Portland Oregon - How's The City Doing? | Honest Opinion | 

I grew up in Portland, OR and moved away for various reasons. I recently came to visit family and my kids got to witness people on the side of the road doing Heroine. While we were there hotel staff kept sweeping the homeless away from their property doing drugs. I was shocked to see how many homeless people and open drug use. It has definitely has gone done hill and I really didn't feel safe. I personally don't plan on bringing my kids here again.

I lived in and went to high school in Portland in the late 90s and early 2000s. This was before any significant gentrification or Californication of the city had taken place. Quality Pie was still on 23rd and Burnside. The Pearl District was all warehouses. And the White Stag sign hadn’t been altered yet. It was my favorite place on earth. It was the “weird” that “keep Portland weird” refers to. From that vantage point, Portland is almost completely unrecognizable. I really miss that old Portland. It was free. It was creative. It was seedy. It was an entirely distinct place. Ultimately it wasn’t the drugs or the crime that drove me from the city. There were always drugs and there was always crime. It was the 20 somethings with Botox buying their $5 organic avocados from the brand new Whole Foods. While I didn’t prefer that new gentrified city, it was still an amazing place to live. Seeing the precipitous decline in the city from that peak gentrification era has been really startling and sad. I have no idea what the solution is but I hope someone figures it out

Visited Portland over the summer as someone from Philly figuring out where I wanted to live after graduating college in a few months. My take is that I definitely understand the complaints people have about the city and what's been going on, but I really loved Oregon and the Portland area as an outside observer. Maybe it's because of where I went to college and having somewhere far, far worse to compare it to (Temple and north Philly will do that to you), but like you said I think the truth is somewhere in the middle. There was a lot more I loved about the city than didn't in all honesty. Cheers from Pennsylvania and thanks for the video :)

I’ve lived in Oregon my whole life. What’s happened to Portland is a shame. My family and I used to love spending time in the city. Those days are long gone. As long as the people of Portland keep electing the same people they will be stuck with the same result

News makes Portland sound like no country for old men but it’s not that bad I love it! It’s a big city with big city issues.

I visited Portland in November for my birthday. I was shocked to see the state of the city. I asked the concierge at the hotel, where is the bad part of Portland? She said, “Portland”. I had the feeling that I was in a dystopian novel set in the future. Every vertical flat surface below 25’ in height is tagged with graffiti. The freeway right of ways are lined with homeless encampments. I was deeply saddened to see such a once beautiful city being desecrated.

Yay! More uploads please! Miss my home City

This guy is spot on with his observations; I love my city, and I have been in mourning ever since Portland became a place not taken care of by its own officials... I remember the days when you could say hi to a total stranger and receive a friendly greeting in return; now you could get shot at... it's very sad.

I love Portland ❤

Taping this in River Park in autumn might give people the wrong impression! Thanks for your thoughtful commentary!

You are UNBELIEVABLY REFRESHING. Thank you for this video ❤️ *subscribed

I've lived in Portland (Hillsboro) since 2015. Coming from Ohio it was a bit of a culture shock as far as the volume of homeless which got way worse during the pandemic. The entire west coast needs to work together to resolve homelessness. Allowing public camping is not a solution and truly inhumane. Overall, I love the vibe of Portland.

I'm from SF, I visited Portland briefly for the first time a couple months ago, it was BEAUTIFUL! In terms of homelessness... here's the thing: The real solution is to increase the capacity for medium and long term assisted care, for drugs or mental health. Then force people to go through it, maybe with threat of jail. But, since this is ALOMST never part of the discourse, the half-ass bandaid that I have witnessed working is sanctioned encampments. In my area, the homeless mobs increased dramatically in the months of Covid lockdown, then our local leaders gave a green light for a sanctioned encampment and the difference was night and day. There was a lot less loitering on the streets, almost zero homeless junk piles or tents... they all moved down to the camp where they could get water and bathroom access, and the volunteers and services had a centralized area to reach these people. Then after maybe a year, they shut it down, and most of the homeless came right back.

