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Business owners are fleeing Portland in droves amid a pronounced rise in crime and homelessness, officials in the Democratic stronghold have revealed.
Public data shows that since the pandemic, more than 2,600 downtown businesses have filed changes of address with the U.S. Postal Service to leave their downtown ZIP codes.
Several big-name employers, from Unitus Community Credit Union to Umpqua Bank, have been among the mass exodus, carried out by owners who have taken issue with the rising crime levels and homelessness – and the city’s failure to address it.
Once hailed as the ‘crown jewel of the West Coast’ for its trendy art and food scenes, The City of Roses has been in peril since 2020, largely due to efforts to defund police and lax bail reform laws that leave little to no deterrent for increasingly brazen criminals.
Local leaders are now sharing their strategies for solving the crime and livability issues, as they threaten to spill over into bordering counties, where the court of public opinion is generally more conservative.
PORTLAND: Business owners are fleeing Portland in droves amid a pronounced rise in crime and homelessness, officials in the Democratic stronghold have revealed. A major issue in Portland is how accessible the drugs are
Several big-name employers, including Umpqua Bank, have closed amid the mass exodus, carried out by owners who have taken issue with the rising crime levels – and the city’s failure to address it
‘Each area has different challenges, but what we’re seeing in the metro area is absolutely rising crime,’ Washington County District Attorney Kevin Barton told Fox News of Portland’s crime wave, which, similar to other Dem-led cities such as San Francisco and Chicago, began during the pandemic.
But while crime in the smaller, more suburban Washington and Clackamas counties has started to level off – due to officials like Barton filing charges and making arrests – crime in Portland has persisted, a crucial difference that Barton says is illustrated by Portland’s still-worsening crime rate.
The city is also in the midst of a homeless crisis that has confounded local officials, with several stores forced to permanently shutter due to break-ins now common due to rampant crime, making the businesses no longer financially viable.
This past December, a Portland retail store for the popular clothing brand Rains was forced to shut after being broken into 15 times over the course of just two months.
To residents wondering why the Rains store is no more, a searing note on the front door reveals all with ‘unrelenting criminal behavior’ and ‘escalating safety issues for our employees’ to blame.
Nike, whose HQ is in nearby Beaverton, also had to close a long-standing community store for weeks because shoplifting was so out of control, and iconic ice cream shop Salt & Straw last week threatened to move its headquarters out of Oregon.
The store’s owner Marcy Landolfo put up a notice on its window explaining her decision to close.
‘Our city is in peril. Small businesses (and large) cannot sustain doing business in our city’s current state. We have no protection, or recourse, against the criminal behavior that goes unpunished.
‘Do not be fooled into thinking that insurance companies cover losses. We have sustained 15 break-ins … we have not received any financial reimbursement since the 3rd,’ Landolfo wrote.
Local leaders are now sharing their strategies for solving the crime and livability issues, as they threaten to spill over into bordering counties, where the court of public opinion is generally more conservative
The city is also in the midst of a homeless crisis that has confounded local officials, with several stores forced to permanently shutter due to break-ins now common due to rampant crime, making the businesses no longer financially viable
When the store was broken into in October, Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler promised the city was going to come up with a plan to help out business owners who had been targeted and needed assistance to repair their shops.
‘Paying for glass that’s great, but that is so surface and does nothing for the root cause of the problem, so it’s never going to change,’ Landolfo said.
Since 2019, shortly before the city elected a progressive, new DA amid calls to defund the police after the death of George Floyd, a net 2,692 businesses in Portland’s bustling Downtown area filed changes of address with the U.S. Postal Service to leave their ZIP codes,
The five ZIP codes encompassing the neighborhood – 97201, 97204, 97205, 97208 and 97209 – are each among the top 10 metro-area ZIP codes with the greatest net loss of businesses between 2019 and October 2022, signifying the city’s struggles.
