Comments

1

Business owners are really stupid if they are participating in this nonsense. White people in general, however, have always blamed criminals for their problems, even when criminals are not the problem. The police are the problem in Portland. The Federal Goons Trump sent in to assault protesters added to the problem in Portland.

We all know why the police are participating. The police DGAF and they want to blame everyone other than themselves and they are responsible for all of the violence that occurred during the protests. We all watched it live.

As for the additional problems Portland is facing, such has an extreme number of homeless people and an an extreme amount of poverty due to Portland being unaffordable and inaccessible to so many (with an ever widening wealth gap), well businesses in Portland contribute to the problem. When people criminalize the homeless and vilify the poor, problems occur. Refusing to actually do anything about these problems and constantly bitching about any money required to do anything about these problems simply creates more problems.

Portland, despite its pretension of progressiveness, is provincial and racist and way overpriced for what it is and what it has to offer. Instead of learning anything from Seattle, it has just followed the same path and it is seeing the same results. People cannot afford to live there, the homeless population has exploded, Black Lives Matter protesters are scapegoated as the problem (instead of the police and the white supremacists like the Proud Boys and other racists harassing, terrorizing, and murdering people).

Jumping on a band wagon to cry about how dangerous and violent Portland is while not actually doing anything about it and these businesses and Portland at large will get exactly what it deserves. There will be no more tourism boom.

Businesses need to stand up and support Black Lives Matter. Businesses need to stop vilifying the homeless and the poor and DO SOMETHING ABOUT, ACTIONS THAT WILL ACTUALLY HELP PEOPLE AND MOVE THEM OFF THE STREETS AND LIFT PEOPLE OUT OF POVERTY.

The Police in Portland need to be brought to heel. They need to stop being so violent, they need to be de-funded, disarmed, and forced to de-escalate EVERY SINGLE TIME. Those who harm people need to be fired, and those who kill people need to go prison.

Enough bullshit. All of this fake hand wringing about problems that absolutely CAN be solved is just a bunch of bullshit. Put on some big boy and big girl panties and get to work.

If Portland plummets into an economy that resembles the 1990s, well it only has itself to blame. There is more than enough wealth in Portland to solve these problems. For starters, stop giving corporations tax breaks. Stop spending billions on a violent police force that is never held to account for its actions. I don't feel anything for Portland but contempt at its neverending refusal to DO SOMETHING, ANYTHING, to make things better. All Portland knows how to do is talk shit and whine and blame other people for all of its problems.

2

I grew up in Portland, worked with the homeless for years. I moved far away in 2018. Returning recently for a visit, it has become a scary filthy rude place. It takes a weird level of self delusion not to see that. It's not Fox news painting Portland poorly, it's the raw human suffering on the urine soaked streets.

3

And Vera weeps...have you heard the rumor that her ghost has been seem roaming the streets at night shaking her head and wagging her finger?

People, the solution is obvious, we just need to expand the Entertainment District to encompass the whole of downtown. Enterprise Zones will get us back on track!

It's a disgustingly obvious PR campaign, why else would Sam be haunting the halls again.

4

it's funny someone not in organ it's like 1 news portlandmercury vs everyone other statsions if fox news and cnn, abc.. was all on the same side

there was a year a whole year of riots, not just 1 tiny one and not just 2 blocks
https://golocal.solari.com/mapping-the-portland-oregon-riots/
4 areas

when people say The Police in Portland need to be brought to heel. They need to stop being so violent, they need to be de-funded, disarmed, and forced to de-escalate EVERY SINGLE TIME

they need to be cautious since it's just a job, people can quit anytime.
is life or money more important to someone who is a cop, if i only had a cop car and vest why would i want to work with that kind of pay, i wouldn't my life is more important then money

5

This is a dangerously written article full of the same kind of bias I see from the other side of the debate. It doesn't matter how many street corners the fires are limited to. What matters is that the world watched us let it burn. If there are no boundaries for social norms then whatever bad thing happens next in Portland, it shouldn't surprise us.

