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Yet another report has come out demonstrating the incompetence and failures of Oregon and Portland leadership – this time (again) due to Multnomah Vega Pederson. It’s a story of incompetent management, millions poured down the drain, doing things for political show, and hiding failures of leadership.

The “Housing Multnomah Now” initiative was supposed to use $14 million to house 300 people into apartments. A year later, however, the program has only placed 37 individuals or households in apartments.

Over the last month, Vega Pederson and other county officials repeatedly refused to answer questions on the record or provide details about how they set the program’s initial targets, identify officials who set them or say whether any review or analysis was conducted.

Read more about how badly this has gone from this article on Oregon Live.

The bad news continues for Oregon and Portland. Populations are actually shrinking city, county, and state-wide.

Multnomah County has had a net lost of nearly 27,000 residents from 2020 to 2023 — a 3.3% drop in population, according to new estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau.

Tidbits:

• 50% of out-migrant households from Portland’s tri-county area went to central Oregon, Washington, Texas and Arizona
• Clark County, Washington (just across the river in Washington State), saw a 3.1% increase in population from 2020 to 2023

https://www.axios.com/local/portland/2024/03/25/multnomah-county-population-decline-continues-census

North Plains approved a 855 acre expansion to their urban growth boundary to help grow their small town as well as help build much needed housing. A problem plaguing the US and especially the strictly regulated Portland metro urban growth boundary.

The Oregon state legislature attempted to stop the move by slipping in a ban on such votes by local cities into a bill that bans them RETROACTIVELY back to 2023 – an unheard of and unprecedented move to squash local government and maintain their iron fist on Portland urban growth boundaries that has created one of the worst housing crisis in the country.

Articles:

• https://www.oregonlive.com/business/2023/11/north-plains-plan-to-double-in-size-thrusts-tiny-community-into-oregons-eternal-land-debate.html?outputType=amp
• https://www.oregonlive.com/business/2023/11/north-plains-plan-to-double-in-size-thrusts-tiny-community-into-oregons-eternal-land-debate.html?outputType=amp
• https://www.kptv.com/2023/10/18/north-plains-community-takes-sides-over-urban-growth-boundary-expansion/?outputType=amp
• https://hillsboroherald.com/city-of-north-plains-petitions-state-to-block-citizens-from-voting/

A while back I summarized a number of things going the wrong direction for Portland/Oregon. The problems have not stopped; and continue to get worse in many cases.

Portland and Oregon residents moving away

• According to the US Census bureau in 2023-4, Portland has gone from one of that fastest, hippest growing cities in the country to the 6th fastest shrinking major city in the country despite its relatively small size. It’s a worse rate than Detroit.
• Portland, and Oregon as a whole, saw it’s population decrease in 2023
  • Portland population declined also in 2022 – For the 3rd year in a row, net migration for Portland is negative. Meaning more people have left the city in total than have moved in. The total city population is shrinking and this is causing demographers and politicians to start sounding alarm bells.
  • A recent study in late 2023 show this net population shrinkage of over 18,000 people since the pandemic has now become a disturbing long-term trend. A trend that is unique to Portland as many other urban areas around the country and NW region are growing. This will likely have heavy implications on government services, jobs, and is general economic decline. It is causing economists alarm as legislators scramble for answers (answers that are likely painfully obvious – such as nearly the highest tax rate in the country, increasing violent and property crime, high homelessness, and terrible local and state leadership).
• A 2024 report shows Portland’s population shrunk again for the 3rd straight year. Portland is ranked 108 out of 132 for population growth – near the bottom.

