In a sign of either hope or desperation, Rose City voters decided to throw out their entire government structure and replace it with a weaker mayor, expanded City Council and ranked choice voting.
A major driving factor was the passage of “Measure 110” decriminalizing all drugs in 2020, which was backed by 74 percent of Multnomah County’s residents. Voters couldn’t — or at least didn’t — anticipate how this policy change would reshape a city already strapped for money, dealing with a public health crisis and confronting rising rates of homelessness and fentanyl abuse.
Drug use shot up, homelessness worsened and taxpayers fled.
Seemingly everyone wants to be part of fixing the city’s woes. There are 19 people running for mayor and 98 people seeking seats on the City Council. They’re nearly all campaigning on left-of-center platforms — this is Portland, after all. But progressives often put blame for the policy failures on unexpected circumstances like the fentanyl crisis and on problems with implementation, while moderate candidates are bemoaning the city’s far-left shift and pushing for bigger policy corrections.
The ramifications are measurable: Nearly 12,000 people moved out of Multnomah County between 2020 and 2023, per data from Portland State University. The exodus between 2020 and 2021 alone took nearly $1.1 billion in taxable income out of the city, according to data analyzed by the Economic Innovation Group. Portland’s once bustling downtown is nearly empty, and a negative national reputation clouds its economic future.
Rep. Earl Blumenauer, a retiring Democrat congressman who has represented parts of Portland since 1996 and before that served on both the Multnomah County Commission and the City Council, said parts of downtown look “like Dresden in World War II.”
“I’ve spent 54 years trying to make Portland the most livable city in the country or in the world,” said Blumenauer, his voice cracking, in a mid-September interview as he prepared to pack up his Capitol Hill office. “No one’s going to describe it like that now.”
The rest is about their “summer of love”. These retards are so broken they can’t do anything but continue to double down and implode.
“I’ve spent 54 years trying to make Portland the most livable city in the country or in the world,”
"DURR I MAEK POLICY DAT TIGHTIE RIGHTIES TELL ME DO BAD TING, BAD TING HAPPEN, SO I MAEK MOAR BAD POLICY, BAD TINGS HAPPEN, NOW MY PEOPLE HURT REEL BAD. I BIG SAD. WHY DESE TINGS HAPPEN DURRRRRR."
I stopped feeling sympathy for leftists a long damn time ago. For over 4 decades now, I have watched the right point out in detail how a proposed lefty's fever dream will go tits up, only to be shouted down and called every name under the Sun. And then the predictions of failure come true, and leftists just sit there and either deny the failure or downplay it. Enjoy the shit you voted for, dumbasses.
It's like having a friend with a personality disorder. They want to do something destructive, you tell them it's a bad idea, they get mad at you and accuse you of being a downer. They do the thing, bad shit happens, they get mad at you for being right. They learn nothing and go do something else destructive.
At a certain point, the only thing you can do is disengage entirely and let them ruin their own lands lives far enough away that you aren't part of the collateral damage.
Except in this example, your "friend" kicks your door in at 3AM after being released from jail for burning their house down, raids your fridge and starts redecorating.
If you go to https://old.reddit.com/r/Portland it's a joke. I literally can only imagine they instantly ban anybody saying anything negative about their shithole. Literally the entire world knows Portland is a dump but every post you find is like a weird "there is no war in Ba Sing Se" cultist pretending everything is great. There isn't a single post, even sorted by Controversial, that is saying anything is wrong.
I have watched the right point out in detail how a proposed lefty's fever dream will go tits up, only to be shouted down and called every name under the Sun.
I feel like this whenever some of our regulars object to acknowledging racial realities.
Ubiquitus fentanyl imported from China has its dealers and recreational abusers gather there, with more people falling into it.
Surprised Pikachu with OD blue cheeks face.
Sure, that was totally unpredictable and not the direct consequence of the decisions to let drug use go rampant by decriminalizing / not enforcing laws.
They say the people who have the real power are the people who write the descriptions of those propositions. Similar to Congress, you can call it the Rainbow Puppies and Kittens Act, while it actually legalizes fentanyl. Supposedly, this is how the propositions that made so much theft a misdemeanor came to pass in California.
It helps that people are stupid, but they are also misled.
Marijuana doesn't "entice" you to do harder drugs. What it does do is turn you into such a loser that you fall into the sphere of influence of people who do do harder drugs who then make them easily accessible to you.
