Clark County Today Editor Ken Vance says the problem in downtown Portland is that years and years of progressive politics and anti-law enforcement policies have created a situation that needs intervention
Ken Vance, editor
Clark County Today
There was a time in my life when I visited downtown Portland on a regular basis. I enjoyed the restaurants and opportunities to attend social, entertainment and sporting events. Today, however, it is an extremely different situation. I pretty much have to be dragged kicking and screaming across the Columbia River let alone venture into the cesspool that downtown Portland has become.
Like the rest of you, I have watched downtown Portland turn into a bastion of homelessness, crime and political protests. Many of the businesses have left. Buildings are vacant with boarded windows. Restaurants are virtually empty. It’s downright sad and in many ways disgusting.
Yet, elected officials and community leaders in the city of Portland and state of Oregon are fighting tooth and nail to prevent President Donald Trump from sending in National Guard troops to restore order in the city. For the life of me, I can’t wrap my head around what, or whom, they are trying to protect. From my perspective they are only protecting the ones who have caused all the damage.
Don’t get me wrong. As a conservative, I absolutely believe in a smaller, less intrusive government. I’m not sitting around waiting for the feds to jump in and solve all of our problems. It’s much better if we solve them ourselves. The problem in downtown Portland is that years and years of progressive politics and anti-law enforcement policies have created a situation that needs intervention. I know if Vancouver ever reaches the depths that Portland and Seattle have, I would be pleading for the president to intervene.
The state of downtown Portland
Andrew Hoan is the president and CEO of the Portland Metro Chamber. I’m guessing there’s very little he and I agree with when it comes to the current state of the city. Like many politicians and community leaders, he says the problem is under control and things are getting better. However, in a recent forum held by KATU-TV, Hoan delivered some startling news about just how bad things still are in the city in terms of economic crisis, job losses and high taxes.
Hoan said the region has faced nine straight quarters of job losses, ranking near the bottom nationally for real estate investment and consumer confidence. He warned that declining business activity is driving city budget deficits and eroding public resources. Hoan emphasized the need for economic reforms, including tax changes, to support growth and prevent further negative perceptions in the community.
“We’re in nine straight quarters of job losses in our community. It’s most particularly located here in Multnomah County,’’ Hoan said. “We are 80 out of 81 communities in the country in terms of real estate investment attractiveness and our consumer confidence, which is tracked sort of like a leading indicator for how people feel about the economy.
“We’re last in the nation. And so these are not things that are good,’’ Hoan said. “And the reality of what it does – we see happen literally today or yesterday – when they announced another major deficit on the city budget as business activity declines. So do public coffers also shrink?
“We’ve got to have a vision to execute on these plans,’’ Hoan said. “We have to take care of the basics. And while we’re doing that, we have to acknowledge we’re in an economic crisis as well. And if we don’t have an economy and we don’t have jobs, we will not have the resources to be able to do these things, and we’ll be compelled to do things like raise parking rates, which infuriate people and lead to that ongoing negative perception that we have in our community. So it’s time to also acknowledge that the economy matters, and it’s in everyone’s interest to have a thriving business ecosystem.
“The taxes here are absurd,” he added. “It’s debilitating our economic growth. And while they may feel good and there are things that we may care about, we’re going to have to have a hard conversation about the reality of the future of this community.’’
How can anyone suggest city and state officials are “taking care of the basics” when businesses are being shuttered right and left and folks like me don’t feel safe even stepping foot in your city?
A Facebook friend recently posted the following: “The Trump Administration is putting our lovely city on the world stage by sending in troops.’’ Lovely city? What decade are they living in? And, instead of focusing on preventing the ugliness to be exposed, focus on fixing the problem.
Also read:
- Opinion: Washington is bleeding taxpayers and now a State Representative wants to make it worse
Mark Harmsworth argues that a proposed statewide payroll tax would worsen Washington’s ongoing loss of jobs, businesses, and economic competitiveness. - Opinion: Simultaneous left turns
Doug Dahl explains how Washington law directs drivers to make simultaneous left turns by passing to the left of each other in an intersection. - Opinion: WEA secret meeting about opposing the initiatives gets leakedAn opinion from Let’s Go Washington criticizes a leaked Washington Education Association meeting about opposing LGW’s initiatives on girls’ sports and school transparency.
- Opinion: Kitchen table advocacy – Influence the legislature from homeNancy Churchill encourages citizens to influence the Washington State Legislature from home by focusing on committees, building small advocacy teams, and engaging positively with legislators.
- Opinion: When elected officials raise your property taxes, don’t blame the assessorPaul Guppy explains that property tax increases are set by elected officials, not assessors, and urges holding the right officials accountable to restore fiscal sanity.
This entire country is falling apart due to the idea that no one should be hungry or homeless so it is our duty to provide such things to them. That means those who work will continue to fund more and more of the cost of homelessness & crime. If the local goverments want these problems to be seriously looked at, the problem must be realistically faced. More taxes on those who have jobs or create jobs are again attacking the problem by taking money from those who earn it to give it to the ones that the government feels should have equal benefits. I don’t know how to fix it because the politicians have allowed & encouraged giving more to the poor without having any way of paying the costs. Taxing those whe have jobs or property to give to the poor without a reasonable way to fund it. It is not an easy problem to address, but continuing on the current method is going to end up with a lot of people with no homes, jobs, or food. How do those a the top provide for those at the bottom? The problem has to be addressed on all levels. I’m affraid that everyone is going to loose – get ready for a second Great Depression.
Very well stated! Couldn’t agree more! As I’ve often said, you can’t spend your way out of homelessness and the poor. The more you give away, the more there will be in line for those freebies. The philosophy of “giving a helping hand” to those in need worked, and worked well, in a former time, but that time has passed. It is a very different world in which we live today. Self-sufficiency and “pulling yourself up by the bootstraps” are foreign concepts.
The likelihood of a second Great Depression is VERY high. Already, I – like many others – am already hunkering down and starting to limit assistance to those outside the circle of the family and close friends. Simply stated, we are taking care of our own; all others have to find their own way.
Self-centered, you say? Yep, it is. But pouring endless amounts of money into these societal issues has been shown to not be working. The only thing that it is doing is making those of us who worked hard, saved, and planned for the future to be less better off than what we could be without the rising costs & taxes being wasted on these societal ills.
You were absolutely right, and I’m glad you wrote this article. But the problem is that the governor of the state of Oregon, California and Washington hate Trump so much along with their administration that they’re gonna ban together and they don’t care what they destroy that gets in their way… They are gonna buck against anything that Trump and his administration try to do to help do anything. And it’s really sad to see that and I hope that the people of Washington Oregon in California see this very clearly so when it comes time to vote again they’ll stop voting in the same democratic people that are ruining the states. You’re absolutely right about the taxes and they’ve increased the taxes so much. The gas cost more on this coast and it does anywhere else in the United States where it’s going down. And that affects Transportation of goods by trucks and that means everything‘s gonna go up whether it’s groceries or medicine or car parts or whatever gets transported in by a truck. And then all three Democratic governors are gonna blame the Trump administration because they said that they would improve the economy and gas prices would go down. When in reality it’s their plot to do what they’re doing to make sure everything raises, hoping that the people will blame the Trump administration. It’s a really sick sick plot and I hope the people are smart enough to see through it. But I appreciate you running this article of truth.
from each according to their ability; to each according to their “needs”.
I think some deadbeat PoS that let his children starve to death because he was too lazy to get a job wrote that.