Portland Is a Bit of a Disaster (But Not for the Reasons You Think)

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I visited the Rose City to see what's changed in the last couple years. The pandemic has been tough on downtown, but maybe not as tough as the local politics? Portland's central city, the Southwest Broadway controversy, and more!
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Previous CityNerd Videos Referenced:
- The Top Bike Bridges: • Bikes and Micromobilit...
Also, Alan Fisher's "Grid Cities Are Fine": • Grid Cities are Fine, ...
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Support BikePortland here: bikeportland.org/supporthttps...
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Resources:
- www.portland.gov/bps/planning...
- www.portland.gov/transportati...
- www.gobybikepdx.com/
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[@CityNerd]

Don't forget -- if you found my sales pitch incredibly convincing (and who wouldn't), make sure you use my link to get additional months (and help the channel!) 🌏 Get Exclusive NordVPN deal here ➼ nordvpn.com/CityNerd It’s risk-free with Nord’s 30-day money-back guarantee! ✌

[@tieran9491]

nooooooooooooooo, another victim falls to the nordVPN sponsorship (but hey, money is money)

[@BrysonConroy]

You should do a video on the major cities in florida, since they are all very similar, and tragic.

[@caseysmith544]

Cover how Madsion Wisconsin is expanding, mainly taking over Middleton the bike paths that were made in 1990 with one of the biggest sets of bike paths at 26--30 miles of it and the whole structure of the city parts of can't be helped due to the two lakes. However, biggest flaw is houses are impossible to buy unless you are a Millionaire right now as they are 1/2 million right now. Madison Wisconsin is one of the fastest growing cities in the USA right now.

[@misterpoopy1950]

no

[@Mark_LaCroix]

Real talk: NordVPN is not a good company to be in league with. VPN's themselves are not bad, but NordVPN's exploitation of influencer marketing in order to scale their shady high-margin business away from the watchful eye of regulatory regimes (and public scrutiny) is, bluntly, dangerous, and you of all people should know better. Of course, it will take more than this to send me running from this channel, but this actually does lower your credibility in my eyes. I hope you'll do some research (not that it's easy, since the internet is flooded with fake VPN review sites and little way to evaluate the quality of a company vs their product) and reconsider taking their money. (EDIT: Now that I've heard the marketing copy they had you read, you should also know that much of it isn't just exaggerated or misleading, but patently false.)

[@ethanfrederick6588]

I live in downtown and take the MAX and bike to work. It is rough, consistently late (or trains don't come), 15 minutes is "frequent" service and there are people screaming and smoking fent on the MAX probably 3 days a week and rent keeps going up :(. Portland is beautiful and the public transportation is SO close to being awesome but it feels like public transportation has been given the backseat in the last decade. I can't believe you helped with the FX line!! That line is a lifesaver when the green line train doesn't show up in the morning. I'm a civil engineering major and want to work on projects that improve urban life, thanks for this channel!

[@joshogden3105]

I’m a student in civil too, I was just there for the ITE conference, wonder if we crossed paths :) I loved a lot of things about Portland, the bones and emphasis on biking are great and transit has great coverage, but yeah I saw a lot of those problems you talked about and wish Portland could figure out the housing thing. Really a great place.

[@Farbulus]

It's always a trip yelling at the people trying to smoke tinfoil next to you to stop and they respond 'fuck you' and then move to another part of the train.

[@menzlo]

I take the yellow and orange every day. Are there people doing drugs? Yes. Do they virtually always keep to themselves? Also yes. And while occasionally a train is late, it's definitely not the norm.

[@clayton97330]

@@joshogden3105 Portland has free housing options, but they come with don't do fent rules, so they sit underused.

[@emma70707]

​@@clayton97330, so a couple of things: most homeless people don't have addictions so not being able to smoke isn't a primary reason. Many do, but they're the minority. A lot are just poor because they encountered bad luck in life and maybe had some executive functioning deficit that made it harder to recover when super stressed (see: poor). ALSO, free housing (shelters) comes with pretty miserable conditions. You're forced out the door early in the morning and can't return until the evening (supposed to be an incentive to get a job I guess?), there's very little security so your stuff gets stolen (sometimes by staff) or privacy (often just rows and rows of bunks), the sleeping conditions are often not great (noise from others, lights left on, bed bug infestations, etc.). You also are usually separated from any pets you had adopted on the streets or had previously and any relationships you had, which is another deal breaker for folks. I used to work with the population trying to get out of shelters into somewhere more permanent. Honestly, I don't blame folks at all for choosing a tent in cities like Portland/Seattle where you're unlikely to die of exposure for opting to camp over taking a shelter bed. Acceptance is much higher if you offer them a spot in a tiny home community where they can feel more human and less like they're being warehoused.

[@greatergreaterportland]

My name is Xavier, I’m a student of planning at PSU and a huge fan of yours. I was the one who advocated that the Oak Street slip lane across from Powell’s be closed and turned into Pod Plaza. One of the best feelings I’ve ever felt is seeing those benches in Pod Plaza in one of your videos. I cannot understate how accomplished I feel in this moment. Thank you, CityNerd. It’s been a tough week with the Broadway Scandal, but this has made me feel so much better. Keep up the good work!!

[@Newspeak.]

I haven't been down there yet since that happened but thanks for pushing for that. As the current Broadway bike lane scandal shows, even if the council is currently captured by business interests and the police we can still see positive change as long as we remain vigilant and advocate strongly for it. We need more folks paying attention and working to make things better.

[@CityNerd]

Haha, for real? That slip lane was always so dumb -- there are all kinds of interesting spots in PDX that can be converted to little plazas.

[@emmawatchesstuff]

I saw and loved that last time I hit up Powell's! Much better use of space-glad to see spaces, even small, where advocacy works. Great job!

[@vladtheimpalerofd1rtypajee316]

​@@CityNerdChill guys. At least North American city planning is better than Indian city planning. If you North Americans visit India, your cities will seem like paradise and you will be thankful for it.

[@rsethc]

Props for pushing against slip lanes. As someone who drives a lot (and I do genuinely like driving from a dynamics standpoint in the middle of where, definitely not in traffic though), I even have started to dislike slip lanes from the driver perspective. Fully acknowledging the biggest reason to get rid of them is pedestrian safety, but even without anyone almost ever on the sidewalks (which is the norm in Metro Atlanta) they just really mess with driver psychology such that it's somewhere you can easily have another driver run into you just because you slowed down in order to check for the traffic you're about to rapidly merge into, let alone fully stop because someone is using the crosswalk. Since stopping is not normal and crosswalk use is not normal it makes the stops that do happen both more sudden and less anticipated.

[@hobog]

Portland's downtown is like if Vancouver's west end and Seattle's Pioneer Square districts combined: good pedestrian access, and *trees actually shading the streets for the whole downtown*

[@hobog]

And its bike lanes and food trucks are better, on top of this

[@yobb1n544]

And at least from what I can tell from the video, a bit dead like Vancouver's west end too. Never been to Portland but it looks like it might take a while for a lot of the foot traffic and businesses to come back after covid like it has in some parts of Vancouver.

[@The4905]

Portland’s only problem are the junkies. Too many and out of control, they need help.