• Oregon state is also seeing a net population decrease.
  • Oregon is one of only 17 states to see declining household incomes in 2022, U.S. Census Bureau data shows. According to the U.S. Census Bureau data, Oregon saw a 2.2% drop in median household income in 2022 — the only Western state to see a decline during the same period. However, Oregon State Economist Josh Lehner told KOIN 6 News that Oregon’s income actually rose in 2022, just not as fast as inflation. 
• Portland continues to be one of the 5 ‘least post-pandemic recovered’ US cities. The study comes after the Oregon Office of Economic Analysis found that 54% of renters in the state do not have enough income from rent to cover basic living expenses
• A  Harvard University study shows that Oregon is one of the most unaffordable states for renters.
• A flood of Portlanders are leaving town for the suburbs. “Rents in Portland’s suburbs are up 23% since 2020, compared with about 2% in the center city.” In sum, we have undeniable evidence that a mass movement of once-cosmopolitan renters have fled Portland’s urban core for the suburbs.”
• It probably doesn’t help that Portland hasn’t been enforcing traffic laws since 2021. https://www.oregonlive.com/crime/2021/06/portland-police-will-no-longer-pursue-minor-traffic-infractions-and-will-limit-car-searches.html

Business closures grow worse in 2023 and 2024

• In 2024, downtown Portland’s office vacancy rate is now the highest in the nation – over 30% – and continues to decline.
• Going from one of the fastest growing metro areas in the country, Oregon had a net LOSS of jobs in 2023 compared to the 1.9% job growth nationally.
• REI has announced it is closing it’s downtown flagship store due to crime and security issues. Despite working with city officials to fix issues, it gave up after nothing was done and it is experiencing it’s highest number of break-ins and thefts in 20 years.
• Walmart and Green Zebra grocery have closed their stores in Portland due to safety and theft issues.
• Target announced it is now closing all it’s Portland stores citing customer safety, theft, and organized crime. Even after many promises and direct interaction with the mayor’s office, things got even worse. After being a full service store, they closed multiple floors to just be a single ground floor shopping area. Now they have even given up on that. Target was often the recipient of multiple attacks by antifa during the 2020 riots: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Qf7QuYpATI&ab_channel=KOIN6
• Restaurant closures, brewpub closures, and business closures are continuing and accelerating in 2023
• 25 downtown businesses, including some of the hippest places (Ace Hotel, Multnomah Whiskey Library, Courier Coffee) have written a strongly worded and heart-wrenching letter to the city to immediately address the wave of crime and the resultant lack of foot traffic.
• Hotel booking recovery has stalled and now starting to decline again. https://www.oregonlive.com/business/2023/09/portlands-hotel-rebound-stalls-industry-is-in-crisis.html

Continued drug legalization deaths and issues:

• New York Times has openly called Oregon drug legalization a disaster. The Atlantic and other news outlets have also equally called the policy a complete failure
  • Atlantic giving a pretty decent report on what happened.
  • Fortune magazine also reports on the many failures of measure 110
• Measure 110 that legalized drugs hasn’t saved any lives. Drug overdose deaths have increased in Portland/Oregon at almost identical rates as 13 other states indicating that the policy argument of harm reduction has been proven incorrect.
• Overdose deaths continue to accelerate in 2023. Portland hit 516 overdose fatalities by October 2023, which means the city has already exceeded the number of overdose deaths for all of 2022

Homelessness mismanagement:

• In 2024, despite record funding of $24 million in grants, OHCS shuttered existing shelters because it couldn’t afford to pay it’s staff. Some shelters were receiving over $7000 per bed per month.
• Metro Budget oversight committee says there isn’t any oversight of homeless funds due to county leadership refusing to talking with them: https://www.kgw.com/article/news/local/the-story/multnomah-county-joint-office-homeless-spending-budget-oversight-board-chair/283-c21def7e-fa34-4736-b694-e4541325f682
• Metro homeless service has over $100 million dollars of homeless funds collected from a huge new tax – yet most of it is unspent, nor is the there a plan even though the taxes are still being collected: https://www.kgw.com/article/news/local/homeless/we-have-so-much-money-multnomah-county-has-more-than-100-million-for-homeless-services-that-it-has-yet-to-spend/283-7a7b350b-0789-4e88-a6d6-1ac73cbd9c45
• 72 unit Argyle Gardens built for $12 million and lauded as a model for housing low-income has in just 3 years degenerated to tenants reporting filthy conditions, assault, rampant theft, squatters, and unresponsive management that has led at least one resident to flee for safety, while others have gone back to homeless shelters.
• Many of our efforts have been huge wastes of money. Public toilets were put out and cost $75,000/month but were all gone 3 years later when they turned into port-a-drug labs/burned down/stolen/etc: https://www.kgw.com/article/news/investigations/portland-public-toilets-portable-what-happened/283-ff025241-95ea-4126-ab70-d62652273998
• Portland quickly reversed course when it became public they were spending $80,000 on free foil, straws, and snorting kits – even though straws are banned in Oregon: https://katu.com/news/local/multnomah-county-suspends-plan-to-distribute-tin-foil-straws-to-drug-users-in-portland-area
• Washington county unanimously waved a law that banned a new methadone clinic within 1000 feet of a school.
• Homeless camps with open drug use are right across the street and along main school approaches – prompting the Mayor to ban those camps; but little has been done and it usually takes weeks to address issues.
  • “A [homeless] camp took over the parking lot last summer where I teach. Two families left the school due to feeling unsafe. One day a mom messaged me they were late because they couldn’t get out of their car. A female camper had her pants down and was peeing next to their car. Then was doing the dope nod with her pants down. Took six months to clear the camp even though they were violating the rule about proximity to a school.”
• Youth encampments have been getting a black eye locally from a recent set of interviews that seem to show policies are enabling self destructive behaviors and they are largely living on the street by choice or have ridiculous expectations for free houses.