I am a resident of Manhattan and last summer was my first visit to Portland.... What struck me most was how deserted downtown was....and how early everything was closing. I was told by those I asked, that the city hadn't recovered from the pandemic and the riots that had been occurring. I, however, was impressed with the mass transit system, which seems to take you anywhere you'd need to go in or outside of the city. I saw some attractive looking neighborhoods. I felt that the city could use a little more racial diversity (I am Black), but the city has its own unique history regarding race. I definitely would like to visit again and dive deeper into what the city has to offer. The main purpose of the visit was to go to the Japanese gardens there and to also drive to Multnomah Falls.

Well done! A nicely rounded assessment.

I appreciate your sensible take on it. I’ve seen exaggerated opinions from both ends, appreciate the rational take. I love Portland. I think Portland’s issues are very common amongst major cities right now, but we can do better, we need to do better, for the size of Portland it definitely should be possible. I’m not leaving, I have faith, I love Portland, I love Oregon.

Thanks for this video. Unfortunately the city has been going downhill and fast for exactly the reasons you mentioned. I wanted to bring my son downtown to show him around but quickly realized it was unsafe. We decided to head back to the hotel but encountered more of the same with smashed glass and pills scattered across the pavement with people living in the entry way claiming that we were invading on “their” private property. We requested a refund from the hotel. I could go on and on but realize this is just a youtube post, not a book. Let’s just say that Portland has seen better times and I would not feel comfortable bringing my kids back downtown until I know that city authorities have changed their attitudes and public safety becomes priority number 1.

Nice to see an honest, non partisan viewpoint on this.

I left Portland in 1997 (came there in 1976) for only one reason ... weather! Your entire walk showed a beautiful, clean and classy city ... not what is being touted. Deciding to come back or not now that I sold my condo in Branson Missouri.

My son lives in NW Portland, I love that city. I've been there many times over the past two years and have started to see some improvement. I was just there in September and it seemed as if downtown has cleaned up a bit. Every large city is struggling. I'm happy to see things perking up and I can't wait to visit again.

We moved to Washington County about five months ago. Did not really explore downtown Portland until recently. Maybe its due to the holidays and the city doing extra cleaning but we had a great time. The city still needs to do more to address the homelessness, but not as bad as expected. Only negative was the Lloyd center. Depressing mall.

Nice video. I have visited Portland a few times prior to the pandemic and have always loved it,. But all the crazy stuff that happened during and after the pandemic and the policies they'd implemented, I had decided against moving there or visiting it ever again. Thanks to this video, I'm now reconsidering my decision.

That’s super interesting thank you. I’m currently a nursing student soon to be done and heard about the new nurse to patient ratio law being implemented, so Oregon is starting to sound like a great career option in Oregon. Just want to make sure that it is safe.

I guess the question is what direction is the city going? As it stands, is it getting better or is it getting worse?

It's not a lack of housing. It's the means to afford housing is the big reason.

Well stated

"Didn't follow the rules" yes, a lot of shelters have rules that are ridiculous to live by, especially if you need to work outside normal hours. My ex is homeless. He's disabled and every single shelter has hundreds on waiting lists.

Hi there, any thoughts on Brentwood Darlington? I can never find videos about this neighborhood but I’m looking at some affordable places on the east side of this, yes closer to 82nd which makes me nervous. I hear the crime rates can be high there but do you as a realtor see it being gentrified and more people moving in and positive businesses moving in etc.? I can’t get an idea for if its safe or not and the internet seems mute on this area lol

I really thought for a second that Seth MacFarlane lived there and decided to make a video

The minute Portland starts to recover Jo Ann Hardesty be like “hahaha im gonna run for office again”

Great well-balanced presentation. Loosely following Portland’s politics over the past few years, I could have easily predicted most of these problems. I hope the city rebounds.

Confused about adulting, befriend an old person - respect and listen to them, they've seen 60, 70 even 80+ - ZERO guarantee you will!

It’s quite sad that barely anyone was around while you were filming in most of the areas where you had walked. Maybe it was a business day and most people were either in the office or working from home but you were walking in or near the Portland CBD. I would have thought there would have been more people out in the urban streets.

