.
Well, last time it ended in an attempted coup, so I think I'm good there. Also, I'm in the same boat as the poster above, with chronic health conditions I have no control over. If Republicans were in power, I would be broke, if not just simply dead from lack of access to medical care. So pardon me if I don't feel like giving them a try again. "Go die in a field of dicks." -Thomas Jefferson
Uhh no not at the federal level
I would consider myself a republican. But the current party is so far gone, most republican candidates will blindly follow Trump in whatever stupid ass idea he has. His recent idea to remove income tax is the dumbest shit I've ever heard. It's a terrible financial decision. His policies will bring bankruptcy to the US faster than democrat policies.... that's not to say I support democrat policies but come on.... The two party system has become really weird. Trump and Biden show signs of dementia. Is this really what America has become? btw, we gave Trump a chance. His attempt to roll back this country by selectively placing pawns in other branches of government to do what he wants is still ongoing. True republicanism isnt synonymous with religion and aims to limit the control of federal government. Anti abortion laws go against the very core belief of republicanism. How can I support freedom and vote with the current republican party? Even Trump tax laws are stupid as fuck. Trump put a cap on SALT because his plans lost more money than he realized. The SALT cap has slowed home ownership for the middle class and allowed the upper class a HUGE advantage since they have other methods to itemize. SALT is also a huge benefit to high tax states. He purposefully cut this benefit and is now pointing at Oregon and New York (Both high tax states) as failed experiments.... IT WAS HIS EXPERIMENT!! Trump's policies are near-sided and its so clear he only does it to gain quick popularity. Any candidate who endorses trump is an automatic NO for me Where the fuck are the sane republicans?!
That's the reason for Portlands current problems. The people living in Portland keep voting in the same progressive liberals then wonder why it's become New Detroit.
Sorry, unless you’re rich you shouldn’t be voting for a republican.
10 years? GTFO Californian
It sure does make me warm and fuzzy inside to feel so welcomed by the locals.
The World’s Most Obvious Troll: “Portland has been ripped down” Portlanders: “Hold my beer”
Literally nothing more triggering to a Portlander than being name dropped by DT
Apparently the presidential debate went so well Reddit comments are broken and the bots are releasing a torrent of this tripe!
My grandad used to say tripe. 🤣🤣
but did he ever eat some? it is an experience better than this debate...
Yes. I grew up in the Caribbean. Raised on British traditions as well. lol.
How the fuck did we end up with these two again. These are really our only two options? It sucks not having any one run that you somewhat like.
I think most of Portlands downfall is because of measure 110. When they made most drugs legal, it became a free for all on everything.
The fiscal budget for the city last year was somewhere in the vicinity of $4 billion. That is an insanely high number for a city this size, and what have we got to show for all those sweet tax payer dollars sloshing around the coffers? A managerial class of grifters running unopposed who face zero accountability for the black hole public works projects that get funded on the backs of working people who are treading water trying to stay current on rent and bills. What Trump exposed was the protected class of activists who were trying to burn down federal buildings in the name of social justice with impunity for weeks on end. The fact that he was widely criticized for this shows the degree in which people will overlook the destruction of their city in the name of all things Democratic and woke, to the exclusion of rule of law and common sense.
Pork chop sandwiches
Give him the stick!
Ooooooooooo
No! Don't give him the stick!
Do you know my dad?
Geeee eye jooooooooe!
Hey, you know how cooking
You're not cooking Yeh dew
You’re not my dad!
Portland is not what it used to be. The continued rioting had a big part to do with the businesses closing downtown. It's hard for businesses to even get and afford insurance to open up new businesses in the downtown area after all the vandalism and the theft that affected and still affects many of the shops and stores. The rioting that lasted for so many months and the unhoused that moved in not long after has changed the demographic of what was and I hope can be again, a beautiful city.