[@nicktankard1244]

@@The4905 Vancouver is getting there as well.

[@sm3675]

​@@nicktankard1244Vancouver has a long way to go then. lmao

[@13ccasto]

I'm a fan of one-way streets. Much easier to cross by foot or bike and can allow you to get rid of a car lane for sidewalks, cycle lanes, or transit

[@SilhouetteLifter]

Yes I feel sooo much safer cycling downtown simply due to the one-way streets. If someone is going to run a red light, there is only 1 direction they could come from

[@eugenetswong]

I'd be a fan, if there were only 1 lane for car travel, but even then, I have seen a lane shared by both directions. A car would need to pull out of traffic to let the other pass. It teaches drivers to be respectful, and slows cars down.

[@waffluru]

I'm a fan of one-way streets only if they're fairly narrow. These look great but where I live 4 lane one-ways are a norm 😅

[@13ccasto]

Oh that's terrible!@@waffluru

[@PanicBowll]

One ways are pretty great if your city does something with them like traffic calming, bike lanes, bus lanes, parking and doesn't have a one way grid from a time long ago when they believed they really needed a grid of 3-4 lane one way urban highways that are now empty and encourage people to do 40 through the densest part of the city.

[@MrFluteboy1980]

The biggest issue with that right turn situation is that unless you put physical barriers up, people will do exactly what you saw. Worse yet, a lot of people driving just "follow the leader", so will just follow the car in front without really thinking critically about what is going on or what the road is telling them to do. Perhaps the answer is actually physical barriers between the right turn lane and the bus lane.

[@eCitaroFan]

could do a Dutch style bicycle junction too

[@Stratelier]

Watching people misuse the dedicated bike lane as a quick right-turn lane is like watching that Tom Scott video where he discussed a rural UK intersection infamous for cyclist deaths, and seeing a dozen cars drive through its clearly marked STOP sign during the video itself. ...Keeping in mind, the lesser branch of an intersection in Europe defaults to Yield, not Stop (as it is in the US).

[@somethingdiscreet]

I take that right turn frequently so I'm used to it by now, but I think a good number of drivers who go into the bike lane are simply doing so because they don't realize it's changed. It was a visually confusing setup before and is now even more visually confusing/counterintuitive to turn right from a spot that is two lanes to the left. That said, the new system is a lot better and I like that I don't have to worry about wiping out bikes as I cross into the turn lane. I just think (and hope) most people are doing it wrong out of confusion rather than selfishness, as the change is still quite new.

[@diderooy]

I think the issue is it used to be a turn lane and people don't want to drive around the block just to turn right.

[@somethingdiscreet]

@@diderooy You can still turn right there. There's a turn lane with a dedicated signal

[@midgeratchet]

i live in portland and used to be a strictly public transit commuter. even before the pandemic, when the homeless population went from “kinda bad” to “apocalyptic”, public transit here was a gamble. buses and max trains pretty regularly just never came, with no explanation, and there was always at least one person experiencing drug-induced psychosis on any given max train (that did bother to show up). but i felt like it was manageable and the convenience outweighed the danger. now it’s just a freaking nightmare, there’s always someone screaming, and someone tranqed out, and someone who looks like he’s seconds from attacking everyone near him. i don’t know what anybody can do about this, but whatever it is, it’s not being done.

[@saintsalieri]

I do find it frustrating when people pretend the homelessness/fully legalized and omnipresent public drug use is a right wing talking point. it is not and it fully ruins the experience of living in Portland. In Southeast Portland I have to cross the street or step into traffic to avoid tent encampments, take special care at all times to make sure my dog doesn't step onto used fentanyl aluminum foil, and so on. I used to walk home through Laurelhurst Park at night but it no longer feels safe to do so, with screaming drug addled people roaming through it. Then when I go into work downtown, I deal with the awful commute and uncertainty of whether I'll be screamed at or attacked (only been attacked a few times, but felt like I was about to be many times) while walking to my office. Portland is dead because it always had kind of a low level of cultural opportunities given its size to begin with, and since the pandemic there isn't really anything to do at all and going anywhere is just frustrating or scary.

[@tony_5156]

@@resaunders26incompetent soft politicians voted in by soft headed people

[@SwiftySanders]

Ray the problem is that there are not enough people LIVING in the downtown area. You can’t rely on people just coming downtown to work for the lifeblood of city and patronizing the businesses.

[@rybone6]

Portland saw a boom to the north (Pearl District) and to the south (South Waterfront) over the last 20, 30 years. DT itself didn't catch a whole lot of the residential development. So hopefully we can get the ball rolling on that now.

[@janthran]

they're living there, just mostly out of tents

[@PNWJEEPER01]

It's always been prohibitively expensive for most Portlanders to live downtown. I grew up in a SE Portland suburb and always wanted to live downtown when I was younger. However, I ended buying a house in Vancouver. Pretty much the only time I go to downtown Portland now is just to drive through out of morbid curiosity on my way to somewhere else.

[@rybone6]

@@PNWJEEPER01 Just saw a movie at living room theaters, went to sushi at an awesome place nearby. Plenty to do downtown still! Just a lil quieter than normal. But yeah we need residential growth to really create a healthy neighborhood. Then services will follow. Then more people will work downtown, and a positive cycle hopefully starts again.

[@3clubforever]

Especially if you make it unfriendly to people who had to use cars to get there

[@PareliusC]

Its so weird seeing Portland Oregon less vibrant than downtown Portland Maine. Our city is way smaller but its always got lots of people walking around

[@graytabbycat]

I had the pleasure of finally visiting Portland Maine after living in Oregon for many years and was charmed by the walkability. Lovely place to visit. Think older east coast cities built up before cars have that advantage

[@3clubforever]

He specifically didn’t film sidewalks with tents. Walking around isn’t nice like it used to be. They only clean up main areas.

[@mrp4242]

@@3clubforever, you’d have to visit “right wing media” outlets to see those things; glossed over here. Frequent the small business owners in the downtown area? Ok, many are fleeing, and there’s only so much marijuana I can afford.

[@codythompson9552]

@@mrp4242 I think business owners in downtown PDX would still be in a lot of trouble EVEN IF you made it virtually impossible to camp or use drugs there. High density areas require a lot of people and/or commuters to support retail business. It seems to me that not enough people live downtown to support the retail biz there alone, and covid WFH has eliminated a large percentage of downtown commuters. As other people have pointed out, a lot of the medium density neighborhoods in Portland are doing pretty well. Sure, the targets and walmarts are closing up shop, allegedly due to shoplifting, but the small business turnover in the neighborhoods seems to be, anecdotally, at a pretty good rate. I lived in Seattle as it went from not-affordable to only-rich-people-live-here (2014-2021) and I saw a lot of businesses closing up BEFORE the encampments crept out of the shadows. As far as I could tell, they were closing up because they couldn't afford the rent. Anywho - I don't think just letting people live wherever they want (i.e. sidewalks/parks) is doing us any favors, but I think the camps downtown are a symptom, not the disease. I have decided your comment was the one I post something like this to this month. Congrats.

[@plateoshrimp9685]

The issue with Portland public transportation is that whether it’s functional for you is highly dependent on where you live, and if you live somewhere affordable public transit probably doesn’t serve you. I have never lived anywhere in this city where driving to work isn’t literally 3 times faster. Right now google maps says this: driving is 21 minutes, bike is 57 minutes, public transit is 58 minutes.

