The Uncomfortable Truth about Portland

I live in Southeast Portland, and I am one of the voices behind PDX.Real, a social media team that provides on-the-ground community reporting, filling in the gaps of what is often missed by legacy media who are frequently silenced by societal narratives. My partner Jeff and I provide news and stories for the public and by the public. Our goal is to not only put a thumb on ineffective politicians and bureaucrats, but also to tell real stories and to inform our readers of how the political process works in Portland and beyond. PDX.Real recently reached it six-month milestone from inception and already our reporting has been described as courageous, inspiring, engaging and hopeful. Every day we try our best to live up to those words. We challenge our readers to stay informed, fight off apathy and hopelessness, and get involved in saving their communities.

In Portland, we aren’t necessarily fighting a person or institution, we are fighting thought viruses. Moderate, libertarian and conservative ideas in Portland have been quiet for far too long. We must find ways to have these conversations without fear of being shut down or shamed. PDX.Real discusses ideas and policies, and we shed light on harm caused by bad government policies with stories, music, imagery and video content. We hope this work will apply pressure on our officials and bureaus in order to hold leadership accountable and inspire others to get involved.

I considered myself an unlikely person to get involved in government and civic affairs. But my quiet neighborhood in Portland at the base of Mount Tabor on the border of the Montavilla neighborhood began to be impacted by crime and homeless encampments plagued with drug addiction and mental illness. At the time, these issues were mostly affecting specific areas and streets. I met many families who were unfortunate enough to be impacted by this growing crisis, and I listened to their stories. The criminal behavior wasn’t being addressed by law enforcement, and the ideological virus that ignored one set of citizens’ suffering all in the name of equity was growing. To illustrate, I’ll recount a few stories of these early victims, though there are far too many to mention. 

• A disabled neighbor walked to the store and was knocked out unconscious on the sidewalk and robbed. 
   

• One neighbor’s children witnessed a drive-by shooting mere feet from them, and both children subsequently went through trauma counseling. The family ended up moving from their dream home they spent 20 years restoring. 
   

• One neighbor who owns a local pub in east Portland had homeless individuals who camped down the street from him attempt on multiple occasions to gain access to his home through a window while he was home. He described being on the other side of the window armed with a shotgun, which he kept next to his bed when he slept.
   

• Neighbors reported their exterior water source being used by the homeless, and one neighbor’s water spigot was used and left on while he was at work. His basement flooded causing tens of thousands of dollars of damage. 
   

• A licensed electrician had his truck and tools stolen multiple times incurring thousands of dollars of loss. His attempts to deter the criminals – changing locks, installing different alarms, and installing several different theft protection devices – weren’t significantly effective, so he eventually moved away. 
   

• One family who lived in the same house for nearly 40 years had an older model van in their driveway they used to transport their disabled daughter. The gas line was severed for fuel and a mechanical complication totaled the vehicle, leaving them with no transport for their daughter to medical appointments. 

There are countless ongoing incidents of home and business break-ins, gas syphoning, unstable and violent people on private property, package theft, stolen bicycles and catalytic converters, and prowls. Even when arrests were made, they didn’t materialize into prosecution, and neighbors reported the same people re-offending often the same victims within a matter of days. Many sidewalks and a local parks were littered with human waste and hypodermic needles. Our neighborhood rat population flourished in trash heaps from free food and supplies given to the homeless. When I discussed my concerns publicly at association meetings, some neighbors acted as if I was exaggerating. Some denied crime was a problem at all, and a few even accused neighbors of making up or embellishing their stories. 

I highlight these stories in detail in order to underscore my deep concerns at the time. Crime was on the rise. I didn’t need a city report or crime map or statistics to realize this fact. It was all around me. The harm to my neighbors lit a fire in my belly. These were not victimless crimes (as often portrayed in the media or by homeless advocates). Average working class citizens were significantly affected. It impacted their sleep, work, physical and mental health, and their finances. Neighbors, in their frustration, mostly became apathetic, even when they were being victimized. It was at this point that I reached out to the city for help.