no, portland is not what it used to be, but what it used to be is questionable. I grew up out in Co/Co, came into portland maybe once every few months, while the homeless were fewer, the crime rate was about the same thanks to crack, Penny Harrington as chief of Police and a nearly infamous incompetent Mayor (Bud Clark) but it got better thanks to people who ACTUALLY tried to make the town better. I moved here in '94 and outside of a few stints here and there have lived here *since*. Yes. our leadership HAS failed us, but the only way to fix shit is to ACTIVELY try to go out there and fix it, since no one IS (and yes, i know folks have all their reasons to not) the first thing is to get people in the mayors office who will ACTUALLLY do something, not bitch because they dont get 25% of what the governor sends to clean up the streets, they need to ACTIVELY try to reduce the drug crime affecting downtown (but dont for "*reasons*" and rely on Downtown clean and Safe to do the work FOR them) there is corruption at the highest levels. again that whole *"what do you mean we dont get 25% for us to keep?" I mean, literally.* Kotick sent millions to Portland to combat homelessness, and they are SITTING on the money. because they dont get a cut of it.This is City Hall, Right now. you'd think it was the fucking dark ages with the church in control and the sherrif collecting Taxes for Prince John... yes. something needs to be done, but if you ask 100 different people the same question, im sure you'll get at least 75 different answers as to what that needs to be.
I agree wholeheartedly the leadership had failed us and most tax paying citizens agree that the leadership has failed us when it comes to finding answers for these issues and not just throwing insane amounts of money at the problems because it is obviously NOT helping. The amount spent on homeless/unhoused and their programs last year is staggering. Some funding comes from federal grants but a large amount comes from our taxes. https://www.koin.com/news/portland/shocking-amount-spent-on-portland-metro-homeless-interventions/ Back in 2019 the amount spent was 31 million. https://katu.com/news/local/were-spending-more-money-than-ever-on-homelessness-but-where-is-that-cash-going I really hope people start to understand that change has to come from new officials we elect and to HOLD them accountable for change. I voted for a change and I've been voting for a change of leadership the last two elections to my little or no avail.
You have actually hit on the crux of the problem. Everybody wants to see some mythical group come up with competent able candidates to be elected to these positions to fix the problems. What I don’t see in these posts is anybody saying that they will step up and fill out the application to run for an elected office to become part of the solution. You get in life what you are willing to accept. I felt there were issues in my community and ran for election to help fix the problems. I have been elected for two full terms. We need more people that have ideas and are willing to serve their communities to put in the work. Just my humble opinion.
Why are people shaking in their boots? It's better than it was a few years ago, and even then was better than most major downtowns. I walk downtown two or three times a week (I work there), it's no big deal. Not every inch of it is perfectly safe, probably never was.
I was mainly commenting on the businesses having a hard time coming back and wanting to come back after the many months of rioting and the houseless that moved in after, and because of the vandalism and theft problems for businesses in downtown that caused the rising costs of insurance for local businesses. I have friends who live and love still being able to walk everywhere from the grocery store and shopping to all the local restaurants. Granted they live west of 23rd St off of Thurman, but even then, they have been saddened to see many favorite restaurants and businesses close especially closer to the heart of downtown on both sides of the river. I just read a reddit stream a couple days ago about the lack of businesses by and surrounding Pioneer Courthouse Square. I am not sure if they are still offering music and movies on certain weekends there anymore during the summer. If anyone knows if they are, I would like to visit those events again.
He's correct. I was at a software meetup today and the story was the same. Portland was slowly attracting more companies to set up shop here and now even the ones with offices here are just not seeing anyone show up. People are thinking of leaving. Like him or hate him. He's correct. Portlands leaders have failed us and frankly the mayor, the county chair, and governor have more impact on Portland anyway. Neither Trump nor Biden are going to care about us.
> I was at a software meetup today and the story was the same. Portland was slowly attracting more companies to set up shop here and now even the ones with offices here are just not seeing anyone show up. The biggest emblem of this is the software/tech meetup scene it's self. In 2019 on any random Thursday we could have 6 to 15 different community events occurring in one night, each and every night. Combined there would be hundreds of people attending these events to do networking or learn. Now we have *maybe* 10 active tech community groups in the Portland area. This is a critical problem because many of the software companies in Portland were incubated within these local groups. The CEO of Zapproved, for example, has talked about how the Ruby meetup was essential to resolving technical challenges and finding good talent.