Nice job, my man. I lived in Portland in 2020-21. Got my catalytic converter stolen, my car window smashed in, had some screaming trash-can bangers in front of my building, but I still miss the city and watch videos like this from time to time to check in on the place I once called home.

I was just there a few weeks ago it’s a beautiful city but crime is high I saw a lot in just a week.

Great video. Thanks. I moved to Aloha two and a half years ago. I don't venture downtown much, but I love the Portland metro and am heartened by your optimism. I really hope we can do something about the noise pollution caused by all the loud cars. It's a huge quality of life and public health issue that gets dismissed as being unimportant compared to the serious issues the city faces. There are, of course, bigger issues but I think we can multitask. Simple DEQ inspections would take a big bite out of the problem. Anyway, thanks for your thoughts. Cheers!

Of course, he is a realtor, that is why he has to say Portland is a "nice" place to live

Portland born but Alabama raised and i always wanted to knw what my home was like frl

Visited in April 2024. Mt Tabor area was a paradise - beautiful, with friendly people and felt absolutely safe. Went downtown one morning and it was empty and kind of scary. Like all places, it's the microenvironment that matters, and generalizations about 'Portland are difficult to make. I did notice graffiti everywhere, though - which seems like a negative and which we don't have in the part of Florida where I live. But, does Florida have its own very serious problems? I could write a book... and people are starting to leave. It ain't just Portland that we need to fix...

I’m on the corner of 20th and Starkin Portland and there is a guy with green hair yelling at the clear blue sky.

Walking around a public park in a safe area doesn't change public opinion about Portland. Every city and country has problems in the world.

What about the vegan mini mall? Is it still there?

Are the weed prices still low

I keep hearing negative stuff about Portland but it's still not enough to deter me from going through with my plan to move there in the next couple of years. I just need to pin down the area I want to end up in.

I've wanted to move there all my life.

Don't forget Clark County! Portland is very much a 4 county, 2 state metro area, and the Couve is only 9 miles from downtown.

My neighbors here in Pittsburgh were from Portland housing here is like 1/4th cost I said to them hell i wanna go out west 😂 Here were starting to see bad west coast symptoms hit here now Big Tech only helps those in tech and usually hurts the city overall

pre-earthquake Portland hit different

I visit Portlant about once every 6 weeks. Downtown does gave fewer tents- and there are clusters of folks enjoyibg night life up and down Burnside. The occasional freaked out person can be easily avoided by crossing the street. (Yay Beavers!)

People follow you around and mess with you if you have a mental break down. There is a inside group of city worker's and resident's that are persistent in preying on the weak because they have no lives and will surely be judged. Only God can save you now. I have changed my life and to those who harassed and followed me , i forgive you because I learned that either I would die or make a change. You who almost killed me, but indirectly pushed me into a place of remake and renewal. Thank you 😊 I know you wanted me dead but.... there is a better life ahead for those who choose to better themselves and not harm or hurt other's. Have a good day

I lived there for 2 years, 15th and Stark. Great Area. I was suprised what happened during the Pandemic because honestly, Portland was the safest and cleanest place I had ever lived. Coming from Ny and New Orleans. Hope Yall are doing Ok, hope everything gets back to normal.

It’s still a beautiful city. It can rebound and I’m sticking around to see that happen.

Great well balanced take on Portland instead of the typical fear mongering click bait.👍

Do 33rd - a lot of it down side streets. All that has been done was to move them around

I was born in Portland and have lived here most of my life with a 11 yr period where I lived in Central Oregon. I have been to many other big cities and they are all going through the same things as Portland. San Francisco is, New York is, LA is. I would never leave this city. It is a fun, great place to live and it will come back around and it is no worse than the other cities I mentioned.

