Portland went from fame to flame in only 3 years
-
6/13/2021
We moved to Portland for work and lived there for 3 years. At first we thought it was great: beautiful trees, flowers, restaurants, breweries, shopping, etc.
We learned to deal with rain, snow, ice, etc. Gloom goes with bloom.
Then the homeless problem started to grow. Our car was broken into, my office was surrounded by tents, needles and poop started appearing everywhere.
The City, county, metro, rail, and schools all started bonds that saw our already crazy property tax go up by 40% in 3 years. Almost 2% of market value.
Then they passed an income tax, art tax...etc. But the streets remained full of potholes, garbage everywhere and graffiti slowly started to cover every surface.
Covid hit and the city shut down. Restaurants, breweries, and shops closed. Then the riots started. Downtown became a war zone at night. Everything beautiful was destroyed. Nothing was safe. Gun crime shot through the roof. Homicides were up 600%.
Instead of fixing crime, the DA stopped prosecution of the rioters, property and drug crimes. More drug addict homeless moved in. The police stopped responding to burglaries, car theft, bicycle theft and more. Response times for violent crimes shot up to 2 hours.
The city council enabled all of this.
So we sold our home to a family from California seeking Portlandia. We know they are landing in Flynt West. We bought a home in a clean, safe, well maintained, much lower cost, less radical city in Arizona. Taxes are 1/3 of Portland and we bought an equivalent home for 1/3 as well.
Looking back into Portland now, the schools are going to crap as well and the whole situation has gone from bad to unbelievably aweful.
Look elsewhere, you have been warned.
Dick | Goodyear, AZ