Portland Oregon

Extrapale

WKR
Joined
Aug 29, 2012
Messages
412
It's a shithole. I work in downtown every day. Luckily, I drive my company truck right into a parking garage and don't have to deal with the zombies on the street. The situation is purely the result of local politics.

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Joined
Dec 3, 2022
Messages
66
I’ve talked with quite a few homeless people and a lot of them came from out of state. They came to Oregon because of all the benefits they get there. Different drugs legalized and making a small living doing nothing. Sad, but true.

Red states ship em here by the bus load
I live 45 minutes north in a small town in Washington and we are seeing the carry over. The stuff is moving north and rural. Not at a Portland level but it’s definitely worse in the small towns than it was even 5 years ago.
We are leaving and I’m embarrassed to say Washington/Oregon where my home state. There are many good people here and many conservatives but media makes us out to be progressive liberals that hate guns

I think WA state is also decriminalizing drugs soon??
I just can’t believe this $h:t


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Ehunter

FNG
Joined
Jul 13, 2022
Messages
74
Location
Oregon
It's all about legalized drugs. Every druggy in the nation can live here for free. Gangs own the street. You have a da that won't prosecut. A liberal mayor it's a frigging mess. We always had some homeless but now with the drugs it's out of hand.
 

Yoder

WKR
Joined
Jan 12, 2021
Messages
1,351
Portland is going as planned. Same with the entire state of California, Chicago, Philadelphia and NYC. Let crime run rampant. Next, major stores, hotels and businesses will leave the area. This will cause the commercial real estate market to completely collapse. Next, your billionaire crony friends buy up all the property for pennies on the dollar. Politicians getting paid decide to "get tough on crime" and clean up the area. Billionaires now need to "re-vitalize" the area most likely with some kind of government aid from the taxpayers to fix up the property they already bought for pennies on the dollar. Companies move back in and everyone is happy. These politicians are not stupid. They know exactly what they are doing.
 

Idaboy

WKR
Joined
Oct 22, 2017
Messages
497
The age old question.. Do people do drugs and become crazy or are they crazy and do drugs as a means to self medicate?

I've known plenty of people in my 53 years on this planet to come to a conclusion that people have mental issues and chose alcohol or drugs as a means to cope with their issues more so than a perfectly happy and functional human being just decides to go off the rails in to deep alcoholism or drug dependancy for the sake of it.
There is a major distinction between poor choices vs a psychiatric diagnosis. If someone has a psychiatric condition, when it flares/gets worse/don't take their meds, they lack the insight to understand the implications of their decision, and the spiral begins until they get treatment. Psychiatric disease is NOT a "mind over matter" type of deal.
 

2531usmc

WKR
Joined
Apr 5, 2021
Messages
373
It's all about legalized drugs. Every druggy in the nation can live here for free. Gangs own the street. You have a da that won't prosecut. A liberal mayor it's a frigging mess. We always had some homeless but now with the drugs it's out of hand.
Is it really about legalized drugs or is it about the “non profits” that are taxpayer funded but privately run to “help” the homeless and drug addicted?

Huge money flows into the non profits and the executives that run them are highly paid. Suprisingly, many of the well paid executives are related to the senior politician.

the more druggies your city has, the more taxpayer dollars are needed to “help” them, the more nonprofits get funded, and the more money flows into the pockets of the politicians families and cronies

A win win for everybody except the honest citizens that live there
 

Sanchez

Lil-Rokslider
Joined
Apr 23, 2019
Messages
144
In the Portland news I heard it described as the "Homeless industrial complex".

The industry is the government funded non profits that portray they are addressing the problem when in fact they feed the problem and enable ever increasing numbers of people to be homeless as a life choice. The "non profits" that say they need more money to fix the problem have a vested interest in expanding and perpetuating it.
 

7mm-08

WKR
Joined
Oct 31, 2016
Messages
650
Location
Idaho
There was a time (and not that many years ago) that downtown Portland was a great place to go and wander. Those days are clearly over. And justifiably so. No civilized person in their right mind would inflict that sort of punishment on themselves. Besides it’s downright dangerous. Sad deal.
 
Joined
Jun 5, 2017
Messages
415
Location
Portland, OR
I've rewritten this post about 4 times now. Guess I'll keep it short.

Lived here in the Portland area (Tigard) since 2005. Watched the city go to hell and it's very sad knowing what it used to be like and what it is now. It 100% boils down to the liberal leadership of the city, county, and state.

Thank you Mayor Wheeler and Governor Brown!! You have destroyed a wonderful city. It's criminal what they've done with their policies/agenda and should be held accountable.
 
Joined
Aug 20, 2020
Messages
334
Location
North Louisiana
This is a really complicated situation we've arrived at.
tl;dr: there's not enough trades people, not enough fathers, and too much support for doing nothing. But that's what gets the votes.


I think we are seeing the effects of outsourced manufacturing and a couple generations of entitlement colliding with the opiate/drug/mental health epidemic. There's nothing more destructive than young men with nothing to do, so they either turn to unchanneled violence, drugs, or both in some form. I've been in the shoes of someone with no trade and no job. It's a desolate feeling without a support structure, and many lack that; just look at fatherless household numbers. Many have no role model, nobody that they saw as a provider other than the state.

