Portland is still a great city. The people are great. The suburbs are really coming alive with new restaurants. Even parts of downtown are coming back, the West End area is full of younger tourists checking the city out. For whatever reason, homeless has become a huge problem and they are throwing a ton of money at the problem but no one seems to have a solution. The police department is understaffed, and they are hiring additional officers but the state police academy can't handle the influx of new officers so many just sit around. It's a mess.ClownLoach wrote: ↑February 24th, 2023, 9:18 amThere are many delightful areas there. The core city of Portland itself is a mess though.veteran+ wrote: ↑February 24th, 2023, 8:06 amSometimes the talk about Portland is so confusing for me from afar. I really want to visit in person, soon.storewanderer wrote: ↑February 23rd, 2023, 9:36 pm
That Wood Village Store is very busy though. I didn't feel particularly safe at that store, but it was better than these two that are closing. I did go there at 10 PM.
My concern is Wal Mart tends to do a nice job attracting a lot of issues (theft, etc.). If they close those issues will not go away, they will just go to whatever retailers are left in the areas. Then what? Do those retailers end up having to close too?
The situation for retailers in Portland has become very strange and the attitude of city leadership is odd. I am wondering if the lack of sales tax being generated somehow makes city leadership have this attitude. I was shocked Nike's request was denied.
A very close friend of mine visits Portland and southern Washington every year. His experience is the opposite of what I hear. His photos do not support the negative chatter. He is a social media fanatic.
Confused
As for the several people who commented that the lack of a sales tax is why Portland doesn't care about shoplifting. I don't think that's true. Property taxes are the main source of revenue. Empty downtown office towers are getting their taxes lowered as empty buildings are worth much less. Expect some of these empty shopping centers to pay less in property taxes thereby decreasing revenue to the city. Closing stores will have an impact.
On a side note, Walmart did have a mobile app development office in Portland. That's now gone as well. Would have been a great opportunity for the city to partner with Walmart to grow that but the anti-Walmart sentiment got in the way of that.