[@haphazard1342]

I have a nearly perfect public transit commute: I live less than a block from MAX and work downtown less than a block from MAX - direct on the same line. It's still twice as long to go by train, but it's a much nicer and cheaper journey. Even with the reeking transients lugging trash bags leaking mystery liquid, I still prefer to ride MAX.

[@catsrmylyf]

So true. Back when I lived in an apartment building in Goose Hollow & worked in Central Eastside, I took public transit everywhere I went and never really struggled with it. But now I live in a SE neighborhood and I don't think I've ever had a good use case for public transit. (Luckily, I usually at least walk or bike instead, though... but that's not the case in all neighborhoods.)

[@OgdenM]

Yeap. I've lived here for 20%+ years and fully agree. This is really easy to solve though, the city needs express buses. I've gone to a few larger cities and they ALL have express buses that run along the same routes as the locals... just less often and less stops. (Sometimes they will say, only do drop offs for the first half of the route or not even stop at all for the first 1/2. Or they will only service 1/2 of the stops on the route etc etc etc.) I've NEVER understood why Portland doesn't have more express buses. There is or used to be the one on Hawthorne that didn't stop until 39thI think. But that by and large is it.. and it's stupid. Then we got the FX bus on Division which is great but they cut out 1/2 the stops. And they are talking about doing the same on 82nd with the #72 and it's such a horrible idea. They just need to start an express bus serving 1/2 the stops going every 30 mins or so and leave the #72 as a local. I'm lucky that I'm a 12 min walk to the max and from there it's super easy to transfer to whatever. But yah, it can take 50 mins to say get from Gateway to SE Hawthone and 39th. It would make so much more sense to have an express bus on say, Ceasar Chaves that only stops a the major cross streets: Hollywood, Burnside, Gilsen, Stark, Belmont, Hawthorne, Division, Powell etc and just doesn't stop anywhere else. It could shave off 10 mins easy in that short distance. Then say if you're riding the #75 from Swan Island to Milwakie it could shave off probably 30 mins over the whole trip

[@catsrmylyf]

@@OgdenM I've wondered about this too, especially for routes that go further out. The express bus lines are one thing I miss about my brief time in the Seattle area! A 20 mile commute that took ~30 minutes by car & only 5-10 min longer by bus. (The red & blue max lines can probably achieve that, so we get credit there! but not any bus routes I know of.)

[@Firefenex1996]

Im in Sw portland at the border with beaverton and the 54 right outside my apartment. It's 20-30 minutes to pioneer square for me. And 5 bucks a day vastly outweighs gas abd parking in the down town area. So it works for some.

[@KoroWerks]

If you look at "Miles of bike infrastructure created or improved" with miles of "car infrastructure" (as a ratio) the greater portland area with, for example, the greater seattle area, portland has been resting on its laurels as a "good bike city" for at least 10 years. There are other metrics to use of course, but its illuminating to look at. Edit: THANK YOU FOR COVERING THE BROADWAY SCANDAL

[@doolittle983]

And Portland inflates its numbers by counting neighborhood greenways as bike infra. They are just residential streets with wayfinding signs. They don't count! If you subtract the greenways, Portland has a shamefully small amount of bike infrastructure. It's absolute insanity that city council wants to take away one of the only really top quality bike lanes in the city!

[@KoroWerks]

@@doolittle983 yep, like how Cycle Oregon put signs up that say "scenic bikeway" on country roads with no changes to the roads, that doesn't make them a safe bikeway.

[@katiem.3109]

@@doolittle983 It's so frustrating when cities do this--labeling unsafe roads as 'bike friendly' and then patting themselves on the back. In Honolulu, where I currently live, most of the 'bike friendly' streets are less safe than streets with no infrastructure at all, because nearly all of them are either sharrows or, worse, extremely narrow (

[@harri_ison]

love the video! (long time Portland resident, for 17.5yrs, around nw/sw) and it's insane how much more car dependent it has become. It doesn't make any sense to me because of how much of Portland isn't designed for the amount of cars going around now. Plus the recent push back against any improvements in transit and bike lanes is just confusing to me.

[@CityNerd]

I had a lot of shots showing just how busy the freeways are and wasn't sure what to do with them. There aren't THAT many people downtown, but there sure are a lot of people driving their cars through to who knows where

[@thedman05]

@@Luke5100it’s bc of the homelessness dude. If you’re biking or in a train you have to deal with the homelessness more. Cars provide an artificial barrier. The issue has festered to the point that people just don’t feel comfortable being openly exposed to it all the damn time

[@lovableasshole]

​@@CityNerdit's people taking the highways THROUGH Portland to the burbs. Live in Gresham? Gotta drive to Beaverton to get to a lifestyle center with a Gap! It's so silly.

[@thomasmcroy1756]

Portland is still car dependent. By the time the UGB was enacted the metro was already 40 miles wide. I think what still sets us apart thankfully are inner city neighborhoods that stayed in tact and a pretty urbanist mindset since the late 80s.

[@thomasmcroy1756]

@@CityNerd wfh has definitely given people more freedom in their day to day schedule. Portland traffic is arguably 100 percent the same as it was 4 years ago but all those people driving around are probably running errands too.

[@theshannonlimit1114]

I live in SE Portland, and the problem with drivers ignoring bike signals to turn right is even worse there. Sometimes there is a car in the bike lane illegally turning on EVERY cycle.

[@Northwest360]

I’m in SE as well, and there are so many areas I wish had protected lanes, but don’t. Like Powell, Chavez, Division, Hawthorne, Belmont, Foster

[@davidgjam7600]

Monkey see, monkey do

[@bigscrum]

So true, Add Stark to that list as well! I love living in SE but I feel like having to reroute my commute to only go through side streets always adds so much time

[@doolittle983]

@@Northwest360 And Sandy, too. How can there not be a bike lane on Sandy? It's crazy!

[@cristinahutchins1902]

As I watched that part, I was thinking about California drivers. So many Californians have moved here, that whenever, as a pedestrian, I encounter a driver who does not yield to my right of way, or when driving, I observe California moves, like intentionally blocking another vehicle trying to merge on the freeway, I assume the driver must be from California. Native Portlanders are known for being very polite. I moved to Portland from California 14 years ago and noticed the politeness of Portland drivers. However, as the influx of techies from California continued to increase, I noticed more and more impolite drivers. No statistical proof of a correlation, but I did see more and more typical California driver moves happening as the years went by and increasingly encountered too many brushes with rude drivers.

[@mattslaboratory5996]

Jonathan Maus' reporting seems to have led to some backtracking on the plan to tear up the Bdwy lanes. They're talking more about studying the issue. The hotel owners contribute to campaigns so their complaints are going to be heard. Commissioner Mapps is running for mayor, incidentally.

[@vincentcolavin]

Luckily, the mayorship will be a much less powerful position by then, if he does win. Still, I'm perennially dismayed by city council's rightward lurch since 2020 or so. Reactionary forces like the PBA and PPB have been sadly effective at stirring up fear and contempt, and moderates have gobbled it up.