That argument was always about as valid as ''alchool is a gateway drug''.
People who do hard drugs and become dysfunctional and criminal due to that usually also did marijuana. But they usually started mind-altering substances with alchool.
I still recall that chick in college who was baffled upon meeting someone who never drank alchool. It's like she was agressively offended.
I'm on board with building a wall around it so the dems don't infect other cities with their disasterous and failed ideas. I imagine the ones on the inside will be glad too -- "We don't need your help anyhow! We can just fix this by going farther to the left!"
"The City Council instituted some changes that BLM advocates were asking for, like cutting $15 million from the police department budget and shuttering the Gun Violence Reduction Team, following findings that it disproportionately targeted Black and Brown men. But in the aftermath, gun violence shot up, reaching an all-time high of 101 homicides in 2022."
That's why leftist retards will never solve anything. That gun violence reduction team was not targeting blacks and browns. Blacks and browns were the ones doing all the gun violence.
They need a black guy to come in and say: I'm fucking targeting violent crime regardless. I'm only kind of kidding. You see these black guys like Eric Adams and Andre Dickens get elected for cleanup, and it's probably better than a BLM lover of whatever race.
My hardcore leftist brother lives in Portland and he has assured me that everything bad you hear in the media about Portland is greatly exaggerated and that the city is doing just fine.
Being a hardcore leftist also means my brother is fucking retarded when it comes to political matters.
Oh yeah, for sure. He took out over $40K in student loans to get a degree in "Film Production". Because he's totally gonna use that degree working in retail.....
So what happens is they reference Powells Book Store, but not anything a block away from it. The food trucks are slowly going away, and there are homeless encampments everywhere, but Powells is fine.
Lol I'm in the same situation but with a sister. To be fair, I visited Portland a few weeks ago and it was mostly great. The occasional drug addict tranny (literally only saw two my entire time there) or degenerate flyer was the worst of it.
The cherry on top of the shit sundae is that he and his wife are the owners of a rescue pitbull. They're both the very typical pitbull apologists, claiming their dog is just the sweetest and would never hurt anyone......
which would explain why they were so confused when their dog bit the dogsitter just a few hours after they left the house and they had to have his wife's elderly mother take over watching the dog and they spent the rest of their vacation worrying if the mother was okay.
The city is falling apart around them and their solution is to just keep doing the same shit over and over again. At least it's entertaining for those who don't live there.
Intersectional Social Justice is a mind rot disease that make it impossible for the instutitions and individuals consumed by it to even think that the foundation of their mindset is why they keep turning everything to shit.
The people running to ''fix'' the place have the same beliefs that pushed the previous politicians to vote for what turned the place into what it is now.
Replacing White people with non-Whites cannot ever be bad. Pampering drug abusers and welfare leeches cannot ever be why more people turn to that. Because those categories are victims, and the opressors ( White people ) have to pay for it and accept all the problems the former cause and the solution is always more ressources for non-Whites, welfare and ''helping'' drug users with ''harm reduction'' (enabling, no jail or jail being turned into resorts where inmates criminals have the freedom to network, buy stuff from outside and trafic forbidden stuff inside ).
Those replacing the city government will only offer radical and costly policies which will only make things even worse. Good. I hope Portland becomes the first major US city to become abandoned in the 21st century to serve as an example for what retarded leftism leads to when it has absolute control.
I hope Portland becomes the first major US city to become abandoned in the 21st century
Why? The cancer cells that are the people leftists there will just spread to other cities.
Related: If someone rolls in to your neighborhood with a Jersey, DC, or California license plate (this is not an exhaustive list) and says "Hi, we're your new neighbors!" You need to politely but firmly inform them that they will not be living in your neighborhood.
By entirely ousting the government and putting seemingly nobodies in place, there's probably more accountability and integrity in that government than they've ever had.
This will probably be as close to "rule by random" as you can get, where literally random people take power. The result will probably be a populist left government, but it's probably better than what they had.
Progressives don't like First-Past-The-Post. I think they think it will give them a more representative view of will of voters. If it's genuine Ranked Choice, it might be better, but it also sways people towards moderate candidates getting the largest number of votes. It could help, but I think the real point is the government clearing house.
