Posted on 04/02/2025 6:30:26 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
Portland's downtown is in freefall, with property values plummeting 57% since 2019, from $3 billion to just $1.3 billion. City leaders blame remote work, but the real culprit is the rampant crime, homelessness, and lawlessness that have turned once-thriving business districts into ghost towns. Portland is hemorrhaging businesses, tax revenue, and economic vitality as companies flee to safer, more business-friendly environments like Texas and Florida. The city anticipates a $33 million tax revenue loss over the next five years, further crippling essential services like police and fire departments. Despite this crisis, city officials ignore the glaring issue: out-of-control crime and public disorder. Instead, they propose unrealistic solutions like shifting the focus to arts and culture. Unless leadership enforces real law and order, downtown Portland will continue to decline, proving once again the devastating consequences of progressive urban policies.
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I can’t believe they stayed as high as they were for this long.
Right? Are the Dims spinning this as an excellent buying opportunity?
Unexpected.
>>The solution is simple. Portland should just raise property taxes by 57%.
Public schooled, huh? You can’t just cut something by 57% and then raise it by 57% and get back to where you were.. They’ll need to raise taxes by 75.5% for that. Good thing Portlanders LOVE taxes...
Break a few windows and property devalues and makes it easy to buy up.
According to the Soviet Agent, the West Coast belongs to China.
Portland progressives are going to ‘double down’ to Infinity!
Shortland is the new Portland.
> You can’t just cut something by 57% and then raise it by 57% and get back to where you were. <
Of course not. I guess you missed the implication of the smiley face at the end of my post.
Who ever heard of a city that uses “arts and culture” to reduce crime, homelessness, drug addicts... /s
Sarcasm trumps pedantic.
Time for China to invade.
Have anything to do with the fact that the politicians in Portland in 2020 allowed the city to be taken over by anarchists who created a fenced-off, booby-trapped autonomous zone?
“further crippling essential services like police and fire departments. Despite this crisis, city official...propose unrealistic solutions like shifting the focus to arts and culture.”
Leftist SOP: Don’t terminate the ILLEGAL govt spending, make sure EVERYONE suffers ‘cuz the non-taxpayer-leeches don’t wanna be the piggy-bank or suffer the Leftist policies.
Some of it is voter fraud...
Defund the Police!
This was inevitable since the Post-Panamax ships cannot operate at the port of Portland.
Crime is a big factor but remote working is just as big. Covid lockdowns taught business a lot. They were forced to use zoom for remote workers and they learned a lot. Why pay 90 grand a month for 30k square feet in prime downtown high rises when you can get cheaper and smaller digs and let workers work a week a month on site and the rest of the time remote. Urban high dollar office space is crashing.
My Experienced Urbanite reaction is to inquire about the downtown/suburban dynamic. Prof. Wikipedia says Portland’s population (2020 census) is 650,000 with 2.5 million in the Portland Metropolitan Area.
I live in DC. Back in the day, Marion Barry was mayor, the 2020 census pegged DC proper at 690,000 (and growing again, post Marion Barry), with 6.3 million in the DC Metropolitan Area and 9.8 million in the Washington-Baltimore Combined Statistical Area, which is the appropriate planning framework for a lot of regional planning.
When a city goes the idiocracy route, the downtown can be gutted but the suburbs often boom. In DC, this was always a limiting factor on the Barry Follies, as the District of Columbia is constitutionally fixed, cannot annex anything, and is very small by modern urban standards. No one has to move more than a couple of miles to escape to a very nice suburb. The DC pols hate this, but there’s nothing they can do about it and it ties their hands. On the other hand, as the metro areas sprawls, traffic congestion only gets worse and those older, close-in neighborhoods look better and better all the time. This drives gentrification, which the local pols also hate because gimmedat concentrations are their voter base, and they are getting priced out of town.
How about Portland?
Can’t imagine why anyone sane would want to live there.
One Big Shot could put in a “Take it All” offer.
Then disband the City Government.
Put up walls and barriers.
and make Portland the grimy crap hole is was before the last round of Gentrification from CALI Refugees.
No reason for it to be anything more than the gritty backwater it always had been.
That was it’s charm. it was Authentic.
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