[@florencejessup2432]

@@vincentcolavin The structure of Portland City government does not serve residents well. It's the type of structure used for small cities, like under 50,000 people. My understanding is that historically, the city was controlled by the industrialists along the Willamette and the Editor in Chief of the newspaper. They decided who would run for office, then told the mayor which departments to appoint them to, resulting in their hand picked selections running the departments. Most of those industrialists families are gone and the newspaper was sold so others have moved in to fill the void, particularly the PPB and PBA as you mentioned.

[@theultimatereductionist7592]

Then climate activists can stir up fear and contempt, too. So can cyclists.@@vincentcolavin

[@CityNerd]

Yeah I'm aware. Didn't want to get that deep into it in the video, but people should follow BikePortland if they want to track all of this nonsense

[@daveclark8788]

Yup, looks like it will remain!

[@davidrice6724]

Poor Portland....I visited last year for the first time and I saw a city with so much potential. Downtown restaurants closed by 3:00 pm😮 and there was a complete lack of vibrancy.... I'd love to see a recovering city on my next visit. In particular, I loved how the rail system just casually ran through neighborhoods with so much casual access.

[@foggycraw6758]

I agree. Business is closing early does not help their case. This place feels like a ghost town. At least the transit is decent

[@3clubforever]

It’s the next Detroit, only down hill from here

[@josephchandler8418]

Great video Ray! I used the SW broadway bike lane everyday to get to work and the new protected bike lane was super nice. The decision to remove the SW broadway bike lane is a testament to Portlands stagnation and poor leadership. Portland also now charges businesses for taking up street parking for outdoor dining. While it gets a terrible rep, I think Portland has a lot of potential and it’s absolutely beautiful. There is a great community of biking advocates and it’s pretty easy to get around without a car for a city of its size.

[@jamalgibson8139]

I'm curious, do they charge the businesses the same rate that cars get, or do they pay more? If I were to guess, they'd pay more, but sometimes a city will surprise me.

[@mattj2619]

Drivers are typically charged $2.20 per hour to park downtown between 8am-7pm. So that means a space can generate $8,833 a year if it's always occupied. The permits for restaurants range from $360-$2,000 a year depending on what they do with the space.

[@adamv6917]

Honestly that rate doesn’t seem all that unreasonable

[@Mitchell-me7bp]

I'm trying to think about why the concept of charging businesses for use of outdoor dining in would-be parking spaces makes me uncomfortable. I guess it makes sense insofar as those businesses definitely have additional revenue potential from it and the city is losing the meter money. But isn't the ultimate goal for people not to use cars for trips around town? If anything I would think the city should incentivize it. Plus, it isn't at all reasonable to anticipate the full $8k of revenue from a spot: people don't pay (and enforcement misses it), there are holidays (10 where the meters are off), spots go unused for stretches on bad weather days or in emptier areas, etc. I get that Portland may be looking for every bit of cash they can get with a downtown business crater, but it seems like encouraging businesses to claim parking spots is the move, not to tax it. Clearly my mind isn't made up here, I'm just turning it over "out loud." I also have only visited Portland once and it was quite a long time ago, so I'm missing local context.

[@adamv6917]

@@Mitchell-me7bp for me, it is as simple as the street is a public good, and to use it for your own private purposes, you should pay.

[@kriserts]

Grew up in Oregon and lived in Portland for awhile, been in NYC for 30 years. I visited Oregon friends this summer, after a long hiatus, and headed downtown to see the hellhole I'd been promised it is now, by both friends and local news. Yes, I can see there's problems, but net/net, I was blown away by how absolutely beautiful Portland has become. Truly gorgeous. If I were looking to move again, I'd seriously consider it.

[@rybone6]

This has been arguably the most difficult 3 years in the city's history. It'll only get better from here on out!

[@erikwick]

I left PDX in 2020 (wanted to buy a house, impossible in PDX now) and all I've heard since I left is that PDX is a burnt down hellhole full of drugged out homeless zombies and all "normal" people have abandoned it to smoldering ruins. Lol. So I'm pleased to hear a better assessment

[@thedog5k]

Portland... beautiful? Now? What?

[@CRneu]

@@erikwick the media portrayal of portland is ridiculously disconnected from reality. It isn't perfect but it isn't nearly as bad as a lot of people think it is.

[@erikwick]

@bdog5k have you ever stepped foot in Portland?

[@jandlovec1181]

I think the major reason bike commuting and transit use is down in Portland is that we have historically had a multi-modal transportation culture here that the influx of transplants don't adopt when moving to town, opting instead to behave like they have wherever they came from (which typically means driving). I live in the Hollywood neighborhood, which is probably the best spot on the East Side for walkability, and is somewhere you should definitely visit/focus on in your East Side video. Southeast (Division/Hawthorne/etc...) gets all the attention, but there's a lot of interesting stuff happening in NE too!

[@doolittle983]

I think you're probably correct about the transplants supplanting the home grown transit/multimodal culture with their car centric lifestyles. I'm a transplant to Portland, but I came with the opposite perspective. I came here close to a decade ago specifically because I was looking for a place that was transit and active transportation focused. I've been dismayed to watch the number of people traveling in cars go up and the number of people getting around by other modes decline rapidly during my time living here.

[@jandlovec1181]

@@doolittle983 Same here, glad to know others feel the same way.

[@haphazard1342]

I really think this is a COVID and homelessness thing. Fewer downtown daily commuters thanks to WFH and when folks do come in to the office they don't want to sit next to someone who hasn't bathed recently and is lugging a leaking trash bag full of cans. I commute by MAX daily and see this very occurrence on more than half of my trips.

[@jandlovec1181]

@@haphazard1342 Yeah, COVID did really upend this, but I saw traffic get worse for seven years before the pandemic started.

[@doolittle983]

@@Ethanthevegan I'm sure there are a handful of homeless people that were pushed over the edge by rising housing prices. But blaming Portland's homeless situation entirely on people moving to the city is a bit ridiculous. Portland had a sizable homeless population long before 2008, and it's been growing steadily since. A significant portion, if not the majority of the homeless, came from out of state.

[@ivanehreshi9568]

I visited Portland last year. Coming from Europe and hearing the news, I went in with very low expectations. I only went there because it was relatively close by and I wanted to experience America's infamous train system. I was really surprised by how nice the city was. I didn't feel unsafe at all either. Unfortunately, there weren't many people walking or biking around, so it felt empty at times

[@davidgjam7600]

That's kinda what I thought about Helsinki. Not the bad reputation, but just going there and seeing a really nice tram system, but hardly anyone on the roads

[@brandongoff9146]

I live in Portland, and the stories of it's demise are highly exaggerated. As this video points out, the central downtown is mostly office buildings, which are at record low occupancies, leaving the center of town pretty dead. However, if you head in almost any direction from there you will find vibrant neighborhoods with jam packed bars and restaurants, and there is transit available to get you there. Not unlike every city in America right now, there is a housing, mental health, and drug crisis, and Portland does not seem able to address them with the speed that many would like, so it gets a bad wrap for that, especially in right wing circles.

