Posted on 04/09/2023 7:34:23 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
For decades, Oregon hasn’t had to sell itself as a destination. Who wouldn’t want to live in this state of trees and mountains, drink its award-winning craft beers and enjoy its laid-back culture?
Turns out – thousands of now-former Oregonians. Census figures show that about 16,000 more people left Oregon than moved in from July 2021 to July 2022. It’s the first decline for Oregon since the 1980s when the nation was engulfed in a recession.
The gloomiest part of the news is that we all can come up with a list of reasons why. As much as Oregon has to offer, our housing unaffordability, homelessness, increasing taxation, drug addiction crisis, untreated mental illness, gun violence, traffic deaths and educational mediocrity are changing the calculus for many about where to live, raise a family or retire.
A year’s decline in the state’s population does not spell our doom – at least not yet. But the census provides bracing data that shows too many people have decided Oregon is no longer where their future lies. The state depends on population growth to fill jobs, provide tax dollars for public services and inject the energy and perspectives that build thriving neighborhoods and communities. A stagnant or declining population instead dictates a future of cuts and diminished opportunities that can lead to even more people moving out. As student enrollment drops, which schools should a district close? As tax dollars dry up, what services should a county health department cut? These are the kinds of questions that no community wants to have to answer.
It’s too late to ask those who have left why they decided to move. But it’s not too late for Oregon leaders to give the rest of us reasons to believe we’re headed in the right direction.
(Excerpt) Read more at oregonlive.com ...
Portland is going to bounce back just about as well as Detroit and Baltimore did.
And so WHINES Oregon’s state-affiliated media which is, IN FACT, overwhelmingly responsible for the policy-driven exodus from the state (had they not ignored kitzhaber’s little problem, he’d have never been reelected, and brown would never have led to kotex).
I didn’t read the whole piece (excerpt only), but I expect that they laid blame everywhere except salem and themselves.
I’ve been to Portland at least 100 times. I remember coming the first time 38 years ago and walking downtown and thinking- my God this place is weird. Tip of the iceberg of course. Today? You have to see it to believe it. Videos and pictures don’t convey the devastation of souls in the streets. Zombieland. Run, don’t walk away.
> The gloomiest part of the news is that we all can come up with a list of reasons why. <
They need a list? One word will do.
Democrats.
The port of Portland closed in 2015 because the current generation of ships can’t fit down the 100 miles of river to reach it. Game over.
I left in 2012.
Gun violence? It’s increasing in Portland. The rest of the State? Maybe more criminals being shot. Probably more suicides.
“The port of Portland closed in 2015 because the current generation of ships can’t fit down the 100 miles of river to reach it. Game over.”
Agreed
Very much like New York City and other places- the reason for their existence has passed.
And the crappy weather makes it even worse.
Portland has no future other than a shot at becoming an Easterly ChiCom port like Vancouver.
In the 70s and 80s, people in beautiful, conservative Oregon complained that people moving from California would ruin their state.
The ball got rolling in Portland. Some degenerate whose name I don’t remember ran on the slogan “Keep Portland Weird.” They turned it into San Francisco north. Those people were right, and Oregon fell. The poison continued to pump out of here and Washington, Colorado, New Mexico and Nevada fell. They’re working on Arizona
Is it safe to shoot a criminal in eastern Oregon? Or will you be prosecuted for it?
Due east four hundred miles+.
From a different source: “The data shows after years of growth, Multnomah County declined as nearly 13,000 people left the area in 2021”
So, the state lost 16,000, and of those it looks like 13,000 left from the Portland metro area.
Not only the zombies, but the empty storefronts, and things. It’s TRULY very different from when I moved back here in 2011.
Oregonlive is the problem. Change 50,000 votes and you change the state.
Pretty sure it’s safe anywhere outside of Multnomah County.
https://www.greateridaho.org/
So the solutions recommended by the editorial are:
- build more housing units
- create a large sanctioned encampment where homeless people can live and access services.
- increase addiction treatment and recovery programs in every community and find a better way of pressuring people to seek help.
Seems like something is missing.
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