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.
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.
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.
I feel like this whenever some of our regulars object to acknowledging racial realities.