6

I live on the outskirts of town, on a nice acre. I had never lived on even a modest parcel of forest land, until a few years ago. It's lovely. Its really neat seeing nature out your windows, including wildlife, like birds, skunks, chipmunks, squirrels, coyotes, deer, etc.

One thing I hadn't counted on, though - that wildlife is destructive. Squirrels tear up anything soft under my cars' hoods. Chipmunks make nests in my A/C, then die when it gets hot, and cost me $1000 in repairs. Skunks spray my stoop, causing me half a day of scrubbing with baking soda so I can walk out my front door without gagging. Woodpeckers drill holes in my side trim. Coyotes crap in my yard, and eat my chickens.

I've learned that such is the coat of country living. I have a choice: I can ignore the damage, complain about it, but soon most of what I have would be destroyed. Or, I can come to terms with the fact that this is what I chose, pony up the dough, and do something about it. I shouldn't have to spend my hard-earned money because of wildlife, but such is life.

People in PDX need to start seeing the problem of homelessness in the same way. It doesn't matter why people are homeless. Let me repeat: IT DOESN'T MATTER WHY THEY ARE HOMELESS. They are, they're there, and you need to do something about it. Oh, but I shouldn't have to pay money so some bum can have a place to live! Well boo-hoo. I shouldn't have had to pay $1000 to fix chipmunk damage to my car. But it was either that, or drive around in a car that smelled like death, retching along the way.

Either start supporting initiatives that will get people off the streets, and the tax increases that will be needed to fund those initiatives, or shut up and stop complaining. What did people think was going to happen when they continually voted to defend social safety nets? When they decided to maximize rent profits while driving people with lesser means away?

The wildlife is wreaking havoc. Time to pay the repair bill, or enjoy your extra profits while stepping over feces and urine in the street.

7

I moved 2400 miles away from Portland because it's violent and discusting now. Rioters and drug addicts everywhere. Crime rampid. Murders. If you say otherwise your a liar.

8

@7 I say otherwise. Rioters and drug addicts are not everywhere. You can call me a liar. Doesn't change the facts. Crime statistics are easy to look up. Reality exists even if you choose to deny it.

Portland has problems, but your hyperbole about the crime (especially rampant crime and murder) is absurd. Even with the most homicides in 26 years, Portland only had 55 homicides in 2020. Portland has a population of 664,605. 55 murders is less than 0.0001% of the population.

Property crime is another matter. Property crime in Portland is higher than other, much larger cities. More proof that cops do not prevent crime. PPD is one of the most violent forces in the nation and if they were doing their supposed jobs (preventing crime), there would be far less property crime. There is absolutely no point in spending billions on violent police force that does nothing to prevent crime and does everything to contribute to the violence against human beings.

Being homeless is not a crime. Portland has an immense problem with homelessness.

9

I'd like to see leaders like the author propose solutions. Everyone wants to restore Portland's livability, it just has to be inclusively livable. Police reform is a tough problem, but every major city in the U.S. has that problem. We can fix it here and then build back better, with more jobs and a better life for everyone

10

Wow, the Portland Mercury blaming business and the police, stop the presses!

11

Denial is rampant isn't it. You let rioters destroy Portland for months on end, and letting them do more damage in 6 months than the last 20yrs combined.

Defunding the police is brilliant, everyone knows less police means lower crime. You let the convicts run the prison, and now your walking around wondering who's going to pick up the dog crap, your not going too.

The problem isn't homelessness, its not police, its the absolute lack of any kind of leadership from Mayor Wheelie and Governor Brownie. Those two should be sued for allowing this to happen. It's much easier to stop something from happening vs rebuilding what you've let get destroyed.

It will take decades or more for downtown to recover, if it ever does. All the riots that Portland refused to call roots is why this happened. When Trump sent federal agents to stop these riots, it was the one thing in his entire 4 yrs that he did right, and Wheelie sends them home.

