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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
"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.