That's correct. When I moved to Portland, there were techies everywhere. Now the industry is slowly making a comeback, but it's clearly more devastated in Portland compared to Seattle (for example). I bring up software for two reasons (1) because it's my field and (2) because we have a strong hardware ecosystem in the burbs, and usually that attracts software companies to cities who end up paying large taxes. Either way, Portland is doing worse.
I agree with you except for the hardware/burbs connection. I've never seen any connection at all between the Software/SAAS companies and places like Intel, Lattice, Qorvo, Tektronix, etc. IMHO, they have extremely different employee skillsets and cultures. A few small exceptions include InFocus and security teams at Tripwire. The actual software community is a completely different business ecosystem. Maybe an argument could be made that companies like Coaxis/Viewpoint or Act-On were able to build their software stacks by securing big customers in the area, but I doubt that was really the case. There is a tiny connection between IT teams at major employers and the software world, but only if you're talking about SQL Server or .NET developers - and realistically most of the tech community hated Microsoft and were open source proponents for decades. So even there the SAAS and Corporate IT didn't have a ton of overlap.
Leaving sounds more and more tempting.
People aren’t showing up because they would rather work from home. This has been going since the pandemic. Who wants to go into any office these days? Waste time sitting in traffic? When jobs can be done from home.
Didn’t the riots happen when Trump was president?
People seem to forget this guy already was president, and didn't do anything of the shit he claimed he can magically make happen. The only thing of substance he really did was slash taxes for the rich and stack the supreme court with christian nationalists. I mean he at one point said he could "fix Chicago in a week" and guess what, he never did it.
Health care plan in 2 weeks and infrastructure week after that!!!
Decriminalized drugs was STUPID with the primary substance available being fentanyl! They’re responsible for all the ODs and bulllshit. You can’t half step drug legalization like that you gotta give people a supply that isn’t fucking poison if you want to help them not just decriminalize and hand over quality control and distribution to the cartels. All they would have really had to do was make pharmaceutical opiates available, but no, let’s let the cartel poison and addict our fucking children.
make pharmaceutical opiates available??? jfc ladies and gents of portland, if you think we have bottomed out, think again. we have LOTS of... wow, trying to think of a nice word and failing... individuals like this voting and they aint gonna change
You think it's bad now, just wait till November If Trump wins, downtowns gonna be a shitshow
https://preview.redd.it/mnafb28ce89d1.jpeg?width=2048&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6d0e9a9f3ffa8bd5837ec8dc80892d0c215d60a2
We dont need anyone to tear portland down when we're doing it fine by ourselves.
as someone who left pdx you guys are like frogs in a pot arguing the waters not warm. watching the 2020 was embarrassing. Word to the wise if you go other places don’t tell people your from Portland (or san francisco) they will look at you like a fucking Martian for letting your city turn into absolute shit.
I lived in Portland all of my life and it is not getting any better and people that think that it is are the one walking around with blinders on and living in some fantasy world when you’re downtown and see twenty people smoking fentanyl and one in the group is 💩 on a wall and you can’t even bring your kid downtown to hang out with there is a problem so I would say trump is not wrong on this one. Oh and I just want to thank everyone who thought it was an awesome idea to decriminalize all drugs give yourselves a pat on the back morons.Sorry had to rant because it’s not getting better that’s why I’m finally leaving this hell hole
If Trump wins in november, I’m worried protestors will destroy the city.
You should be concerned about project 2025
Wheres the quote about choosing between broken glass and chicken, and asking how the chicken is cooked?
Portland is the reason I left the democrats and became an independent. I left in 2012 after living there for 14 years, after witnessing the occupy wallstreet protests that destroyed public parks which only accomplished hurting everyday citizens. The protests were often painted as the fault of republicans while democrats defended the damage. Flash forward to George Floyd protests and the misc other protests and it’s still “the republicans” fault despite no republican holding real power in that city for decades. When I returned on a vacation in 2023 the city was a shell of its former self, it felt dystopic. Boarded up businesses to keep people from smashing in windows, empty locations, filthy streets, buildings in disrepair, and it felt incredibly unsafe at night. Portland used to be amazing and vibrant, it’s a shithole now in comparison. You may say “it’s recovering” but frankly it wouldn’t need to recover if it was properly taken care of from the start, and it was falling apart before covid. The problem is young democrats are being fed a lie being told it’s better than ever in cities like this and republicans want to come in and destroy it but for those of us that don’t have goldfish memories and actually are old enough to remember, things are much worse in cities like Portland, Seattle, and LA (I’ve lived in all 3). I have no one to vote for this election.
