In 60s, Portland's city elites and developers laid waste to vast stretches of North Portland, Albina, the SW Italian neighborhood, and neighborhoods where Memorial Coliseum sits today.

In the 70s and 80s, the city's powerful paid lip service to a revitalization "vision" that included housing for the poor. But stated goals for low-income units were never met, as gentrification displaced countless poor and elderly from long-established, affordable housing pockets (in NW Portland, Hollywood, inner NE, etc.).

In the 90s, forced relocation of "undesirables" out of Old Town/China Town quickly became Rockwood's, Gresham's, and Washington County's problem.

The 2000s saw mass development of toney, expensive boutique regions, like the Pearl, Williams, and Mississippi, with little space for the working poor or those struggling with addiction, metal illness, and homelessness — other than walls of cheaply built, boxy buildings still out of reach for many.

The city's acknowledgment of the needs of the least among us is chilling and historically myopic. And blame for much of the crime and destitution falls squarely on the plate of politicos like Potter, Hales, Adams, and Wheeler.

Sweeps and relocations exacerbate Portland's paroxysms of pain and dispair. Without organizations like Central City Concern, Transitions Projects, Street Roots, Sisters of the Road, CAP, and Multnomah County, Portland would be just another soulless, theme park wasteland.