Pompeii of the Pacific Northwest?

March 1, 2021 11:24 AM

in Portland, Oregon, continued violence and vandalism have combined with high housing costs, homelessness and poor community leadership to raise the question: how long before this city dies?
posted by gottabefunky (11 comments total)

This kind of article is why everyone just sadly shakes their head at economists.
posted by The_Vegetables at 11:33 AM on March 1, 2021 [2 favorites]

This article bothers me, as a former resident of Portland and the metro area. It makes some interesting points but seems to be pushing the idea that "antifa," a nebulous organization is single-handedly responsible for a lot of the violence. The comparison to Pompeii seems rhetorical at best.
posted by Alensin at 11:38 AM on March 1, 2021 [1 favorite]

What’s unique in Portland, though, is the continued violence. The antifa mobs regularly commit vandalism and occasionally commit arson on occupied buildings or assault reporters. Local journalist Andy Ngo, himself an antifa assault victim, regularly documents the Portland riots.

This article is not written for anyone with any sort of mass between their ears.
posted by Philipschall at 11:41 AM on March 1, 2021 [3 favorites]

Yeah, this article is a bad-faith assessment. If you want a dead city center, come to San Jose. San Jose is still a great city in a lot of ways and it's definitely wealthy and not going anywhere, but you'd never know by looking at the downtown core. Anyway, if this is a thread to dunk on a bad article, this article is bad and should feel bad.
posted by GuyZero at 11:43 AM on March 1, 2021 [2 favorites]

the comparison to Pompeii would work fine if we are talking about the Cascadia Subduction Zone ripping a full 9 and setting off Mt Hood maybe...but yeah, no.
posted by supermedusa at 11:43 AM on March 1, 2021 [2 favorites]

I don't know if Forbes was ever a useful publication, but it certainly isn't after turning into Medium. Anyone can publish there and they have little to no editors. It's just clickbait clinging to the reputation of an old brand. Save yourself the energy and never click one of their links again.
posted by stobor at 11:44 AM on March 1, 2021

First off, it's worth remembering that any Forbes link that has "sites" in it is basically SubStack with Forbes branding.

Second, anyone who would call Andy Ngo a journalist either has an agenda or pudding between their ears.
posted by NoxAeternum at 11:45 AM on March 1, 2021

the comparison to Pompeii would work fine if we are talking about the Cascadia Subduction Zone ripping a full 9 and setting off Mt Hood maybe...but yeah, no.

Yeah I was hoping for details on a Yellowstone super eruption update.
posted by GuyZero at 11:47 AM on March 1, 2021 [2 favorites]

Such a poorly written and poorly argued article. Just one example: Did you notice how he complains about how blue collar workers can't afford the high housing prices and then complains that low income housing costs are expensive-- because they are union jobs. (◔_◔)
posted by gwint at 11:47 AM on March 1, 2021 [3 favorites]

Nox, at some point in the last year or two, all of their articles have moved under the 'sites' dir. Just ignore the whole domain now. I assume anybody worth reading will move soon enough.
posted by stobor at 11:48 AM on March 1, 2021

Are you absolutely kidding me with this?

When the Portland Timbers entered Major League Soccer back in 2011, fans could walk the quarter-mile from downtown to the stadium without seeing any homeless people. Now the fans—if games had spectators—would pass several encampments on that short stretch.

Heavens forbid anyone has to see the poors. What an absolutely compassionless and biased piece. Gender reveals have caused far more property damage and destruction than Portland antifa ever has. Sorry the bank had to replace their windows! Meanwhile Mending Bloc and Optical Bloc and all the other blocs are out here providing mutual aid to people you'd rather not look at, dude.
posted by redsparkler at 11:48 AM on March 1, 2021