I naively believed that the city would react swiftly if they understood our collective public safety issues and concerns. What I came to realize while I pushed for livability standards with the police and the city and county, is that we had a serious ideological problem in Portland. In addition to the bloated bureaucracy, lack of accountability and finger-pointing between jurisdictions and departments, and a plethora of top-down directives that were castrating the police, I also discovered these bureaucracies were embedded with people who were financially or socially benefiting from these policies. When I began to speak out publicly in the media, activists and advocates came after me personally. My business and home address were published more than once and marked for “direct action” by anarchists. One individual threatened me with a Molotov cocktail being thrown through my window. My name was published online as an adversary and in far-left periodicals followed with descriptive phrases such as “anti-homeles” and “far-right activist.” 

The slander was somewhat effective, as once involved neighbors stepped away in fear that they too would be targeted. I had silent, secret supporters of my efforts who were afraid to publicly speak out. I watched as leftist activists silenced people in the community with their typical playbook of name-calling and subtle threats. They were effective at appearing like a larger group than they actually were. They directed their network in and outside of Portland to cluster call public officials and showed up at neighborhood and community meetings to yell down residents. They filled public testimony spots, gained access to advisory councils, were given grants for their ideological ideas, joined local social media pages with various sock puppet accounts, and engaged in letter writing and phone calls to public officials. They encouraged one another to troll online, and they showed up around town at meetings of concerned citizens impacted by crime and interrupted voices by calling people fascists and racists, NIMBYs, anti-homeless and privileged. I knew seven years ago without a doubt, that these woke ideological and leftist tactics would soon be used to silence victims in Portland and the metro area. I knew the collective trajectory was going to cause Portland to fall into a very dark period, which the city is now experiencing.

Most Portlanders are awake to the reality that people, organizations and businesses are profiting from Portland’s mayhem, specifically individuals who form Portland’s “homeless industrial complex.” We are incentivizing people to be victims, dependent on government programs. Our communities are disconnected and distrustful. Our government institutions give favor to certain groups of citizens while harming others. Laws are commonly and frequently unequally applied. The collective march is to achieve the impossibility of equity, not strive for equality. In Portland public life, you can plainly see this play out in press conferences, websites, access and participation in advisory councils and programs, application of prosecution, arrests, and even parking tickets and tows of abandoned vehicles. This ideology has become a part of the very fabric of nearly every department in the city and county. Departments regularly collaborate with community organizations that seek anarchy, communism, abolition and social justice. 

The uncomfortable truth is that the decline of Portland and our state is the collective fault of our citizenry. Our governing system was created with the idea that citizens would be involved in its processes. It is our job, as citizens, to advocate for ourselves, our communities and to be aware of what is happening in the public governing body. Oregonians and Portlanders have found ourselves in a mess because we are reacting to layers of legislative statutes, rulings, ordinances and ballot initiatives that most Oregonians don’t understand. Too often voters give very little thought to laws and how they will impact society once they are implemented. Instead, they think: Elect a good candidate for office and they will take care of the issues at hand while I go about living my life. But we have an arduous task in front of us to hold our elected bodies accountable. Our involvement is needed because without it government becomes corrupt. No one person will fix it. This is a self-rescue. We all have a job to do.

My social media platform tells what is happening and why. Communicating our opinions is our most effective tool. Here we can learn the art of civil discourse and model it. I recommend the following for everyone: 

1. Focus locally – it is truly the only place you can make a difference. 

2. Commit yourself to study how things work in your government. 

3. Pick a job that speaks to you in this endeavor. 

4. Find allies and encourage other people to do the same.

Contrary to common public opinion, this is not a left verses right issue. Absolute power corrupts, and although Oregon, and especially Portland, is decidedly liberal, the real enemy is a bloated, money-hungry, ever-growing, layered machine. It is the peoples’ responsibility to take back their voice and their power. 

Assuming self-government just happens at the ballot box is foolish. Hoping what has happened in Portland won’t spread to the rest of the state or throughout the country is equally foolish. Government power needs to be checked continuously by the people for it to work for the people. If we continue to ignore what is happening, the thought virus will spread, spilling out past the Portland metropolitan area.

In this fight, parts of me have come alive again, and I hope the same for you. I am more connected to the community now than I have been in my whole life. I have contributed to the lives of others and been enriched by these close-knit relationships. I have the opportunity to develop the best parts of me in this work. In this life, our breath and energy will be used for something. This endeavor is worth our gift of time and emphasis. Welcome to the awakening. I hope you join me and other Oregonians in the pursuit for a republic run by the people, for the people.