While the numbers don’t necessarily indicate the movers got up and left the city altogether, they still point to a fundamental issue fueling the mass migration – soft-on-crime guidances implemented by Multnomah County DA Mike Schmidt.
This Portland, Oregon, clothing shop was one of many to permanently shutter in recent months after facing 15 break-ins that left it in financial struggles
‘Small businesses (and large) cannot sustain doing business in our city’s current state. We have no protection, or recourse, against the criminal behavior that goes unpunished. Do not be fooled into thinking that insurance companies cover losses. We have sustained 15 break-ins… we have not received any financial reimbursement since the 3rd,’ the note read
Portland currently has more than 700 homeless encampments across the city within less than 150 square miles
In recent years Portland has also experienced a surging murder rate. Last year 90 homicides were recorded in the city, shattering the previous record of 66
Rising crime and homeless camps that have spread from downtown and into the suburbs are pushing out businesses and residents
While crime persists in his county, rates are tapering off in neighboring Washington and Clackamas counties, officials told Fox this week.
‘The increases that we’re seeing are nothing like the increases that we’re seeing in our neighbors,’ Barton said. ‘Public safety is failing in Multnomah County.’
Crime in Multnomah County, a more populated, progressive region, increased 9 percent last year amid its county seat Portland’s continued crime woes, causing public safety officials in different parts of Washington to decry the city’s sad state.
With a crime rate of 66 per one thousand residents, Portland has one of the highest crime rates in the US, compared to communities of comparative sizes.
One major issue fueling the city’s slow recovery is how accessible drugs are becoming. People can pay as little as $1 for a fentanyl pill, compared to a year ago, where dealers would charge up to $20.
The flood of drugs on the city streets has resulted in a pronounced rise in homelessness and open-air drug use, often carried out at one of the more than 700 tent-laden encampments that have sprouted across the city the past two years – to which despairing police officers last month said they see ‘no end in sight’.
Washington County District Attorney Kevin Barton says that while crime in his neighboring county has started to level off, crime in Portland has persisted, a crucial difference that Barton says can be blamed on a difference in bail reform laws
Last month, police seized rainbow fentanyl from a Portland motel room as part of a major drug trafficking sting. The suspect is believed to be part of a ring responsible for bringing large amounts of the narcotic into the state.
Despite yielding more than two kilograms of rainbow-colored fentanyl packaged and ready to be given to people on the streets, as well as 393 grams of crystal meth and 49 grams of cocaine, the raid is feared to be just the tip of the iceberg, as drug use and theft remains rife, and instances of violence continue to plague citizens.
Many have blamed the city’s sad state on lax bail reform laws implemented by Multnomah County District Attorney Mike Schmidt, which officials in neighboring Clackamas County say have pushed out countless businesses and residents.
Clackamas County commissioner Ben West told Fox this week that Portland ‘is a hollowed out shell of what it used to be.’
‘Businesses are fleeing and people are leaving for greener pastures.’
Like Barton’s Washington County, West’s Clackamas also reported arrest rates more than twice as high as Multnomah County’s, which has been headed by Schmidt since 2020.
Clackamas County ‘does things differently,’ West said, citing how his staff prioritizes police funding and prosecuting suspects.
A man on his knees smokes fentanyl on the street. The city is littered with tents, partially concealing people doing drugs before curling over in a trance-like state
Schmidt, an outspoken progressive and police critic, came into office during the height of the riots in the summer of 2020 and promptly enacted a policy decriminalizing most riot-related offenses.
Schmidt ran as a progressive and won 77 percent of the vote just days before George Floyd’s killing in Minneapolis in May 2020.
Now, nearly three years later, the city where coastal valleys provide the perfect climate for the delicate pinot noir grape and where the liberal lifestyle was sent up in the TV comedy Portlandia has become unrecognizable, overrun by drug addicts and homeless individuals.
Fed up with the city’s failure to failure to dissuade repeat offenders, and 2020 efforts to defund their department, hundreds of police officers have since retired or quit Portland’s embattled force, adding to the disparity between the two counties.