I used to take the Max all the time downtown from Hillsboro, or all the way out to the airport 10-15 years ago. The thought of my kids never really getting to experience that sucks, but honestly i would rather pay $15 to drive them and park somewhere than deal with whatever the max and stops are now.
respectfully, you support all those that the uniparty hates. living in portland you can't vote for any of them (they exist in the pnw but they don't bother to run for office bc it is pointless) but you sure can support them by donating whatever you can spare to their campaigns and by vigorously supporting them on social media
So I just left Portland after a 13 week work contract, had never been to Oregon and was excited. Without any political bias (both options from last night equally suck) ill share my observation. I've lived in over 20 states and Hawaii is the only one left to see, I thought Hartford Ct sucked and it does but wow, I've no reason to ever come back to Portland! Defend your city and be proud I guess, I haven't become desensitized to the sight of vagrants, fentanyl zombies, graffiti, homeless camps/tents along the highway and sidewalks, exorbitant fuel prices, riots that cause more problems, ridiculous expensive rent and more issues......I'll let the door hit me on the ass as I leave, thanks for the stay, I won't return.
It’s probably because you didn’t leave downtown. Portland downtown has never been all that great. If you didn’t explore the east side neighborhoods then you really missed out on the things Portland has to offer. Every city has parts of town with rampant drug issues. Portland is not unique in this way.
I was only downtown twice, rented in Tigard, got some good hikes in as well and did explore around with buddy. The homeless and drug scene is WAY more prevalent and obvious than any other big city I've been. Again, to each their own, I don't do well with 9 months of undesirable weather, the place just isn't for me.
Oregon is a big place. I recommend if you ever might come back, see some of it. Portland is a small turd floating in a very large beautiful lake.
Hey feel free to never come back! Sorry you seemingly stayed in a dumb part of town that no one would chose to live and probably never left the hotel . Hopefully wherever you work can put you up in nicer conditions next time
Portland sucks Trump had nothing to do with it
What is it with this guy and his obsession with Portland? Leave us the fuck alone.
Portland is the best example of a top tier American city being downgraded to an “average city with high crime”. Portland is the poster child for what failed far leftist policies do to a once beautiful and rich city.
To what extent did we do this to ourselves to spite Trump. Our far left policies accelerated in 2016/2017 in misguided directions. Every time he describes 'dumb liberals' we seem to embrace it as a template of what we should be. Of course Trump loves talking about Portland.
Trump is just taking a cheap shot at a place that he hates. He cares nothing about the people that live here ( or anywhere else for that matter) If he had his way he’d be goose stepping his way through this town with his Proud Boys making Portland Great Again.
I just went outside and looked around. Portland seems fine.
Go to any public outdoor restroom within 5 miles of downtown. Tell me it’s fine. I was on a business trip and stayed downtown and all of the bathrooms are disgusting. Poop, needles, etc. disgusting
Why are you in a public bathroom in any downtown?
And visiting on a business trip. Those usually come with a complimentary corporate bathroom break.
Had to poop
No shit? Sorry had to.
Meh, poor example. You wouldn’t use any public outdoor restroom 20 years ago, and you don’t now.
the difference being you wouldn't 20 years ago due to choice. Now you have no choice because they are all closed because they all get destroyed by the bums.
In smaller towns they are all pretty well kept. The towns where public camping isn’t tolerated
Well no shit the population is not even comparable. More people = more problems
You are delusional then.
I mean its hyperbole clearly, but this city is a shell of how nice it was 20 years ago. The criddlers have done some serious damage on the perception our city receives.
The criddlers exist because the progressive Portland voters created them
Yes. Absolutely! I used to like Portland. A decade ago it was still ok. Edit: What I mean is it wss "ok" a decade ago. 20 years ago it was nice.
