Portland: US liberal utopia loses its shine
It’s 9 am on a weekday, and real estate employee Erica Hetfeld has just watched paramedics try to save the life of a man who has overdosed on the streets of Portland. “This is a tragedy,” she says as three disheveled men smoke fentanyl near her office in a city that was once a byword for laid-back livability.
Portland is a Democratic Party stronghold, a liberal sentinel in Oregon on the US West Coast that for years stood for social justice, empathy and tolerance. But an experiment in decriminalizing drugs and a hands-off approach to policing has left some bemoaning the fate of a place now scarred by homelessness, addiction, graffiti and litter.
“You have no consequences for your public drug use... no consequences for breaking windows and trying to burn down public buildings,” said Hetfeld. “That ‘no consequences’ attitude has completely changed the face of our city in fewer than four years. It’s been a spectacular nosedive.”
‘Shambles’
For decades Portland has been held up by its supporters as a proudly “weird” place, with a strong emphasis on sustainability and equality. Knitwear-clad hipsters delighted in its small-scale breweries, plentiful coffee shops, vegan food stores and thriving indie music scene.
It became such a shorthand for bohemian trendiness that a TV series called “Portlandia” gently mocked it as a place “where young people come to retire.” But the last few years have not been kind. Portland’s commitment to social justice was tested during the Black Lives Matter protests as the city was rocked by weeks of destruction, with authorities standing back as demonstrators wreaked havoc. (Supporters say right-wing agitators stirred up violence.)
That was coupled with the economic devastation of the pandemic and the effects of an ill-executed plan to decriminalize drugs that has left police doing little more than handing out leaflets to people zombied out on crack or fentanyl. Retail giants like Nike and Target have shuttered stores citing repeated thefts, while teleworking has hollowed out the downtown. Conservatives have seized on the city’s misfortunes, with outlets like Fox News featuring horrorscapes from the city and blaming the Democrats who have controlled it for decades.
Former president Donald Trump dubbed it a liberal dystopia where the rule of law has vanished. “The city is in shambles to this day. The store owners don’t even rebuild storefronts anymore,” he told NBC last year. Restaurateur Lisa Schroeder says Portland’s decline pains her. “We got to take care of the city,” she told AFP. “We’ve got drugs on every corner. So now there’s even more reasons for people to not come downtown.” — AFP