Portland is a sh**hole now, a laughing stock to the entire US, and a perfect example of what having weak, if not non existent, leadership looks like. Keep blaming cops, antifa, blm, its the Mayor and Governors fault, you elected them, its your own fault.

It used to be a beautiful place to live, but you give keys to the city to people just wanting to destroy that city, and now you wonder why Portland is a sh**show.

Any future riot, protest, gathering, go in swinging clubs until these bottom feeders get the message that Portland doesn't belong to them, it belongs to tax paying, legal, law building citizens of Portland.

Portland deserves this, wallow around in your filth, enjoy garbage and feces laden sidewalks, closed businesses, and an empty, putrid, downtown full of people doing meth and heroin legally, since you just made possession of all drugs legal just so you don't have to go through the trouble of arresting them.

I'm sure you'll still find the time to blame this on someone else, because your keeping Portland weird, I wouldn't say weird, I would say you people are f**ked up. You, and you alone caused this, you deserve this, and in 5 yrs Wheelie and Brownie will be off to there next political office somewhere else.

RIP city is THE perfect name for you now. Enjoy

12

I mean really, blaming the CRIMINAL, what kind of human being would stigmatize our local CRIMINALS with being CRIMINALS!

13

Is there no scenario where we can accept that the "Portland is burning" story is nonsense and yet admit that property destruction, boarded windows, grafitti, and homelessness are not fine? It seems to swing from one hyperbole to the other.

14

This doesn’t even make sense. I’m a small business owner and architect in downtown Portland. I still go to my office everyday. I grew up here. I live down the street from my parents who still live in the same house I grew up in. My kids go to school here and I hope they raise their families just down the street from me. In other words, I love Portland. But make no mistake, Portland has very serious issues to solve and businesses are rightly sounding the alarm. There’s a certain pretzel logic to this article, whose central thesis is businesses are promoting their own demise? If anything, businesses were silent too long out of a concern about optics. Rents are not going down because of bad publicity, but rather real problems. But they can be solved. Not by people who say there isn’t a problem, but by those who have the courage to point those problems out, no matter how painful, and begin a real conversation that leads to solutions.

15

This article is sick and offensive but unfortunately is not shocking. Oregon has become a leader of the liberal echo chamber and the breading grounds for such ludicrous thoughts and ideas. Blaming Fox or the prior administration on Portland problems is only going to allow the problems to continue and grow. What will you do now that Biden is president, Fox is less than 1/10 th of overall media coverage and Facebook, Twitter Instagram, etc. all continue to shut down alternative though so that you only hear the same liberal nonsense that you hear in your own head while alone in your own house? You don't actually have to answer because we already know what you'll do because the leftist liberal mind is absolutely predictable in this situation. You will double down on your assertions, hunt other sources down though they are a fraction of the influence, you will continue to lie and cover up the truth of these riots, bad policies and their results. You will blame shift, project and drum up false witnesses which support your narratives and ideologies. You do these things so that you can continue with the things you love which only benefit the few but bring destruction and hopelessness to the majority. You drive out good people, business and anyone with contrasting ideals and morals and you do it with a zeal believing in your heart that since its "right" to do it your way, those that are negatively impactacted must get over it or good riddens to them anyway. You justify the means by the end and march forward committed in your ways by all means and cost. Well... this is the cost, Portland is the result. Unfortunately for many in Portland, they will have no other option but to stick it out until until the bitter end. When... or what will it take to humble yourselves and admit that your own policies, politicians and culture are the driving forces majority responsible for the streets, businesses and outcomes.

