It's funny, real estate barons are running the one of the oldest scams in the book in Portland, and we're so caught up in our politics that we are barely noticing. So real quick, let me explain, it goes like this: People in the city start to complain that business interests and police have too much power. So police stop enforcing crimes downtown while businesses start buying land out in the suburbs. After a while, things get bad in the city, and instead of blaming police and business for making it happen, rich people blame the poor people, the media falls for it, and soon everyone wants to move out to the suburbs. And guess who is making a ton of money from those people moving to the suburbs? Those same business people that contributed to the problems in the city! But wait, that's just what has happened so far. So what happens next? Well, after a while, the city gets hollowed out, downtown real estate loses it's value, and the police have a green light to 'clean up' the mess that they helped create. And guess who buys up all the real estate (at a discount price) to 'revitalize' the city, just in time to sell it back to you at a huge markup? That's right, those same businesses that fleeced us when we all moved out to the suburbs! So next time some soft-core conservative tells you they're moving out to the suburbs because things have gotten so bad in Portland, remember that they're the same suckers that will gentrify this city (again) in ten years.