19 Comments

If this is what is happening in City Council Meetings now, imagine what it will be like after so-called "Charter Reform" commences. I fear that's when the real chaos and anarchy will begin. We ain't seen nothing yet.

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Imagine the public costs saved if Hester and Christian had literally cancelled each other when they met that day.

I can't be the first to hope that criminals of all stripes could be corralled in a single neighborhood with no exits. An island would be ideal. Food drops could keep them alive, but those might slack off due to lack of funding and public apathy.

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Jun 4, 2023Liked by Pamela Fitzsimmons

I see that this mornings Oregonian is headlining a new bout of self-flagellation lamenting the loss of affordable homes in Albina. I learned to read with the Sunday Oregonian funnies and my wife insists on keeping our 30+ years subscription but I can't bear to read it anymore, even if it was free I'd still want my money back.

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Jun 4, 2023Liked by Pamela Fitzsimmons

I don’t know what it will take to break through to Portland’s Progressive voter base that the policies they continue to promote are literally destroying their livelihood and causing more harm to those they claim to want to help. It’s utterly irrational behavior. Ted Wheeler and the City Council are taking their marching orders from the public - whoever screams the loudest gets their way. While people are clearly growing frustrated, their meek complaints pale in comparison to Hester’s megaphone. Agitators and Activists rule the city. I’m thinking people are able to live in this dichotomy partly because home prices have continued to rise - and considerably these past few years. The arbitrage of affluent homebuyers from other deep blue cities is sustaining a house of cards housing market in Portland, imo (we were told when we sold our Irvington home in 2021 that the majority of homebuyers in Portland came from 3 major cities; San Francisco, Seattle and combo of NYC/Brooklyn). What is going to happen when this pipeline stops? Portland’s quality of life no longer justifies its high price tag. Once home prices adjust to meet the reality of a city that prioritizes the homeless and open drug use, agitating protestors, frequent gun violence, car thefts and crime over law abiding citizens and their livelihood, perhaps the good people of Portland will be shaken from their slumber, rise up and begin to drown out these disastrous voices. Ted Wheeler will never grow a spine, as you hope, but he will predictably carry out orders from a vocal constituency. The hollowing out of home values just might do it.

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I think this means that Black Lives Don't Matter (BLDM) and graft wrought by violence prevention outfits both governmental and private can continue to steal with both hands:

https://www.oregonlive.com/crime/2023/06/national-institute-for-criminal-justice-reform-tapped-to-help-portland-curb-gun-violence.html

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If you lived here long enough you might have been familiar with the phrase 'Portland Polite' but that was long ago in a galaxy far away.

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Jun 3, 2023·edited Jun 3, 2023Liked by Pamela Fitzsimmons

In a better world, our elected officials would have promptly directed law enforcement to identify the leaders of the anarchist army who attacked the city starting in mid 2020, investigate and arrest them.

A top prosecutor not compromised by a white social-justice savior complex, a belief in targeted property damage as a legitimate means of forcing change and an overweening ambition for higher office would then have prosecuted them for their crimes against people and property.

And alleged criminals of the Hester variety would be doing time today instead of reprising their roles as badass anarchist guerrillas at City Hall, doing their utmost to sustain the howling nihilist hatred toward everything decent and civilized that informed the scores of direct actions that the feckless Ted Wheeler would not and could not put down.

Oh well. At least now there's no longer any doubt as to the source of the profoundly antisocial ideology that unites Portland's radical houseless activists.

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Jun 3, 2023·edited Jun 3, 2023Liked by Pamela Fitzsimmons

Although I agree with Wheeler’s new approach, he’s still a clown. Again he blamed the homeless crisis in Portland on the pandemic (not the city’s incompetence) and said he liked being sued. Portland taxpayers get to give $5,000 to each plaintiff plus a LOT to the lawyer…when the city could have just used common sense and not enable the homeless to take over our sidewalks. More incompetence.

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