16

Leave it up to you, the Cancel culture, who doesn’t know right from left or right from wrong or up from down, to re-write history and try to pretend the riots in Portland were just “peaceful demonstrations.” I live here and I can tell you that all you leftists have destroyed the real estate industry in downtown Portland. And small business, which employs 2/3 of all workers. They are putting their properties up for sale and abandoning their leases by the thousands. You have pretty much destroyed the city. I plan on moving away as soon as possible, You can write as many articles pretending “there’s no problem” as you want to. But it’s going to be decades before anyone wants to come back to Portland. It’s a war zone down there and if you don’t believe it I will post some video that I took after the demonstrations and prove it.

17

This article hardly seems like a unifying attempt to paint Portland fairly. Ironic. Just like the failures to correct the large media conglomerates. Again you make a push to blame anyone but who's responsible. Call the riots and the peaceful protests that were mislabeled what they were when they were. Blame PPD, Business, AND the people. There's enough to go around..... but you might be a little late. Most of it has been peacefully redistributed.

18

Lol, are you willfully ignornant? It takes more than plastic bottles and shaking fences... It takes setting a federal courthouse on fire, breaking every window in sight, looting, and of course politically motivated first degree murder... But keep thinking it was just peaceful people singing folk songs on the streets...
I lived in Portland from 2015 until last March. The city has progressively gotten worse. More crime, more homelessness, more trash, more open drug use, and finally more violence. I'm glad I left. You can keep your ruined city. You can thank your misguided, and terrible politicians and their horrible policies.

19

Well the trolls are out on this comment board, aren't they. Most action the PM's seen in a long time.

Ah yes the liberals are always the problem. Because cities run by Republicans have no homeless people or any other problems. All cities run by Republicans are utopias with an endless stream of money, money, money flowing into the coffers and everyone is happy and healthy and everything smells like roses.

FFS, again, crime statistics are very easy to find and to look up. So are population statistics and where more people live (like cities, actual cities, not Portland, but real cities with millions of people) there is more crime. You know what else other kind of information is readily available? Facts regarding where Republicans hold power and where Democrats hold power and it's so interesting that all of the hell holes the Republicans blame for all of the ills of society are run by Democrats and yet all of those same hell holes provide money to all of the Republican utopias to such a degree that if those Republican utopias were denied all tax dollars funneled to them via the Democratic hell holes there would literally be NO Republican utopias!!!

Typical bullshit. Let's not discuss the fact that there are real problems (just scream the world is ending it's all the libruls fault!!!) or the real solutions (there are actually people who solve these problems for a living and have shared that information with the world and there are success stories out there).

Trump screamed for four years that America was shit hole that he needed to make great (again). Yet look where we are. Look what has happened under Republican rule of the nation. So, please, spare us the "liberal echo chamber" line when Republicans literally destroy everything and have nothing to offer other than death (literally)!

20

https://www.baltimoresun.com/opinion/editorial/bs-ed-0902-gop-states-underperform-20200831-kuquanxy4jd6zn55hqi76ery6i-story.html

What states have produced the least educated populace? That would be Mississippi and West Virginia. They are governed by Republicans. Which has the greatest percentage of people living below the poverty line? There is Mississippi again. Mississippi hasn’t had a Democratic governor in two decades. Alabama, Arkansas, South Dakota, Oklahoma, that’s not just a list of states where the GOP has a lock on statewide elected office, it also happens to be a partial list of states with the highest infant mortality rates. You name the measure of prosperity, education, health and well-being and chances are a state with a Republican governor and usually a Republican-controlled legislature have the worst outcomes.

The list of least federally dependent states include New Jersey, Delaware, California, Minnesota and Washington. A few red states like Kansas make the list, too, But then Kansas has a Democratic governor.

If Democratic-control of cities is the sole or even primary reason for the difficulties they face, then why isn’t Republican control of states perceived similarly?