[@shawn6669]

That myth was propagated by rightwing media outlets in the wake of the protests a few years ago. I used to often get into arguments with idiots from Florida or Tennessee or Texas who would be like "Everyone where you are wants to move to red states because Portland is smoking crater of a hellscape, where 'Antifa' Junkies wander about slitting the throats of Christians and burning down the few buildings that are left". Just ridiculous, and they wouldn't even do the 10 seconds of searching to find out the truth of it. They just assume what they've been told that the whole place is like a worse Detroit. The only difference between Downtown now and Downtown 7 years ago is that there are fewer businesses and fewer people, but it's still a vibrant functional city. People are stupid. FWIW.

[@lovableasshole]

On your next visit I highly recommend spending most of your time in East Portland (on the other side of the Willamette from downtown). It's like a bunch of vibrant small towns shoved up next to each other. Hawthorne district, Hollywood, 28th and Burnside, so many fun areas with world class food, amazing bars, theaters. Still very walkable and buzzing with locals and tourists alike.

[@user-tv6sw3vt9q]

This is probably for the best that the center is empty. After all, it's usually a nexus of traffic and the host of problems it brings. @@brandongoff9146

[@AaronSmith-sx4ez]

Looking forward to your one-way streets video. Stoplights designed for two-way streets are incredibly inefficient because they not only have to alternate traffic directions, but alternate for left-turning traffic. Even if no stop-lights, left turns/cross traffic turns are slow/dangerous/stressful (for cars, bikers and pedestrians). One way streets solve many problem...and allow light syncing which is really slick when it properly calibrated.

[@jamalgibson8139]

I really appreciate you making these deep dive videos! My number one comment/suggestion would be if you could talk a bit about revitalizing these downtown areas now that WFH is semi-permanent. Portland doesn't seem like it will have the same issues as many other cities with converting massive office towers, so I'm curious what their approach will be. Also, I read somewhere that while downtown is struggling, the outer neighborhoods are actually booming. I'm curious if you observed that at all. Thanks for your continued "journalism!"

[@CityNerd]

Yeah, I mentioned in passing that next time I come to town I'll cover neighborhoods, because even though I like the design aspect of downtown, it's always been the neighborhoods that have made Portland a great place to live. And I lived in A LOT of Portland neighborhoods!

[@lovableasshole]

I live in Hollywood and work in a neighborhood brewery/bar in Tabor and we're getting busier and busier. The only time it's a ghost town is when there is a festival at the waterfront (and even then plenty of people choose to avoid those and stay on the east side) or it's a holiday weekend and everyone's out of town. Even the hidden neighborhood dives I like to hang out in are pretty busy on a Sunday/Monday.

[@BringingMagicToLife]

@@CityNerd Cover Slabtown / Nob Hill if you are coming back to PDX Neighborhoods. PBOT did quite a bit of investing in the area for bike access and changing how streets are used / diverted to calm traffic. Not the most affordable, but very livable. Plus there are the promises of a streetcar expansion!

[@d.e.7467]

@@CityNerd I just found this channel a while ago and after watching this video, my recurring question was if you have seen the KZbin channel "Not Just Bikes"? From this video, I would gather that you haven't. He converted me from a cycling rules proponent to a balanced approach.

[@JaySmith-pv2mw]

While Powell's is completely awesome for sure, I will have to nominate another bookstore as the best in the country even though nobody has heard of it outside of my hometown of Jacksonville, FL. It's Chamblin Book Mine which has over 2,000,000 used books in an old warehouse. You can spend all day there. But there's no coffee shop.

[@williamklaess9319]

"Extremely unserious behavior" is the most polite yet scathing CityNerd putdown I could imagine.

[@norlockv]

Could you make a video on the needs and trade offs of converting downtown office space into housing? How are city planners involved in this process?

[@ckimberly35]

I would also be interested in a video on this topic!

[@julietardos5044]

Good idea. I've heard that San Francisco is not only looking at that, but looking at turning a building into a contained university (UC or CSU?), including dorms and rec space. I wonder about requiring these building conversions turn their roof tops into shared park-like rec space.

[@Ge0rge249]

99% invisible recently did an episode on this that was really well done

[@doolittle983]

It's extremely expensive and difficult to do. There are only a handful of small buildings in Portland that would lend themselves to these types of conversions. Most of the larger office buildings built since the 1960s would require a level of renovation and redesign that would be only slightly less expensive than complete teardown and rebuilds.

[@Grak70]

You might as well demolish and rebuild. Most office buildings, especially older ones, would be residential non-compliant even if they could be converted. Load bearing walls would need to be removed and compensated for; sewer, fire suppression, and water run to every unit…it’s a mess.

[@downhillupside]

We visit portland every year from Vancouver bc, and we always have a good time. It's definitely more quiet now than before the pandemic, though. I also found it funny that our relatives from red US states were asking if Portland was a warzone, and to be careful when we visited. The level of extreme disinformation is comical.

[@Earth1218]

Funny. It’s almost like they probably get all of their information from the same source. 🤔

[@Zalis116]

If Portland _is_ a warzone, it's mainly because of right-wing groups like the Proud Boys rolling in to start fights with liberal residents. And if you're familiar with US politics, you know which side of those fights the police actively or passively assisted.

[@darbyheavey406]

It’s probably the burned Federal Court House that does it.

[@fifteen_march]

I live here and there is literally no reason for tourists to visit Portland. I wouldn’t call it a war zone like Baltimore or Chicago, but the homeless filth, theft, and public drug use is getting worse, not better. And Portland leftists convince themselves that everything is alright.

[@kenbrown2808]

the really sad thing is it is outside agitators from right wing groups who are causing much of the violence.

[@menzlo]

As a resident of portland who commutes via max or bike, i really appreciate the nuance you bring discussing Portland's strengths and weakness. And Jonathan's shoutout was also well deserved!

[@adamkeifenheim1727]

"Maybe the dumbest, most least attentive driver should not have a license to operate a 5,000 lb. vehicle in the first place." Thank you.

[@nunyabidness3075]

I’m all for better driver training, law enforcement, and license revocations, but isn’t that a really bad mindset? Hasn’t merging into bike lanes been proven to reduce injuries and fatalities from right hook accidents? Most people don’t seem aware that different jurisdictions have varying engineering and laws around bike lanes and tight turns.

[@pcongre]

this! i'm surprised more people aren't lobbying for driver licenses that are not "for life", in practice...

[@mattropolis99]

You're required to pass a written and practical drivers test to get a driver's license. You don't need anything to ride a bike on the streets like an idiot. Just watch any intersection in Portland for 5 minutes and count the number of bikes that break traffic laws running through lights, stop signs, in and out of traffic and on/off sidewalks, not giving pedestrians right of way. I guarantee it's more than the number of auto infractions on that same intersection.