Frankly, I kind of like the idea of a "No Confidence" ballot initiative which just shit-cans everyone and forces a mass re-election.
A weaker mayor will require approval from the Council for most decisions. The new council will be elected through ranked choice, and could end up being non homogeneously Democrat as it is today.
This will cause deadlock and paralysis in many cases, a marked improvement over their current government.
All of America is committing suicide. Not just Portland.
It's ok as long as it's legal suicide! We have to kick these illegal suiciders out.
All of America is being killed by its politicians.
Remember when the collapse happens, politicians, lawyers, and journalists first, in no particular. order.
I would say journos are the worst and should be first in line at The Gallows™, since if we had actual journalism, the others would fall
Cool it with antisemitic remarks
All of the West is committing suicide. Not just America.
The rest is about their “summer of love”. These retards are so broken they can’t do anything but continue to double down and implode.
"DURR I MAEK POLICY DAT TIGHTIE RIGHTIES TELL ME DO BAD TING, BAD TING HAPPEN, SO I MAEK MOAR BAD POLICY, BAD TINGS HAPPEN, NOW MY PEOPLE HURT REEL BAD. I BIG SAD. WHY DESE TINGS HAPPEN DURRRRRR."
I stopped feeling sympathy for leftists a long damn time ago. For over 4 decades now, I have watched the right point out in detail how a proposed lefty's fever dream will go tits up, only to be shouted down and called every name under the Sun. And then the predictions of failure come true, and leftists just sit there and either deny the failure or downplay it. Enjoy the shit you voted for, dumbasses.
It's like having a friend with a personality disorder. They want to do something destructive, you tell them it's a bad idea, they get mad at you and accuse you of being a downer. They do the thing, bad shit happens, they get mad at you for being right. They learn nothing and go do something else destructive.
At a certain point, the only thing you can do is disengage entirely and let them ruin their own
landslives far enough away that you aren't part of the collateral damage.Except in this example, your "friend" kicks your door in at 3AM after being released from jail for burning their house down, raids your fridge and starts redecorating.
If you go to https://old.reddit.com/r/Portland it's a joke. I literally can only imagine they instantly ban anybody saying anything negative about their shithole. Literally the entire world knows Portland is a dump but every post you find is like a weird "there is no war in Ba Sing Se" cultist pretending everything is great. There isn't a single post, even sorted by Controversial, that is saying anything is wrong.
I feel like this whenever some of our regulars object to acknowledging racial realities.
Surprised Pikachu with OD blue cheeks face.
Sure, that was totally unpredictable and not the direct consequence of the decisions to let drug use go rampant by decriminalizing / not enforcing laws.
They say the people who have the real power are the people who write the descriptions of those propositions. Similar to Congress, you can call it the Rainbow Puppies and Kittens Act, while it actually legalizes fentanyl. Supposedly, this is how the propositions that made so much theft a misdemeanor came to pass in California.
It helps that people are stupid, but they are also misled.
"Marijuana isn't a gateway drug" led to that.
Marijuana doesn't "entice" you to do harder drugs. What it does do is turn you into such a loser that you fall into the sphere of influence of people who do do harder drugs who then make them easily accessible to you.
That argument was always about as valid as ''alchool is a gateway drug''.
People who do hard drugs and become dysfunctional and criminal due to that usually also did marijuana. But they usually started mind-altering substances with alchool.
I still recall that chick in college who was baffled upon meeting someone who never drank alchool. It's like she was agressively offended.
I'm on board with building a wall around it so the dems don't infect other cities with their disasterous and failed ideas. I imagine the ones on the inside will be glad too -- "We don't need your help anyhow! We can just fix this by going farther to the left!"
Sell it as an "anti-fascist wall" to protect Portland from those sister-fucking rightoids in East Oregon.
May need another one for Bend...
Yeah, some folks can't be saved. Against all observable evidence they are continuing on a path to insanity.
Weaker mayor and ranked choice for even more lunatic progs on the council.
Well, good luck.
"The City Council instituted some changes that BLM advocates were asking for, like cutting $15 million from the police department budget and shuttering the Gun Violence Reduction Team, following findings that it disproportionately targeted Black and Brown men. But in the aftermath, gun violence shot up, reaching an all-time high of 101 homicides in 2022."
That's why leftist retards will never solve anything. That gun violence reduction team was not targeting blacks and browns. Blacks and browns were the ones doing all the gun violence.
