anonymoose
Classical Liberal
Portland's Meltdown: A Progressive Experiment That 'Has Gone Colossally Bad'
Portland: An open air insane asylum
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anonymoose
Classical Liberal
Read the full story here: https://www2.cbn.com/news/us/portlands-meltdown-progressive-experiment-has-gone-colossally-bad
Homelessness is a real problem and PDX is suffering mightily. I'm curious, though, what would CBN report if the taxes were increased to help take care of the homeless? Would the good Bible Thumpers be onboard with that solution?
AProudLefty
Black Kitty Ain't Happy
Christian media? Might as well get news from Breitbart.
To be fair, homelessness in PDX is a real mess right now. It was in downtown PDX one evening while walking around that I saw people openly shooting up and generally it is really unappealing right now.
That being said, though, my fear is that the Right just wants to make the problem go away rather than fixing it. Fixing it will cost $$$. I fear it is currently just sufficient for folks to just point and shake their heads. We WILL have to fix the problem sooner or later...because right now it's not pretty and it's kind of ruining some downtown areas for regular business. Not to mention the HORRIBLE human cost of people living like this on the streets.
When I listen to advocates for the unhoused it sounds like the best solution is to START by getting these people into some housing. Not just shelters which sound like horrible places, but honest housing. And that's going to strike a lot of good Americans as "welfare" or giving someone something for free and that is the biggest sin in American Morality. So I guess we just let the problem fester some more and CBN can trot their camera crews out to score some cheap political points without having to suffer the process of fixing the problem.
anonymoose
Classical Liberal
When is the last time you were in Portland? Go see for yourself.
anonymoose
Classical Liberal
What I don’t get is why is Portland in such bad shape compared to, say, Boise, ID? Or San Diego? It’s not like there’s that big disparity of income like in San Francisco or Seattle. It’s not known for being a Mecca for tech companies.
Downtown Portland has been a mess for at least two decades and I suspect it has to do with the high tolerance for criminal activity.
I honestly don't know what PDX's problem is. But a lot of cities are facing similar houseless populations. PDX seems pretty horrible right now and that may be due to lax efforts to fix the problem or even actually do anything meaningful about it.
I am hard-lefty but sometimes folks on the Left do a bad job in addressing an issue like this. They want to help but they also don't want to dictate living conditions (LOL) so these camps kind of fester. The Right doesn't have any solutions either...they just want more police to hassle the homeless and boot them off to someone else's problem. That's not a solution either.
The solution is going to cost and it's going to HAVE to be a humane solution that meets the needs (not just makes homelessness illegal in some way). There is a LOT of suffering going on on these streets and that's not the kind of thing a developed nation, especially the richest nation on earth, should be incapable of dealing with humanely and decently.
I just wanna go to Powell's and then walk around afterwards without facing this kind of hellscape.
AProudLefty
Black Kitty Ain't Happy
When is the last time you were in any major city? Go see for yourself.
AProudLefty
Black Kitty Ain't Happy
The point is that it could be anywhere. The only reason CBN and the OP selected this place is to score cheap political points. They do not care about the homelessness problem.
Yes, agreed, cheap political points against a supposedly "Progressive" city. Add to it the recent proposition that was passed in Oregon that decriminalized possession of some harder drugs in preference to getting people treatment as opposed to just being locked up. That seems to have frightened the Right something fiercely and it also sounds like it might not be as effective as hoped for. So there's a spike in drug usage. However other studies have found that it isn't necessarily such a simple calculus. That maybe the prop wasn't necessarily the reason things got bad. They've been bad for quite a long time as I understand.
Either way it's a mess that the Right has no will to solve and the Left has no ability to solve. Both will have to come together and fix the problem.
We have a homeless problem because we don't take care of our poor and mentally ill. We have allowed more and more people to fall into poverty as the wealth gap continues to grow. NOthing will be solved until we solve that problem. It is unsustainable. Chalking this up to only progressive policies is short sighted and unproductive. It is shameful we allow this.
Geeko Sportivo
Verified User
I would rather hear what the homeless people have to say about all this!
anonymoose
Classical Liberal
Honolulu about 2 weeks ago. Doesn’t compare to Portland. In fact the only city I’ve been to in the last 5 years that compares to Portland is Seattle. I hear horror stories about San Francisco. Haven’t been there in 15 or 20 years but when a city has a poop location app, well that kinda tells me something.
AProudLefty
Black Kitty Ain't Happy
That's what I thought.
anonymoose
Classical Liberal
The thread is about Portland in particular. Nothing to do with politics. It’s why I put this in the off topic forum.
Why do YOU think Portland is particularly bad , especially for its size?
You are required to define That's.
In an age where I am told what cheeseburger I should buy should be a political question why Portland was murdered is a political question.
anonymoose
Classical Liberal
Who killed Portland? And why? Portland is relatively insignificant.