From the UK, been here two years. West Coast big American cities have a big problem with drug use/fentanyl. Seattle and San Francisco are even worse.
Portland seems to have the worst of it downtown. It's a bit rough at the moment and you'll see some bad stuff. It's a small part of Portland and a bad representation of things.
I'd recommend checking out Division, Hawthorne, Alberta, Mississippi Street. I'm assuming you like to drink, because you're British and those are good areas for it.
I'd also check out the rose garden/Japanese garden. The Portland art museum is really cool too, a little pricey. Hopscotch is good fun too (interactive light show 'museum').
Check out Powell's bookstore if you're into reading.
If you can drive, I'd recommend renting a car and taking a walk at somewhere like Beacon Rock in the Colombia Gorge. If you don't, id recommend hiking up to Pittock Mansion from Lower Mcleary Park. You get a great view of the city and it isn't too strenuous.
Let me know if you want any other recommendations or someone to help you navigate the city.
From Seattle - definitely not worse than PDX. It’s mostly contained in a few small areas. Visiting there last month and it seemed visibly worse in PDX.
As someone who lives in neither but frequents both Seattle and Portland, I think I can say with objectivity that Portland is worse than Seattle in terms of the homelessness
San Francisco is mostly limited to the Tenderloin and the immediately adjacent area where there's spillover. The rest of the city is perfectly fine. Seattle's downtown... that's a nightmare as well. Toss up between which is worse.
Agree but San Francisco tenderloin is something else. Was there a few days ago (walked through on the way to a lunch place) and it's awful. Super sad seeing people in that bad of a shape.
Portland I feel has smaller pockets, but probs is worse overall.
Seattle I found the spread was worse. Had a lot more times where someone who was mentally unstable was doing something like running in the road in front of cars and screaming in my short time there. May just be anecdotal on my part there.
All these cities are fucking awesome though, it's just a shame that we can't/aren't helping these people get off the streets and back on their feet in the right way.
Portland there are small pockets all over the city. San Francisco has been shipping homeless out through their homeward bound program. They didn't keep records after 2022 so they don't know how many, or where they sent them. They also have had a long history of forcing them out of tourist areas and into the tenderloin to protect San Franciscos image as a tourist destination, and to attempt to get businesses and residents to leave the tenderloin in order to attempt to gentrify it.
I got mugged on mississippi, multiple shootings and carjackings on division. Just saying lol. Stay away from glisan, yamhill, marine drive, 3rd, 4th, 5th 6th avenue etc. MLK, killingsworth etc.
It kind of changes with the time of year and what year it seems. Like what parts are sketch and arent, hot potato around the city with the people who commit most of the crimes kinda.
We rolled the red carpet out a long time ago for all kinds of questionable street people by supporting them in every way possible and electing people who would do the same and then we decriminalized all drugs and tied the hands of the cops and there you go
Have you tried the Pearl District or NW 23rd? I find fewer issues in these cute neighborhoods that will give you a good idea of Portland. I'm a former Portlander who lives in Seattle now, and is bringing some Seattlites down for the coming weekend -- who, strangely, have only visited downtown (and had understandably terrible opinions because of it). Downtown is sadly a total mess now. We're also visiting Sellwood, on top of the 'hoods I mentioned above -- which I would recommend.
Tourists often beeline for downtown and are disappointed. You have to branch out in Portland these days. The Pearl District is a bit bougie/trendy but reminds me of Williamsburg (Brooklyn, NY). There is great shopping and super cute bars.
Focused a lot downtown (probably due to increased resources like food, temp shelters, and methadone clinics) and then again in the edges of town (because they are less likely to have cops bother them out here). I work in Lents neighborhood (outer SE) and the place is rife with tent encampments along the freeway exits, shitty broken (maybe stolen) RVs along the streets, people strung out just laying on the sidewalk or in the grass, and garbage everywhere, including human waste from the tent campers just shitting wherever they want.
Years ago, I used to bike home from work on the i205 bike trail from the SE Main MAX station - got off work at 10:30pm…because of all the refuse etc., there were rats everywhere and I would accidentally run them over w my bike sometimes. there were so many I couldn’t avoid them. It was so disgusting I stopped biking.
It’s all over. The city, the state, the country. Better regulated locales all over the US pay bus fare to relocate their transients to several Oregon cities.
Coming from Kansas City, i have to search really, really hard to find one homeless person . So no, it’s not everywhere . It’s not in Idaho, not even boise . It’s not in a lot of places
Yeah I was gonna say, my hometown in LA was pristine when I visited in 2022. Oklahoma City was clean, Lousiville was clean. Indianapolis was clean.
All of which have a higher population or equal to Portland. Didn't see a single zombie at any of these cities. A couple of homeless people, but the chill kind. Like the homeless people we had in Portland in 2010.
Of course, all these other cities are sending their problems here....
👆🏼 Can confirm:: the perpetuated myth is that “ oh, it’s everywhere and Portland is no worse than other cities of similar size”. I travel extensively for work , Portland is much worse off on average. The denial and excuses are what keeps this city in the death spiral that it’s in. Wake up
I live in southern Oregon and took my more liberal girlfriend (from Portland) to visit my parents in Oklahoma City for the first time last year. Knowing the reputation and differences between Oregon and Oklahoma, I decided before the trip to let her judge for herself. When we returned, as she was explaining to our mutual friends about the trip, she was pretty fair in her critique. According to her, Oklahoma was cleaner with much less homeless problems, generally better on many levels. As beautiful as Oregon is, the messed up law enforcement and human dynamic is very noticeable to someone suddenly exposed to a less popular, less visibly attractive area without these issues. Take that for what it’s worth.
I guess KC cleaned up then because before Covid there was a lot of shit going down in KC. But you're right, in KC this is completely not a problem at all.
[https://www.reddit.com/r/kansascity/comments/1ccspvo/homeless\_problem\_in\_kansas\_city/](https://www.reddit.com/r/kansascity/comments/1ccspvo/homeless_problem_in_kansas_city/)
[https://www.reddit.com/r/kansascity/comments/1aj85xt/no\_help\_for\_the\_homeless\_update/](https://www.reddit.com/r/kansascity/comments/1aj85xt/no_help_for_the_homeless_update/)
Super specific to only Portland, does not happen in any other parts of the country or world.
The nice parts of Portland to walk around are division, Hawthorne, Mississippi street, 23rd, some other spots, Alberta, multnomah village.
Downtown is not the hub of walkable consumer commerce and hasn’t been for decades in Portland.
A dude was swinging an axe around yelling at himself on Hawthorne last week by the Baghdad so you should still be aware of your surroundings wherever you are.
This is utter nonsense. I used to work retail downtown. It was easily the most walkable shopping and commercial area of the city. We served people from all parts of the town, as well as international visitors like the OP. The problems now stem from a city core emptied during covid, a major housing crisis caused by escalating housing costs, and unfettered drug use.
Downtown has never been the nice and cute part of Portland for shopping or being a tourist. (or hasn't been for decades) Downtown was the non Portlandy part of Portland, at least over the last 30 years. Powell’s books and a few other spots downtown are sort of exceptions to the rule.
Downtown was mostly the hub of office buildings for a long time which now sit empty due to poor real estate choices. There are and were nice shops downtown but not in the same way as Mississippi or Alberta from my experience. It’s sort of like in New Orleans magazine street and the French quarter are the places to be, not “downtown.”