[@pcongre]

@@mattropolis99 1. all studies thus far seem to contradict your impression 2. also, most people on a bike do have a driver's license 3. ...also also, even if your impressions were eventually proven to (locally?) be accurate... of course we should be holding someone essentially driving half a ton of metal or more around a couple of mostly empty sofas to a higher standard than someone who is unlikely to damage anyone else but themselves

[@janekschleicher9661]

Beside that, the best way is what is done in Netherlands or Sweden. Just built the infrastructure in a way, that even distracted or otherwise unattentive drivers will proabably do the right thing: - if they are supposed to drive slow, don't build a road like a high way, but make it narrow, add speed bumps, add little curves, or even use copper to indicate that it is a slow street - decide which purpose a specific street has and built it for this purpose (so if it is connecting, make driving without disturbance possible, e.g. no parking, not many crossings; if it is a street for habitants, make it inattractive or impossible for drive-through traffic and ensure low speed) - if cars are not supposed to drive on bike (or bus lanes), make physical separation - if cars are supposed to share the lane with bikes or pedestrians, make it different from a usual road (for example increase altitude on pedestrian levels), and not only paint it - and of course, if there is contact with a lower weighing traffic participants, by default, the driver of the more dangerous vehicle is fully responsible and guilty (and make fines significant high) - and at best: make intelligent traffic lights - they should be aware of how many cars or bikes are coming and switch accordingly, priorize less dangerous and more effective traffic (public transport, bikes, pedestrians) and at bad wheather increase green time for bikes and pedestrians - forbid turn right at red as default (it's just insecure), probably allow it for bikes (that's not insecure)

[@bos2pdx2yvr]

Thanks for a great video on one of my favourite cities! As an ex-PDXer it broke my heart to see the negative stories about the city over the past couple of years. It's such an amazing place, I'm so happy that I got to live there and experience so many expansions of the MAX, the introduction of the Portland Streetcar, and see it become such a great cycling city. Look forward to more videos about Stumptown / The Rose City / Portlandia!

[@daniellarson3068]

Yes - I heard two things about the city (1) demonstrations a few years ago (2) Tent cities I guess news is like cherry picking. The picked cherries are always rotten. Oregon is a great state. I used to live 30 miles North of Hermiston.

[@thatissomeBS]

@@daniellarson3068 I've seen tent cities in Des Moines, Iowa. A certain segment of our population just has to find reasons to hate on cities/states that don't agree with their politics.

[@daniellarson3068]

@@thatissomeBS Yes - I have seen since the time when Rush Limbaugh became popular that there is big money behind those people that tell the negative stories about tent cities, etc. They have a conservative view of the world where the facts don't match reality. They often have an agenda that doesn't align with the needs of the common good. Thanks for the response.

[@jakesoros2376]

​@@thatissomeBSPerhaps, but it doesn't help that Portland's "tolerant" residents don't have a problem ki11ing anyone who mildly disagrees with them, as we saw in 2020 with the first degree murd^r of a Trump supporter downtown. You don't see that in Iowa.

[@turbokid8719]

@@daniellarson3068😂

[@Jay-bw3fl]

Great info in this one. Love the insight on the technical stuff

[@kristinbond]

You are right about the Cascade…so frustrating that it doesn’t have assigned seats. One time my husband went to the dining car and I had to guard his seat with my life. People were getting mad at me saying I was lying and just trying to have 2 seats for myself. I ended up joining him in the dining car and we just stayed there the whole time. Much more pleasant and nicer people. The Coast Starlight is a dream (with assigned seats and super comfortable seats), but always delayed since its route is so long.

[@thedapperdolphin1590]

Aside from pandemic and remote work stuff, I imagine that perception of danger or crime is keeping people away from downtown Portland. It’s not actually dangerous to be there, but all the press portraying Portland as such doesn’t help. And people generally have very little understanding of what crime actually looks like and where it happens.

[@TheCriminalViolin]

Well, unless you're a business. That isn't just press - that's legit. Most businesses have completely moved out of downtown and the vacancies is absurdly high. That's where the "rampant crime" comes into play. Relentless vandalism of storefronts, and thefts of merchandise is not some media trope, but reality for Downtown Portland. Also Oldtown/Chinatown has had a record amount of stabbings just this year alone, and the rest of Portland proper shattered their shootings and homicide/murder rate records last year, and is once again on par to break it again this year. Again, that's not media tropes, that's verifiable fact. Technically I could throw more onto the list of things that are seen as lies pushed by certain mainstream media outlets that are verifiable facts, but I'll hold back on that. Do they exaggerate? Absolutely, especially more right-leaning media corporations. But it does not make it untrue that various crimes are at record highs in the city, let alone in specific parts of the central core of the city proper.

[@alfhild98]

I work downtown. I see things on a daily basis. On my off time downtown would be the LAST place I'd go to. I wonder if the people who say it's not bad has actually gone there- especially at night

[@TheCriminalViolin]

@@alfhild98 You know the old phrase - "The freaks come out at night". And I just spoke with a woman who grew up on the Eastside (bad side of town... which is saying a lot) and she wound up saying the typical thing you hear from people from Portland and from the eastside. "My hood was considered upper middle class, safe and great when I was a kid. But its now the bad area of town." She added that her issue with the westside not just of Portland, but the metro area, too, is that she can't detect who the crazy folks and nut jobs are, whereas east of the river, its automatic. I'm a born and raised westside guy, and have always lived here in the Aloha area, my eldest brother Nathan lived either in Tigard along the 99 corridor (meth central at the time) or Oldtown most of the time right at the epicenter of the "mentally ill, crazy, homeless and/or on drugs" crowd. He himself was of the mentally ill and off & on drug user crowd. My other brother lived for a really long time out off Alberta, too through the mid 2000s and early 2010s. So my family has got metro-wide experience, both first hand and second hand haha.

[@thomasmcroy1756]

Downtown is in an extremely fragile state. The work from home dust has yet to settle for the CBD south of Burnside and east of Broadway. West of Broadway and south to PSU id say there is definitely some retail life. The problem which nobody at city hall or at the state seems to want to discuss is the rampant mental health problem happening on the streets. It seems like it only intensifying as office work continues to retract towards the suburbs. You can easily see at least 10 people experiencing complete psychotic breakdowns a mere 3 minute walk SE from Powells. I don't know how all of those people got to Portland but its common to read about out of town transients who have committed some pretty serious crimes. This town needs some new marketing

[@TheCriminalViolin]

@@thomasmcroy1756 South of Powell's - That part of Portland and Burnside is the mentally ill and drugged up corridor. Always has been. Oldtown/Chinatown is the hub for those folks. Like due to both services of CCC and the Oldtown Clinic being there, Good Samaritan being close by and Helen Swindell also being right on Burnside & Broadway. And a majority of those people are in fact born and raised Oregonians. I would know given that my eldest brother lived a large portion of his life right there in the heart of that zone, was mentally ill himself and had a bad habit of finding the drug lords and sellers (middlemen), and doing drugs. So me and my mom know the area and the crowd incredibly well. One of the reasons there is so many these days is because the clinics for them are corrupt as all hell, their staff often hold biases and grudges against a lot of them, and of course there simply is not remotely enough capacity. And hell, the mental health system and care is arguably fucked up enough to make people worse, not better. None of that helps. Constantly being outcast, hated, complained about and unwanted certainly doesn't help anyone's mental state when they experience it, especially the already mentally ill and struggling. Knowing almost no one gives a damn about you and would almost prefer you to not exist/be dead is a horrible thing. It definitely didn't help to pass measure 110 that made hard drugs decriminalized and allowed public open usage of drugs without almost any limitations. The concept was sound and made sense, the problem was, as usual with Oregon, they had absolutely nothing to build off of. No foundations in place, their system wasn't even beyond just a idea in people's heads. No blueprints, nothing at all. Just the concept, the suggestion and idea. Thin air. That's it. Oregon voters are reactive voters, so they'll impulsively vote in favor of anything that sounds good in concept, but of course is a guaranteed failure without anything to build off of. You have to get the foundations of your systems in place first before you can go ahead with the rest of the concept and passing it. That's common sense. But, most seem to lack that these days. So, people passed the concept without sound reason and... now we have a rapidly proliferated addiction crisis and aggravated homeless and mental health problem.