So I'll jump on my well-worn soapbox.

Bring back domestic manufacturing. Break the college pipeline and reserve it for people who want to go for a reason. Send kids to work a year before they sign up to invest in a degree with less return than a 10-year car loan. Many degrees exist only to perpetuate the university system as a business model. Conversely, in ten years there will not be enough electricians, just to name an example. Growing up, trade school was for dummies, college for smart kids. Wrong. I work with industrial electricians and process control guys who know power structure, instrumentation, and PLCs as well as any electrical engineer. The difference is, they will get their hands dirty (for an electrical [joke]).

Alas, all of the above is sustained because it gets the votes and keeps those in power, in power.
 

Yoder

WKR
Joined
Jan 12, 2021
Messages
1,351
Like I said above, these things are deliberate and planned. These cities aren't like this from drugs or mental health issues. The mayors and Governors WANT it this way or they would get rid of these losers. They pass laws to encourage this behavior. Portland used to be a beautiful city. I lived near there in the late 90's and we used to take the kids to the zoo and walk around downtown. Now it is a zoo.
 
Joined
Jun 5, 2017
Messages
415
Location
Portland, OR
This is a really complicated situation we've arrived at.
tl;dr: there's not enough trades people, not enough fathers, and too much support for doing nothing. But that's what gets the votes.


I think we are seeing the effects of outsourced manufacturing and a couple generations of entitlement colliding with the opiate/drug/mental health epidemic. There's nothing more destructive than young men with nothing to do, so they either turn to unchanneled violence, drugs, or both in some form. I've been in the shoes of someone with no trade and no job. It's a desolate feeling without a support structure, and many lack that; just look at fatherless household numbers. Many have no role model, nobody that they saw as a provider other than the state.

So I'll jump on my well-worn soapbox.

Bring back domestic manufacturing. Break the college pipeline and reserve it for people who want to go for a reason. Send kids to work a year before they sign up to invest in a degree with less return than a 10-year car loan. Many degrees exist only to perpetuate the university system as a business model. Conversely, in ten years there will not be enough electricians, just to name an example. Growing up, trade school was for dummies, college for smart kids. Wrong. I work with industrial electricians and process control guys who know power structure, instrumentation, and PLCs as well as any electrical engineer. The difference is, they will get their hands dirty (for an electrical [joke]).

Alas, all of the above is sustained because it gets the votes and keeps those in power, in power.
Sorry, but the job market is NOT a factor in the destruction of Portland. I work in staffing here and have a very strong read on our job market. There has always been a healthy amount of blue-collar jobs available (construction labor, service industry, manufacturing labor, etc...). We actually do have a strong manufacturing presence in Portland, both large and small company. Heck you probably buy Portland products more than you think (Benchmade, Kershaw knives, Leatherman, Warne Scope Mounts, CRKT just to name a couple).


The problem is the policies put in place by liberals. They decriminalized drug use, openly tried to defund the police, allowed lawlessness to prevail, allow homeless camping everywhere. I can go on and on. For those who fish the Willamette River for salmon, there's a real threat that your rig or catalytic converter WILL BE stolen. The rise in auto theft and petty crime has shot up exponentially. And to no one's surprise, it coincides right with Measure 110 (drug decriminalization)

If these losers on the streets wanted to work, they can find employment with some help and effort. The CHOOSE to be drug addicts and live on the streets. For the few homeless that are truly in a very rough patch in their lives, there are programs available. But once again, you have to put in some effort.
 
Joined
Jan 26, 2021
Messages
1,473
Location
Oregon
I was born and raised in Portland, still live here. It's definitely gone to shit since at least several years ago. Gotten a bit better since covid when it was the worst IMO. Luckily I live and work on the river doing floating homes and marinas so I'm not around all the nonsense as much. I still go downtown sometimes, but I'm always armed
 

Pacific_Fork

Well Known Rokslider
Joined
May 26, 2019
Messages
1,123
Location
North Idaho
I have to visit Portland for the first time for work in a week or two. I am scared to stay in a hotel (well not physically scared as I'm always armed but just hate seeing sh*t hole cities overrun by bums).

Any recommendations on which part of town to stay in? Have some customers I am taking to dinner.
 

WRO

WKR
Joined
Nov 6, 2013
Messages
2,954
Location
Idaho
I have to visit Portland for the first time for work in a week or two. I am scared to stay in a hotel (well not physically scared as I'm always armed but just hate seeing sh*t hole cities overrun by bums).

Any recommendations on which part of town to stay in? Have some customers I am taking to dinner.

Lake Oswego is a good choice.
 

grimm158

FNG
Joined
Jun 7, 2022
Messages
28
Location
Idaho
I've rewritten this post about 4 times now. Guess I'll keep it short.

Lived here in the Portland area (Tigard) since 2005. Watched the city go to hell and it's very sad knowing what it used to be like and what it is now. It 100% boils down to the liberal leadership of the city, county, and state.

Thank you Mayor Wheeler and Governor Brown!! You have destroyed a wonderful city. It's criminal what they've done with their policies/agenda and should be held accountable.
Grew up and lived between OC and Sherwood for the first 32 years of my life before giving up and getting out 2 years ago. It really is sad what's been allowed to happen to what used to be a very enjoyable and beautiful place to live.
 
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