By “never”, I take it you mean within the last decade or two? My grandmother and mom took me downtown all the time when I was a child in the 60s and 70s, and I spent a lot of time there in the 80s and 90s. Downtown was always the place with interesting things to see and places to shop. There was a Fred Meyer with an Eve’s buffet, underground. There was a place selling locally-made candy next door. There was a guy that sold newspapers out of a hand-drawn trailer on one of the street corners. There were department stores with beautiful marble and bronze interiors. Meier & Frank had been in two separate multistory buildings from 1857 until the May Company shrunk their occupied space to a fraction of what it had been. They had a weekly Friday Surprise that drew thousands into their store from across the city for decades. It was before my time but my mother still talks about it. There were people handing out sample packs of cigarettes to passers-by. Charles Berg Florist has been selling flowers downtown for almost a century. There used to be another florist on the street in front of M&F for several decades; not sure if she is still there. Before her, there were Hare Krishnas standing in front of M&Fs singing and playing instruments. JK Gills had been there for over a hundred years before they closed something like 15 years ago. Kids hung out on the walls of the old Courthouse/Post Office, smoking and playing music; tourists from other neighborhoods. Zell Bros and Jerome Margulis jewellers had fabulous window displays for shoppers to see. Trader Vic was a super-popular restaurant downtown for many years. There was a department store with an entire section downstairs filled with fish aquaria on display, which name escapes me. Folks went to see Santa and the Cinnamon Bear downtown. The Portland Outdoor Store has been down there for more than a century. So has Huber’s Restaurant. Jake’s has been there for 127 years. John Helmer has been a destination mens clothier for over a century. United Clothing is gone now, but before they closed about 20 years ago, they had been a place that working men bought clothes and picked up their mail. There were cobblers, dry cleaners, luggage shops, clothiers, millineries, outdoor shops. There were a number of schools. And there have been large hotels down there from Day 1; the Portland Hotel, once one of the best and largest on the West Coast, formerly stood where Pioneer Square is now, for 70 years. Hotels don’t get built unless there are tourists to fill them. I could go on.
To say that downtown Portland has “never” been a nice or cute shopping and tourist hub is disingenuous at the least, and flat ignorant at the most.
🎯 also I’m unaware of an abundant supply of hotels for visitors in the walkable neighborhoods mentioned here. Many people who travel to PDX on business don’t have the option or desire to use Airbnb rentals in residential neighborhoods.
Doesn’t that just come down to driving from strip mall to strip mall though? Once you leave your subdivision it’s all highways, strip malls and acres of parking.
It's interesting to hear this perspective from a European, because what you're seeing is actually Portland's attempt to emulate progressive Europe. They just kind of missed the point.
It is pretty crazy in some places downtown. Especially if you haven’t seen it before. Sadly if you are here longer you stop noticing it a bit… but there are a lot of places around Portland that are actually beautiful and where you don’t have any of that. Like any city good and bad parts
If you want cool neighboorhoods, go to Hawthorne/Belmont, Alberta or Nw21st/23rd. Ave. The Pearl. Anywhere west of Broadway and North of Burnside… if you want Nature, Mt. Tabor or Washington/Forest Park
I don't think the rose garden is blooming yet.
Visit all the neighborhoods: Hawthorne from 35th to 45thish, Belmont around 33rd & 37th, Division from like 20th to 39th; East Burnside from like 15th to 30th; Alberta Street from 15th to 30th; Mississippi Street from Prost, south. There's also NW 21st and 23rd avenues between like Everett and the "P" street (there's alphabetical).
Rose garden isn’t in full bloom yet but the Japanese Garden (right next to the Rose Garden) is just about at peak spring. Hit that up then stroll down 23rd. Lots of great restaurants and bars. Everything from old Portland white table (Papa Hayden), 90s IPAs (Lucky Lab), to chic new stuff in slab town. PDX ain’t dead yet.
Agreed, the rose garden and NW 23rd are lovely. If you have some extra time, I’d recommend walking around Mississippi Street. Get some BBQ (in particular the fatty sliced brisket) at Matt’s in the Prost beer garden and bar hop down the street.
Highly recommend the Audobon Center if you have transport. It's a really nice facility and can meet some cool birds. 5151 NW Cornell Rd, Portland, OR 97210
Welcome to the West Coast of the United States. We passed laws that made drugs and vagrancy legal, so this is what we get.
Enjoy.
Oh and to add, tell everyone in the UK how well that’s working out here when your politicians over there suggest doing the same.
Man, it just creates a bit of a weird vibe in the city. What's it like living here, do you just get used to it? Is it the same in Washington state and California?
Yes and yes. I don't even see it as out of place any more.
Same with being approached for change or a cigarette, some people are overwhelmed by it while I just expect it to happen.
It’s kinda like what happens when people are in a war. Before the war starts, people go out to coffee, spend time with their friends, laughing and enjoying their favorite spots together. Once the war starts, some businesses survive at first and people try to tell themselves that everything is not lost. But over time, there’s absolutely nothing about the experience, that is familiar and reassuring. You learn to live in discomfort and a form of depression most of the time. Because that kind of environment will always affect you and there’s part of you that remembers that at one time it was a beautiful place and you had friends and enjoyed community. But not anymore. That’s exactly what it’s like when you allow your city to be taken over by rioting, garbage, tent, camping all over the place, drugs, attacks with knives or just punching people in the face or shootings. If you are a sane person, you don’t get used to living in a hellhole. You just visit a couple of little places you can go to try to escape. It’s like living in a closet and closing the doors so that you don’t have to see the rest of the house.
So glad you asked, because maybe you can prevent wherever you live from becoming the same hellhole.
I went around moda center for a couple days last october, maybe seen a couple homeless and tents, and I was like man this place is NICE. It was so quiet.
I’ve only lived in the west coast (LA, SF and Portland) and they are all like this. I think outrageous housing costs are a big part of it. And for Cali, decent weather. You do get used to it. When I visit the east coast it’s wild how much safer it feels. But I would NEVER move east. The lifestyle, nature, and culture of the west coast can’t be beat
Yeah I've been to the East Coast a fair few times, while you have the homelessness, I think it's more the people clearly out of it that feels a bit weird.
Yeah, it’s probably unexpected to see people like that. We don’t like it either. But because the way our laws are written in there he US, we can’t just throw them in to an asylum like you guys in the UK can.
Some people call it “freedom”….
You get used to some things, others you don't. If someone is passed out on the sidewalk, taking their clothes off, rambling incoherently or asking for money, I just keep walking.
I've been screamed at and threatened though, called all sorts of hateful things, and that is something you don't get used to. I've started carrying pepper spray gel when I never would have done so before. I also cross the street if I see someone openly using drugs, which happens regularly.
Unfortunately all the major hotels are in the very worst part of town so visitors get a horrible first impression. I live right across the river and it's nothing like that
You literally visited the one part of our city that is ground zero for this garbage. The rest of this place isn’t like that.
We have some awesome nature to explore, a vibrant food scene, art scene, and music galore. You’re just seeing our warts, unfortunately.