[@richsena7]

I took a trip to Seattle earlier this year and took the Cascades down to Portland for a day trip. The difference between the two cities was night and day. Seattle felt so much more alive and inviting compared to Portland. Portland feels like a city strictly for Portlanders, which I understand is a dying breed. It didn't help that the train back to Seattle lacked air conditioning. A HSR link between Portland and Seattle (or at least hourly trains) would help reinvigorate the city.

[@hobog]

Portland is the last bastion of the pnw stereotype, whereas Seattle is overrun by tech, and Vancouver struggles with being a showcase of $$$$$ housing

[@MaddieM4]

I'm a Portlander currently on a trip to Seattle, and I think maybe I'm just not in an ideal part of town, but I've been experiencing the exact opposite this week. It's pretty dangerous to walk from my hotel to anywhere else, mostly for road infrastructure reasons (everything is far apart and the crossings are harrowing). I hardly see anyone on foot here, and there isn't much to do. Maybe if I was staying in a less-industrial area I'd have a different take. I probably would! But claims like "Portlander is a dying breed" baffle me - housing is expensive as shit because the demand keeps ramping up. The Portland I know is very vibrantly alive, where there's always something exciting and unique a block away at most. There's also a strong community element, personally - I've met most of the amazing people who are currently vital to my life because I moved to a national LGBTQ hotspot, and it's really hard to imagine voluntarily living somewhere else. All that said, I strongly agree about HSR. The Cascades train experience is just not great, and at these distances, there's no reason/excuse not to have rail travel times that are faster than flying (when counting airport security). Current rail travel is wildly overpriced for how slow and janky it is. Portland/Seattle cross-pollination is a very good thing, and could be cheap, fast and convenient!

[@oregonsenior4204]

We won't see high speed rail on the West Coast because the Amtrak trains run on the same tracks that freight rail does. Freight gets priority, so the passenger trains are delayed. Build separate rails? That won't happen. Oregon and Washington can't even agree on how to replace the VERY old Interstate Bridge on I-5 (and they've been arguing since 2005.) Maybe some rich billionaire should take a sudden interest in high-speed passenger rail.

[@MrBirdnose]

@@MaddieM4I'm going to guess you're in SeaTac? The whole city is just stroads that sprung up once the airport was built, so it's pretty miserable on foot.

[@LimitedWard]

@@oregonsenior4204 that doesn't really make sense. Even if Amtrak operated on it's own right of way, new tracks would still have to be constructed in order to accommodate the softer turns required for HSR. Given Seattle and Vancouver's reputations as major tech hubs, I could totally see private investment play a role in funding such a project.

[@Aidan_Au]

Thanks Ray. Please continue to visit more cities and make a video about it. This is a good series! I like that when you visited Minneapolis/St Paul too

[@isitsustainable820]

This video is an example of my favorite format: Our boy gets dropped into a city, observes things, thinks about those things, and delivers slightly-longer-than-usual analysis. I like all this channel’s content but these vids are always especially good.

[@blackberryjam2]

Agreed, this was great!

[@seanedging6543]

Thank you for this video! I have been feeling like Portland City Council's priorities has been absolutely bonkers lately. Like in a time where pedestrians and cyclists are dying at a record rate, ripping out a protected bike lane? We have a lot of problems for sure, but Council has really focused on policy responses that just respond to business owner wants and don't meaningfully address the real problems. Like downtown is struggling because our policies assumes that downtown would be the place people commute to go to work. Now we need to rethink what downtown is for, and it could be great! But not with the current Council's priorities.

[@rianfelis3156]

I think you got it exactly right with the car problem: we design our infrastructure around the worst drivers that can keep their license, because those are the ones that do the most damage. The basic philosophy that we end up with is "completely prevent any temptation to this bad behaviour, otherwise someone will do it and kill people."

[@davidgjam7600]

To me, that doesn't explain why they put 2 overlapping roundabouts in Springfield. Some of the worst drivers in Oregon lol

[@rapple37]

I think the philosophy is more often find the worst thing the worst driver will do and then design around that making all non-car modalities yield to those horrible drivers to prevent accidents.

[@HLBNZ]

​@@davidgjam7600I couldn't agree with you more. These people don't have the sense to even understand how roundabouts work,which makes them more dangerous. People not yielding and pulling right out in front of you is beyond annoying and common too.

[@alwaysardent1125]

Very much looking forward to the deep dives of the other neighborhoods and Seattle. Like your content!

[@dagrindzguy4250]

I graduated from PSU almost 20 years ago, and LOVED Portland! Went back this Summer for the first time since. Was super scared to see what it has become based on what people have been saying. Was extremely PLEASED to discover that it was as pleasant and beautiful as ever!

[@aidanlagorio9870]

Thankfully pbot backed down from removing the Broadway bike line. Still not a good sign that there were some pushing to remove infrastructure in the face of upcoming budget cuts.

[@jcizle]

From my hometown (Miami) to my home base (Portland) thank you for these city visits! I wondered if you would have made this video recently enough to touch on the current PBOT scandal and you did! It’s a shame we’ve fallen off in a lot of ways as an aspirational public transport city, but I’m happy to find out you’ve worked on some of the cities projects in the past. More Portland videos!

[@tomrenjie]

We were here just last October. Spot on assessment. Its sad to see so much of Downtown and Old Town dependency on suburban office commuters. And everyone here in Oakland/ SF talk a big game about taking middling Class C Office commercial and converting to mixed use residential (everyone's one case study is NYC's lower Manhattan post 9/11). But change is slow, interest rates high and banks make more money writing off buildings in the red than they do with modifying use.

[@spencermovies]

I didn’t realize there was so much well thought out engineering in the downtown grid and transit mall. Would definitely be interested in learning more about that.

[@hotswap6894]

Thank you so much for talking about Portland, especially what is happening with the Broadway bike lane, which btw is only the southbound portion of the north/south couplet. The northbound half on 4th Ave hasn't even been built yet. I have been subscribed to your channel for awhile now, back when you used to talk about Portland more often than briefly on a top ten list, I hope you make many more videos about our city because it offers a lot of untapped knowledge and wisdom for folks that care about urban planning.

[@wiggles8283]

So informative thank you!

[@justinabullard]

Another great video, would love your opinion on the Interstate bridge replacement, and thanks for the tiny clip of Vancouver at the very end.

[@user-vt1iy2pn5z]

Really enjoyed this video. I live in inner SE and am a grad student at PSU. My son goes to daycare on campus and we commute downtown every day. It's definitely quiet downtown, but over the summer it was often bustling, especially when the market was open on the park blocks. PSU has a new president and I think there are plans to continue to transition more classes back to in-person from online with the hopes that getting more people on campus will help downtown's revival.

