Portland – we put the cramp in crampons
Portland's descent into lawlessness and corruption has claimed another business, with today's announcement that REI Co-op is leaving the city and not coming back. Too much crime, too much filth.
And this is in the Pearl District, the Fake New York that Vera Katz and Homer Williams built, that the bureaucrats will still tell you was such a whopping success.
Portlamd's priorities have been so wrong for so long. It's no wonder that the place has fallen apart and institutions are fleeing, seemingly every day. So long, REI. See you in the suburbs.
Hard to imagine what Shake Shack is thinking with opening a new restaurant on Burnside. I guess they couldn't find the brakes.
ReplyDeleteA minutiae of our community controls the agenda causing the downward spiral. The implosion is preventable. But, it requires a backbone.
ReplyDeleteThat is really sad and another milestone in Portland's descent into lawlessness and anarchy. I hope REI opens a replacement store up here in Clark County.
ReplyDeleteThere’s a new Porche dealership opening up nearby…oh yeah, and there’s still the Ritz! Sure those won’t be theft/anarchists targets in the slightest. Nothing to see here, Go By Streetcar!
ReplyDeleteProbably if they had left the Pearl alone for the Skid Row it was with the cheap rundown apartment buildings and the slum conditions it would have actually had been a place with affordable housing for the kind of people that are camping in the streets. Reap what you sow you bastards.
ReplyDeleteThe Pearl was never a skid road. It ended at 10th and Hoyt. It was a giant rail yard that Homer paved over burying the years of pollution. Skid road was largely where the 405 freeway runs today and consisted of single room occupancy apartments.
Delete“Affordable housing” consisted of small houses built by the Union Pacific railroad where the now redeveloped slab town is today.
Those houses were all torn down when the Fremont Bridge was built and Consolidated Freight parked hundreds of
Trucks there for years.
“Urban renewal” destroyed entire vibrant neighborhoods on the east side of the Willamett River as well. The development weasels have done well over the years.
I can’t say I feel bad for them now. It’s always all about the money.
I don’t like the weasels either. But, they haven’t started dumpster fires or deliberately broken windows.
DeleteI am disgusted by the druggies and the crazies, and the inaction that has caused a good deal of Portland’s decline into a lawless and depressed place!
DeleteI suspect there are some who plan to buy Potland at salvage prices.
ReplyDeleteI work a block away and can see REI from my window. We are outta here as soon as our lease is up in a couple of years- and so am I as I start to enjoy the "Golden" years. I used to work a block away in my youth at the Meier and Frank warehouse- which are now lofts and the building I'm in was the parking lot. The "pearl" was a much cooler and funkier place. These NYC imports and West Hills leeches have sucked the fun out of old Portland. The masses moving in from even worse California will just speed up the demise.
ReplyDeleteI don't blame REI for bailing. I always found their prices too high but they have a loyal crowd of Subaru warriors, who love to lecture us on the environment while speeding off into the hills or valleys every weekend.
another win for car-dependent big box stores in the suburbs. So much for the new urbanism. The progressive agenda is self-defeating, maybe fortunately ...
ReplyDelete