It’s a place where shops and restaurants use glass instead of plywood for windows, and where catalytic converters stay under cars instead of in thieves’ backpacks.Ī healthy city actively cares for the weak. It’s a place where police are numerous, responsive and held accountable. It is a place where people can send their children to play in the neighborhood park without fear. We also need a governor who celebrates Portland’s values, rather than using the city’s problems as a bogeyman to scare rural communities.Ī healthy city is safe. We need candidates who will allow us more conversation between the extremes, not less. But if Portland emerged as a bastion of progressive values four or even two years ago, it also alienated much of Oregon with its moral arrogance. Yes, we are talking about bipartisanship: a well-worn, unpopular concept. And while many of them run campaigns that scapegoat Portland and its ills, the truth is that Oregon’s well-being depends on the health of its largest city.Īs we considered candidates, these ideals informed our decisions-and we hope they will influence yours.Ī healthy city is in dialogue with its surroundings. As we talked to them and debated among ourselves who to vote for, we also talked about what makes a city thrive. Over the past month we have met with a steady stream of politicians looking for us ww‘s confirmation.
It has made the Portlanders defensive rather than constructive.īut loving this city means keeping it both weird and sane. This makes it harder to admit when something is really wrong. Such ghouls celebrate every lousy headline. For years, people who dislike Portland have been predicting its downfall. Put simply, Portlanders gave up on each other.Īdmitting this uncomfortable fact is not disloyal. We have what academics would call a crisis in the commons. Workers are reluctant to return to downtown offices because no job is worth risking a close encounter with someone at their wit’s end. City parks are used as open-air drug markets and chop shops for stolen cars. Almost every weekend brings a murder – sometimes several. The city’s streets and highways are lined with a rainbow of tents and trash, evidence that citizens are crumbling under the weight of poverty, mental illness and addiction. Portland isn’t faring well, and that means Oregon is suffering.
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