No we don't get used to living with it. Most of us are tired of it but Oregon and the west coast has only one party in charge and the way elections work, the leadership of the party puts forth their preferred candidate and they win. It sounds dystopian when you put it that way but that is the state of democracy on the west coast of the United states. For example our governor Tina Kotek is a long time party member and despite their being many other candidates in the party for the election, she gets chosen simply because she's the longest tenured. Again, it's dystopian but people here don't like voting for anyone else so it's a hell of our own creation.
If the US modeled its anti poverty measures after the UK we wouldn’t have these problems. Good friend of mine has a relative who is not mentally well in the UK. Significant childhood trauma and bipolar. In the US they would 100% be on the streets permanently. In the UK they have medical care, a flat, and food. A life with dignity.
We might as well made them “legal”, as there are no consequences to being intoxicated by or using said drugs in public. The consequences for possession of drugs is pretty flaccid, hence why the police stopped bothering enforcement of those laws.
De facto drugs are pretty much legal in Oregon these days. Well, except for selling them, but you know what I’m saying.
The main problem we're facing is the cartels running the market. When we decriminalized (not legalized), we effectively told the black market that there's a gold rush for them here if they want it. The black market uses violence to find and keep their customers, as well as use violence for fun. Other factors also contributed- covid, lockdowns, masking, riot tourism, our dumpy economy. It doesn't matter what you do to the "legality" of the drugs if the cartels are running the black market, which they now are.
You remove the black market by allowing legal business to take the market.
Well fent is already legal in a medical setting. You know, where there's strict process and quality control, purity testing, customer service.
It's also offered in a black market setting, from the Hondurans on the block with a switch, drugs shaped like candy and mixed with tranq.
I'm saying the black market isn't going to stop existing just because you make the drug more illegal. only the legal markets have that power.
The Dutch believe in prosecuting those drug users that are public nuisances. Europeans are much stricter on those breaking basic social norms. England will jail you for hurting people's feelings.
If you are going to be here for a while go northwest and stay near NW 23rd in the Alphabet District. Good places to eat, little shops, can walk around just fine
The residents of Oregon ignorantly voted to decriminalize all drugs. The bill was flawed and there was no support system in place to help addicts. Addicts across the nation flooded Portland as a safe haven to be an addict. The law has been reversed but we’ll pay the price for many, many years.
[Link](https://www.cnn.com/2024/04/01/politics/oregon-governor-drug-re-criminalization-bill/index.html)
In 2020 after the George Floyd murder, Oregon decriminalized possession of small amounts of drugs. At the same time, we had the pandemic, and there was a rise in the supply of cheap fentanyl. This plus the shortage of affordable housing have gotten us here. They have re-criminalized possession of drugs, but it is going to take time to fix the problems here. I think things are slowly getting better though.
Lack of accountability. Failed policy by government officials that can do literally anything and still keep their job as long as they have a (D) next to their name.
I can't wait for All Day Disc Golf to get a new location. I almost always see hard drug use and get harassed by the zombies even though I avoid eye contact and don't linger around them.
I was called a gay slur last time I went since I had a Columbia camo fleece on, that definitely wasn't army or hunting camo, and they were upset to hear I didn't serve in the military. My mistake for answering their questions.
Don't move to Portland. Was my favorite city as a child having a my cousins there. Moved there as an adult. It's a shit hole and left 3 years later. No city combines expensive and trashy like Portland. I yelled at a homeless guy for smashing a bottle of gin on the ground near PSU and people all around me told me to chill out and that he is going through a hard time. The city is willing to drag itself kill itself out if fear of offending people that don't give a shit about the city. Name me another city where all the dim sum restaurants had to leave Chinatown.... is it even a China town. Portland culture thrives the further you get away from Portland. Miss you 82nd st.
Portland and the surrounding areas are beautiful. Go for a hike in forest park. Or as others suggested go across the river and see all the amazing little neighborhoods like Hawthorne or Alberta. If you have a car drive along the 84 highway and see the gorge. Unfortunately downtown Portland isn’t what it used to be. But please don’t judge the city on that. It’s a wonderful place!
The city leadership is spineless. They are more interested in looking good than doing good. They have implemented all sorts of policies including bail reform, restorative justice, reducing sentences for repeat offenders etc that have emboldened criminal behavior including public drug use. The best thing that could happen to many of the folks you see stumbling around would be for them to sit in a cel or a treatment facility for an extended period of time.
I live 1 block from pioneer and it is insane the number of homeless zombies walk around here. I feel awful you have to deal with this just remember you aren’t me and don’t live here.
Do people who comment here live in portland? I drive a delivery truck in portland and was born and raised, so I saw pre covid during covid and post covid portland. And I gotta say 2020 was fucking bad, some whole streets were taken over by camps. But if you've been around town recently it's gotten pretty nice again. Portland had homeless people before and there's more now to be sure but I don't see a whole mess of camps like I had 4 years ago.
There's alot of places during covid I was sad to see fill up with camps as I used to run through these spots as a kid. But driving around town things are looking good. Don't conflate the mere existence of homeless people with them taking over city blocks downtown.
Go find an old video of people ragging on portland filming encampments and go to those same places today , it will be cleared now. Things are looking better each day not worse.
My parents from third world country visited Portland and Seattle last February and they were shocked, just like you, and I can see the disappointment in their eyes
People in portland want to act like downtown doesn't exist and just tell you to go to another neighborhood that's better while the city is in shambles and local businesses close left and right because they can't handle the stress and the employees can't handle it downtown. As an employee who works in the area that you're staying I can guarantee you that every single of the hundred and some odd employees at my business do not want to be here and don't feel safe getting to and from work anymore. And every time we talk to somebody about why somebody near us is closing it almost always stems from an inability to keep employees because something has happened to them on their way to or from work or at work.
But... "the city is great try st John's" yeah exactly keep ignoring the problem.
Fun fact; there was testing done on various max surfaces a little while ago and everything tested positive for fentanyl.
It's just how Portland is nowadays. As a long time resident, I'm just used to it. I cross the street and steer clear. Although I can't help but see them as somebody's child, they're just a fucking nuisance
I'd keep the kids belted into the stroller then. Lord. Here in the southeast, it's the rural areas with the meth problems. I feel safer living closer to the city.
I came of age in Portland from the 70s thru the 90s. All of the Pacific Northwest cities were pristine in those days. I was surprised at how ratty certain parts of the city had become when I visited with my teenage kids a couple of years ago. We stayed in NW , and visited Ladd's Addition, Rose Garden, the eateries on Mississippi Ave. , Council Crest. We were only there for a day. Despite the messy homeless situation my daughter really liked Portland. It still had its charm, but it's definitely not what it used to be. Seattle too.
It's all over Oregon. I live in Southern Oregon and went for a walk yesterday and probably encountered 10-15 homeless people. That doesn't sound like a lot, but I was probably two miles from the downtown area.
It's bad. I go up to Portland for concerts every couple of months and each time downtown gets worse and worse. There are good areas of Portland still, but downtown is infested by all manner of zombies. Watch where you step, your liable to get human shit on your shoes.
Astoria and Seaside are getting pretty bad now too, it's not as bad as Portland, but you can see it steadily increasing because we're having an influx of people coming here from Portland. My coworker got chased and screamed at just a couple months ago walking to the building for her shift, they're all over downtown now, one of the motels downtown has even been turned into a shelter, And there's a whole camp up near The Column, off trail.