Oregon education systems failing at record-setting pace and increasingly exposed mismanagement

• Parents are pulling students from Oregon’s failing schools in record numbers. Oregon schools have seen a 17% decline in elementary school enrollment (10 schools worth of children) and an overall decline of 7.5% for the entire school system as parents pull their students for private schools and homeschooling.
• Parents are asking the US Department of Education to review Portland Public School’s new disciple and safety guide as being discriminatory and violating the Civil Rights Act of 1964 after increasing school violence. The PPS guide requires the student’s ‘trauma, race, and gender identity’ be the primary criteria for how faculty will respond to cases and threats of violence by students. This has led to cases in which students have threatened to kill other students and choked/physically assaulted them are not reprimanded and immediately put right back into classrooms with people they have victimized.
• A 2024 education report and recovery scorecard shows that while other 29 other states in the report have rebounded after the pandemic, Oregon’s students are uniquely failing to regain either reading or math skills – despite a federal $1.6 billion infusion of cash to Oregon’s 197 districts. Oregon leaders have few excuses for the terrible performance.
  • Oregon students are about 2/3 of a year behind reading levels and 3/4 of a year behind in math skills compared to most other states. Some of the other states doing dramatically better than Oregon: Alabama, Illinois, Louisiana, South Dakota, Georgia, Indiana, Tennessee, Ohio. Only 6 states did worse in math, and Oregon had the second lowest overall state score.
• Even before Covid, 1 in 3 Oregon schools rank in the bottom quarter nationally despite higher than average funding.
• Portland teachers union strike led by pro-Palestine activist leadership (to the dismay of it’s Jewish members and grossly misread the room) which included a teaching guide in which students were encouraged to write a prayer to Allah for the fall of Israel.
  • Materials links: Know your rights, Curriculum
• The teachers union leadership has turned out not to have done even their most basic homework before a very damaging strike – and were completely wrong about available funding the union leaders demanded and had to do an embarrassing back peddle and concede the state was not lying that there was no funds.
• Portland Public Schools is now cutting $10’s of millions due to budget cuts – as was communicated to the public during the strike. But that didn’t stop pro-union groups from rabidly defending the false narrative of full coffers by union leaders.
• It’s come out that the Portland Public Schools bloated communication team costs as much as running an entire school.
• Oregon’s severe and chronic school attendance problem grew even worse last year
• Violence in Portland and Oregon schools has gotten much worse.
  • A recent teacher strike in 2024 negotiated a 3x increase in the size of their ‘rapid response’ team for violent students; though there’s little evidence these efforts will change anything.
  • Reynolds Middle School shut down in-person classes for 3 weeks to address out of control student behavior
  • All 15 PPS middle school principles are begging for help with serious behavioral crisis after grades 6-8 had more disciplinary incidents by March 2023 than the entire 2021-2022 school year.
    • Ex: Seventh grader at Beaumont Middle School in Northeast Portland described feeling terrified after a classmate held a boxcutter to her neck and threatened to slit her throat during school hours several weeks ago. Her classmate was suspended for a few weeks, but is now back at school without supervision, she told members of the Portland school board on Tuesday, adding that she’s experiencing regular panic attacks as a result.
  • Despite these issues, the school system is doubling down on the policy of reducing suspensions in favor of ‘rapid response’
• I previously mentioned that Oregon removed the requirement students demonstrate they can read or do basic mathematics to get a high school diploma in 2020 as a move to fight racism. This was just unanimously extended through the 2029 by the Oregon State Board of Education.
  • Best quote I heard about this policy: “You know what’s more harmful to students of color? Not being able to read or write”
  • Another called it “the soft bigotry of low expectations”
• Doubling down on the effort, PPS is considering something they call ‘equitable grading system’ in which a teacher assesses a student’s work considering their diversity and background needs to promote fairness
  • Critics have said that this doesn’t fight racism, instead it’s a quiet racism of lowering standards instead of addressing the actual educational needs of underprivileged students.

