From: lessgovt@gmail.com   
      
   Portland Is Losing Its Residents   
   By Zusha Elinson, June 28, 2023, WSJ   
   PORTLAND, Ore.—Mark Rogers has made a list of things he misses about   
   Portland—its vegan restaurants, Powell’s bookstore, public transit—and   
   the things he doesn’t—having his things stolen, stepping in human   
   excrement, extreme politics.   
      
   The 44-year-old artist moved across the country to Fort Wayne, Ind., last   
   year.    
      
   “I don’t want to talk trash about my home city even though there’s trash   
   everywhere,” Rogers said. “I still love Portland even though it’s got   
   some problems, and I wouldn’t have left if the housing prices weren’t so   
   high.”    
      
   Portland is losing residents for the first time in years. Long known for being   
   clean, safe and hip, Oregon’s most populous city is now struggling with   
   serious crime and homelessness issues. Meanwhile, despite the lifestyle   
   problems, housing continues    
   to cost more in Portland than in many other parts of the country.   
      
   Portland lost nearly 3% of its population between 2020 and 2022, according to   
   the U.S. Census. The drop of about 17,400 to 635,000 was the sixth largest   
   decline among the 50 largest cities.    
      
   Local officials who grappled with a 23% population surge between 2000 and 2020   
   now find themselves trying to keep residents from leaving. Mayor Ted Wheeler,   
   a Democrat, has come under increasing pressure to address rising violent crime   
   and sprawling    
   homeless encampments.    
      
   “Mayor Wheeler absolutely wants to retain and support Portlanders here in   
   the city,” a spokesman for the mayor said. “Mayor Wheeler’s top   
   priorities remain addressing the homeless crisis, reducing gun violence,   
   improving livability, and    
   strengthening our economy.”   
      
   Cities across the U.S. are contending with an urban exodus that came with the   
   Covid-19 pandemic. Americans moved to more affordable areas in the suburbs and   
   countryside as they sought more space and worked increasingly from home. San   
   Francisco lost 7.5%    
   of its population between 2020 and 2022, and New York City lost more than 5%.    
      
   The civil unrest that followed the police killing of George Floyd in   
   Minneapolis hit Portland particularly hard. Protests against police brutality   
   in the summer of 2020 devolved into near-nightly violent street    
   lashes—including the destruction of    
   storefronts—that lasted for months, far longer than in other U.S. cities.     
      
   Political fights in Portland between the moderate and progressive wings of the   
   Democratic Party grew increasingly bitter. Officials cut police spending and   
   disbanded a unit that was focused on gangs and gun violence in response to   
   protesters’ calls to    
   defund the police. Portland had long been among the safest cities in the   
   country, averaging about 21 homicides a year from 2000 through 2019. Killings   
   rose to record levels over the past two years, however—with 92 in 2021 and   
   101 in 2022. Oregon    
   residents voted to decriminalize possession of hard drugs in 2020, leading to   
   increased drug use on city streets.    
      
   In once-bustling downtown Portland, windows remain boarded up, some   
   storefronts remain empty and open drug use is common. As in other parts of the   
   country, the downtown also has been affected by commuters’ slow return to   
   centralized offices from months    
   of working from home.     
      
   Some of Portland’s more affluent areas have faced the same issues that   
   trouble downtown.   
      
   Andrea Lamprecht, 50, a cardiac nurse, said she was chased by a homeless man   
   while out on a jog in her Alameda neighborhood on the east side of Portland,   
   where the median home price hovers around $1 million.    
      
   She and her husband, Derek Lamprecht, an orthopedic surgeon, had raised their   
   children in Portland. The chasing incident contributed to the couple’s   
   decision to move to a quiet rural area about 10 miles outside the city in   
   2021. “It never felt unsafe    
   before,” said Derek Lamprecht. “The character of the city changed.”    
      
   Craig Bachman, 52, a retired county employee who lived near the Lamprechts,   
   watched as RVs began parking on his street. His truck was broken into   
   repeatedly, and a man overdosed in a neighbor’s yard. In 2021, Bachman and   
   his wife decided to leave the    
   city they had called home since 1997 and move to a nearby suburb called   
   Tualatin.   
      
   “It’s much quieter,” he said.    
      
   Wheeler’s spokesman said that he had taken measures to bulk up the police   
   department along with community-based anti-violence groups. There have been 36   
   homicides through the first five months of the year compared with 39 over the   
   same period last year.   
       
      
   The city is stepping up its efforts to tackle homelessness, he said, including   
   a new daytime camping ban aimed at keeping the sidewalks clear of tents during   
   the day. The mayor’s next priority will be passing an ordinance related to   
   drug use in public    
   spaces.    
      
   Some of Portland’s most recognizable figures have grown pessimistic. They   
   include Thomas Lauderdale, 52, who founded the band Pink Martini and is   
   frequently involved in city affairs.     
      
   “I have always been a really big booster of Portland, but I can’t   
   recommend it right now,” he said. “It’s too expensive for what it is.”    
      
   But Lauderdale said he wouldn’t be leaving the three-story historic building   
   in the downtown area where he lives.   
      
   “There are things that are really encouraging, like the secret roller disco   
   on Thursdays,” he said. “There’s a really great restaurant called Kann,   
   which just won best new restaurant in the country at the James Beard   
   Awards.”    
      
   Outside of downtown, neighborhoods such as the Hawthorne District with its   
   bohemian boutiques and vegan cafes are thriving again.   
      
   Cassandra Peterson, an actor who played Elvira, Mistress of the Dark, on   
   television and in movies, moved to Portland 18 months ago with her partner   
   from Los Angeles to be near family. Peterson, 71, said she liked how small,   
   quiet and friendly Portland is    
   in comparison.     
      
   “I got really tired of putting on all my makeup and doing my hair to go to   
   the grocery store for one item,” she said. “Up here, I put my hair in a   
   braid, I wear a flannel shirt, I don’t put on makeup and I go anywhere I   
   want.”   
      
      
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    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)