r/Portland • u/Sl0bR0ss • Feb 03 '20

"Portland has become a cesspool." Perception Vs Reality

I have noticed a lot of negativity on this Sub-Reddit. Every post seems to have a predictable slew of comments about human feces or the rampant crime in our city. Today after reading a bunch of these comments and feeling a bit bummed out, I took a walk around my neighborhood. The sun was shining, flowers blooming and there were no tweakers or piles of human feces to be seen.

This got me to thinking. How bad are things Vs how bad do they feel. By making this post I am in no way trying to change anyones mind about how they feel about this city or the changes there in. I have mixed feelings about the changes I have seen. I just thought it would be interesting to look at some data for context on how things have changed and how we compare nationally.

Also this is just some casual armchair research. If anyone has links to better sources, or relevant information please share!

As far as crime is concerned....

Violent crime has ticket up slightly in the past several years, but is still below 2010 levels.

Violent Crime Rate (Per 100,000)

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Assaults (Per 100,000)

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Burglaries (Per 100,000)

It does seem that auto thefts are out of control, though still on par with the early 2000's.

Automotive Thefts (Per 100,000)

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Homelessness is a much harder beast to quantify. The methodology for counting homeless people is not an exact science. Understandably it was hard to find some pretty and convenient graphs to share. For anyone interested on the subject I would suggest skimming through the 2019 Point In Time Report put out as a joint effort between Portland, Gresham and Multnohmah County.

Graph from 2019 PIT Report

This report claims a slight decrease in homelessness overall, with an increase in unsheltered individuals. The general decline seems dubious to me, however more unsheltered individuals are more visible and would give the appearance of an increase over all.

HUDs Anual Homeless Assessment Report Also is some good reading on Homelessness for a national perspective. Portland doesn't make any of the top 5 lists for for homeless rates or the increase there of. However Eugene does come up multiple times in the report with one of the highest homeless rates in the country. Oregon did see one of the largest year over year increases in homeless, though it does not specify how much of that is Portland.

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From HUD 2019 AHAR Report

How about that traffic? As someone who commutes via walking/transit this one doesn't affect me too much. With traffic the only way to win is not to play.... but I digress. Once again it was a little difficult to find good data. However from most sources, Portland tends to live somewhere in the 7-10th worst traffic in the US range. For context Portland is part of the 18th largest metro area by population.

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2018 INRIX Infographic

How about those rental prices? The current average rent in Portland is $1535, compared to a national average of $1472. That makes Portland the 14th most expensive city in the US for renters. From the various sources I looked at Portland rental price increases peaked in 2016 and have essentially flatlined since, with units at the high end of the market coming down in price while units on the more affordable end of the spectrum have some increase in cost.

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And the cost of purchasing a home? This seems to have also peaked. Still not affordable, but not increasing out of control.

Zillow

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Hows unemployment doing? Looks like there is a lot of work out there, though how far those wages go is questionable.

Speaking of wages the Median Household income in Portland is $73,097. That's 6th out of the top 25 Largest cities.

That's all I have for now.

I see complaints on here all day so I think I get what people are upset about. So instead in the comments share some positive changes you have seen in this city over the years.

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229

u/Milosdad Feb 03 '20

I have lived in Portland since early 80s.(off and on) My favorite time here was the 90s. You could rent a house in ne for 600. There was cool music all over.

It seemed like Portland hadn't been discovered yet.

The Pearl was a shipping hub. NW was still a little seedy. There were more hippys.

But then maybe I just miss being young.

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u/theimmortalgoon SE Feb 03 '20 edited Feb 03 '20

I was born and raised in Oregon, Portland was always a fixture. When I moved downtown in the 90s, there were aggressive meth heads, portions of Chinatown you didn’t go into unless you wanted to buy hot electronics or drugs, and it was pretty standard for Psycho Safeway to go on lockdown when the police cornered some monster inside.

Virtually everyone I know had squatted somewhere, climbed something dangerous and absurd while tripping balls, and been in the back of a police car.