Late to view this and I can appreciate the perspective. I've lived in the area since 2012 and visited many times before that and it's not the same city. Political leaders have made many bad decisions and relaxed many of the laws that are on the books. The biggest sign that I noticed that showed the city and metro area was in decline was when there was a huge increase in graffiti and nothing is/was being done to clean it up or hold people responsible for defacing property. Once Portland's leadership allowed every bridge, wall, building, etc to be covered in 'urban art', it just seemed that everything else regarding laws/rules were relaxed - including sidewalk camping, public intoxication, looting, etc...and when Portland had around 100 days of 'protests' and the people committing crimes were never held responsible, that just led to more freedoms to further destroy the city. I agree that there's some efforts going on, but, you need a total 'cleaning' of the city and once the residents feel proud about the city, they will hold everyone to higher standards to keep it clean, safe and attractive to new business and this includes getting a lot of the current politicians out of office.

While I appreciate your video and watched the whole thing, it did little to give a visual overview of the city. The waterfront can look beautiful like it does here but you showed nothing of the actual street scene. The feel of being safe here is very challenging compared to even a few years ago.

No Sales tax is huge compared to Chicago's 8.82% sales tax.

I'm not going to lie...fuck it, but I hope all the wealthy & middle class people from california would move out of portland so hopefully the housing market would get back down to it's normalcy. I miss the days when portland houses was affordable🥺

I've lived here for about 21-1/2 years now. As far as the trash issue it seems like it got a lot worse when former Mayor Sam Adams forced in bi-weekly trash pickup. It was an unnecessary change.

Excellent and accurate view of the current situation in Portland. I also agree that homelessness is not going to be fixed by housing alone. I think the term houseless is idiotic. Most of my colleagues are houseless- they live in apartments. Maybe call it "dwellingless" or something if you must find an alternative word. Homelessness does have a simple solution (at least in theory), just not a cheap or even practical one. Universally affordable housing and accessible mental health and addiction treatment. With those two covered the only people homeless will be those who choose to be homeless. The biggest catch is that this would have to be done at a federal level- and it never will. If Portland somehow found a big pit of money, built two-hundred thousand cheap housing units, built dozens of treatment centers, and added thousands more mental health professionals, it still wouldn't fix it. Anyone anywhere else in the state and country would then be incentivized to migrate to Portland for the services.

Ppl talk about a place without even visiting there, before my wife and I went to WA ppl always say it’s depressing bc of it always raining and a high suicide rate 🙄. Ppl are bias via their opinion not facts, we flew there and loved it so much it’s the only place we fly to and moving soon. I’m an outdoor person and it has every thing and more, mountains, the beach, and much more. ✌🏾

Sorta bad now lol. None of this is over exaggeration. Lived in oregon my whole life had to go up there recently to ohsu and it was mess evewhere we looked. Went to get a donuts and the store had a security guard and wouldn't let us in cause there 1 customer already inside while me and girlfriend outside witha baby and tweakers evewhere in the cold. And seen a guy passing a dude tinfoil and soon as i got out of my car to grab my son. Bro stop lying!!!

You know what happens when you house someone using opioids but don't first treat addiction? OD alone in the apartment.

On the first 30 seconds I understand. If you are a rich white guy living the gentrified areas, Portland is great.

at the end of our street there is a corner strip mall on a main thoroughfare. There are tenants at one end, but the other end of the mall has store fronts that have been closed and empty for several years. That has resulted in sometimes huge camps of houseless folks at that location, and there have been many "sweeps" there and efforts to relocate all the many campers. All except two men, (one with a dog). And those two have been very resilient and continue to this day to camp at the end of this strip mall. I have no doubt they choose to be there for whatever reason. The neighbors and local shop workers all know them by name, and repeated efforts to relocate them has been ignored. I don't know them, and I cannot say if mental illness, drugs or alcohol, or maybe just a lot of bad luck is to blame. So, this is just one example, at one street corner, with two people, and in a very big city. Multiply that times maybe a thousand and you begin to see the situation in a different way and from a different point of view.

I am from Denver and visited Portland recently. I had to look hard to find what I consider significant homeless groupings. Portland has nothing on denver. Example, train operators in denver go to the hospital for fentanyl exposure in the train air. Large homeless camps throughout the city. I am preparing to move to portland within the next few months.

I was there about a month ago (from San Francisco) and was surprised by how many retail businesses are still in business downtown. Much better than SF. That said, the streets and trains are not as crowded as I remember from pre-2020. I still love Portland and hope to visit again next year.

