Portland, Oregon: The city that doesn't work?

Experts will tell you the Portland City Council is the most outdated form of city government compared to other major cities.

[poodlescone]

Portland: We have the most dysfunctional government in the country.

San Francisco: Hold my beer.

[Gcal]

I have lived here since 1998.
Raised a family here and had to put my son in private school to get him a real education. The public education system here is a joke and the kids are the punch line. The state and cities are more interested in teaching politics then teaching math and sciences. Lets not even start on the agenda they push on these kids.
The police department is a catch and release squad who is more concerned with gathering money in traffic then making the city a safe place. They know it and the public knows it. A number or news reports have been done about that. Just try calling 911 and saying your house was broke into and see how long it takes for them to come over. Over if your car was broke into. They will tell you to just file a report on line and basically leave them alone.
The Politicians are the joke of the town. A bunch of incompetent clowns who can't do their job. If they were employed in the private sector and behaved like this, they would of been fired long ago. They know it and so does the public. How they got elected is beyond me. Anyone who owns homes/businesses or actually contributes to the tax system in Multnomah county feels the same. Just look at all the businesses that have moved out of the city and look at how long they have been here before they moved.
.... It's the leaders don't grasp reality. All they wanna do is push a liberal utopian wanna be California agenda.
So much for that agenda cause we are flooded with meth addicts in tents parked on every corner who steal anything not bolted down.
Watching the city leaders make decisions is like watching a episode of hoarders where the garbage men are trying to convince the hoarder to get rid of garbage but the owners says NO because it means something and will be used for something one day so he needs to keep it. Portland city leaders are the hoarders.

[michaelactor]

Portland oregon complete failure and hated by the rest of oregon

[turngoat]

It sucks because the rest of oregon is a very peaceful and beautiful place to live

[maxidaho]

You didn't even mention mention Metro, the un-elected branch of Govt. Portland will follow San Francisco down the drain. Mark my words.

[raydeal]

I stopped coming to Portland something about it I can't like. I used to love Portland just not comfortable there anymore.

[patsprings]

I grew up in Portland in the 70 and 80s. It had some problems but it was a truly great city. It breaks my heart to see how badly it has deteriorated over the past 30 years. I visit less often, because it hurts me to see it today.

[thecloneguyz]

Portland is like Seattle's drug-addicted older brother that can't get his s*** together

[dat]

I came to Oregon in January 1991 . I totally enjoyed Portland. I had a food booth in the Portland Saturday Market for 5 years . Maybe there was a couple homeless n stragglers. I was born in NYC and pdx was easy to get in n out of and fun . I moved into downtown in 2005 for a few years but pdx got worse n worse . Homeless, heroin users 3 guys shooting up 3pm outside my back door apartment. That was it . Portland downtown sucks ask many people who live here on the outskirts and people who have move out . I've said enough

[laggardly]

I lived in PDX for 14 years....it got worse and worse. I live in Gulport FL now and wow, what a difference. I had a city side sewer line problem and they were there digging in under 45 minutes. My property taxes are $2600...
PDX can ESAD

[MontyRoyal]

Who wouldn't like to have a job with no accountability?!

[anonymousanonymous]

It's very very simple. Portland was an awesome place to live in the 80s and early 90s, then the Californios moved in, political balance and traditional Oregonian pragmatism was abandoned for the latest in Progressive nuttiness and freebies, and so it now sucks.

[michaelmccamish]

I don’t go to Portland anymore, not that safe, and it’s just dirty. To bad it use to be a nice city to shop, and have lunch or dinner.

[Squidlytendencies]

So Portland is complaining about a government based on popular vote?

Think of this problem nationwide that's why we have an electoral college.

[byhislove]

Yes! Portland should move to counselors by districts! The people are not equally represented.

[nosafespaceneeded]

I've been in Portland or surrounding area's my entire life. I'm 51 yrs old now, so I can say this because I'm about as experienced as a person can get about this

It's been ruined by far left extremist's. It's always been a " Liberal " town, and I'm one as well. But the group's like Antifa, and all the freakin' weird social justice warrior's around this place, have basically ruined it. We used to LOVE " free speech, you slap on a black mask and attack people with a different opinion then your own. I only stay here, because I run a business here. The closer to down town you get, the worse it is. Travel 15mins outside of town, and it's a completely different experience ( Better! ) And you people that see can thank our politician's like Ted Wheeler for this. You can also thank the people running the police dept, because they protect the idiot's in the black mask's, and all the SJW's running around. Most people here are there is a " self proclaimed victimhood class ", along with far left extremist's. I'm a I vote Republican on everything now day's, because of the piece of shit freak's that run rampant around here.

[sandiezurcher]

Sanctuary city should be its own state. Oregon doesn’t need Portland.

[RiteSideup-nhkn]

What about the gay mayor that got away with kissing boys and then wrecking his single cab Chevy truck when he was hammered drunk 😵

[terrytaylor]

I moved out of PDX in 2000, but couldn't sell my old house for most of the next year. Curiously, the Water Bureau had just spent like $25M for monitoring and billing software (PGE spent $800K for similar SW) and I got a bill for $14, 647.67 for the first quarter that the house had been empty after the SW was implemented (About 10X what I had been billed over the previous 10 years). I complained and explained and they rescinded the bill back to minimum charges.
I felt that I had to go before it was too late, even though I had grown up in Portland and had lived or worked in most parts of it.
I had a bit of 'insider' view since my work often took me into city and county offices over a couple of decades and I socialized with some of the PDC and other bureaucrats occasionally. They pretty much denigrated all the 'regular citizens', every one of them, mainly because they were hired in from other places around the country and Portland was still considered 'provincial'...
Multnomah County went down the rathole first (they voted themselves an income tax!), but PDX was not far behind. Metro took over Tri-Met and now taxpayers buy every Max line rider a $35 ride, every ride.
All the elected officials were leftist DemocRats that felt superior to all private sector, except the leftist media types, and they hired folks just like themselves, and used their media buddies to ridicule, slander and defame anyone with functional sensible thought processes that might run for office. At this point it's just the DemocRat Party Insider Club that's got all the elected positions in the county, city and Metro, and the state, too, of course.
Because you can ask anyone in Portland and they'll tell you what's good for Portland is good for all of Oregon.

[lukeyellowtail]

Another major problem here is. Portland is a sanctuary city, thats a huge problem.