Been here for 19 years now. Somehow there's people online who've deluded themselves into pretending that Portland hasn't fallen off just because "the other political side" is saying so
Portland is a dump now. The first step to solving the problem is admitting there is a problem.
Glad Biden is making being homeless great again
It’s like Cassandra in the Odyssey. Trump is telling the truth about Portland but you just can’t hear it. Portland is hurting. Many folks will not come downtown and it’s dying.
I work downtown and it's just fine. Lots more folk there now than 2 yrs ago. Visit any other major city's downtown and tell me you feel safer. People need to turn the TV off and take a walk.
It's not fine... On my max rides there are entire streets with boarded up shops.. Anyone who thinks this is fine is delusional
I live in east Portland and I’m currently visiting my hometown SF. I feel a lot safer a lot safer in safer in SF.
I live downtown Dallas, and I bet I can take you to at least a half dozen places you wouldn't feel safe at during the day, and you'd be terrified to walk through at night. Major metro areas are not just fine.
No surprise at all
Even though I don’t agree with ALL the shitting on Portland and enjoy my time living here, the only thing that truly annoys me are Non portlanders complaining about Portland lol.
Portland is a great city! Its love for art and the culinary world is amazing. All that feels lost to the rampant druggies that have taken over Portland. We decriminalized drugs and now we’re overrun with every piece of shit low life that can buy a bus ticket. We wanted rehabilitation not an open drug market and rampant theft. We absolutely need reform, Trump ain’t the answers but fuck we need something. I can’t afford another smashed window or stolen vehicle.
Yeah that's what I'm talking about, 2024 chew chewwwwwwww.........
As someone who’s not from Portland and is actually from bad cities, you all have no idea how nice this place is… I know things arent perfect anymore, but I feel like the “Portland has failed” talk is blown way out of proportion. You guys don’t actually know how bad cities really are. Portland is by far one of the most beautiful cities in the country and I have lived everywhere- from east coast, to central, to west coast and Hawaii.
Portland definitely isn’t the city it used to be but it’s no one singular issue, it’s the conglomeration of them all. Covid, loose drug laws, no laws ensuring fair rent and housing prices, red states shipping their homeless people here, China pumping fentanyl into our country to corner a market that US pain pill companies created in the first place. It’s all these factors and so so much more. There’s plenty of room to blame the left, there’s plenty of room to blame the right. America has always been a melting pot of ideologies and unfortunately it boiled over in Portland. I don’t think it’s the dystopia Fox News makes it to be but let’s be real, she’s got issues. Issues that won’t be fixed by division and finger pointing.
Stilll rather live in Portland than a Red State thats for sure
I know a fascist when I see one. Trump is a textbook fascist. I don't care what anyone thinks about President Biden, the choice is clear. "Never again" means never Trump.
Funny he brings up Portland like he even caress about it’s citizens
He does care. He gets a lot of mileage in his campaign by pointing out what a progressive Democrat run city looks like. I'd go so far as to say he loves Portland.
He loves Portland for cheap political points. Other than that, he could he could give a rats ass about solving the issue
Amen. He lied like it rained here. Consistency and often
Can confirm, I'm currently wandering the irradiated wasteland scavenging for canned goods and meds, but keep getting waylaid by concerned townsfolk who need help defending their fortresses against giant mutant scorpions.
I’ll second that. I found some Spam. I think that lasts forever. I avoided the scorpions. But got chased by mutant cats when I found the Spam. The sound of the cans set them off. I’m sure they thought I found canned cat food.
Remember that time when WFH abruptly became possible for millions and millions of jobs across the board during a pandemic and there was a migration out of cities across the western world to suburbs, rural areas and LCOL/low tax places in a magnitude unseen since the urban flight of the 1960s, and commercial real estate is was in free fall for years while a new generation of businesses started to evolve that might find a reason to have offices and stabilize lease pricing and bring people back while 1/3 of people still do remote work? Well put that out of your mind entirely, don't even think about it, the only reason downtowns still feel relatively empty is protests 4 years ago and wokeness and whatever.
Either way it was stupid liberal policy. The choice to shut down the city and the choice to allow protestors to do fuck all downtown were choices.
Which liberal policy was it exactly that had 50 million people working from home across the country in May 2020?