Kristin Olson, a local trial attorney in the city where a majority voted to decriminalize hard drugs in 2020, blamed the city’s woes on Schmidt, who just ten days into his tenure Schmidt announced how his office would decline to prosecute protesters over the majority of misdemeanor charges they were being arrested for – including criminal trespass, disorderly conduct, and interference with a police officer.
PORTLAND: Clutching a pipe to smoke the deadly drug, a man is seen flopped over next to a suitcase and backpack. Cops in Portland have admitted they see ‘no end in sight’ for the crisis
‘What’s happening is with our de-carceration and elimination of bail culture, we’ve got all these people running around,’ Olson told Fox News. ‘And it’s really scary because we also have this anti-police culture.’
Law enforcement, meanwhile is desperately trying to cut off major illicit distributors of the drug trade coming from Mexico, as a swathe of incidents continue to grab headlines.
Just last month, one man, down on his knees, was photographed smoking fentanyl as another held the crushed deadly drug inside a heated tinfoil – before inhaling the vapor through a tube.
Kristin Olson, a local trial attorney in the city where a majority voted to decriminalize hard drugs in 2020, blamed the city’s woes on its DA
Sidewalks in the city are often littered with tents, partially concealing people smoking and injecting drugs, before they curl over in a trance-like state.
Clutching a pipe to smoke the deadly drug, another addict was seen flopped over on himself next to a suitcase and backpack.
Lieutenant Christopher Lindsey of Portland Police, who believes the numbers in his city are only going to climb, said there were 156 overdose deaths in 2022 – compared to 135 in 2021 and 80 in 2020.
He told KATU: ‘It has gotten massively worse. Just as an example, a year ago when I was in the position a fentanyl pill would go anywhere from 10 to 20 dollars a pill. A year later people are paying one to two dollars a pill.
‘I am worried. I am concerned that it could get worse. I’m not saying that it is going to get worse but if you look at the trend it’s been getting worse for a few years now and I don’t see any end in sight.’
Hundreds of tent cities have popped up on the sidewalks in the city, where addicts often sit to take a hit and ‘zombie’ out in full view of families and children passing by
Two people are slumped in the doorway of a building. ‘It has gotten massively worse’, says Lieutenant Christopher Lindsey of Portland Police
PORTLAND: One man in a wheelchair slumps. People can pay as little as $1 for a fentanyl pill, compared to a year ago, where dealers would charge up to $20
Ballot measure 110 was passed in 2020, decriminalizing possession of hard drugs. It is blamed for transforming downtown Portland into an open-air drugs market. Results of the ballot showed the east-west divide, with eastern counties rejecting the measure
A man slumps on the sidewalk in downtown Portland, Oregon
Multnomah County counted 6,633 people as experiencing homelessness on the night of January 26, 2022. Homeless statistics can be hard to verify as individuals will move around each day. Pictured: a homeless person in Portland in October
A line of campers are stationed along a road where homeless people are staying (pictured: Portland homeless camp in October)
Of the 6,633 people counted as homeless, 3,611 were living on the street and in homeless encampments, and an additional 2,222 people were sleeping in the city’s shelters
Portland currently has more than 700 homeless encampments across the city. The rise in homelessness has also led to increase crime in the city
Multnomah County, where Portland is located, counted 6,633 people as experiencing homelessness on the night of January 26, 2022. Homeless statistics can be hard to verify as individuals will move around each day.
Of the 6,633 people counted as homeless, 3,611 were living on the street and in homeless encampments, and an additional 2,222 people were sleeping in the city’s shelters. A further 800 more were in transitional housing.
The rise in homelessness has also led to an increase crime in the city.
It is understood that there were some 93 homicides in Portland in 2022. The city police department’s data is yet to confirm this number however, only releasing statistics up until October of this year identifying 82 murders.
This number would set a new record for murders in 2022, up from the previous year’s record of 88 in 2021. This smashed past the murder rate in 2020, where there were 57 homicides in comparison.
