Portland is dying figuratively, literally, and financially | Washington Examiner
By: Washington Examiner
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Just how much decay has Portland brought on itself over the past four years? At least $1 billion worth.
Multnomah County, Oregon, which is home to Portland, lost $1 billion in income between 2020 and 2021 according to a recent analysis. This can be chalked up to a combination of remote work during pandemic restrictions allowing people not to have to live in an expensive city as well as Portland's radical embrace of regular riots throughout 2020.
Democrats running the city and state even shrugged off rioters assaulting law enforcement officers who were trying to protect a federal courthouse and other federal buildings. The damages from riots that targeted federal buildings totaled roughly $2.3 million, another large chunk of losses that can be added to the $1 billion that fled from the city.
The analysis only covers the losses between 2020 and 2021, which have almost certainly risen since then as Portland has fallen further into decay. Drug overdose deaths have become more prevalent, with a 210% increase in fentanyl-related deaths since 2020. The city saw a 50% increase in homelessness from 2019 to 2022, and the city's population has decreased each of the last three years after growing for 30 years straight.
Oh no! Portland's "progressive identity" is being challenged by reality! pic.twitter.com/EjpR86bGGO
— Conn Carroll (@conncarroll) July 29, 2023
As other Democrat-run cities have over the past few years, Portland decided to ignore so-called "quality of life" crimes and abandoned quality of life in the process. Portland's nature areas are being contaminated by homeless encampments and the garbage and feces that come with them, quickly erasing the progress of millions of dollars of investment in those areas. Violence has taken root in the tent city encampments that litter Portland, driven by fentanyl and hard drugs that the city voted to legalize in 2020.
Has Portland learned anything over these four years of misery and over $1 billion in losses? Of course not. The hard drugs are still legal, the homeless encampments remain in place despite a supposed ban, and Mayor Ted Wheeler, who oversaw the lawlessness in 2020, remains in office. All that has changed is that Portland and the surrounding area have become poorer, more drug-ridden, and more undesirable for people to live in.
The first step to recovery for Democrat-run cities is to admit that you have a problem, but Portland is so tied to its "progressive identity" that it can't even do that. If the overdose deaths, rampant homelessness, and decreasing population taking over $1 billion out of the area aren't enough to break its progressive fever, Portland may truly be a lost cause.
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Looks like Democrats supporting riots, defunding police and their general stupidity is actually harming the cities they run.
Woke government makes cities unlivable, see San Francisco also.
Portland is one of the fastest-shrinking US cities, after 15 straight years of growth, Portland’s population began declining in 2020. Thousands of people are leaving Multnomah County, and taking hundreds of millions of dollars with them. Tourists haven’t come back since COVID and the city's unrest.
People, businesses and tourists vote with their feet and Portlandia is losing.
To bad, they make some damn good beer there.