Masked Disruptive Protests and Attacks Haven’t Stopped

Portland got a reputation for some of the most violent and destructive riots in 2020; and it’s not that protests have stopped. They largely just changed topics – and are now increasingly attacking public leaders homes including arson attacks.

Just in the last 2 months (Nov 2023 to Jan 2024) we’ve had a list of blocked roads, bridges, and the airport

• Anti-Israel protesters block I-405 for several hours
• Anti-Israel protesters protest outside a Boeing factory
• Anti-Israel protesters block Burnside bridge
• Anti-Israel protesters disrupt the Christmas tree lighting in Portland
• Anti-Israel protesters block access to the Portland Airport for several hours
• Sit in at a justice hearing in Jan 2024

Attacks on religious buildings and members

Increasing targeted attacks on religious institutions/displays of all faith backgrounds by Antifa and other protest groups:

• Window display of beloved local shop celebrating Jewish, Christian and Islamic beliefs destroyed
• Churches are increasingly being attacked and vandalized by left wing extremist groups (Catholic, Homeless shelter, Catholic church)
• Jewish Synagogues as well
• Pregnancy resource centers in Oregon have been the target of so many arson attacks the FBI is now investigating. Second link.

More spending mismanagement

• Comparison between different states spending indicates Oregon is spending enough, but has dramatically worse results for the money spent
  • Comments about various forms of mismanagement

The idea behind the Triple D is seems deceptively simple: hike Devil’s Rest, Mount Defiance, and Dog Mountain all in one day. Actually doing it is a real experience. It involves hiking 27.7 miles, going up (and down) 10,808 ft of elevation gain. Not to mention about an hour of driving the 45 miles between the trailheads.

I have personally not done it – thought I have done a double-D. The double-D is to hike Dog Mountain twice (up and down twice in a row) – which is only 13.8 miles and 5600ft of gain. I had an assistant instructor from my Mazamas class the actual Triple D challenge and said that somewhere on the last leg that more than one person ended up crying from the effort – though they all pushed through and completed it.

KGW8 followed a group that tried the same challenge. Bonus points to those folks for being smart enough to change clothes between mountains. That’s very wise as salt and sweat can build up and cause chaffing.

Article:

• https://www.kgw.com/video/life/style/lets-get-out-there/triple-d-challenge-columbia-river-gorge-lets-get-out-there/283-f9a6eef9-0bf7-479e-8b4f-cb447c0d18a7

Oregon was hailed as a national leader by Bernie Sanders and Democratic leadership when it pass Senate Bill 81 in 2015 offering free community college to residents. Fast forward to 2023 and it’s now on the chopping block.

A new report by the Oregon Higher Education Coordinating Committee (Which has been interestingly removed by the state and replaced with a much slicker brochure-style with NONE of the relevant data that summarizes these failures. The original report is still on the wayback machine and I include a local copy here) found that the Oregon Promise has failed by almost every measure. Here’s just one of their conclusions:

It has failed to encourage more high-school graduates to enroll in college, failed to narrow equity gaps in enrollment, and failed to increase college completion rates. And while it has helped a small number of students afford to go to college, most low-income students approved for the program still can’t meet the costs of higher education.

