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 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.