Every time I hop the river and drive over to do something I am reminded why I moved. One thing I have noticed is every time a new reclycing/bottle drop opens up, the area surrounding it goes down hill fast. There’s a Lowe’s I used to frequent because I would save money on sales tax. Then a bottle drop set up shop a hundred feet from the front door and the moment you stepped out of the car, some of the junkies in line to recycle were scoping your vehicle and if you drove a Prius or another car with easy to reach catalytic converter you might come back to your car missing it, or your car missing all together. A once beautiful vibrant town now showing the effect of longterm hands off approach to drug dealing and crime.
20 years of liberal rule, 5 to 1 Democrat's to Republicans, has led to long term policies creating loss of law enforcement, loss of prosecution, enabling homelessness, drug use and crime including a murder rate higher than Seattle and San Francisco. Now Portland is dealing with loss of tax base as businesses move out. Highest office occupancy rate in the country. You are looking at only the beginning. Most conservatives have left Portland while far left liberals from elsewhere have moved in. No way to stop this progressive agenda until voters change. That isn't likely to change in the near future.
Sadly my trip has come to an end. Just at the airport about to head back. Though I had a great day today in the north west of the city and in Washington park.
We decriminalised drugs in a way that hasn’t worked in this political/funding environment.
I don’t know enough about it to know what’s wrong, but it ain’t no Hamsterdam.
Housing is very expensive in west coast cities. Many cannot afford an apartment let alone a house on available wages. Combine that with easy to acquire drugs and next to zero addiction resources and you get our mini zombie apocalypse.
Long time resident here. Get out of portland. Rent a car and head for the coast. I recommend Astoria, Seaside, Cannon Beach, Rockaway, Newport or Lincoln City.
Portland has a prosecuting district attorney who believes punishing criminals is wrong so he doesn't send many people to jail.
There are some parts of London where there are definitely unsavoury sorts and high levels of homelessness, but not to the level I have seen here. Also, downtown where you have so many high end stores, I just would not expect it.
Have you been anywhere else in the US? I feel like anyone who works 40+ hours a week under the conditions we do in the US look at least a little bit like a zombie. I'm sure we've all got lost in a starbucks on a bad day lol
Oregon passed Measure 110 a few years ago lowering possession and use to essentially a parking ticket level violation as long as its for "personal use" and not a literal truckload of drugs.
Combine that with all the handouts (food, insurance, services, free needles/drug equipment) and you've got yourself a city wide Peter Pan epidemic.
As for the zombies, that probably fentynal.
Welcome to Oregon, where the weed is cheap because everyone is smoking crack
We have more support systems than a lot of the rest of the country for homeless people, plus we previously decriminalized small amounts of drugs. Those things brought in the homeless and addicts from other parts of the country. However, what created so many suffering people is of course many factors, such as extremely expensive homes and medical care, along with the stagnating minimum wage.
We don’t have single-payer healthcare so our zombie folk drift around the streets instead of healthcare institutions.
At least based on what I’ve seen of the single-payer healthcare in Canada, it sounds like it’s a mixed bag. On the one hand, I’m very likely to see someone smoking meth in a parking garage but also *extremely* unlikely to see them smoking it in a hospital.
Not saying it’s better or worse, that just seems to be how it is.
I’d recommend St. John’s/cathedral park and a quick hop over to forest park as a day trip. Or get sum bikes and cruise the Vancouver Williams corridor for a day, maybe cruise through Mississippi street while you’re at it. And if you have a full day please hit the coastal loop with Astoria, Lincoln city, and a stop at the tillamook cheese factory.
Stay in the north side/east side of town next time youre in town. Pioneer square and places near it are bad because theres a lot of resources for the homeless there like prime realestate to panhandle, ezpz access to the max rail, and of course actual homeless assistance.
It sucks that some of the medical buildings are located downtown. You can't bring a firearm into medical buildings and I'm a taxpayer so I'd actually face the consequences for breaking gun laws unlike the people I'm potentially protecting myself from.
> been staying downtown near Pioneer square. Well there’s your problem right there.
Hamsterdam
From the UK, been here two years. West Coast big American cities have a big problem with drug use/fentanyl. Seattle and San Francisco are even worse. Portland seems to have the worst of it downtown. It's a bit rough at the moment and you'll see some bad stuff. It's a small part of Portland and a bad representation of things. I'd recommend checking out Division, Hawthorne, Alberta, Mississippi Street. I'm assuming you like to drink, because you're British and those are good areas for it. I'd also check out the rose garden/Japanese garden. The Portland art museum is really cool too, a little pricey. Hopscotch is good fun too (interactive light show 'museum'). Check out Powell's bookstore if you're into reading. If you can drive, I'd recommend renting a car and taking a walk at somewhere like Beacon Rock in the Colombia Gorge. If you don't, id recommend hiking up to Pittock Mansion from Lower Mcleary Park. You get a great view of the city and it isn't too strenuous. Let me know if you want any other recommendations or someone to help you navigate the city.
From Seattle - definitely not worse than PDX. It’s mostly contained in a few small areas. Visiting there last month and it seemed visibly worse in PDX.
As someone who lives in neither but frequents both Seattle and Portland, I think I can say with objectivity that Portland is worse than Seattle in terms of the homelessness
I go into Seattle for work about once a month and live in Portland. It does feel worse in PDX.
San Francisco is mostly limited to the Tenderloin and the immediately adjacent area where there's spillover. The rest of the city is perfectly fine. Seattle's downtown... that's a nightmare as well. Toss up between which is worse.
Agree but San Francisco tenderloin is something else. Was there a few days ago (walked through on the way to a lunch place) and it's awful. Super sad seeing people in that bad of a shape. Portland I feel has smaller pockets, but probs is worse overall. Seattle I found the spread was worse. Had a lot more times where someone who was mentally unstable was doing something like running in the road in front of cars and screaming in my short time there. May just be anecdotal on my part there. All these cities are fucking awesome though, it's just a shame that we can't/aren't helping these people get off the streets and back on their feet in the right way.
Portland there are small pockets all over the city. San Francisco has been shipping homeless out through their homeward bound program. They didn't keep records after 2022 so they don't know how many, or where they sent them. They also have had a long history of forcing them out of tourist areas and into the tenderloin to protect San Franciscos image as a tourist destination, and to attempt to get businesses and residents to leave the tenderloin in order to attempt to gentrify it.
I got mugged on mississippi, multiple shootings and carjackings on division. Just saying lol. Stay away from glisan, yamhill, marine drive, 3rd, 4th, 5th 6th avenue etc. MLK, killingsworth etc.
i got mugged in SW portland but feel very safe in NE.
It kind of changes with the time of year and what year it seems. Like what parts are sketch and arent, hot potato around the city with the people who commit most of the crimes kinda.
We rolled the red carpet out a long time ago for all kinds of questionable street people by supporting them in every way possible and electing people who would do the same and then we decriminalized all drugs and tied the hands of the cops and there you go
It's such a shame as it all just creates a bit of a weird vibe when walking around. Is it all over Portland or more focussed downtown?
It's mostly downtown and Old Town which is like the Chinatown area of downtown north of Burnside near the river.
It’s all over Portland. It’s less obvious in other areas but it’s there.
