Portland, Oregon │ What’s It Really Like Now?

Interviewing locals, and those new to the city to get their opinions, showing the park blocks, Pioneer Square, Voodoo Donuts, looking at real estate prices in the Pearl District, and comparing the cleanliness and safety of the city to the dark times of 2020 and 2021 are all on the agenda in this video! Let’s go see what Portland is really like now!

Mexico City neighborhoods:

5 Reasons I Left Portland:

#portland #oregon #travel

[reactor]

The funniest part is all the "content creators" making the "What is Portland like!" video is.. they go to the same part. Downtown, Old town and NEVER go up to 20th NW, or to Hawthorne, Alberta, Mississippi etc. It's weak content and lazy. You did not even show 10th and Burnside? Get your clicks!

[sadboi]

As someone who lived in the city pre-2020, and now post-2020, it’s almost night and day in 2024, thank God. It’s not back to pre 2020 levels obviously, but is on the mend. I miss the hell out of PDX in the 2010’s, but we can’t go back, only forward. I’d say in about five years, it’ll be back to a rather strong city. Fingers crossed 🤞🏻

[DTpdx]

Yes that plywood is all from election prep! The city was just preparing for the worst but nothing happened. None of these buildings are boarded up now. Thanks for the great video. So nice to see downtown coming back. And one block north of pioneer square will be the James Beard Public Market, starting to open next year!

[jacquiandp-dog]

The fact that no one was shooting up or smoking crack in the background tells me it is much safer than Seattle right now. Thanks for the info, your video is a lot more real than the others I've seen about Portland.

[cwisaac]

Oregon born, raised in Portland, I won't be returning. However, I am so happy it is improving!!! 🎉 🎉 I left in 2010. Exhausted from the conflict, the regulations, and the emotional mayhem. "I have rights, you don't, I am going to sue you." If someone or an organization doesn't like what kind of business you run, what you serve on the menu, or one of their many other grievances, they threaten to shut you down, boycott, and even put you out of business. As said, it's exhausting. The best to Portland always!! 💛Peace to all!! ☮ Keep Oregon Beautiful!! 🌲🌲🌲

[OneEyedmm]

Portland native (born early 80s on glisen). Portland was an amazing city, but a couple things happened that wrecked it. First, around the time I was born, a cult dumped thousands of homeless people from all over the country on the streets one night (they had intended to use them to rig an election, but that didn’t work out). Suddenly we had this massive homeless issue, so we had to create a ton of programs to address it. Then, in the early 2000s, the show “Portlandia” was the catalyst for this massive influx of upper middle class hipsters taking over the city. Portland was this weird, cool, friendly, dive bar of a city. But the hipsters turned it into expensive lofts and boutiques and everything got too expensive (and boring) for the locals. Our dive bar city was suddenly a high end microbrew pub. And since the rich folk didn’t like the homeless, which was still an issue, they got harsher treatment from police, and pushed into the suburbs. Add to the mix the fact the newcomers were the “morally superior” type of liberals that annoy even liberals, and the whole vibe of the city just turned to crap.

[albrightfs]

This is so hopeful .. Thank you for sharing!

[shangh]

We all think the problems in our cities are somehow special and unique, but these issues -- housing -- are hitting cities across the country (I've seen them first hand red and blue states), and WFH for 25 million people completely shifted where people live around LCOL and to smaller towns. I think despite everyone feeling more divided than ever, people in Portland are actually coming more together towards a middle ground on being "compassionate" and having a clean livable city, and our core problem isn't about ideas so much as failure of elected officials to execute.

[rj]

Portland is ABSOLUTELY lovely for a city. I moved to Portland from Atlanta in 2001. I lived in both urban and downtown areas. I am very familiar with homeless people, big cities, and how you will encounter all sorts of people whether you want to or not... and I still love Portland more. I would take Portland over Atlanta ANY DAY!!! My mother-in-law, who lives in Salem asked me "did they rebuild all those buildings that burned to the ground in Portland"? I was like, NONE of the buildings in Portland burned to the ground. Portland is fine.
And that's my final verdict: PORTLAND IS FINE.