21

https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/columnist/2018/10/21/midterms-poorest-states-have-republican-legislatures/1694273002/

Eighteen of the 19 poorest states have legislatures where both chambers are Republican controlled. New Mexico (46th richest, fifth poorest) is Democratic. But there isn’t another blue or purple state until you get to purple Maine (31st richest, 20th poorest) with its “split” legislature of one party in each chamber. All the states in between (such as Tennessee and Florida) are Republican, both chambers. So is Michigan, where Republicans hold all high state offices (where Donald Trump won in 2016). Above New Mexico, you jump all the way to middle of the pack Vermont (27th richest, 24th poorest) to find a state with both legislative chambers held by Democrats.

But all five richest states have both legislative chambers controlled by Democrats – Maryland, New Jersey, Hawaii, Massachusetts and Connecticut. Overall, Democrats dominate the 20 richest states.

22

Here's a conservative take on the problem: even it focuses on the very real problem of the lack of mental health care and how it is associated to homelessness (when nearly 50% of the homeless are mentally ill, who is responsible? Of course the article leaves out the salient point that Republicans (namely President Reagan) shut all federal mental health institutions and then the states followed. When you take the entire population living in mental institutions and put them out on the streets, what, exactly, do you think will happen?

Why Portland’s Homeless Problem Is the Worst in the Nation
https://www.heritage.org/poverty-and-inequality/commentary/why-portlands-homeless-problem-the-worst-the-nation

23

This author is an example of the rot that is bringing Portland to its knees. Truth means nothing to these people, they put their sentimentality above all, willfully blind to the facts all around them. It’s as if the fool missed that the murder rate and other violent crime have skyrocketed, not to mention property crime. Literally, if something is not nailed down here it is stolen, and if it can’t be stolen, it’s vandalized. They destroyed the GD Elk, for God’s sake. Portland is the broken windows theory in reverse, basically do nothing about any “minor” crime ( i.e., anything short of murder, rape, armed robbery, violent assault, etc), and it breeds major crime. Behold your works.

The ideologically-based delusion and lies of this author and the other enablers like them who have destroyed this city is sickening.

24

@Christina Rae plenty of trolls here to be sure, but also plenty of people who agree with the author's main message but don't like his attempt to trivialize unrest in Portland at the same time, and the effect it has on small businesses and City residents. Yes, at first much of the unrest was limited to a few square city blocks. At first it was mostly graffiti and throwing bottles/fireworks or shining lasers at police. Then there was a homicide, several assaults, then an entire City block taken over by an armed group threatening press and residents and preparing for all-out war, then regular destructive nighttime marches through large areas of the city. Now we have several small groups thinking they can act with impunity and let the police take all the blame for violent confrontations even while they carry Molotov cocktails and crowbars through downtown and patrol residential streets with assault rifles to keep out cops and journalists.

Can we not criticize PPB and the PPA while also admitting that the current trend of social unrest is something that needs to be addressed as a city? That doesn't have to mean a police-focused response. That means better community engagement between the groups and individuals that have been trying to serve everyday Portlanders for decades and the mostly white youth who are using the cause of racial justice as an excuse to try to burn the whole system down. Well, most Portlanders don't want the entire system burnt down. Most Portlanders also don't cry over a few broken corporate storefront windows or think that any protest movement is always going to 100% sanitized family fun. We want justice and progress, but don't think the roving bands of young anarchists smashing up the city on a regular basis are accomplishing that or even vested in this city's overall well-being. People like the author of this article need to get real about the fact that these groups harm Portland and accomplish nothing, and that doesn't have to come at the expense of calling out police and big business interests.

25

As a minority who moved to Portland in hopes of a great place to raise kids in 2017 with alot of culture and good schools. Well that all came to a end after the city let the place burn to the ground. The amount of graffiti,drug Needles and civil uncertainty plus the fact my wife works downtown and has been verbally yelled at called names, called a Nazi (crazy cause she's not even white) lead us to believe that Portland was a good place at one time but the cities direction and lack of leadership or fortitude to take care of the problem has us leaving in 2021. Were moving to Bozeman I guess to live with the Nazis but not be assaulted or called one for not throwing bricks on my days off. Businesses are leaving because it's not safe thanks to people dressed in all black marching around making sure you yell with them and boy if you don't. Be ready.

