My two cents’ worth on the “Flip side” of life in Portland
(AKA “Pot-land”, AKA “Porn-land”)
Panhandling is widespread, and tends to be more agressive further out from downtown - all the way out to 122nd avenue at least.
This is primarily because the patrols, arrests, and exclusions you highlight in your posts, are focused on specific areas of the downtown core - at the behest of the city council/police commissioner, (according to several friends who are Ptld Police Officers).
Police work in Portland is not guided primarily by law enforcement theory/practice as an overarching philosophy, but by politics and political correctness (also, my father was for 24 years a sheriff’s deputy in E. Multnomah County, so I have a lot of direct info).
Other parts of the downtown core area - along with most of the rest of Portland, quite frankly - the city leaders could not care less about. This is to the detriment of all of Portland, but there again, city leaders do not care.
This city’s leadership has been dominated by Liberals and radicals for almost 30 years, and that is to the detriment of the whole area. I was born there and spent most of my 40 plus years of life there, and I can tell you from the most knowledgeable POV, that Portland is NOT the city it once was.
While the panhandlers are not out in full force every day on every street and all Tri-Met stops, there are far more of them now (than there ever used to be during the “heartless” 80s for example) and when the weather is amenable, they are on every on/off ramp of I-205 from Sandy Blvd. to the Clackamas Towne Center or further, you can find them at lighted intersections on most major streets from the immediate eastside of the bridges across the Willamette River out through the Lloyd center area, up and down the length of MLK from Burnside going north, and into the Hawthorne district.
Their agressive behaviour depends upon what the individual bum or beggar thinks they can get away with at the moment, and they are also known to come out at night and lurk near popular bars and clubs, where they will hit up patrons for a drink, a cigarette, a buck or two...
Beware if you are outnumbered, or if the panhandler is bigger and you are smaller...
And don’t even get me started on the notorious homeless camp/illegal drug exchange area called “Dignity Village” but known widely among nearby residents as “Indignity Village”...
Traffic is bad all over PDX and getting worse. Ten years ago the PM rush hour traffic on 205 used to start at about 4:30-ish and be over by about 6 pm. Ditto with the Banfield secion of I-84.
Now it starts around 2:30 to 3 pm and continues until 6:30 or 7pm any day of the week, and worse by far on Fridays and holiday. Westside, 26 is a constant snarl from 7 am to about 10, then the lunch rush goes from 11:30 to 1:30, and the pm rush starts at about 2:15 and it is taillights and bumpers until 7:30 or 8 at night.
Light rail is an overrated farce that was rammed down people’s throats (Vancouver-ites voted against it - what, three times, and Milwaukie residents twice, but their leaders cut back-room deals and FIAT LUX - light rail sprawl is all over the metro area...
Every light rail line thus far constructed has exceeded by 2 or 3 or even 4 times - the amount of its stated initial construction budget, as well as vastly surpassing the expected operating budget.
They can’t even break even when thousands more are riding mass transit during the height of $4/gallon gas prices.
Portland used to be a sort of paradise, but the liberals and their pet “feel-good” projects are inexorably ruining it
I used to love the Rose Festival, and I still enjoy it in principle, but my favorite recurring event in Portland has, for the past several years, been the “Festa Italiana”. It is cozier, more accessible, more family-friendly, more entertaining, far better food and drink.
The town has become “by, of, and for”, lesbos and queers, and those who fawn upon them.
There are more dykes in Portland than any other city in the USA (even Austin, Seattle, or San Fran), and no small proportion of gay men (including the oversexed, lying, unrepentant pederast in the mayor’s office.)
The further away one is from supporting such types and their enablers, the more one is politically and socially marginalized by the inmates running the asylum.
It is a more radical lib/progressive than almost any other city in the US - right up there with Berkeley, Seattle, San Francisco, or any of the east coast havens.
I may live there again at some point in the future, and cope with the negative aspects of PDX life, but for right now I am quite happy to be somewhere more far more conservative.
A.A.C.