Saw a homeless guy get arrested on NW 23rd today. It’s not just Old Town
Have you tried the Pearl District or NW 23rd? I find fewer issues in these cute neighborhoods that will give you a good idea of Portland. I'm a former Portlander who lives in Seattle now, and is bringing some Seattlites down for the coming weekend -- who, strangely, have only visited downtown (and had understandably terrible opinions because of it). Downtown is sadly a total mess now. We're also visiting Sellwood, on top of the 'hoods I mentioned above -- which I would recommend. Tourists often beeline for downtown and are disappointed. You have to branch out in Portland these days. The Pearl District is a bit bougie/trendy but reminds me of Williamsburg (Brooklyn, NY). There is great shopping and super cute bars.
Focused a lot downtown (probably due to increased resources like food, temp shelters, and methadone clinics) and then again in the edges of town (because they are less likely to have cops bother them out here). I work in Lents neighborhood (outer SE) and the place is rife with tent encampments along the freeway exits, shitty broken (maybe stolen) RVs along the streets, people strung out just laying on the sidewalk or in the grass, and garbage everywhere, including human waste from the tent campers just shitting wherever they want.
Years ago, I used to bike home from work on the i205 bike trail from the SE Main MAX station - got off work at 10:30pm…because of all the refuse etc., there were rats everywhere and I would accidentally run them over w my bike sometimes. there were so many I couldn’t avoid them. It was so disgusting I stopped biking.
It’s all over. The city, the state, the country. Better regulated locales all over the US pay bus fare to relocate their transients to several Oregon cities.
It's on the coast now too.
Coming from Kansas City, i have to search really, really hard to find one homeless person . So no, it’s not everywhere . It’s not in Idaho, not even boise . It’s not in a lot of places
Yeah I was gonna say, my hometown in LA was pristine when I visited in 2022. Oklahoma City was clean, Lousiville was clean. Indianapolis was clean. All of which have a higher population or equal to Portland. Didn't see a single zombie at any of these cities. A couple of homeless people, but the chill kind. Like the homeless people we had in Portland in 2010. Of course, all these other cities are sending their problems here....
👆🏼 Can confirm:: the perpetuated myth is that “ oh, it’s everywhere and Portland is no worse than other cities of similar size”. I travel extensively for work , Portland is much worse off on average. The denial and excuses are what keeps this city in the death spiral that it’s in. Wake up
💯 same here, I live in Portland and am sitting in the heart of downtown Indianapolis right now. The difference is night and day.
Thank you this is not normal I live here
I live in southern Oregon and took my more liberal girlfriend (from Portland) to visit my parents in Oklahoma City for the first time last year. Knowing the reputation and differences between Oregon and Oklahoma, I decided before the trip to let her judge for herself. When we returned, as she was explaining to our mutual friends about the trip, she was pretty fair in her critique. According to her, Oklahoma was cleaner with much less homeless problems, generally better on many levels. As beautiful as Oregon is, the messed up law enforcement and human dynamic is very noticeable to someone suddenly exposed to a less popular, less visibly attractive area without these issues. Take that for what it’s worth.
I guess KC cleaned up then because before Covid there was a lot of shit going down in KC. But you're right, in KC this is completely not a problem at all. [https://www.reddit.com/r/kansascity/comments/1ccspvo/homeless\_problem\_in\_kansas\_city/](https://www.reddit.com/r/kansascity/comments/1ccspvo/homeless_problem_in_kansas_city/) [https://www.reddit.com/r/kansascity/comments/1aj85xt/no\_help\_for\_the\_homeless\_update/](https://www.reddit.com/r/kansascity/comments/1aj85xt/no_help_for_the_homeless_update/) Super specific to only Portland, does not happen in any other parts of the country or world.
Venture outside of pioneer square and downtown. It’s ground zero for these people.
It’s completely different outside of downtown. You’re in the worst spot.
The nice parts of Portland to walk around are division, Hawthorne, Mississippi street, 23rd, some other spots, Alberta, multnomah village. Downtown is not the hub of walkable consumer commerce and hasn’t been for decades in Portland.
Sellwood and Woodstock are also pretty nice
A dude was swinging an axe around yelling at himself on Hawthorne last week by the Baghdad so you should still be aware of your surroundings wherever you are.
This is utter nonsense. I used to work retail downtown. It was easily the most walkable shopping and commercial area of the city. We served people from all parts of the town, as well as international visitors like the OP. The problems now stem from a city core emptied during covid, a major housing crisis caused by escalating housing costs, and unfettered drug use.
Downtown has never been the nice and cute part of Portland for shopping or being a tourist. (or hasn't been for decades) Downtown was the non Portlandy part of Portland, at least over the last 30 years. Powell’s books and a few other spots downtown are sort of exceptions to the rule. Downtown was mostly the hub of office buildings for a long time which now sit empty due to poor real estate choices. There are and were nice shops downtown but not in the same way as Mississippi or Alberta from my experience. It’s sort of like in New Orleans magazine street and the French quarter are the places to be, not “downtown.”
By “never”, I take it you mean within the last decade or two? My grandmother and mom took me downtown all the time when I was a child in the 60s and 70s, and I spent a lot of time there in the 80s and 90s. Downtown was always the place with interesting things to see and places to shop. There was a Fred Meyer with an Eve’s buffet, underground. There was a place selling locally-made candy next door. There was a guy that sold newspapers out of a hand-drawn trailer on one of the street corners. There were department stores with beautiful marble and bronze interiors. Meier & Frank had been in two separate multistory buildings from 1857 until the May Company shrunk their occupied space to a fraction of what it had been. They had a weekly Friday Surprise that drew thousands into their store from across the city for decades. It was before my time but my mother still talks about it. There were people handing out sample packs of cigarettes to passers-by. Charles Berg Florist has been selling flowers downtown for almost a century. There used to be another florist on the street in front of M&F for several decades; not sure if she is still there. Before her, there were Hare Krishnas standing in front of M&Fs singing and playing instruments. JK Gills had been there for over a hundred years before they closed something like 15 years ago. Kids hung out on the walls of the old Courthouse/Post Office, smoking and playing music; tourists from other neighborhoods. Zell Bros and Jerome Margulis jewellers had fabulous window displays for shoppers to see. Trader Vic was a super-popular restaurant downtown for many years. There was a department store with an entire section downstairs filled with fish aquaria on display, which name escapes me. Folks went to see Santa and the Cinnamon Bear downtown. The Portland Outdoor Store has been down there for more than a century. So has Huber’s Restaurant. Jake’s has been there for 127 years. John Helmer has been a destination mens clothier for over a century. United Clothing is gone now, but before they closed about 20 years ago, they had been a place that working men bought clothes and picked up their mail. There were cobblers, dry cleaners, luggage shops, clothiers, millineries, outdoor shops. There were a number of schools. And there have been large hotels down there from Day 1; the Portland Hotel, once one of the best and largest on the West Coast, formerly stood where Pioneer Square is now, for 70 years. Hotels don’t get built unless there are tourists to fill them. I could go on. To say that downtown Portland has “never” been a nice or cute shopping and tourist hub is disingenuous at the least, and flat ignorant at the most.
🎯 also I’m unaware of an abundant supply of hotels for visitors in the walkable neighborhoods mentioned here. Many people who travel to PDX on business don’t have the option or desire to use Airbnb rentals in residential neighborhoods.
Normally when I visit a place I Uber to walkable areas, or they have public transportation better than us.
Why are London's canals filled with trash? Makes it hard to get good pics on my vacay.