28

While your at it why don't you blame the destruction of Germany during WWII by the Allies. Nevermind the 13 million non-Aryans who were exterminated by the Nazis, or the fact that Germany started the war by invading Poland, later France and the USSR.
Your absolution of Anarchists who have caused trouble in downtown Portland on almost every night for more than a year now is so insane its almost humorous. You begin by saying its the Police and downtown business interests and once we starr reading you blame news outlets, the former head of the NAACP...
Lets make it easy for you, just blame the 90% of all Americans who want to avoid places with ongoing conflict, places full of debris and covered in human waste.
Portland needs to fix its problems, particularly with its nightly unrest and street battles with Law Enforcement before visiting or investing in it.
America there is a big beautiful country out there waiting for you to explore, invest in and settle down in, Portland, Oregon is 1 of tge few exceptions that you should take a pass on.

29

@ C Rae, perhaps in the past PDX's crime is low, but what say you about 100 shootings in 2021 already? You vilify the PPB yet they've lost 27M in funding and crime is rampant. The only reason I imagine it doesn't bother you is because it isn't happening outside your door.

32

I have lived in Portland probably twice as long as most of you have. I can remember when the Hilton hotel downtown was still the 2nd tallest building downtown in the business core and Waterfront Park was yet to be built. The problem is not the businesses or the media. If anything the businesses are the victims in this sick liberal game of “Look the other way and hope that it goes away”. Well it hasn’t and it likely won’t.

I love that The Mercury, which is usually home to all things non-conformist, is all of a sudden wanting to get back to the “Good old days”. You just can’t make this stuff up.

33

Well now it's clear this is a whole new crop of PM readers/commenters/trolls because I'm usually accused of bringing up my residency in NYC (and/or Seattle) and being from the east coast as disqualifying me from understanding what a special flower Portland is and why don't I just go back to where I came from (because that's the favorite thing for people from here to do - tell people to go back where they came from).

Hey, I love my life here in Oregon. I don't live in Portland, but I spend time there. I also know people who live there and, fascinatingly enough, they don't see Portland the way this story does or any of the screaming heads here do. I spent more time there when I lived in Seattle. And when I lived in Seattle, both Seattle and Portland were smaller, affordable, decent places to live (and it wasn't that long ago - early 2000s). I paid $650/mo. rent (for four years, before the rent started going up), I could drive from Seattle to Portland in 2 1/2 hours (instead of the 6 hour slog it now takes due to traffic) and Portland was like a speck of town compared to the small wannabe city of Seattle after living in New York City for years (and working and playing there for even more years on top of that while living in NJ).

It's easy to complain about everything while doing nothing to actually do anything about everything about which you are complaining.
It's easy to blame everyone else, especially the most vulnerable, who are also those with the least power.
It's easy to pretend the PPD are not a problem (the DOJ has only investigated them and sanctioned them and written them up as one of the most violent departments in the nation, next to Seattle of course).
It's easy to call Black Lives Matter protests riots when you live in the most racist city in the most racist state of the PNW (based again on history, facts, and current reality). I mean it's not like the Federal goons tear gassed and shot and physically assaulted and snatched people engaged in exercising their First Amendment rights (oh wait they did AND THEY POISONED THEM AND THE WATER SUPPLY OF PORTLAND BY USING CHEMICALS LONG AGO OUTLAWED ON THE USE OF PEOPLE IN WAR, LET ALONE ON THE STREETS OF THE UNITED STATES). See when white people gather in mobs and destroy things like, say, the United States Capitol, that's just angry people expressing themselves! Black Lives Matter protesters demanding the police stop murdering Black People? Those are riots that must be stopped with such excessive force people watching thought they were seeing a war zone, not a four square area in downtown Portland.
It's easy to pretend that the damage being done downtown is not being done by white people (forget that there is literally who knows how many months' worth of video of it all).