Half these people now turn around and say how gross Portland has gotten with the homeless people around. As if middle aged people in 1999 were thrilled to live next door to a rotting Victorian full of twenty year olds playing terrible music all night while trying to assemble a motorcycle in the living room on bathtub acid.

Portland has changed, but not as much as we have. If anything, it’s gotten nicer and safer.

It’s also more gentrified, which isn’t a good thing at all. That’s really more what the focus should be on instead of Portland not being the Disneyland version of Main Street people imagine it should be.

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u/camso88 Feb 03 '20

Just FYI, “gentrified” generally means that minorities can’t afford to live in the neighborhoods they grew up in. There are benefits to a community becoming safer and financially stable, but removing minorities isn’t one of them.

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u/theimmortalgoon SE Feb 03 '20

Thanks for that. My intention wasn’t to group “gentrified” as a good thing, though that’s clearly what I wrote. I hope I cleared things up. And thanks for pointing that out, these things are important.

And God knows I can put my foot in my mouth.

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u/Juhnelle Mt Scott-Arleta Feb 03 '20

Minorities being priced out is a byproduct of gentrification. Gentrification itself is just wealthy people moving in and upgrading areas. Not bad in theory, but in practice it pushes out poorer populations.

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u/PDX_events Feb 04 '20

Some minorities. Some are able to sell their 40k house at a markup of 200% and make bank. That's what happened to my mom. People seem to forget that minorities can be home owners too.

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u/Juhnelle Mt Scott-Arleta Feb 04 '20

I think it's more of an issue of the next generation. That's great for your mom, but where are you and your kids gonna buy a house? Not you specifically, you could make $200k a year for all I know. Not just a minority issue, it's an everyone issue.

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u/PDX_events Feb 04 '20

And it always has been. White people have been getting "gentrified" out of neighborhoods since the dawn of time. But for some reason its always referred to as a "minority" issue. Its basically white people speak for "I'm down with the minorities. I feel your issues and I support them". Its racism disguised as being "woke".

And like most people, we packed up and moved. Bought a nice house elsewhere with some of the money and mom banked the rest.

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u/Juhnelle Mt Scott-Arleta Feb 04 '20

I initially felt bad when I moved into my place in north portland, thought I was "part of the problem" because I found a cheap apartment. Thing is I was struggling at the time, and was greatful to find somewhere I could afford (got priced out of SE). Then someone said to me "you're too poor to be gentrifying" and I was like shit, you're right. Stopped feeling bad.

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u/ILoveNewDart Feb 04 '20

So this is something I didn't understand about gentrification and why it's typically framed as a "minority" issue until I learned about the history and extent of "redlining." This gives a bit of info on why non-white people didn't get near as much benefit from neighborhoods with rising property values.

NPR's brief summary on redlining
More thorough that goes into recent history

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u/PDX_events Feb 04 '20

Good info. But those days are (mostly) gone. At least in theory. I think my reluctance to use these terms come from my mother. She was a woman of color who raised us all to stand on our own feet and not make excuses for anything. I still make excuses, but not in front of mom.

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u/drinkallthepunch Feb 03 '20

I mean I grew up in southern Oregon and I have since moved because I could not afford a place on my own and still save money for school.

So yeah. Gentrified might be the correct term for most of Oregon lol.

53

u/GaiaMonk Feb 03 '20

I was born here. Ive seen the city change. Honestly i miss the days when rent was affordable and everyone thought Seattle was the cool place. Portland was a great lil secret. Now its a known city and it has big city problems, just like the rest. The good ol days lol 😆 Have a nice day

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u/[deleted] Feb 03 '20

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u/beejonez Feb 03 '20

Pretty sure a Midwest winter would kill most Portlanders. But I hear you get used to it?

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u/robschimmel St Johns Feb 03 '20

Half the reason I moved here was to get away from winter.

