The people causing the problems in urban areas are not those leaving, but those staying - the obscenely wealthy who care only about their obscene paychecks (for doing what? certainly not saving lives! working as tech engineers or whatever other bullshit not important overpaid job they're doing) and turning the city into one only for them and those like them while everyone else loses - housing, health care, employment, etc. And government's never ending bending over and allowing corporations to fuck them over and not pay taxes and take take take with a promise never realized of giving back exacerbates the problem.

What you're railing against is a thing of the past, where white flight to suburbs caused urban decay. Now it's wealthy, white entitlement causing the destruction you describe. When cities cater to only the wealthy, the depraved indifference to all others creates the exact scenarios being played out in San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, New York, etc.

Those leaving urban areas for suburban or rural areas face their own set of problems, as these areas rarely, if ever, have any of the amenities cities have and they still face many of the same problems (or more) including homelessness, drug addiction, lack of employment, lack of access to health care - plus lack of public transportation, lack of support services, etc. and even less revenue for all of these things than cities have.

@3 You're clearly not personally responsible for the myriad of problems you are experiencing, nor would I consider you part of the population that is contributing to the problems (solely based on what you've written). I do question your comment about mixed housing, however. The best cities thrive when ALL socioeconomic groups can live side by side and THRIVE. It's the THRIVE part that's missing. When only the rich and the homeless occupy an urban center and everyone else is getting squeezed out, that's a problem. Where's the housing for the middle ground?

I'm someone who lived in both NYC and Seattle on very little money (given my chosen industry in which to work, the music industry) because it was possible to do so at the time. I lived in NYC making $18K a year in 1998 and 1999. When I moved to Seattle in 2002 I did not have a job, got an apartment that cost $650/mo and a job that paid $1000/mo and lived well, especially when my rent remained the same for 4 years while I got different employment that paid much more. I had student loans to pay as well. These scenarios do not exist anymore. There is no way to live in these cities anymore if you are poor unless you live with 20 people and work 3 jobs and even then it's a precarious situation. Add no public transportation to the mix and the problems increase exponentially.

Portland (just like Seattle and San Francisco and probably NYC as well) has made it clear they do not care about anyone in between, doing anything substantial to help end the homelessness population that continues to explode, or stopping the catering to corporations that is making it impossible to generate revenue to make the city a better place for everyone.

I live on the coast and people come here from Portland and talk a lot about how nice it must be to not have to deal with the problems they have in Portland. News flash: there is a huge problem with steady employment here, a near total lack of rental housing that is any way affordable for the people who work here, there are many homeless people (many of whom are denied the extremely limited services here because the "rules" for receiving help include you can't be using and you can't require mental health help and you can't have done anything against the law, ever), and a refusal by those in the local government to do anything about the problems other than criminalize and penalize people for being poor, homeless, sick, and in need of help. There is a serious lack of access to services here, next to non-existent public transportation, major drug addiction problems, and a transient population problem that goes beyond the homeless as the city caters to those who come and go (tourists and other visitors) while not caring at all about the people who live and work here (or just live here or just work here). I spent an entire day calling every single church in my area and every organization that supposedly helps those in need and was stonewalled by all. Not one church here offers a program (not even any shelter) to homeless people or hungry people or people in need in any way. Religion is the hypocrisy of the masses (but I digress) - even as conservatives state that government shouldn't help those in need, one's neighbors should.

Business owners here constantly complain about not being able to keep employees, yet none of them offer FT employment, refuse to help fight the powers that be regarding affordable housing (and to be clear, affordable housing when you're making minimum wage in Oregon is between $500 and $600 for an apartment - NON EXISTENT), expect people to commute for hours to get to their menial, service industry, no benefits, part-time jobs, and without any self-awareness whatsoever, blame everyone but themselves for their problems.

Cities need to stop vilifying the poor and forcing their populations (including the homeless) to explode while catering to the wealthy if anything is EVER going to change. People pretend that "liberal policies" create these situations, when it is clear that conservatives would care EVEN LESS (if that is possible) about these problems. The GOP has made it clear they want people to starve, be sick, and die if they can't contribute to their profit margin. The depraved indifference to life in this country has reached all time highs.

It must suck to have to deal with everything you have to deal with on a daily basis. As much as it sucks for you, I bet it sucks 1000% times worse for all of the people you despise living on the streets.