It's easy to call other people names and pretend they would cry if the violent and murderous police force were forced to change, be de-funded, be held accountable for their violence against the people of Portland. That's called projection and there are plenty of people, including myself, who would never call the police. Ever. Calling the police is the number one way to get someone killed. Period.

And it's easy to ignore all facts, statistics, truth and reality and continue to blame the liberals for everything when that is just not the case (but it doesn't fit your bullshit narrative).

Excuse me while I eye roll myself into another dimension and enjoy the fact that I don't have to interact with any of you in real life. And if Portland is the unlivable shit hole you all believe it to be and it will remain as such, well then those of us that live in reality will enjoy our time spent there after you all leave because it is too uninhabitable for any of you to be there. It will be refreshing to be able to go to Portland when that happens.

Your dreams of Republicans doing anything about anything at all and them and cops being the solution to all of Portland's ills are beyond fantasy. Hey maybe you need a Q Anon freakazoid like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene to come here and set this place straight.

35

@ Armin, @ PDXHell, I personally want to thank you both for your 1st hand accounts of how the ongoing protests and riots have had Portland small business owners, no one else posting these comments, nor the author himself, Wm. Steven Humphery has any skin in this situation plaguing businesses in Portland, like either of you do. And while @ Christina Rae of NYC calls out conservative Republican cities in 1 of her comments, might I add my 2 cents. In any of those Republican cities the unrest whether it was caused by Right Wing mobs or Left Wing mobs would not have endured for more than a couple of days. And how can I say that with any certainty, its because anyone who was part of a mob that threw a molotov cocktail at anyone and then failed to disperse would have spent the next 30 days in jail. In Portland the same protestors who are standing next to violent agitators the night before are back out the next night and the night after that. Portland's Criminal Justice System or lack of any criminal prosecutions of those committing anarchy on its streets is the real reason Portland finds itself in its current state of chaos and uncertainty.

36

@35 you live in a fantasy land. The United States Capitol was attacked on January 6, 2021 by white supremacist terrorists who KILLED a cop (among others) and every single one of them went HOME. Sure, some have been arrested and charged since (many of them allowed to go home and wait for their trials watching Netflix and chilling on their parents' couch). Two of them (that have been arrested and charged, who knows how many more) are Proud Boys hailing from Oregon! So please spare me the fairy tale of how if people would spend time in jail, because that is 100% bullshit. Kyle Rittenhouse walked down the street and shot three people, murdering two of them, waved to the cops and got in a car and drove home with his mommy. And after being charged with his crimes? He went out and partied with know white supremacists. Your narrative is bullshit. You want to live in a police state where protesters are arrested, imprisoned and murder? Russia is the place for you. Until the Q Anon conspiracy theorists and Trump cult turn this country into the police state they all have such a hard on for it to be (just like you), it's not going to happen.

Again, there are real solutions to the problems Portland has. Other places have succeeded in addressing and minimizing these problems. There are thousands of examples and as many resources out there. For example: every single place in the United States that has successfully reduced homelessness, poverty, and crime has done so by doing three things: give homeless people a place to live, spend money on supporting communities to lift people out of poverty, and change how the police do their jobs.

Every municipality in this country that refuses to take the most basic, the easiest, and the most needed actions in order to solve the problems it faces, will never see positive change. Occam's Razor applies here.

House the homeless.

Help those who need mental health (and addiction and physical health care).

Help lift those in poverty out of poverty by spending money to invest in communities, to raise wages, to improve schools, to provide affordable housing, to decrease the wealth gap, to bring social and racial justice in line (and by doing so, increase the quality of life and decrease crime).

De-fund the police. Hold violent cops to account - if they harm someone they lose their job and pension, if they kill someone they go to prison. No exceptions. No qualified immunity. No more spending billions of dollars on cops and military gear cops should not have in the first place (they should not be at war with people and they are).

