Remember when we couldn’t go a couple of weeks without the national media writing a “Portland has amazing restaurant/food cart/music/design scene” story? Well, those days are gone. Here’s the latest in a continuing series of reporting with the overriding theme, “Portland is Ruined.” From today’s edition of The Guardian:
Last month, Portland’s city council declared a “housing emergency”, but it may have come too late to save the city’s creative soul.
For Henry Wise and Cindy Cedeno, at least, the Portland they moved to from Tacoma half a decade ago no longer exists. Their neighbourhood – in the city’s inner south-east – used to be cheap and filled to the brim with other young musicians and students. “It’s already so different in so many ways. Everyone we know has been recently pushed out of their homes.”
This (rather dramatic) story goes on to report about rent increases, no-cause evictions, homelessness, and gentrification—pretty much the same stuff we’ve been harping about for the last year. And while you’ve heard me bray on and on about the importance of keeping creatives in this town—I’m not a fan of this article’s tone.
While I firmly believe that creatives are a big part of making a city interesting and worth living in, it’s not just those on the lower spectrum of the pay scale doing the creating. I love a creative business, restaurant, or tech company as well, and think they have a lot to add to the community. What I despise is the entitlement that often comes with money, and the “entertain me” attitude of a few (not all!) newcomers. I’m equally as sick of people shitting on low-wage creatives (who historically make lower wages to pursue their art) and are happy to see them go. It’s everybody’s duty as a resident, whether new or old, rich or poor, to add something new to the mix—because that’s the Portland everyone wants to live in.
And thus endeth today’s lesson. If ya want, read the rest of the article here!
Oh, you hate entitlement? Then why do you keep calling them “no cause evictions?” You know there’s no such thing – it just means the lease ended, and either party had the option of not renewing. If you book a hotel room for three nights, is it a “no cause eviction” on the morning after? Apartments are temporary housing, and no one is entitled to stay on someone else’s property forever.
It is not important to keep creatives in town. Creatives with talent find jobs and stay, the others just want lockers near the cool kids.
Single parents with kids and old folks are the real victims.