They need a black guy to come in and say: I'm fucking targeting violent crime regardless. I'm only kind of kidding. You see these black guys like Eric Adams and Andre Dickens get elected for cleanup, and it's probably better than a BLM lover of whatever race.
My hardcore leftist brother lives in Portland and he has assured me that everything bad you hear in the media about Portland is greatly exaggerated and that the city is doing just fine.
Being a hardcore leftist also means my brother is fucking retarded when it comes to political matters.
I'm sure he's a genius when it comes to everything else.
Oh yeah, for sure. He took out over $40K in student loans to get a degree in "Film Production". Because he's totally gonna use that degree working in retail.....
So what happens is they reference Powells Book Store, but not anything a block away from it. The food trucks are slowly going away, and there are homeless encampments everywhere, but Powells is fine.
Lol I'm in the same situation but with a sister. To be fair, I visited Portland a few weeks ago and it was mostly great. The occasional drug addict tranny (literally only saw two my entire time there) or degenerate flyer was the worst of it.
He knows that we have video-tape, right?
Muh cherry-picking.
Also likely OK with living in squalor and crime, if my relatives are anything to go by.
The cherry on top of the shit sundae is that he and his wife are the owners of a rescue pitbull. They're both the very typical pitbull apologists, claiming their dog is just the sweetest and would never hurt anyone......
which would explain why they were so confused when their dog bit the dogsitter just a few hours after they left the house and they had to have his wife's elderly mother take over watching the dog and they spent the rest of their vacation worrying if the mother was okay.
The city is falling apart around them and their solution is to just keep doing the same shit over and over again. At least it's entertaining for those who don't live there.
Intersectional Social Justice is a mind rot disease that make it impossible for the instutitions and individuals consumed by it to even think that the foundation of their mindset is why they keep turning everything to shit.
The people running to ''fix'' the place have the same beliefs that pushed the previous politicians to vote for what turned the place into what it is now.
Replacing White people with non-Whites cannot ever be bad. Pampering drug abusers and welfare leeches cannot ever be why more people turn to that. Because those categories are victims, and the opressors ( White people ) have to pay for it and accept all the problems the former cause and the solution is always more ressources for non-Whites, welfare and ''helping'' drug users with ''harm reduction'' (enabling, no jail or jail being turned into resorts where inmates criminals have the freedom to network, buy stuff from outside and trafic forbidden stuff inside ).
Those replacing the city government will only offer radical and costly policies which will only make things even worse. Good. I hope Portland becomes the first major US city to become abandoned in the 21st century to serve as an example for what retarded leftism leads to when it has absolute control.
Why? The cancer cells that are the
peopleleftists there will just spread to other cities.Related: If someone rolls in to your neighborhood with a Jersey, DC, or California license plate (this is not an exhaustive list) and says "Hi, we're your new neighbors!" You need to politely but firmly inform them that they will not be living in your neighborhood.
I think the hope the fentanyl gets them before they can spread.
When you think about it, fentanyl is human pesticide.
And then Seattle gets even more Californians...
Actually, I think this is good news.
By entirely ousting the government and putting seemingly nobodies in place, there's probably more accountability and integrity in that government than they've ever had.
This will probably be as close to "rule by random" as you can get, where literally random people take power. The result will probably be a populist left government, but it's probably better than what they had.
Not sure what good ranked choice is supposed to do though.
Progressives don't like First-Past-The-Post. I think they think it will give them a more representative view of will of voters. If it's genuine Ranked Choice, it might be better, but it also sways people towards moderate candidates getting the largest number of votes. It could help, but I think the real point is the government clearing house.
Frankly, I kind of like the idea of a "No Confidence" ballot initiative which just shit-cans everyone and forces a mass re-election.
A weaker mayor will require approval from the Council for most decisions. The new council will be elected through ranked choice, and could end up being non homogeneously Democrat as it is today.
This will cause deadlock and paralysis in many cases, a marked improvement over their current government.
Weak mayor cities usually have city managers who are effectively mayors except that they report to the city council.
That would be true for the ones that are run like corporations like where I live. I'm not sure that's true for bigger cities, is it?
The problem is the rot spreads. We should nuke the entire PNW just to be sure.
It's the only way to be sure.
Feminist rule always make a place a hellhole then they leave to other places and repeat the same thing