“While Oregon had some unique issues, overall the findings are not unique to Oregon,” he said. “Other places where this has been tried, you find a small pop in enrollment the first couple of years, and then it comes back down to pre-program levels, doesn’t really seem to do much in the long run to boost enrollment, or even movement onto four-year degrees.”

Articles:

• https://www.nationalreview.com/news/oregons-free-community-college-program-fails-to-boost-enrollment-narrow-racial-gaps/
• https://archive.is/h8jTk#selection-1153.0-1153.358
• Local copy of the report here

Hand blown glass floats are created and placed on Lincoln City beaches by secretive “float fairies” who leave them in visible locations between the high tide line and the beach embankment. It’s become quite an attraction for the coastal Oregon town with a tradition that has spanned for years now.

Here’s the Finders Keepers schedule for 2024:

• Dec 30-Jan 1 – Opening Weekend: 100 floats
• Feb. 17-24 –Antique Week: 100 Japanese antique floats
• Feb. 14-16 –Valentine’s Day: 50 red/pink/white floats
• March 16-April 14 – Spring break: 200 floats
• April 20-22 –Earth Day: 50 Earth Day floats
• May 10-12 –Mother’s Day: 50 floats
• May 25-27 – Memorial Day: 50 red/white/blue floats
• June 14-16 – Father’s Day: 50 floats
• June TBD – Casino Anniversary: 29 floats
• June 22-23 – Summer Kite: 10 floats
• Aug. 31-Sept. 2 – College Ball: 20 green/yellow and 20 orange/black floats
• Sept. 7-8 –Fall Kite: 10 floats
• Sept. TBD – Celebration of Honor: 50 red/white/blue floats
• Oct. 31-Nov. 2 – Halloween: 50 floats
• Nov. 28-Dec. 1 – Harvest Drop: 50 floats
• Dec. 14-15 – Holiday: 50 floats

Articles:

• https://www.oregonlive.com/travel/2023/11/when-to-look-for-hidden-glass-floats-on-the-oregon-coast-in-2024.html?outputType=amp

Washington state’s cap-and-invest programs became controversial in June when Washington posted the highest gas prices in the nation.

Now, a state employee, Jackson Maynard, in charge of making fuel forecasts was told to lie and not include the true costs. He’s now suing for being forced to retire early.

“He was approached by a supervisor and told not to include what the impacts of cap-and-trade will be. … They were asking him to lie, and he wouldn’t do that”. The complaint said Smith was told he would need OFM approval on future calculations, he was denied a promotion, and was denied leave to see a sick family member, which he alleges was retaliation.

Article: https://crosscut.com/briefs/2023/12/wa-state-employee-files-claim-over-order-falsify-fuel-forecast

The Portland Bureau of Transportation has a $32 million shortfall in their budget and are looking to fill it by more parking enforcement and tickets for expired tags.

“Out of the 1 million vehicles registered in Portland, there are an estimated 460,000 that are eligible for renewal,” PBOT Director Millicent Williams told KOIN 6 News.

That’s right — nearly half of drivers in the region have expired license plates.

Who would have thought? When you make it state law that it is illegal for police to pull over cars for minor traffic infractions (Oregon Senate Bill 1510) and a city that has officially advised police to no longer enforce traffic laws, who would have thought that traffic deaths would reach their highest levels in almost 40 years (since 1986) and people would stop registering their vehicles (since they cannot be pulled over for expired tags)?

Articles:

• https://www.opb.org/article/2022/03/03/bill-that-would-limit-minor-traffic-stops-heads-to-oregon-gov-kate-brown/
• https://www.aclu-or.org/en/press-releases/legislatures-passage-sb-1510-transforming-justice-omnibus-bill-address
• https://www.koin.com/news/portland/nearly-half-of-portland-drivers-have-expired-plates/

If you’re interested in getting your own custom vanity license plate, maybe check out these ones that got rejected first. Some of them are entertaining, others are just…wrong. I love that there is a column that tries to tell you in vague terms why it was rejected.

• Rejected Oregon DMV custom plates (2022)
• Rejected Oregon DMV custom plates (2023)