Scenes of Portland, Oregon
Tent city.
Portland had been in the sweet spot. Now, not so much.
Portland possessed a mental niche among cities.
It was Goldilocks, not too big, not too small, just right. It was smaller and cheaper than the two great centers of American technology, San Francisco/Silicon Valley and Seattle, but it had a tech community that could feed off both. Portland was located midway between them, cheaper, more user-friendly, better weather than Seattle, a tiny bit "undiscovered" and avant-garde. It was like Brooklyn had been a couple of decades ago, back when urban pioneers began making it hip. Portland shared something with Austin, another cool city. It had higher taxes than Austin, yes, but Portland was on the West Coast near the tech epicenters, and it was liberal and Democratic, and it was not an island oasis trapped in godawful Texas.
Portland was hip and cool. It called itself "weird," and was proud of it. It had a mayor who posed for a poster "Expose yourself to art;" that was funny and cool. It kept pushing light rail and it had a free transit area downtown. It had an NBA basketball team and it had the University of Oregon track team. If you were young and you jogged, or better yet ran, Oregon was a welcome space. Oregon had craft beer and Willamette Valley pinot noirs. The comedy show "Portlandia" was a big exaggeration, but people had to admit that it wasn't entirely wrong.
The year 2020 was the summer of its discontent, made inglorious on the national news by the sustained, nightly violence and vandalism that operated under the cover of the George Floyd protests. The violence hijacked the protest message in Portland more than any other city. Trump, Fox, and the GOP exaggerated the problem, but as with Portlandia, there was truth in it. Portland's Democratic leaders appeared unwilling and unable to control the problem of nightly street violence. Too many people agreed that violence is the language of the oppressed. Portland was liberal and progressive, and no one wanted to seem unsympathetic to the protests or seem remotely Trump-like.
The summer of discontent came on top of another problem, one long in the making and so multifaceted in its causes that it confounds solutions that are politically possible: Homelessness. It is a visible problem. People live in tents on the median strips between lanes on highways and alongside them. On park land. On the bits of open space at the entrance to bridges and tunnels. On sidewalks. The relatively affluent homeless--people with enough money for a car or decrepit RV-- park along roadsides. Most lack toilet facilities, and all lack regular garbage service, so trash accumulates.
This blog has suggested a solution to street violence surrounding protests and Capitol insurrections. Distinguish between legal peaceful protest and illegal activities and arrest people doing illegal acts. Prosecute them. Jail them. The difference between legal and illegal preserves Americans' ability to protest.
There is no easy solution to homelessness, though. Few people live on the streets because they refuse to live in nice homes. Homelessness is a result of poverty, mental illness, family breakups, housing costs, poor choices, substance abuse--in short every problem that faces people and America.
Scenes from Portland this week. No longer so sweet.