Portland is never going to solve its problems by doing nothing.
Portland is never going to solve its problems by fear mongering.
Portland is never going to solve its problems by increasing its ever more violent police force.
Portland is never going to solve its problems by refusing to do what NEEDS to be done.

Business owners and can whine about how shitty everything is until the end of time (or leave Portland) but neither of those things will change how shitty everything is (according to them).

If half as much time was spent taking concrete action to solve problems as is spent on complaining about them and blaming (whoever you want to blame here), the problems would be solved already.

I don't have any power to bring about any change other than writing to my representatives (which I do pretty much on a daily basis) and voting. Those who have the power, including business owners, need to be doing what needs to be done to bring about change. Those who live in Portland have put the people in Portland in power. The only way to get different results is to put different people in power. That is one of the millions of reasons Joe Biden was elected as President of the United States and Trump was removed from office.

38

2 thoughts. First, I spent a month in Portland in 2005 and told my friends what a friendly live-and-let-live culture I saw. I was back in 2015 and everything changed to angry and judgemental. It was very disappointing. Second, the author claims "every.single.city" has the same issues. WRONG. Miami is booming, along with Tampa, Ft. Lauderdale and Jacksonville. Check out Austin, Houston and many other thriving cities such as Denver. Get your head out of the sand. 100+ nights of setting fires and throwing objects at court houses, immigration facilities, etc is a recipe for disaster.

39

LOL I love it when people tell me who I am. You literally have 7 comments on this forum. I've been reading the PM and commenting here since 2014. Just like all the trolls before you, make this personal, make this about me, pretend to know anything about me, hurl insults because you literally have no critical thinking skills or original thoughts and ignore everything said to refute your nonsense on this forum. Lesser trolls than you have been taken out and never heard from again. Enjoy your brief tenure while it lasts.

40

What?! I was all set to boycott Portland precisely because the police are racist and operating a white supremacy culture. 6 months of protests says that’s true. Change my mind, I’ll reconsider.

41

What a bull@#$@ article. You can blame Ted Wheeler and the city will continue to get worse. I couldn't believe the difference driving through a month ago.

I loved that city, but I got tired of picking heroin needles in my lawn, meth addicts sleeping next my house, break-ins, 2 cars stolen, shootings... I could write a book of all the shit we had to deal with. Everyday was a fight to protect our property.
It wasn't like that at all when I moved there. I left in 2018.

42

It's a petty mean place. The ugly tone of this article proves it.

43

Why would I go to Downtown Portland for anything? It is strictly Loserville. What a shame the Liberal Morons in Government let a rabble of Anarchists destroy the vitality of what was once one of America's most beautiful Urban Areas.
I would not spend a dime or an hour in such a place, and I am not alone. The scum that run the streets in Portland need to go if the city is ever to recover.

44

My home has been broken into 3 times during the pandemic. I live in the Central Eastside. It's definitely not a fun time living here. We have been broken into 6 times in the last 3 years.

45

Portland Mercury officially jumps the shark. One of the dangers of this virus is the ability to penetrate the blood-brain barrier (it includes Rabies toxin spike protein). Once this happens people are not able to fully control their thoughts and actions (they become confused, delusional, and some quite rabid). I fear the author is another victim.

46

Portland Businesses are not the cause of homelessness.

Portland Businesses are not the cause of the many many many protests/riots (Trump elected, Proud Boys, BLM, heck even Biden winning) that have occurred in Portland over the last few years.

Portland Businesses are not the cause of police violence.

Far better to think of Portland Businesses as the “goose that lays the golden eggs”. They bring people into the inner city to shop, they provide people with jobs, they pay taxes to the city. We don’t want to chase them away. That would be detrimental to the finances and livability of the city.

47

CR - 9 comments and you are calling everyone else trolls? Come now. You live out on the coast, right? Have you ever lived in Portland? How often to you make it downtown?


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