In case you missed it in Good Morning News last week, the O had an important article last Friday about how Portland’s reputation as a sex trafficking hub is based on completely speculative numbers. Not that prostitution isn’t a problem in Portland—it is—but the data doesn’t show that it’s as big of a problem here as national media has made it out to be:

It turns out the belief that Portland is a hub is unreliable, too.

In the span of two short years, the city known as one of the nation’s most livable has become a magnet for national media reporting on child sex trafficking. With cameras rolling on 82nd Avenue last year, Dan Rather dubbed the city “Pornland” in a documentary…. But as hundreds gather in Portland this weekend for the third-annual Northwest Conference Against Trafficking, with talks by U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden and actress Daryl Hannah, an examination by The Oregonian reveals that no one really knows if the problem in Portland is any worse than anywhere else.

But clearly the reputation is hard to beat. Numerous outlets over the weekend reported on attractive individual Darryl Hannah riding along with Portland Police to strip clubs. She’s quoted at face value as saying: “I was shocked at what I learned. Most of the girls in these strip clubs are not just girls looking to make cash, a majority are represented by pimps.”

…Which is exactly the kind of speculative statistic that the analysts say are often just talk, no data.

Also, bizarrely, just four days this time a year ago, the Oregonian and reporter Hannah-Jones ran an article backing up exactly the “sex trafficking hub” paradigm that the long-term article throws out the window. Headlined “Human Trafficking Thrives in Portland“, the article started with the premise that “Oregon, advocates and law enforcement officials say, is a growing hub for forced prostitution and servitude” and nowhere in the article did it second guess the idea. Update: I fucked up and thought that article was from this January. It’s LAST January. Now it’s not weird—2010 paradigm of porn hub out, 2011 paradigm of not-porn hub in.

Anyway, I’m glad to see a critical take on this idea of Portland as a hub, after its been hammered into the city for years. Not being the epicenter of human trafficking in the USA shouldn’t hurt much-needed projects like constructing a shelter for sex trafficking victims, but when we do work on those projects, public officials and media should at least be working with facts, not hype.

Sarah Shay Mirk reported on transportation, sex and gender issues, and politics at the Mercury from 2008-2013. They have gone on to make many things, including countless comics and several books.

49 replies on ““Pornland” Reputation Built on Speculation.”

  1. This reaffirms my suspicions. I even deny that prostitution is much of a problem in Portland. It exists in every major city. Duh. But when I go to Vancouver, BC, Vegas, or San Francisco, I see obviously drugged out whores walking the street on major thoroughfares. In Los Angeles, I stayed near the airport about a year ago and on a trip to get gas to fill up the night before returning my rental, I saw tons of scantily clad black girls, many looking like they were 15, practically waving down cars. It was shocking. I thought that was just in the movies. And you’ll certainly see trannies, hustlers, and regular hookers in a trip through Hollywood, just like any trip through the Tenderloin in SF. They have problems.

    I drive home down 82nd constantly. A few years ago, it was becoming prominent. And by prominent, I mean you’d see maybe 3 or 4 hookers a night. I think they cracked down because I rarely if ever see them now. I can’t remember the last time I noticed a hooker walking the street in Portland and I live in the right part of town to see them.

    And I totally doubt the child prostitution thing is much more than a huge exaggeration. I noticed last year when this sting was publicized:

    http://theportlander.com/2010/11/08/portla…

    that “The Portland Police Bureau did not recover any underage girls, but made 10 arrests in cooperation with this mission.” In other words, they probably took federal money for the effort and promoted their efforts in the media, but they didn’t actually do a damned thing to stop child prostitution. In fact, this should be evidence that even if it does exist, it’s certainly not the crisis in Portland that the media likes to make it out to be.

    Which wouldn’t be a big deal if it didn’t mean that resources and money get pushed into this high profile effort rather than things like solving murders and stopping gang violence.

  2. The way they give it away in Portland. I find that hard to believe because the locals can’t even support a whore section (my bad- escort section) in the Mercury.

    In the rest of the country you can have a good week of hookers and blow. Around here the best you can do is hippie and pot.

  4. well said Jake. we’ve got whores because we’re the one major metropolis between Seattle and SF. if we’re a “hub”, then it’s because there’s a whole lot of nothing around us. we ain’t that special, it’s just that there’s more business here than, say, Grants Pass.

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