It’s funny how everyone ascribes growth/decline based on living conditions when really, people will put up with a lot if there are economic gains to be had. I have no idea why Portland ever grew the way it had without the engine of big tech or bio tech that Seattle, SF, Austin and others have. Portland got awfully expensive awfully fast to keep a steady inmigration of lower paid people coming in.

Great job Charles, love this piece.

“white America will never forgive Portland's white youth and progressives for so passionately siding with Black Americans on this issue"

FFS, Charles, that is such a Bizzaro World Trumpian, fundamentalist rural, binary take on BLM and the events of 2020. How does one so educated have such a simple(ton) worldview?

I moved to Oregon 8 years ago. The complaining about people moving to Portland (and Oregon) is endless, just like the complaining about people moving to Seattle was when I lived in Seattle. Ironic that they are now pretending to be alarmed by the population decreasing. Basically Seattle and Portland just like to complain about everything and never, you know, actually do anything. No problems are actually actively addressed, worked on, changed, fixed, or eradicated. There's a lot of words words words blah blah blah talk talk talk and never any action (other than finger pointing).

The Portland Police are constantly being investigated by the Department of Justice. Trump used Portland as his testing ground to see if he could get away with using an unidentified federal fascist army (with the help of the local police) to violate the rights of (mostly white) people. He got away with it.

What is happening in Portland (and Oregon) now has to to do with the fact that the police have flat out refused to do their job, elected officials have flat out refused to help the unhoused population that has EXPLODED (other than Ted Wheeler demanding tens of millions of dollars to round them up and put them in concentration camps), the Republicans in the Oregon legislature refusing to show up and do their jobs (but they collect their paychecks!), and the white supremacist faction of the state (nearly 2/3 of the state) believing they can simply stay on Oregon land and call it Idaho and all of their problems will be solved.

The state has plenty of revenue (the 2024 "kicker" where they return tax revenue to Oregonians because it's x amount above what the state needs to function AND have a two BILLION dollar "rainy day fund" is set to be one of the biggest ever). They could have even more if they chose to tax corporations instead of constantly giving in to corporate welfare (and Amazon is their biggest welfare recipient).

Portland and Oregon statewide needs to be building more housing that people could afford to live in based on what jobs pay in the state. The state needs to stop allowing fringe nut jobs (Republicans and white supremacists) destroy the state while simultaneously blaming the liberals for everything. 70% of Oregonians voted to oust Republicans who didn't show up (sadly by not allowing them to run for re-election - why not just fire them immediately)?

The suddenly "OMG everyone is leaving Portland" narrative is so absurd. All of Portland's problems are created by those who have the power to fix the problems. Until this country collectively pulls its head out of its ass and puts a complete and total stop to the fringe psychopaths running the show (Republicans and white supremacists) there's going to be a lot of fake hand wringing about how our once great cities have been destroyed by crime. Please excuse me while I eye roll myself into another dimension.

Oh Christ. These fucking MAGA trolls. Now Sawant and AntiFa tried to assassinate the mayor!

But the January 6th coup attempt was just a harmless redneck tour! And where it wasn’t? Well. That’s easy: ANTIFA!

No. The biggest crime the Stranger has committed is allowing a once harmless comment section that used just talk about bands and cafe’s and ceding it to trolling lunatics, antivaxers, and incel dipshits.

Roger and Xina, both standard cop-out artists. The notion that there is some sort of secret fascist army is a complete myth made up by the socialist faction and their antifa goons. The January 6th coup attempt was a protest about as peaceful as the antifa riots and the CHAZ coup attempt. Sawant did lead a mob to Jenny Durkan's house; she knew where it was. She claims that she just "tagged along" but let's be honest here; one thing I'll say for Sawant, she's a leader, not a follower.

Not Worried. Those states that folks apparently moving to are also the ones that suffered the most during COVID. Good riddance.

@9.....Not so, you are just so used to hearing only one side of the story that you have lost the ability to be objective and see what is really going on around you.

Portland sure has a lot of construction cranes for a city that's dying (after being burned down). Seattle, too.

@7,

Those shithead representatives not showing up to legislative sessions to deny a quorum is utterly fucking disgraceful. And they're now challenging their ban from holding office based on a loophole in the language that was passed explicitly to trigger it (and based on what I've read, have at least a decent chance of said challenge being successful.)

I've said it here repeatedly, but I really believe humans just aren't cut out for the responsibilities entailed with self-governance. Maybe we SHOULD cede control to the artificially intelligent overlords. Can't imaging they'd do any worse.

@8: The Jan. 6th insurrectionists are now going to trial and jail. The feds don’t screw around.

Then-Mayor Durkan’s home address was also federally protected, because she had served as US Attorney for Western Washington. One of her predecessors in that office, Thomas Wales, was brutally murdered in his Seattle home, and his killer has never been identified. So when CM Sawant gave Mayor Durkan’s address to Socialist Alternative for their “rally,” it was a clear threat: we know where you, your gay partner, and your children live. (The mob Socialist Alternative intentionally assembled knew they were there to threaten and intimidate, and they accordingly vandalized this family home.)

When citizens of District 3 presumed to ask if such behavior was proper for their elected representative, Sawant and the Stranger screamed those citizens were racist and right-wing. That’s the biggest mistake the Stranger has ever made; by comparison, allowing your continual returns to post here is small change.

@16,

Uh, sure. Had to google those specific examples, two of which appear to have happened over a decade ago, but yeah, deliberately denying your elected government the opportunity to function is a shitty thing to do.

I was in Portland for a few days at the end of April. Stayed at my timeshare company's beautiful place right on the park that sits on the Willamette river next to downtown. The weather was gorgeous. Unfortunately, the place I stayed was also on the fringe of the Old Town/Chinatown district, which has basically been ceded to the homeless, fentanyl users, and brazen graffiti "artists". I'm a hardy city dweller, but I often felt uneasy walking through the nearby streets during daylight hours! I can't say what's driving people to leave Portland. Could be the high housing costs, but I can't imagine any Portlander is proud of what their downtown has become.

I hear Floriduh is a great state to move to, because you can't buy home insurance for anything, so it's like Mad Max on steroids but underwater

@10 - This is simply not true. I know exactly who you are talking about, they show up and try to derail every NW protest, but that is not the crowd that was protesting in Portland. If you were there, you would know this. There was a large group of nurses on the front line one night, the Wall of Moms, and every kind of person that you can possibly imagine. I’m sure a very small percent were there just to start shit, that’s always the case, but the overwhelming amount were there to peacefully protest and ended up getting tear gassed every night by the cops for their efforts (really no different than Seattle, except when Trump’s Federal troops were brought in). Please do not undermine the actions of those that were simply exercising their right to protest an unjust cause.

A city's worth is not measured by population size.

I'm sure that traditional economists have very convincing analysis about why a dropping population causes economic problems. But their analysis is rooted in a framework that is based on a particular structure for a monetary market economy. Remove this structure and convince me that it is more difficult to support a smaller population than a large population.

If their analysis persuades me of anything, it is that our current economic structure is complete bunk.

@23: “…a dropping population causes economic problems.”

It can indeed be a used by economists as a lagging indicator for economic contraction, yes. (“Will the last person leaving Seattle please turn out the lights?”) But in modern Portland’s case, it could be other issues as well.

@24 tensorna I'd be interested to hear what those other issues are.

@25: See @19 for other reasons Portland’s population may be dropping.