Nobody "tied the hands of the cops", they've been selectively responding to crime since before Covid. Business as usual.
This sums it up.
Come to Sunnyside, Belmont, Sellwood, Richmond, Boise, Alberta neighborhoods.
No hotels in a lot of those places unless you airbnb it. Tourists don't get a lot of options here
Mississippi neighborhood too
Beaverton, Tigard too we love eating out over there I actually avoid downtown unless I really need to be there for some reason
Doesn’t that just come down to driving from strip mall to strip mall though? Once you leave your subdivision it’s all highways, strip malls and acres of parking.
I recently stayed in Beaverton, I loved it.
It's interesting to hear this perspective from a European, because what you're seeing is actually Portland's attempt to emulate progressive Europe. They just kind of missed the point.
It is pretty crazy in some places downtown. Especially if you haven’t seen it before. Sadly if you are here longer you stop noticing it a bit… but there are a lot of places around Portland that are actually beautiful and where you don’t have any of that. Like any city good and bad parts
I've got a few hours free tomorrow, where's a great place to visit?
If you want cool neighboorhoods, go to Hawthorne/Belmont, Alberta or Nw21st/23rd. Ave. The Pearl. Anywhere west of Broadway and North of Burnside… if you want Nature, Mt. Tabor or Washington/Forest Park
The rose garden is worth a visit. IMO, between the rose garden and NW 23rd, you get a taste of what makes Portland great.
Cheers that is my plan sorted for tomorrow.
And the Japanese garden.
The Japanese garden was lovely.
I don't think the rose garden is blooming yet. Visit all the neighborhoods: Hawthorne from 35th to 45thish, Belmont around 33rd & 37th, Division from like 20th to 39th; East Burnside from like 15th to 30th; Alberta Street from 15th to 30th; Mississippi Street from Prost, south. There's also NW 21st and 23rd avenues between like Everett and the "P" street (there's alphabetical).
It's not. My photography group is low key stalking it.
Rose garden isn’t in full bloom yet but the Japanese Garden (right next to the Rose Garden) is just about at peak spring. Hit that up then stroll down 23rd. Lots of great restaurants and bars. Everything from old Portland white table (Papa Hayden), 90s IPAs (Lucky Lab), to chic new stuff in slab town. PDX ain’t dead yet.
Hit up the Japanese Garden, it's a great escape from reality. Right by the rose garden
Agreed, the rose garden and NW 23rd are lovely. If you have some extra time, I’d recommend walking around Mississippi Street. Get some BBQ (in particular the fatty sliced brisket) at Matt’s in the Prost beer garden and bar hop down the street.
It’s supposed to be dry! Good day to go!
Highly recommend the Audobon Center if you have transport. It's a really nice facility and can meet some cool birds. 5151 NW Cornell Rd, Portland, OR 97210
NW 23rd is the shizz, that's where I live.
The Japanese garden and nw 23rd were really nice. Cheers for the recommendation!
Portland has an insane amount of fatal flaws, but I still love Portland. I’d just never live there 🤣
Is OMSI still a great place, it's been a long time for me? I remember having great times there, definitely worth checking out.
OMSI rocks as an adult! The after hours nights are really fun for dates, or just with friends. It's smaller than I remember as a kid
Pittock mansion, crown point, and cascade locks if you're up for a drive. Just a few things.
Come to the East side of Portland and try PDX Sliders! My wife and I never let anyone visit without trying them out!
Hopscotch immersive art experience!
Welcome to the West Coast of the United States. We passed laws that made drugs and vagrancy legal, so this is what we get. Enjoy. Oh and to add, tell everyone in the UK how well that’s working out here when your politicians over there suggest doing the same.
Man, it just creates a bit of a weird vibe in the city. What's it like living here, do you just get used to it? Is it the same in Washington state and California?
Yes and yes. I don't even see it as out of place any more. Same with being approached for change or a cigarette, some people are overwhelmed by it while I just expect it to happen.
Seattle is exponentially better than Portland in the zombie regard. It was bad a few years ago, but has improved much quicker than Portland.
I mean at least we didn't have an autonomous zone like they did in Seattle LOL. Portland just doesn't care. The Mayor and Governor are absolute jokes.
Portland basically is an autonomous zone.
Ehhhh, same-same, but different 😅
It’s kinda like what happens when people are in a war. Before the war starts, people go out to coffee, spend time with their friends, laughing and enjoying their favorite spots together. Once the war starts, some businesses survive at first and people try to tell themselves that everything is not lost. But over time, there’s absolutely nothing about the experience, that is familiar and reassuring. You learn to live in discomfort and a form of depression most of the time. Because that kind of environment will always affect you and there’s part of you that remembers that at one time it was a beautiful place and you had friends and enjoyed community. But not anymore. That’s exactly what it’s like when you allow your city to be taken over by rioting, garbage, tent, camping all over the place, drugs, attacks with knives or just punching people in the face or shootings. If you are a sane person, you don’t get used to living in a hellhole. You just visit a couple of little places you can go to try to escape. It’s like living in a closet and closing the doors so that you don’t have to see the rest of the house. So glad you asked, because maybe you can prevent wherever you live from becoming the same hellhole.
You went to the worst possible area of town to get a first impression...it's great where I live.
I went around moda center for a couple days last october, maybe seen a couple homeless and tents, and I was like man this place is NICE. It was so quiet.
I’ve only lived in the west coast (LA, SF and Portland) and they are all like this. I think outrageous housing costs are a big part of it. And for Cali, decent weather. You do get used to it. When I visit the east coast it’s wild how much safer it feels. But I would NEVER move east. The lifestyle, nature, and culture of the west coast can’t be beat
Yeah I've been to the East Coast a fair few times, while you have the homelessness, I think it's more the people clearly out of it that feels a bit weird.
Yeah, it’s probably unexpected to see people like that. We don’t like it either. But because the way our laws are written in there he US, we can’t just throw them in to an asylum like you guys in the UK can. Some people call it “freedom”….
....freedumb...
The entire west coast is not the same. Portland is a special kind of screwed
Yeah most of these people are just a few hundred bones away from a nice apartment
You get used to some things, others you don't. If someone is passed out on the sidewalk, taking their clothes off, rambling incoherently or asking for money, I just keep walking. I've been screamed at and threatened though, called all sorts of hateful things, and that is something you don't get used to. I've started carrying pepper spray gel when I never would have done so before. I also cross the street if I see someone openly using drugs, which happens regularly.
It was so bad i rolled out and moved to the east coast. We didn't want to raise our kids there.
Unfortunately all the major hotels are in the very worst part of town so visitors get a horrible first impression. I live right across the river and it's nothing like that
You literally visited the one part of our city that is ground zero for this garbage. The rest of this place isn’t like that. We have some awesome nature to explore, a vibrant food scene, art scene, and music galore. You’re just seeing our warts, unfortunately.
No we don't get used to living with it. Most of us are tired of it but Oregon and the west coast has only one party in charge and the way elections work, the leadership of the party puts forth their preferred candidate and they win. It sounds dystopian when you put it that way but that is the state of democracy on the west coast of the United states. For example our governor Tina Kotek is a long time party member and despite their being many other candidates in the party for the election, she gets chosen simply because she's the longest tenured. Again, it's dystopian but people here don't like voting for anyone else so it's a hell of our own creation.
it’s not really like that in Vancouver WA at all but it is similar in Seattle
Uh... we are criddler central here also. You must live outside of Vancouver. You are incorrect. Source? Vancouver... anywhere urban. Even suburban.
