I was with my 14 year old son the other day driving downtown and told him when I was 12-14 my parents let us take the bus with friends downtown. There is not a chance in hell I would allow that now. The place is littered with drug addicts who have no problem approaching anyone at any time. Cops don’t care. People shooting up in plain sight. It’s pathetic and I wish someone would do something about it. We are a rudderless ship.
Even downtown? In that same area, by the courthouse? It's always been bad there and on burnside and old town as long as I've been around. All this shit going down is horrible and needs to stop, but I hate the blanket "Portland this and that". My city is amazing.....like I said, about 85% of it.
I was once walking from a Max stop to..quarter world? or whatever that place is called. It was during the middle of the day. There was a young woman (young in the sense she was between 25-30) who was feverishly masturbating under her pants as we walked by. High light of the walk, I tells yah.
I think there's a difference between downtown Portland, and the outer parts of Portland. Neighborhoods, for the most part, are safe. Not all, of course, and certain areas are struggling more than others...but holy shit has downtown become a cess pool in areas.
Montavilla is an outer neighborhood. Shootings nearly every day and night, gangs make the parks unsafe for kids to use, addicts and insane people on every block.
I just moved from montavilla last year. I was 4 houses from the park. Went there all the time with my daughter. Never any issues. There were homeless around, and sometimes cars dumped on our block. Never felt unsafe. Have never had a moment living in portland where I've felt unsafe, to be honest. I imagine part of that is growing up in Chicago, but it's nice living in a city where there aren't entire neighborhoods you generally avoid. I suppose if I was scared of it all, I could move to happy valley or something, I dunno.
Here's the math, ABM. There shouldn't have been even 200 in attendance and they all should have been wearing masks because of the inevitable co-mingling.
I grew up right behind Montavilla park till i was 7. First house in from 82nd next to the apartments on Pacific Street.
I was just south of the park on 84th. Now in south tabor. I loved it there. Would have bought in montavilla if we found a house that fit what we needed/wanted.
Every downtown I’ve lived in or worked in - Portland, Oakland, San Diego and San Francisco - of course has the usually city shit to deal with. Homeless are in every city , you’ve got crime and so on. Driving through downtown PDX is unlike anything I have seen. Literally BLOCKS of tents? Cmon. This isn’t normal. For work I have to travel, been in just about every major city. Don’t see tents lined up. Don’t see it in downtown Dallas, Houston, St Louis (which is a pretty low bar), Boston, Denver... I want a mayor and governor who put the 99% of citizens ahead of worrying about catering to the 1% who piss on the street. Maybe I’m crazy like that.
That is their responsibility for sure problem is they don't know how to address it and/or dont care too.
State of Oregon and City of Portland are taking the feds to court: https://www.oregonlive.com/news/202...criminal-investigation-into-use-of-force.html