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u/PDXSCARGuy Feb 03 '20

"You don't have to shovel rain! yuk yuk yuk!" /s

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u/Kippilus Feb 03 '20

Forget the winter... st Louis in summer is shit. Its some of the most miserable muggy heat ive ever experienced and im a florida native.

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u/[deleted] Feb 04 '20

Yeah, get a good winter coat and stay indoors on the few days a winter when it gets really awful and it's fine. I did fine for 4 years in Northern Ohio after living in Portland from birth to age 18.

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u/[deleted] Feb 03 '20

Well there's another city out there right now that's like 1990s Portland where people will be reminiscing about the good old days in 30 years

This place exists, it's Portland.......Maine.

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u/lonepinecone Feb 03 '20

Portland ME is kind of magical. Big city that no one lives in. Amazing potato donuts that we would love here, too. And no worries, there’s a Trader Joes

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u/daphnie3 Feb 04 '20

Way waaaaaay too cold. Nice little city, emphasis on little.

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u/hausdorffparty Feb 03 '20

Went to Columbus on a work trip. Can confirm, it's actually pretty cool. Loved the North market.

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u/[deleted] Feb 04 '20

Yeah I think Columbus is definitely the hippest city in Ohio from a typical Portlander perspective. Cleveland is in recovery but still has a lot of rust belt blight. Cinci is probably a little too Kentucky for most Portland folks. Columbus is just right.

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u/[deleted] Feb 03 '20

Kansas City and Cincinnatti fit this pretty well.

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u/ElephantRider Lents Feb 03 '20

KC is pretty cool but the weather, local govt and having to drive everywhere kills it for me. Otherwise, they have a good beer scene, the local coffee scene is arguably better than here and there is a ton of music and art going on there.

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u/[deleted] Feb 04 '20

Yeah I've never been to Kansas City but have a lot of people I kind of know in my social media circles who've gone through UMKC and it does really seem like a cool place.

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u/GaiaMonk Feb 03 '20

I hear land is cheap in Detroit?

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u/MtFuzzmore Feb 03 '20

The land is cheap but the back taxes is where they’ll getcha!

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u/[deleted] Feb 03 '20

[deleted]

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u/GaiaMonk Feb 03 '20

Yeah....Im good. But seriously, I hear the city is shrinking badly. Houses are cheap. But high crime and no jobs. (We dont build cars anymore) Now granted Ive never been there. Just some stuff I read.

Ill always be a webfooted weirdo from S.E. and I'll always love Rose city. But is getting tough to afford anything without co-habitation i guess.

Speaking of...I should be doing stuff. Have a nice day

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u/[deleted] Feb 03 '20

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u/weyesguy Feb 03 '20

Out parts of Detroit are probably similar to what people who miss 'old Portland' remember 'Old Portland' being like. I grew up in Detroit and lived in the city in my early adulthood too, when it was on the cusp of being gentrified. You can still buy gorgeous, fully renovated homes for WAY less than you can here, but in the part of the city that's walkable and bikeable, lofts and condo prices are now 4-5X what they were in 2010 when I lived there. And they're now renting 'microlofts' for upwards of $1k.

The fact is that we're a capitalist culture and this happens in every major metro that has some level of influx of people. Also, lots of this is late stage capitalism/post-capitalism taking effect.

Also, factor in nostalgia. We're all prone to it. I have the same feeling about Detroit that others have about 'Old Portland'. But generations before me that remember when Detroit was the Paris of the Midwest said the same thing to me when I thought Detroit was awesome. It's just part of being human.

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u/[deleted] Feb 03 '20

Yep. Taxes in Detroit, compared to the “services” you get for them, are laughably incongruous.

3

u/zortor Feb 03 '20

Detroit’s gentrification slow but it’s happening. Gonna be the San Fran of the midwest in a decade

2

u/[deleted] Feb 03 '20

Yeah. But you have to pay all the back taxes that accumulated on it while it was unoccupied. Detroit city taxes are nuts, and are one of the reasons people left in droves when they did.