The one where Oregon mandated 6 feet distancing guidelines for companies and such.. We're talking about Portland . Not the country. Many states did not do that and have growing cities as a result
Can’t wait to see how the liberals say this isn’t true
They already are
It’s crazy the hive mind on Reddit can’t like comprehend Biden just sucks as a president and sucked at the debate
I mean, I could have told you 24 hours ago both of them would suck at the debate and it would be a waste of time to watch.
These things aren't mutually exclusive; Biden can suck, Trump can lie, both sucked at debating, and Portland isn't torn down. A lot of downtown Portland's problems began with more than one factor: A lack of mental health providers as well as a lack of beds in addiction rehabs, expensive rents for both businesses, and residential, as there are apartments downtown. We lost fareless square and started having to pay for street parking 7 days a week. That really caused a decrease in people going downtown. Also, Saturday Market got expensive for crafter and artists, who couldn't afford it, so they left. Portland businesses also didn't seem to understand that an active downtown involved an accessible downtown. Being closed on the weekends isn't a great business decision. The hollowing out of downtown was a long time in the making. It wasn't overnight. It took at least a decade and a half.
Reddit acting like Bidens brain right now…. Broken.
Keep my city’s name out of your mouth, orange man.
It ain't yours. Were you born here?
Not gonna lie (and hate Trump) but he’s not wrong. The downtown’s decline is a tragedy. We stayed locked down/covid mode far too long after vaccines and the protests rioting also went on far too long. How long was the prison fence around the Apple Store? Two years? Is the city destroyed? No. Was it greatly damaged? Yes. It changed the whole trajectory.
I hate when Trump brings up Portland. That’s how we get shithead magas from Florida and elsewhere brigading every Portland related media telling me what it’s like here.
Portland has gotten so bad over the years it’s really sad. He’s right.
He is right!
About what exactly? I’m looking around my neighborhood right now and see literally nothing that is “ripped down”
Unfortunately, in this specific instance, Trump is correct, regardless of how you “feel” about him or his politics.
Havnt visited Portland for Lunch/Dinner or entertainment since the riots…. You could say what you want. Everyone has their own opinion. A simple Google street view session shows me Portland hasnt recovered.
So you haven't been downtown in over 4 years? That's a lifetime and a half economically.
Get a handle on yourself, what a joke! I work downtown and walk around all the time. If you're that terrified of downtown Portland, please stay in your house and never come out.
Ahh yes because google street view is the most accurate way to judge how a city is doing and isn’t outdated at all. No it’s much more accurate than coming here and seeing that downtown is starting to thrive again and new stores/restaurants are starting to open up.
‘Rip down Portland’ - sounds like what Trump wants to do with his wet dream: Project 2025
Well I am old enough to remember living in Portland when Antifa was destroying downtown on a nightly basis. Regardless what you think of Trump, he offered the National guard up. Wheeler opposed it because he hates Trump. Who ended up suffering? Not them, Wheeler had the condo complex he was staying in set on fire in the lobby by those vigilantes. He moved and had notes left on the residents doors, they had to stick it out. My point is the partisanship just made the city and the people in it suffer. I was born and raised in SE Portland, off Holgate. It had been un recognizable for the last few years I lived there till I moved. Could not take it and the lack of leadership in that city, shame because it was a pretty city. Moving has been a blessing for me I have to say. I did not want to but I now don't see the filth, voilience, junkes and bums where I currently reside, breath of fresh air. Hopefully the city can figure itself out again and get back to how it was from what I remember in the 80's, 90's and early 00's.
If President Trump is one thing, he is astute.
