“The New Anarchy”

The Atlantic, March 6, 2023

How does it introduce Portland?

Another flashback to the George Floyd protests and subsequent riots. Downtown Portland on any given night in 2020, according to this cover story in The Atlantic, epitomized a political extremism rooted not in values, but in screaming—just the latest iteration in a centuries-long history of political violence and extremism in America.

Night after night, hundreds of people clashed in the streets. They attacked one another with baseball bats, Tasers, bear spray, fireworks,” the story begins. “They filled balloons with urine and marbles and fired them at police officers with slingshots. The police lobbed flash-bang grenades. One man shot another in the eye with a paintball gun and pointed a loaded revolver at a screaming crowd.”

Who was interviewed?

Lots of national politicians, Ivy League professors and former prosecutors, who help Atlantic executive editor Adrienne LaFrance fit Portland’s state of chaos into an American anarchist streak that assassinated President William McKinley at the 1901 Buffalo World’s Fair. In Portland, she interviewed Mayor Ted Wheeler, PSU professor and anti-fascism scholar Alexander Reid Ross, conservative talk show host Lars Larson, and WW managing editor Aaron Mesh.

Most memorable quote:

“I do want to emphasize that everyone involved in this was a massive fucking loser, on both sides.” —Aaron Mesh, regarding the dueling factions of costumed brawlers who regularly met for street fights starting in 2016. Mesh, reached by WW across the partition that separates his desk from this reporter’s desk, says he doesn’t regret his remarks but concedes he could have expressed them more gently.

Least authentic moment:

A lengthy elegy for the city’s lost virtues, from its drawbridges to its “swooping crows” and “great Borgesian bookstore,” all diminished by the after-effects of political violence. Portland is pretty. But the effect of this writing is condescending.

Most perceptive observation:

That the 2020 protests devolved into self-indulgent infighting that had little to do with racial justice and everything to do with arbitrary destruction: “The situation in Portland became so desperate, and the ideologies involved so tangled, that the violence began to operate like its own weather system—a phenomenon that the majority of Portlanders could see coming and avoid, but one that left behind tremendous destruction.”

How apocalyptic is it? ⛈⛈⛈⛈

How gleeful is it? ����

How Trumpy is it?

“Portland’s Curious Case of Urban Discontent”

Governing magazine, March 7, 2023

How does it introduce Portland?

Through the eyes of a reporter who didn’t just show up in Portland to eat Voodoo doughnuts or overreact to the drug crisis du jour. Indeed, Alan Ehrenhalt says he’s a regular here: “Over a bunch of visits during the last two decades, I had the feeling that it wasn’t just a city in Oregon but the capital of New Urbanist success and well-being in America: the best ice cream, the best bookstore, the stateliest of hotels, a glorious riverside park and a compact downtown with hundreds of inviting and/or quirky commercial enterprises.”

Who was interviewed?

Nobody on the record. Most of the intel seems to have come from an anonymous “prominent business executive.”

Most memorable quote: “Collectively they [government leaders] were incapable of working together constructively.” —The anonymous “prominent business executive”

Most perceptive observation: Cities, like markets, do not go in one direction forever. Portland’s creative boom fed on a low cost of living. That creativity attracted more people. The cost of living rose—too much. Boom: market correction. “Perhaps there is such a thing as a city being too successful. Decades of peace, prosperity and plentiful amenities may lead not only to managerial complacency but to a panicked reaction among the citizens to even modest increases in such things as crime and homelessness.”

What’s the diagnosis?

The citizenry can afford to pay high rates of taxation, but it wants the services those taxes fund to improve the collective quality of life. In other words, taxpayers want evidence their money makes a dent.

What’s the solution?

“A cohesive local government can do something about the 800 homeless camps. No city can fully control its crime rate, but well-organized and well-resourced policing can make a serious dent in the numbers.”

How apocalyptic is it? ⛈

How gleeful is it? 0

How Trumpy is it?

“‘Stick over carrot’: progressive Portland takes a hard turn on homelessness”

The Guardian, May 26, 2023

How does it introduce Portland?

The Guardian, perhaps the U.K.’s most well-regarded newspaper, opens its story on a bright Monday morning, with The Society Hotel owner Jessie Burke, who’s been vocal in recent years about tent encampments and is pleased to see fewer of them.

Who was interviewed?

Burke; a number of social services providers, including Scott Kerman of Blanchet House; and two homeless residents. The story is illustrated by an Associated Press photograph taken on the Central Eastside, showing a man in a tent flying an American flag. It’s the same photo that led the LA Times ’ story three months earlier.

Most memorable quote:

“Anyone who works with these populations knows there are people who respond to carrots and people who respond to sticks.” —Jessie Burke

Least authentic moment:

When the author wrote that former City Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty “ardently opposed enforcing [camping] ordinances, as her constituency of unhoused people gained political power and legal clout.” How people who couldn’t afford to sleep inside had gained power and clout is not answered in the story.

Most perceptive observation:

It’s slim pickings—the piece is a surface-level recounting of the mayor’s daytime camping ban—but the story does accurately perceive that the dramatic rise in unhoused camping has resulted in “changing political winds” blowing rightward in several West Coast cities, including Portland.

How apocalyptic is it? ⛈

How gleeful is it? ����

How Trumpy is it?

“Portland Is Losing Its Residents”

The Wall Street Journal, June 28, 2023

How does it introduce Portland?

In classic WSJ style, this story is built around a killer stat: the city’s population decline. “Portland lost nearly 3% of its population between 2020 and 2022, according to the U.S. Census. The drop of about 17,400 to 635,000 was the sixth largest decline among the 50 largest cities.” But rather than focusing on blue tarps and fentanyl-scarred tin foil, the piece focuses on the high cost of housing as the city’s biggest problem.

Who was interviewed?

Mark Rogers, a Portland artist who moved to Fort Wayne, Ind.; Pink Martini bandleader Thomas Lauderdale; and the actress Cassandra Peterson, best known as Elvira, Mistress of the Dark. Peterson provides a counterintuitive example of somebody who recently moved to Portland and is glad she did. “I got really tired of putting on all my makeup and doing my hair to go to the grocery store [in L.A.] for one item,” she said. “Up here, I put my hair in a braid, I wear a flannel shirt, I don’t put on makeup and I go anywhere I want.”

Most memorable quote:

“I have always been a really big booster of Portland, but I can’t recommend it right now.” —Thomas Lauderdale

Most perceptive observation:

It’s by new Indiana resident Mark Rogers, who says low housing costs cover a multitude of sins. “I still love Portland even though it’s got some problems, and I wouldn’t have left if the housing prices weren’t so high.”

What’s the diagnosis?

“Even with the decline in population, housing costs have remained high in Portland, much as they have in other West Coast cities such as Seattle and San Francisco. The prices make it difficult to attract young new residents.”

What’s the solution?

None is offered, but the implication is that morale would improve with more housing stock.

How apocalyptic is it? ⛈⛈⛈

How gleeful is it? ����

How Trumpy is it?