I flew into PDX (Portland Airport) yesterday, got a rental car, and started heading south.
Portland is a shithole.
From the road, every building looks run down and many were empty and abandoned.
Every surface was covered in graffiti.
Every bridge and overpass had a shanty town of makeshift structures under it where the homeless were living.
There was garbage everywhere.
There were dead RVs on the shoulder of the highway with people living in them.
There were hitchhiking vagrants on the highway and people pushing shopping carts on the shoulder.
I has been on planes for nine hours and had five hours of driving ahead of me. I wanted a place to stretch my legs and I needed to pick up a few items (mouthwash, drinks, etc) that due to weight I figured it would be easier to get at my destination. ($2 for a bottle of mouthwash and $50 for an overweight bag at the airport isn’t a hard decision.)
I drove to Tualatin to go to Cabela’s and Fred Meyer.
Once I got into Tualatin, about 15 min south of Portland, everything got much nicer.
Whatever is killing Portland is definitely driven by Portland politics. I hope it doesn’t metastasize into the suburbs, because Portland should be a warning to everyone else. It was horrible.
I lived in Salem (45-60 minutes south of Portland) for years. It has been infected by whatever Leftist miasma is plaguing Portland, but the disease hasn’t progressed as far yet.
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Portland is a sh!thole. Once you get outside the city limits — outside Multnomah County, and to a lesser extent, Columbia, Washington, and Clackamas Counties — stuff gets better real quick.
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It’s a shame Portland has to be in Oregon. It’s such a beautiful state otherwise.
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As an aside, that Cabela’s in Tualatin is nice, innit? Been there many times. 🙂
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Also, enjoy the break from sales taxes.
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And don’t try to pump your own gas. State law.
New Hampshire doesn’t have sales tax either.
The only time I spent any time there was maybe 15-20 years ago at a conference. Powell’s Books was amazing, wished I could have spent more time in it. Had some great meals (okay food, great company) in some biergartens. Overarching was an air of genteel decrepitude.
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I know what Powells has become, and for the rest I see no real reason to go back. Oh, well.
Portland has been trying to be San Francisco for years, sadly. Portland in the 90s was nice. The worst of it is the Leftists in the Portland area dominate politics and force shitty laws on the rest of the state, hence Greater Idaho and Jefferson.
BTW as of September 1 self service gas is state wide and not just rural counties
” I hope it doesn’t metastasize into the suburbs”
What do locusts do when the current crop is depleted?
Good luck with the class btw.