I used to work for a big multinational with a Portland office and a Seattle office; the Seattle office is far nicer.
If I become homeless and move out to Portland, is that an indictment of Portland? Is it more their responsibility to house me than say, Pittsburg, who may have sent the people there on a bus? I don't know the stats mentioned above but it seems like the places that have huge homeless problems are mostly those with nice mild weather and tolerant residents.
While I lean left and support affordable housing and the welfare state, it seems a little unfair to saddle those places particularly with housing a homeless population that they didn't cause to be homeless.
I lived in Portland until approximately 2 years ago, close to the river. I volunteered on one occasion with some activists at this event: https://www.google.com/amp/s/articles.oregonlive.com/portlan...
I am no saint. It was a short walk from my office. But the whole thing was disgusting, heartbreaking. This was a bad situation on many fronts, and nothing like a solution on any side, but the idea was to get cyclists who enjoyed this nature path to stop complaining. This is the gist of how the city has dealt with the problem for many years. I was pleased to see someone else on HN mention it but I wasn’t surprised. It’s hard to miss on a visit. I lived there for 8 years. Of course some of the homeless come from other places but an enormous amount of them come from Portland. I have seen children sleeping on cardboard under Morrison bridge one night. 2 children with their parents. They were not there for long only because they were strategically camping in a very lit spot at a busy traffic light. But my point is the city is very irresponsible in their dealings with the problem. The city only cares about new development and bringing more wealthy folk to town. The loopholes they allow landlords to use for building-wide evictions are supposedly part of what has exacerbated the problem. I do not know all the specifics.
Really? How is this comment okay here?
I have more than one non-white friend who found Portland to be a very uncomfortable place to live due to casual racism and a general feeling of alienation, especially in comparison with cities like New York, Los Angeles, or San Francisco.
Many non-white people live in Portland. Educate yourself.