It’s a toilet I don’t go anywhere near downtown area

Cities that could be vibrant and creative centers easily fall prey to crime and desperation. They attract both. There is always that tension between the two in any city of size.

You should go to Coeur d’Alene to see how a properly functioning city works.

Lack of mental health care and drug use. Politicians make money and power arguing about this. That's why they don't fix it. What now???

Word to the wise: not so much footage of the current state of Portland, for better or for worse, so much as a guy with well-quaffed hair yammmering center screen as he walks around.

Born and raised in Portland Oregon (Born 1971). I moved out of it 7 years ago, but not for any reasons related to crime, homelessness, etc. I still visit the city fairly regularly though, and have many friends and family that still live there. They ALL say the same thing, it's not as bad as the media makes it out to be, and the idea that Portland has gone completely to sh*t seems to be a fairly partisan one. I don't trust ANYTHING the media says most of the time anyway. Is it the Portland of old? The famous one from the heydays of the mid 90's to early 2000's? The city that show Portlandia made famous? No, and it never will be again. But the city still has a lot to offer, and is still very unique in many (good) ways, compared to other US cities of comparable size. We're actually considering moving back.

I had jury duty this past summer and my juror panel got to do a q+a with our judge after the verdict. It was really valuable insight to our judicial system. We asked the judge about the climate of Portland and they noticed a slight reduction in trials and overall workload. Granted, work still has to be done but I've noticed a better difference from '21 to '23. I draw people of this city and am constantly all over the metro area and there is a difference for the better. Again, we still have a lot of work to do, but there's positivity coming back.

I've lived in Portland for 15 years now and what I dislike about it now is how's dead the city is now -- If you don't believe me, then just watch this video. Where is everyone?

Trash is COMPLETELY up to the city! Trash services = less trash. How trashy would your house be after a few weeks with no trash man?????

Easy solution to a good bit of homelessness. Stop charging so god damned much for everything and raise salaries.

Some of the mentally ill need intensive care meaning they have to have intensively supervised housing

Don't count on voting to help. I've had two cars stolen in two months. My neighbors said I was to blame, because I complained. That makes me an oppressor, and the people that stole my car were just responding to my oppression. This was on Facebook on the neighborhood page.

Portland is bad. You will lose your windows in your car; a lot of business are gone. The graffiti is over whelming. The parks are not as clean as they used to be. 911 is understaffed/sized. lack of police and fire department/EMS. Traffic is bad. No upgrade on freeway since the 1960s. Now they want to install tolls with no improvements. The city spends tons of money on light rail and fails to keep it safe. The drugs are unreal. People bight ears of other people. It was once a nice city. THIS CITY NEEDS REAL LAW AND ORDER. Home less need to go. Mental wards need to be reinstalled.

Business owner here; not great

How's that defunding working out for ya? And yes, they are going to quit, they have no support from the mayor, city counsels, or the DA.

I live near Seattle now but lived in Portland years ago. Both Seattle and Portland have their problems, but always remember that a lot of the hysteria about them is generated by the right wing media....which somehow never mentions the cities in the South, run by republicans, that have their share of problems as well, and much higher murder rates etc. Once you get away from the politically motivated hit pieces you see that most cities have bad areas that are best avoided and other areas that are pretty nice, just like most places.

"nope, It's actually just the lack of housing" ... How stupid can a person be? 🤦🤷

I've lived all over the place in the United States, and the simple fact is Portland is glorious and people are just angry about that fact. It's way too expensive, but that's how it is everywhere now. Portland has an incredible social setting that is warm and supportive. So many places in America feel incredibly empty and lonely. The streets here are full of people walking around. My mom lives in Louisiana and listens to all this absurdity about how Portland is burning down and full of chaos and it just frustrates the crap out of me. Come on over here and walk around and see for yourself. It's got a very different feel than a lot of other places so it could take some getting used to, but you'll talk to more people in a weekend visit here than you will in most cities in a year.

The "rose" city has given this guy rosy glasses. I went to Alameda grade school and Grant high school. At one time Portland was great but it is not any more. I recently saw a video on the Lloyd center. I used to ice skate there. Now portland is the pits.