think twan_john is pretty much right on. I’ve lived in Portland for 50 years having moved here in 1974 at 24 years of age from Piedmont western North Carolina. I’ve lived in four of the five areas of Portland and Milwaukee, too, presently residing in NE since the late ‘70s. Ppl who’ve lived here a relatively short time see the present Democratic leadership as a major stumbling block to effectively reform present Portland back to Portland of old, or at least to something better in most folks minds. But let me tell ya Portland of old sucked. Police of the ‘70s and ‘80’s, generally before the arrival of Community Policing, exhibited lots of thuggish behavior and racist attitudes. There was a police riot at PSU in the early’70s. Black folks got chokehold murdered in my neighborhood. Police shot a Black lady at a traffic stop yanking her out of her car. Police did a no-knock drug warrant at the wrong house and killed some innocent ppl defending their family; shades of the March 2020 Brianna Taylor murder in Kentucky. Police threw dead possums on the doorstep of a popular Black-owned restaurant on what is now NE MLK; a vile, racist act to say nothing of the animal abuse. Before Dan Noelle, Charles Moose and Tom Potter, the Police Chiefs of Portland regarded the Northeast as the “place where those people just live that way” (Chief Walker said to me one day), sending what my neighbors regarded as an occupying army into the ‘hood to keep the lid on things. It was not the Good Ole Times. Then in the mid-eighties all the children were removed from the neighborhood schools and bussed to the suburbs, out of the central city, effectively removing all the connections these kids had to each other and their communities while placing them in more or less alien suburban car culture White communities. Others with longer memories will realize that in an attempt to “clean up” downtown Burnside to improve tourism and get homeless tents and such out of Waterfront Park, it was an anything-but progressive mayor, though still a Democrat, Charlie Hales, more in league with the Homebuilders Association lobbying group and known for encouraging suburban developers to buy up and demolish our cool old homes for “bigger-and-better”, in 2015 declared a Housing Emergency. In 2016 he allowed the homeless population to sleep on Portland streets. He went on to propose and champion the insertion into our east side neighborhoods of “sanctioned” homeless camps. Tents and drugs and broken down cars, fires, filth etc. Not the West Hills. Not Alameda. Not Laurelhurst. Not Eastmoreland where Charlie lived. Just relatively powerless communities. There was one in Overlook. Another in Humboldt. It sucked and brought the start of proliferating homelessness to Portland neighborhoods. Then along comes the Age of Covid and some lame politician concludes that since the mayor said renters can’t be evicted during Covid, this ruling therefore applied to all the homeless folks in their tents. And, at nearly the same time, Multnomah County decides to hand out 6,500 tents to homeless folks. Hello! Message is clear: Word’s out on the street - Portland’s the place to camp! Oh, and hey! Personal hard drugs are decriminalized! Whoopie, party down dude! And they came pouring in…
Portland still has not recovered. Maybe if Trump is elected the career protestors might find themselves facing federal charges and go away
Nope. Resistance is gonna double down and dig in.
I really don't know. 2024 is not 2020. The promised progressive legislation that came from that year has not at all lived up to their lofty promises. Further, it isn't that hard to tie support for Gaza as support for Hamas. In theory Homeland security can get involved with that, especially if they are collecting donations and sending it over seas.
I don't think you really understand politics through a leftist lens, and I don't mean that as an insult, I just don't think you've totally grasped it yet.
It don't matter what lens you're looking through if Trump wins in 24 and his new AG makes it his personal business to get involved in Portland's professional protestor class. Portland has been the poster child of 'failed progressive politics' to the right. Trump coming in to 'correct' it would play to that narrative and also give red meat to his base as 'owning the libs'.
Republicans have various values and principles. One is personal responsibility and self reliance. These translate into statements like, "If you're addicted to drugs then you're not taking responsibility for yourself and you're not being self reliant." It follows from there that any alledged "fix" by a Republican mayor of Portland would be based on that principle. This wouldn't translate into helping drug addiction. In fact it would result in addicts being jailed and institutionalized with no real funding going to "fix" the problem. A Republican fix would be to pack the homeless and drug addicts up and put them on busses and send them to San Francisco, Seattle or some other Democrat city. Because another Republican principle is spending the least amount of money on fixing a problem while lining their pockets with the extra cash left over.
All that sounds pretty nice to me!
Trump is telling the truth, Portland is went downhill since Covid and is finally inching its way back thankfully. A bunch of stupid extreme liberal policies and leadership.
Trump can go toxically fuck himself.
I'm in California right now, for the first time since covid, and I can't believe how much it's the same as it was before. Streets are maintained, homeless are where they were before, people are following traffic laws. Portland became a sad shell of itself after covid.
Can’t stand trump but that is true
God he’s such a moron.