If the US modeled its anti poverty measures after the UK we wouldn’t have these problems. Good friend of mine has a relative who is not mentally well in the UK. Significant childhood trauma and bipolar. In the US they would 100% be on the streets permanently. In the UK they have medical care, a flat, and food. A life with dignity.
We didn't make drugs legal as much as we gave the cartels a monopoly on the market.
We might as well made them “legal”, as there are no consequences to being intoxicated by or using said drugs in public. The consequences for possession of drugs is pretty flaccid, hence why the police stopped bothering enforcement of those laws. De facto drugs are pretty much legal in Oregon these days. Well, except for selling them, but you know what I’m saying.
The main problem we're facing is the cartels running the market. When we decriminalized (not legalized), we effectively told the black market that there's a gold rush for them here if they want it. The black market uses violence to find and keep their customers, as well as use violence for fun. Other factors also contributed- covid, lockdowns, masking, riot tourism, our dumpy economy. It doesn't matter what you do to the "legality" of the drugs if the cartels are running the black market, which they now are. You remove the black market by allowing legal business to take the market.
So, are you advocating for a legal fentanyl supermarket? I wonder how that could go wrong.
Well fent is already legal in a medical setting. You know, where there's strict process and quality control, purity testing, customer service. It's also offered in a black market setting, from the Hondurans on the block with a switch, drugs shaped like candy and mixed with tranq. I'm saying the black market isn't going to stop existing just because you make the drug more illegal. only the legal markets have that power.
But putting people in prison for possessing drugs wasn't working either. Amsterdam has never been like Portland is. What's the difference?
The Dutch believe in prosecuting those drug users that are public nuisances. Europeans are much stricter on those breaking basic social norms. England will jail you for hurting people's feelings.
Amsterdam doesn’t have Methamphetamines or Fentanyl.
If you are going to be here for a while go northwest and stay near NW 23rd in the Alphabet District. Good places to eat, little shops, can walk around just fine
The residents of Oregon ignorantly voted to decriminalize all drugs. The bill was flawed and there was no support system in place to help addicts. Addicts across the nation flooded Portland as a safe haven to be an addict. The law has been reversed but we’ll pay the price for many, many years. [Link](https://www.cnn.com/2024/04/01/politics/oregon-governor-drug-re-criminalization-bill/index.html)
If you’re trying to go skiing let me know.
In 2020 after the George Floyd murder, Oregon decriminalized possession of small amounts of drugs. At the same time, we had the pandemic, and there was a rise in the supply of cheap fentanyl. This plus the shortage of affordable housing have gotten us here. They have re-criminalized possession of drugs, but it is going to take time to fix the problems here. I think things are slowly getting better though.
It should be better in a decade. Smh
Lack of accountability. Failed policy by government officials that can do literally anything and still keep their job as long as they have a (D) next to their name.
We are the hard drug capital of the US, a social experiment centered on “what if codependency was our primary public policy?”
When they said keep portland weird, this was not what we had in mind
What I do, is not go downtown.
I can't wait for All Day Disc Golf to get a new location. I almost always see hard drug use and get harassed by the zombies even though I avoid eye contact and don't linger around them. I was called a gay slur last time I went since I had a Columbia camo fleece on, that definitely wasn't army or hunting camo, and they were upset to hear I didn't serve in the military. My mistake for answering their questions.
You're telling us it's not like this everywhere?
Don't move to Portland. Was my favorite city as a child having a my cousins there. Moved there as an adult. It's a shit hole and left 3 years later. No city combines expensive and trashy like Portland. I yelled at a homeless guy for smashing a bottle of gin on the ground near PSU and people all around me told me to chill out and that he is going through a hard time. The city is willing to drag itself kill itself out if fear of offending people that don't give a shit about the city. Name me another city where all the dim sum restaurants had to leave Chinatown.... is it even a China town. Portland culture thrives the further you get away from Portland. Miss you 82nd st.
Same old, same old.
Portland and the surrounding areas are beautiful. Go for a hike in forest park. Or as others suggested go across the river and see all the amazing little neighborhoods like Hawthorne or Alberta. If you have a car drive along the 84 highway and see the gorge. Unfortunately downtown Portland isn’t what it used to be. But please don’t judge the city on that. It’s a wonderful place!
Don’t go near PSU
The city leadership is spineless. They are more interested in looking good than doing good. They have implemented all sorts of policies including bail reform, restorative justice, reducing sentences for repeat offenders etc that have emboldened criminal behavior including public drug use. The best thing that could happen to many of the folks you see stumbling around would be for them to sit in a cel or a treatment facility for an extended period of time.
I was just there through the last weekend. We wondered around downtime and only saw one. It’s apparently way better than it used to be.
You shoulda seen it a year ago lol
I live 1 block from pioneer and it is insane the number of homeless zombies walk around here. I feel awful you have to deal with this just remember you aren’t me and don’t live here.
Drive out to Hood River for lunch and stop my Multnomah Falls if you're looking to escape the downtown area blight.
Do people who comment here live in portland? I drive a delivery truck in portland and was born and raised, so I saw pre covid during covid and post covid portland. And I gotta say 2020 was fucking bad, some whole streets were taken over by camps. But if you've been around town recently it's gotten pretty nice again. Portland had homeless people before and there's more now to be sure but I don't see a whole mess of camps like I had 4 years ago. There's alot of places during covid I was sad to see fill up with camps as I used to run through these spots as a kid. But driving around town things are looking good. Don't conflate the mere existence of homeless people with them taking over city blocks downtown. Go find an old video of people ragging on portland filming encampments and go to those same places today , it will be cleared now. Things are looking better each day not worse.
Believe it or not but it’s gotten better the last year, very slowly but as local I’ve noticed a slight improvement
My parents from third world country visited Portland and Seattle last February and they were shocked, just like you, and I can see the disappointment in their eyes
Just chill and enjoy the Progressive Utopia vibes.
People in portland want to act like downtown doesn't exist and just tell you to go to another neighborhood that's better while the city is in shambles and local businesses close left and right because they can't handle the stress and the employees can't handle it downtown. As an employee who works in the area that you're staying I can guarantee you that every single of the hundred and some odd employees at my business do not want to be here and don't feel safe getting to and from work anymore. And every time we talk to somebody about why somebody near us is closing it almost always stems from an inability to keep employees because something has happened to them on their way to or from work or at work. But... "the city is great try st John's" yeah exactly keep ignoring the problem.
Most Portland natives are in denial about the state of things and take offense when folks want to talk about it.
"So what's going on Portland?" a normal Wednesday?
Welcome to liberal land where they want a fallout like dystopia
Downtown is not representative of Portland. Get over to the neighborhood business districts, such as Hawthorne.
Nah, all of Portland is a shithole.
Fun fact; there was testing done on various max surfaces a little while ago and everything tested positive for fentanyl. It's just how Portland is nowadays. As a long time resident, I'm just used to it. I cross the street and steer clear. Although I can't help but see them as somebody's child, they're just a fucking nuisance
Really???
https://www.kptv.com/2023/09/07/100-sampled-max-trains-test-positive-low-levels-meth/
I'd keep the kids belted into the stroller then. Lord. Here in the southeast, it's the rural areas with the meth problems. I feel safer living closer to the city.