You’re an adult you don’t have to spell out the bad words

You can lead a horse to water. You can’t make it drink. Lack of housing is NOT why people are homeless.

How often do you see the sun? Looks depressing.

Man found the only peaceful part of the city left and decided to shoot a video there defending the city

Takeaways from my 2016 Portland trip: bums, dirty streets, can't pump my own gas--WTF? Meh, glad to be back on the east coast

LOL OK

I am a Portland native but live in Olympia WA. I wonder how much the covid-related work-from-home movement has affected downtown businesses and overall atmosphere? That is a huge problem for San Francisco. It makes me sad to see downtowns devoid of people and mass-transit struggling from lack of use and funding. Wouldn't it be great if giant office buildings could be converted to housing with rooftop community gardens, childcare facilities, co-working spaces, gyms, indoor places for kids to congregate? The need for mental health care services has skyrocketed since the pandemic began and so it is harder than ever to get care. If you are extremely poor, you can get Medicaid and free health care, but if you are on Medicare or just struggling to pay bills, it is very difficult. Mental health care is not free on Medicare. A large percentage of psychiatrists and therapists (~50%) do not accept Medicare patients because of the low reimbursement rate it pays. There is a yearly $240 deductible and 20% co-insurance per visit. If you need counseling/therapy once a week to be effective, that can be a couple hundred bucks a month. Medicare doesn't cover prescription drugs like antidepressants either. Indeed there are a lot of homeless people who needed mental health care services and/or drug/alcohol rehab. Once you are in this predicament, it is very difficult to pull yourself back up. It is a vicious cycle - nowhere to take a shower or store your belongings. No privacy. Shelters not a good option. There are cities experimenting with a basic income for folks (~$1,000/mo) and they are finding some success. Once people have a place to store their things and cook food, an address, and a little money to get by, many find jobs and can become working members of society again. I believe it is even more cost-effective than the status quo when you factor everything into it - policing and crime, sanitation services, etc. I love Portland very much. My whole family lives there.

I was just there last week. I was very impressed by the amount of people enjoying the Urban Camping downtown. ROFL I was also in San Fransisco I travel every week of the year. These are the only 2 cities I've just paid the extra price and did the lesser selection and quality and ate in the hotel for my personal safety concerns. You don't see many tents? WTF mate. They were EVERYWHERE downtown. I've haven't seen that many anywhere. San Fran, Denver, etc.......... Portland was #1 from what I've seen I also saw probably 50 or 60 homeless gathered on one screen corner by a building that had a sign saying free food

Important things I wish realtors would have told me before moving to Portland Multnomah County. You are financially taxed extra 1.5% annually if you make 125k or over if married it’s 200k your forced pay a extra baby sitter tax, homeless tax, art tax that others who make under that do not have to pay & increases of 0.8% coming soon to 250k single & 400k married. In parts of Portland metro you have to pay annual fee for a backwater test on your home this is another scam. Was never told the Max light rail system is a moving homeless shelter with open drug use & drug transportation inside train, the homeless people ride for free, sleep & live on train year around spreading diseases & toxic drug residues like fentanyl all over inside the riding cars. Plus there we’re no toll road’s very few photo ticket cameras & not a police state focused on taxing working people this is all unfortunately changing, more & more homeless people are shipped & welcomed here & more police now who only going after tax payers & toll roads more traffic ticket cameras on the way. Do your research before moving here it has some great areas but some are horrible & stay out of Portland basically is what I’ve found unless you’re very wealthy & do not mind what I listed above.

New Orleans is bettah than Portland. Love!🎉

You're still downplaying the problems. I don't think intentionally, i just think you're used to it. "It's not that bad, there's only 1 guy banging a can with a stick" or "there are areas to get away from the street drug use." My guy I live in a city bigger than Portland and we do not have such issues. I've seen tents pop up under a freeway that were gone by next week. I've yet to see anyone use hard drugs on the street.

a police chief with a top priority focused on crime? breaking news! lol

I'm in southern Oregon and the law's that have passed have killed our Tiny towns