[kellykorte]

It cracks me up how in denial some people are. Things were "that bad" Or "every big city" the media didn't have to make things looks worse than they were, in fact they probably pulled punches. I've lived here since 1985 so I've seen the downward spiral, I wouldn't recommend anyone move here. The rent prices don't reflect the quality of life, the people here are some of the most unfriendly toxic people who aren't living in reality. Every time you go downtown it's like attending a circus side show. It's the poster child for how not to run a city and it's a magnet for everything that's wrong with the US wrapped into 1 city.

[goaldrivenimpressions]

Coming from someone thats lived here for 40 plus years, its still disgusting. Sadly, people that are saying "its a beautiful city" have ABSOLUTELY no clue to what it truly was like prior to how its like now (you dont know what you dont know, kinda thing) It will take a solid 15 to 20 years to get back to its original amazing self again.

[sketchypeoplepdx]

I'm downtown every week. Been living here since '99 (well, my first stint was in the early 80s) and this city has grown a ton! I've been to all fiddy states and love to meet, talk, and sketch people. It's not as bad as the media made it to be. I love Portland and will be watching for you lovely Sketchy People.

[KellyDunlap-ue]

I’m so happy you returned and found peace at your home again….❤

[omarbarron]

Awesome video ! Went to Portland for the 1st time last year and had a blast …heading back soon … went on a record breaking temperature weekend lol… felt like a mix of SF and Sacramento to me… plus it’s just a hop and a skip away from where I reside!

[Zwyx_]

It's funny that you were talking about soon moving back to the land of palm trees and sunshine...While I've been living in Florida for 30 years, wanting to get out and move to Portland 😂 I'm tired of the heat down here, and with how much more mild the weather seems to be, I feel like it'd encourage me to get outside a lot more often. Plus I love all the walkable areas that you can live!

[benschaeffer]

I called Portland home for awhile back in the 90's and I ABSOLUTELY ❤'d it! It's NOT a bad city.

[actualkarenokboomer]

I have been in Portland for 8 years and love it. I was there protesting in 2017-2019. I will never forget when I came here for my granddaughter's birth in 2011. At the same time my brother was dying in Houston. The day they turned the machine off on him, I was upset and went to the zoo. I guess the bus driver heard me talking to family members on the phone, but I got off at the wrong place and apparently looked confused. The driver got off, said he was sorry about my brother and asked where I was going. Then he helped me back on the us and said he would tell me where to get off. When we were here for our daughter's wedding in 2014, I had just had my 2nd hip replacement and my hubby was pushing me in my walker, which is always a bad idea and we fell in a parking lot. People stopped on the street and came to help. I have fallen a couple of times since I moved here and each time people stopped to help me.

[Hughesburner]

I stopped going downtown in 2018. I have been on the westside since '05, the city has just nosedived. People are still in denial, locals mostly. Drugs are a real issue here. People ODing or just in the Fent lean, is common. Homelessness is still a huge issue.

[PeppersGhost]

🫤It’s really unfortunate you kept pointing it out, but didn’t ask any locals about the boarded windows. They were only put in place in case of riots, post election. So, you’ve given a VERY false impression of “What’s it Really Like Now?”

You should really edit this to add an obvious statement overlay, at your first mention of the boarded windows, that they were only temporary precautions for election 2024.

Also, some of the drug laws reverted, in September of 2024.

I’ve been here since 1995, and the thing about Portland is that it was uncommonly safe and “nice” for a city with a million+ metropolitan area population. We were kinda freakishly lucky, back then. Now, it looks more like you’d expect any good sized city to be.

It’s beautiful, here. Amazing food scene, incredible parks & nature, great shopping, (local & designer), and the people are great. I’d never move back to the Midwest or California, though I still visit both.

[markawesomeable]

I've lived in Portland for 15 years. Both west side of the Willamette and east. I rarely go to the west side these days, but yea, things are looking up for sure. We just enacted a new form of city government and elected a new mayor. Time will tell, but I have high hopes. Thanks man!