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The damage to Oregon’s reputation and economy hits even their most famous products: breweries.

Axios reported that in 2023 there were 22 brewery and brewpub closings in Oregon included well-known names like Ex Novo, Ecliptic, and Cascade Brewing. Only 12 breweries opened. Even worse, for those that stayed open, their sales overwhelmingly decreased.

The gotcha for Oregon is that it defied national trends showing more openings than closings. More evidence the luster has worn of Oregon breweries.

Article:

• https://www.axios.com/local/portland/2024/08/03/oregon-brewery-closings-sales-2023

Conner Slevin, a local resident paralyzed in an accident in 2020, is suing his former attorney Jessica Molligan who he claims made legal arrangements, sent communications, and negotiated settlements without his knowledge. Molligan allegedly made dozens of ADA violation lawsuits in his name against local Portland businesses with the real goal of making herself rich.

In many cases, the property owners said they didn’t know there was an ADA compliance issue until they received a demand letter from the Portland lawyer. The initial letter didn’t specify what needed to be fixed but proposed a settlement agreement. Molligan wouldn’t sue if the owner agreed to make repairs, bring the property into compliance, and pay attorney’s fees of roughly $10,000 or more.

The only problem is that Slevin didn’t know she was doing all this in his name. She’s now being sued by Slevin.

Articles:

• https://www.kgw.com/article/news/investigations/portland-attorney-filed-dozens-ada-lawsuits-sued-former-client/283-93da633a-3ced-4d0d-bbc7-dbd7b620af89

In other local news, despite one of the most consistently progressive administrations for almost 50 years, and hundreds of millions spent, Oregon has usually rated in the bottom 5 states for mental health. Oregon was dead last in 2023.

According to the annual 2024 MHA (Mental Health America) report, Oregon no longer ranks 50 out of 50 states, we’ve moved up to 47th out of 50.

It’s a very sad continuation of a decades long Oregon problem that ironically, progressive policies have only seem to have made worse.

Got big, bulky items you want to throw out? Don’t want to pay for dump fees? Enter Portland Dumpster Days.

Portland bureau of Planning and Sustainability is hosting community drop points in the city just about every week. Check out when the next one is located so you can dump your bulky items for free.

Not content to see 3 years of decreasing population, Oregon is now seeing its innovation hubs of software and chip design dry up and move away.

Software employment statewide is down 7.4% from its peak in the summer of 2022. The software cutbacks may mirror what’s happening in Oregon’s chip industry, which boomed during the pandemic and then lost jobs last year.

Venture capital investment in Oregon startups fell sharply last year — to its lowest level since 2017. Relatively few entrepreneurs are starting tech companies in Oregon and those that are launching don’t seem to be attracting much attention. The Portland Incubator Experiment, which was at the center of Oregon’s software boom a decade ago, shut down its tech component last summer as tech entrepreneurship waned.

The article noted that Multnomah County now has one of the highest personal income tax rates that is likely making Portland less attractive for ambitious entrepreneurs.

Links:

• https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/oregon-s-software-industry-is-shrinking/ar-BB1pXp87#:~:text=O%20regon%E2%80%99s%20software%20industry%2C%20which%20helped%20anchor%20the,period%20during%20which%20overall%20Oregon%20jobs%20grew%20steadily.

While other states are recovering from all the things that happened during Covid, Oregon went from being one of the #1 places to move to now one of the 8 states that is now losing population as people move away.

The picture is even a little worse than a one-year metric because this isn’t a one time thing. Oregon, and the city of Portland, has lost population for 3 years running. The state demographers have been using their own numbers and ignoring US Census data; and have been wrong (3 years in a row) saying these were only blips and incorrectly predicting quick rebounds.
Demographers are now starting to sounding economic impact alarm bells and the state faces the possibility of losing a seat in congress. Some have pointed out that this is exactly how rust belts formed in the NE.

Oregon now has the dubious distinction of ending up on a recent Visual Capitalist chart.