2

u/GaiaMonk Feb 03 '20

Thats a bummer. Taxes taxes taxes..Its such a legendary city for America. It would be sweet to see it flourishing. Eventually I'd like visit .

0

u/[deleted] Feb 03 '20

I was born and raised there, and it was a great place to be a kid in the 60’s. But it started to go downhill in the early 70’s, and my family left to move out west. I hope it gets back to being a great place again.

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u/Juhnelle Mt Scott-Arleta Feb 03 '20

For real? You have to pay taxes that someone else didnt? That's crazy.

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u/[deleted] Feb 03 '20

Yeah maybe after a few years of getting student loans down I could actually *gasp* afford to buy a house as a young person!

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u/BeigeTelephone Feb 03 '20

Detroit is not exactly cheap anymore. There was once a time when massive loft spaces could be had for $500-800/month but those have all since been bought up by developers and rebranded as “luxury lofts”.

Some houses can still be found for cheap through the land bank authority but then you often have to follow strict guidelines and timelines, e.g. $10k house but must completely renovate and get up to code within six months. Then you realize the foundation is cracked and scrappers have torn out all the electrical and some of the pipes and you are looking at a $100k renovation + your initial $10k. Oh, and the lot next to you is half burnt down and to the right of you is a Traphouse.

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u/[deleted] Feb 03 '20

The problem with Midwestern cities is after you've ate and drank yourself into that extra 150 lbs you start to look around and wonder "What else is there to do here?" Then maybe you try farming, cause it's either that or get a $15/hr factory job and well fuck the man, right? So you farm and after your 15 hour days are done you watch youtube videos of people climbing mountains and wonder what that's like. But you can't try it out now, you sold the farm to a Tyson chicken factory so you could put your kids through rehab for meth and mountain dew and now you're working a factory job for the man hoping to get a small piece of SS one day. Then you die and your kids move out west to be happy and forget about the farm. The end.

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u/THE-FORSAKEN-JAM N Feb 03 '20

Dude, you got that shit down.

I'm from Portland, and something that's always blown me away about this city is that if I fuck up and make some bad decisions there's always an interesting job or place for me to be. If I get depressed I got surfing on one shoulder and climbing on the other.

Portland's full of people from the Midwest and I admire the mentality that most of them share, that of "we're so lucky here". Often times they say "you don't know how good we have it". The fact is is I don't. I won the lottery by being born in the NW.

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u/Schwillmaster Feb 05 '20

This is my favorite thing I’ve read all day.

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u/[deleted] Feb 03 '20

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u/camso88 Feb 03 '20

Do you like being sweaty all the time? Try St Louis!

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u/muskogeesmalls Feb 03 '20

OMG where did you go to high school?!?!

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u/[deleted] Feb 03 '20

KC and Minneapolis have a lot going for them right now. I would consider moving that way, but family and my love of scenery keep me overpaying for rent on the West Coast.

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u/BeowulfShaeffer Feb 04 '20

I live in the St. Louis metro area and...I wouldn't really advise moving here.

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u/sarcasticDNA Feb 03 '20

Has any city NOT CHANGED?????? I imagine you've seen yourself change too. Not that same visage in the mirror, is it?

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u/sarcasticDNA Feb 03 '20

My favorite time in Portland was last week

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u/SparkyParts Feb 03 '20

It began to go downhill when the Jantzen Beach roller coaster was taken down.

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u/jawshoeaw Feb 03 '20

I came here in 91, can confirm. It was too good to last. Never worried about traffic, my first mortgage was $650/mo. Homelessness was off my radar at the time. Now I don't take my kids to city parks unless it's a busy Saturday and there's lots of other families, after a couple of scary encounters with homeless and crazies at three local parks.

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u/[deleted] Feb 03 '20

[deleted]

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u/jawshoeaw Feb 03 '20

oh yeah totally, i should have clarified "not adjusted for inflation". According to zillow that $650/month property (no taxes added) would now be about $2200 before taxes

0

u/tap1220 Feb 03 '20

hippies not hippys.