Once voted the most livable US city, now it appears people cannot leave quickly enough. What do you think is going wrong?
Homeless Crime The city is just dirtier than it used to be. Incompetent government Cost of living Taxes I never felt like there was a part of town that I would not go to, but now I rarely venture into downtown or the east side just because I don't want to deal with it. I used to work downtown.
Wonderful news! When I left it was getting way too crowded and that was over two decades ago. They must be doing something right when the Californians decide to leave after inflating the cost of housing! If you're going to be a small market city...own it!
They're not leaving the metro area though. They're just moving out into the burbs. When I moved out of Portland proper in 2015, I got a house in Hillsboro for $260k. That was about half of what houses were going for in Portland. When we moved a year ago, the housing prices are basically exactly the same no matter where we looked. Vancouver, Wilsonville, Beaverton, Hillsboro, hell.... even Silverton was about the same cost. People still want to move to the metro area, they just don't want to live in the city because the city is a dump.
Sure...cities in general are overpopulated and it's a rare thing when the overcrowding spills over and balances itself out...all my friends in Portland will love being able to drive and actually park in the city without feeling like they are in Los Angeles. I like small cities more than overcrowded urban sprawls. Portland as I said, got too crowded for me over two decades ago. Don't worry, more people will move there in time. When it's 140 degrees down south it'll look good again. I lived in Wilsonville and driving into the city got more of more dense over time way back then...Eugene is a much more friendly city to drive around in and through and find a parking spot...don't regret the choice at all.
Cost of living, especially housing costs, is the primary driver. People are moving to the southeast because housing costs are 40-50% lower. https://realestate.usnews.com/places/rankings/fastest-growing-places
I'd consider it a good thing if it forces city government to pull their heads out of their collective asses and start doing things to reverse the drain. They have been complacent for far too long because push never came to shove. People are now voting with their feet. Shrinking tax revenues will hopefully wake the City Council up.
I've lived in Wilsonville since 1986. We used to go into Portland several times a week. But in the past 10 years or so the traffic in and out has gotten exponentially worse. If/when we go in now, we plan carefully and head in early. The inner east side is still vibrant and enjoyable, but they have thrown up so much housing with absolutely NO parking provided. So that makes things even worse. They have also removed vehicle lanes for streets that used to have good flow and added bike lanes that rarely get used. City government has taken a lot of the pleasure out of visiting Portland. Portland's motto should be, "The City That Shot Itself In The Foot"......
The City of Portland's plan to annoy people out of their cars is fucking stupid. All of these giant apartment complexes with no parking has ruined neighborhoods near them.
They've also changed what it is, Foster and Division (and others?) to 2 lane instead of 2 lanes going each way. And then they've made it so there are weird parking set ups on roads. It's like the UGB on crack. Had a purpose, but has long since gone away from it.
On a similar note, I was in SF a couple of weeks ago for work. A colleague and I finished up about 8 and found a dinner place. I was about to pass on drinks and see if there was a fun local bar to go to afterward and the answer was "dude, it's 9pm on a weeknight. Nothing's open around here--the city is dead." I wouldn't have imagined it would be that way in downtown SF. I'm not talking Oakland or San Mateo or ... Then two of the largest hotels in SF just gave the city the keys and defaulted. From afar, it seems like it's happening in a lot of spaces where COVID restrictions hit harder (some Seattle friends are also on the way out) and where tax and government are overcoming the pleasure of living in the beautiful West Coast. My family isn't likely to return soon, even with some interesting job offers in SEA and LA/SD.
Interesting. If only we could find some kind of correlation between cities like Portland, Seattle and SF...
This is happening all over the country..people tend to forget what forest fires and a global pandemic did to the people who were just getting by before all this in the NW but it's happening in most urban population centers....winters aren't as brutal in the cities you mentioned compared to Boston or Chicago or New York City. Los Angeles has a 58 block long skid row....why? You won't freeze to death sleeping in a cardboard box probably
I understand that there may be other factors involved but the elephant in the room is the terrible politics & policies that these cities have espoused in recent years that are squeezing the population out at an increasingly rapid rate. I visited Anaheim, CA late last year for the first time since 2018 and was shocked at how much the city had degraded since I was last there. Hopefully a breaking point will come soon and the people will continue to vote with their feet because it's very sad to see these once strong and beautiful cities completely destroying themselves.
They need to ensure there is public transit that is safe and enjoyable, as well as faster and cheaper than driving. To do that, you'll have to solve the homeless problem in the process. But, if they can manage it, Portland and the surrounding areas will be a mecca of industry and commerce.
Foster was one of the streets I was alluding to. It was the one street on the southeast side that flowed smoothly virtually 24/7. Now it's a slow moving, stop and go bottleneck. No rhyme or reason other than "progress".......
That's because the people running the city don't think logically. They think with their "progressive" brains. We can't do anything about the homeless that would be mean! Sorry.... houseless. We can't do anything about the druggies? That would be mean! We can't do anything about the people tearing up the city with riots and protests! They would think we support racism. Everyone is going to want to ride a bike 365 days a year.... in the rain. Everyone is going to want to ride MAX.... except all the park and rides are full and the trains are crammed, but the roads are still packed.