In a recent incident, someone pointed a gun at a Salt & Straw employee’s head, according to civic advocate Thomas Lauderdale who sent an email to two dozen community leaders in Portland City Hall, Multnomah County and Oregon’s congressional delegation.
Other incidents have also happened near the headquarters, including a fire at an RV parked near the business which resulted in power loss.
Some of the most charming, trendy and expensive neighborhoods of the Pacific Northwest city are now overrun with tent cities crowding residential sidewalks and littered with trash
Dilapidated RVs are used by homeless people throughout the city, and are often spotted parked near encampments.
The Democratic city has one of the most deserted downtowns in the United States as soaring crime rates and homelessness are scaring away both locals and tourists.
Portland currently has more than 700 homeless encampments across the city within less than 150 square miles, and the ordeal has also led to skyrocketing crime in the area.
And some of the most charming, trendy and expensive neighborhoods of the Pacific Northwest city are now overrun with tent cities crowding residential sidewalks and littered with trash – and the issue is scaring away both locals and tourists.
Portland City Council rushed to refund the police last November after defunding them by more than $15 million in 2020. Officials voted to add $5.4 million to the force’s budget.
When the police was defunded in 2020, the Portland Police Bureau suffered through a rash of retirements and resignations.
Crime in Multnomah County, a more populated, progressive region, increased 9 percent last year amid its county seat Portland’s continued crime woes, causing public safety officials in different parts of Washington to decry the city’s sad state
Portland’s woke DA: Multnomah County District Attorney Mike Schmidt
Hundreds of police officers have retired or quit Portland’s force over the last two years.
In exit interviews released to local journalists, officers who resigned in Portland often cited Multnomah County District Attorney Mike Schmidt as one of the reasons.
Schmidt, an outspoken progressive and police critic, came into office during the height of the riots in the summer of 2020 and promptly enacted a policy decriminalizing most riot-related offenses.
Schmidt ran as a progressive and won 77 percent of the vote just days before George Floyd’s killing in Minneapolis in May 2020.
Multnomah County District Attorney Mike Schmidt ran as a progressive and won 77 percent of the vote just days before George Floyd’s killing in Minneapolis in May 2020
Just ten days into his tenure Schmidt announced how his office would decline to prosecute protesters over the majority of misdemeanor charges they were being arrested for, including criminal trespass, disorderly conduct, and interference with a police officer.
At the time, the pandemic coupled with a spike in violent crime had already bogged down court proceedings, and most of those arrested at protests would have to wait months for their hearings – so it was simply easier not to prosecute in the first place.
Instead, Schmidt’s office was to focus on more serious protest-related crimes, including property damage, theft, and the use or threat of force.
Schmidt explained his policy as a desire to ‘focus on the cases that are actually going to have a positive impact on public safety.’
But with the pandemic in the rear view mirror, little appears to have changed.
His successful 2020 campaign was supported by Real Justice, a political action committee co-founded by radical anti-police activist Shaun King.
Over 90 percent of those arrested at the riots in 2020 in Portland for crimes ranging from arson to assault had their cases effectively dropped.
Although the police budget was cut in 2021, it was restored for 2022, but by then the damage had been done with efforts seemingly too little, too late.
In 2021, Portland surpassed its all-time record for murders at 90 homicides with things looking equally as bad for 2022 with 66 murders as of September 15.
For a city of 650,000 residents, Portland had more homicides in 2021 than larger cities on the west coast like San Diego, San Francisco and Seattle.
Compounding the problem is that the number of sworn officers in the Portland Police Bureau is at its lowest since the 1980s despite the city experiencing surging population growth for the last 30 years.
Currently, there are around 800 sworn officers in the city – about 230 down from full staffing.
A lack of policing coupled with leniency when it comes to prosecutions is making Portland attractive for all the wrong reasons.
Multnomah County District Attorney Mike Schmidt (here with wife Clare and their son) in photos from his Facebook page
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