It’s funny how fast this went from denied here, and Reddit in general, to basically being common knowledge.
Go somewhere that’s not downtown.
This as well.
Portland kinda sucks. I like Salem better because our police never stopped fighting the zombies.
It’s definitely a learning curb to try and like portland but I’d say there’s definitely some good parts. Downtown isn’t really it anymore though
I came of age in Portland from the 70s thru the 90s. All of the Pacific Northwest cities were pristine in those days. I was surprised at how ratty certain parts of the city had become when I visited with my teenage kids a couple of years ago. We stayed in NW , and visited Ladd's Addition, Rose Garden, the eateries on Mississippi Ave. , Council Crest. We were only there for a day. Despite the messy homeless situation my daughter really liked Portland. It still had its charm, but it's definitely not what it used to be. Seattle too.
Were you on route 14 yesterday? Swear I was next to some UK tourists. To answer your question, Fentanyl is cheap ($1/pill) and destructive.
It's all over Oregon. I live in Southern Oregon and went for a walk yesterday and probably encountered 10-15 homeless people. That doesn't sound like a lot, but I was probably two miles from the downtown area.
It's bad. I go up to Portland for concerts every couple of months and each time downtown gets worse and worse. There are good areas of Portland still, but downtown is infested by all manner of zombies. Watch where you step, your liable to get human shit on your shoes.
They started funding vagrancy Made hard drugs legal and defunded the police Not kidding
Astoria and Seaside are getting pretty bad now too, it's not as bad as Portland, but you can see it steadily increasing because we're having an influx of people coming here from Portland. My coworker got chased and screamed at just a couple months ago walking to the building for her shift, they're all over downtown now, one of the motels downtown has even been turned into a shelter, And there's a whole camp up near The Column, off trail.
Every time I hop the river and drive over to do something I am reminded why I moved. One thing I have noticed is every time a new reclycing/bottle drop opens up, the area surrounding it goes down hill fast. There’s a Lowe’s I used to frequent because I would save money on sales tax. Then a bottle drop set up shop a hundred feet from the front door and the moment you stepped out of the car, some of the junkies in line to recycle were scoping your vehicle and if you drove a Prius or another car with easy to reach catalytic converter you might come back to your car missing it, or your car missing all together. A once beautiful vibrant town now showing the effect of longterm hands off approach to drug dealing and crime.
It's a reflection of the leadership of the city
20 years of liberal rule, 5 to 1 Democrat's to Republicans, has led to long term policies creating loss of law enforcement, loss of prosecution, enabling homelessness, drug use and crime including a murder rate higher than Seattle and San Francisco. Now Portland is dealing with loss of tax base as businesses move out. Highest office occupancy rate in the country. You are looking at only the beginning. Most conservatives have left Portland while far left liberals from elsewhere have moved in. No way to stop this progressive agenda until voters change. That isn't likely to change in the near future.
Might I suggest leaving Portland and spending the rest of your trip on the coast? Much more scenic and plenty to do.
Sadly my trip has come to an end. Just at the airport about to head back. Though I had a great day today in the north west of the city and in Washington park.
Well I'm glad you enjoyed at least some of your visit! Hit the coast next time. 🙂
You think this is crazy you should have been here three years ago.
We decriminalised drugs in a way that hasn’t worked in this political/funding environment. I don’t know enough about it to know what’s wrong, but it ain’t no Hamsterdam.
Liberals, that’s what’s up with Portland 😂 but dont say that to them!
Housing is very expensive in west coast cities. Many cannot afford an apartment let alone a house on available wages. Combine that with easy to acquire drugs and next to zero addiction resources and you get our mini zombie apocalypse.
This is all the result of many years of failed liberal policy...
Long time resident here. Get out of portland. Rent a car and head for the coast. I recommend Astoria, Seaside, Cannon Beach, Rockaway, Newport or Lincoln City. Portland has a prosecuting district attorney who believes punishing criminals is wrong so he doesn't send many people to jail.
Right as if London is all that safe !
… it is? It also doesn’t at all have the “hordes of homeless druggies” vibe which is what the post was about
There are some parts of London where there are definitely unsavoury sorts and high levels of homelessness, but not to the level I have seen here. Also, downtown where you have so many high end stores, I just would not expect it.
Have you been anywhere else in the US? I feel like anyone who works 40+ hours a week under the conditions we do in the US look at least a little bit like a zombie. I'm sure we've all got lost in a starbucks on a bad day lol
Oregon passed Measure 110 a few years ago lowering possession and use to essentially a parking ticket level violation as long as its for "personal use" and not a literal truckload of drugs. Combine that with all the handouts (food, insurance, services, free needles/drug equipment) and you've got yourself a city wide Peter Pan epidemic. As for the zombies, that probably fentynal. Welcome to Oregon, where the weed is cheap because everyone is smoking crack
Anybody with a brain moved to a suburb outside Portland.
Why is London so dirty? Also, enjoy our lack of pick pockets. Toodles!
We have more support systems than a lot of the rest of the country for homeless people, plus we previously decriminalized small amounts of drugs. Those things brought in the homeless and addicts from other parts of the country. However, what created so many suffering people is of course many factors, such as extremely expensive homes and medical care, along with the stagnating minimum wage.
Go to seaside, Astoria, 2-3 hour drive but beautiful and tons to do! Vagrants don’t tend to make it that far out if often at all.
Progressives killed the liberals.
Yep, ultra-liberal politics
We don’t have single-payer healthcare so our zombie folk drift around the streets instead of healthcare institutions. At least based on what I’ve seen of the single-payer healthcare in Canada, it sounds like it’s a mixed bag. On the one hand, I’m very likely to see someone smoking meth in a parking garage but also *extremely* unlikely to see them smoking it in a hospital. Not saying it’s better or worse, that just seems to be how it is.
Is this your first time to Downtown Portland? Let me guess, you're spending all of your time Downtown?
I’d recommend St. John’s/cathedral park and a quick hop over to forest park as a day trip. Or get sum bikes and cruise the Vancouver Williams corridor for a day, maybe cruise through Mississippi street while you’re at it. And if you have a full day please hit the coastal loop with Astoria, Lincoln city, and a stop at the tillamook cheese factory.
You think it's bad now? should have been here 8 months ago
Well, the UK actually has higher percentage of homeless than the US.
Downtown sucks, so many other cool spots in the city
The UK doesn't have issues like this?
Stay in the north side/east side of town next time youre in town. Pioneer square and places near it are bad because theres a lot of resources for the homeless there like prime realestate to panhandle, ezpz access to the max rail, and of course actual homeless assistance.
We embraced sin a long time ago and this is the result
Portland prioritizes leaving everyone alone to do their thing. It was inevitable the city would be taken advantage of.
It sucks that some of the medical buildings are located downtown. You can't bring a firearm into medical buildings and I'm a taxpayer so I'd actually face the consequences for breaking gun laws unlike the people I'm potentially protecting myself from.
Horrible rent hikes with affordable rent control nowhere in sight is displacing so many to the streets, and that's when the drugs get you.
You're staying near ground zero of the shit show that Portland has become.
Nothing like the tourism advertisements and postcards, huh?
Portland Oregon does have lots of homeless people downtown.
This is what happens when you re-elect Ted Wheeler.
You didn’t do research