[@richardcheese1010]

Great video!! Potential video topic - have you ever looked into the similarities between large, typically walkable cities and the surrounding areas? For example, San Francisco proper has some great urbanism but it feels like once you step outside of that it's immediately back to car-infested suburbia (San Jose and the like)

[@mushroomsteve]

I've found that some parts of the Bay area are like that, but others places are quite urbanist, such as Oakland and Berkeley. But yeah, south of SF it gets pretty car-centric.

[@richardcheese1010]

@@mushroomsteve Yeah it's definitely a mixed bag, when I went up there a couple of months ago I just figured that everywhere in the area would be like SF and was surprised to find that some areas are just one 4-lane stroad after another. I've heard good things about those cities as well as Emeryville though, I'll have to check them out next time I have a chance

[@blackdunes1]

Omg that Amtrak part at the end is too real 😵‍💫 Awesome video!

[@quinnwasson2399]

It's great learning about my city from a local. Good vid!

[@johnnichols371]

W/regards to the one way streets: I agree with all your points, BUT, want to add that I think the width of the streets is important too. As a Philadelphian (who’s driven in Portland) it felt odd driving down streets that wide and one way, and it felt way too easy to speed

[@ajlong404]

😆 19:43 This is so spot on: "...the watchful eye of complete strangers and imagining they're judging me rather than completely ignoring me, which is much more likely... well, it really helps keep me on task...."

[@MarcoGonzalez-tn1vc]

Great video! I'm looking forward to your thoughts on Seattle.

[@brapsquatch]

Fantastic video. I really enjoyed this.

[@melissab3217]

I'm in outer NE Portland and want to take the Max more, but as a petite woman riding alone I rarely feel safe. There are always people strung out and screaming or getting into physical altercations. Today a woman randomly kept slamming a broom against the seat next to me. This is honestly what keeps more people from using public transit. If Portland wants to increase riders, it has to deal with this issue.

[@Anna_Rae]

That's really rough to hear. Portland has interested me a lot, but as a trans woman I question my safety at times.

[@melissab3217]

@@Anna_Rae I get that! And don't get me wrong, I love Portland and feel homesick whenever I go elsewhere. But the situation on transit is just a nightmare.

[@PaulHo]

That main character syndrome in a coffee shop is the best work motivator. 💅🏾

[@keemstarkreamstar7069]

Why did you use the black emoji when that isn’t your skin color?

[@m3thid]

I just moved to (NW) Portland at the beginning of the year. The new Broadway bikelane has helped me so much as someone who is new biking and the city. Thank you and those who helped in that project!

[@Hawkeyes100]

Dude, I stumbled across your channel. Super interesting & props for supporting PDX. I really appreciate that. We need some love here again pump up the city, ya 'no? However, the way you speak is so fun & familiar. I've missed that laid-back, bro vibe. Where did y'll go? Back to planning, you explained stuff I wasn't getting. Ok. I see now. But, it is all white sticks in the roads that make me want to riot. Ugh! OK. I get it. Yes, those were some of my fav streets to drive real fast on. So, good job.

[@Jarekthegamingdragon]

Thank you for making this video. Reasonable talk about downtown portland just doesn't exist and it gets absolutely obnoxious. So tired of hearing from people that live out in the suburbs eating up right wing news outlets when they haven't been downtown in 5 years. As for the light rail, there's a shuttle that goes from the airport to gateway until construction is done.

[@IsaacCle]

It's insane. I went to Portland in 2019 and ... it was lovely. Enjoyed the Rose Garden, walked around various neighborhoods, ... everything was great. I am sure it has its problems as every place, but it was overall a really enjoyable city.

[@souslicer]

There is a massive difference between 2019 and 2020 and beyond

[@Jarekthegamingdragon]

@@souslicer As someone that spends a lot of time downtown, not really. It's quieter, a lot of business followed people working from home, but it's far from dead. It's certainly not dangerous, that part is just hilariously dumb misinformation. Chinatown can still be sketchy just like before the pandemic, union station still has homeless around it, south downtown is still beautiful. Like, literally it's the same city.

[@KevinBauman]

Right wing news will have you think Chicago, San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, and any other city perceived to be too liberal, are literal war zones, where will take your life in your hands just by passing through.

[@kevinwoolley7960]

Portland's problem with crime and homelessness isn't a product of "right wing media", it's a fact obvious to anyone who looks at the streets and anyone who can review objective numbers. Portland 20 years ago was one of the safest large cities. Since 2018, homicides have more than doubled and shootings have more than tripled. The increase in both is FAR above the national average and above it's peer cities. This is not per right wing media, it's per the California Partnership for Safe Communities, a not for profit that is working with the city of Portland at the cities request, hardly a bastion of right wing conspiracy. Here are some of their findings for 2019 to 2021, and the problem was worse in 2022. Over those three years, the analysis found, Portland saw a 144% increase in its homicide count and a 241% increase in non-fatal shootings that resulted in injury. So people who are reluctant to invest in or visit Portland are doing so at least partly because it is manifestly less safe.

[@benlavine6259]

None of your footage shows the REAL Portland…. You know, where it’s been raining and nobody has seen the sun for a week

[@gdguzman10]

Ha this is awesome! You featured so many pieces of my daily commute! I cross the Hawthorne to go up the Broadway bike lane to ride up to OHSU. I started doing this after the pandemic made the OHSU tram feel too claustrophobic, which means I’ve stopped using the Tilikum to get to the Go By Bike valet. I started bike commuting in Boston before moving here and was initially so impressed - but riding every day for 6 years in Portland has led me to notice so many of the critiques you’ve mentioned here. Just yesterday I had the delicious opportunity to yell at a driver for almost hitting me by turning right on red.

[@AlexPotvin]

I visited right after I met up with you and everyone else at the Montreal event. Really enjoyed it coming from Metro Vancouver.

[@spelunkerd]

I live outside a city that has similar problems and solutions to that of Portland. I make every effort to avoid going into town. It's a great place for those who live in the city center, with local mass transit, bike lanes, and creative ideas laced with an undeworld of homeless people congregated to use centralized drug treatment services. By design people are encouraged to leave vehicles at home, which is impossible for visitors without a mass transit system that extends to outside areas. Thank goodness for online merchants, who have drastically cut any need I might have to travel into town. You may think the reduction of people on the streets is a Covid byproduct, but the Amazon effect is hidden within.

[@theblondebomber]

Shocked to see how few pedestrians and bikers are on the streets you filmed - unless it was filmed at 10am on a weekday. Looks like a beautifully designed ghost town compared to even mid sized midwestern downtowns.

[@jakesoros2376]

The major problem is the lack of punishment and the concerning numbers of drug addicts and homeless walking around like zombies. There was always some problem with them, but it really just skyrocketed in 2020 when our courts just decided to stop punishing many crimes period. Combine that with a shocking spike in retail theft and it's not surprising that many stores have left the downtown. No stores, all the homeless and drug addicts, means that people don't want to bike or ride public transportation. There are nice parts don't get me wrong, but the refusal to take off the shades and acknowledge the problems because we might agree with a fellow American who watches a different news channel than we do is detrimental to this city's future potential. Have a nice one 👍

[@foggycraw6758]

Portland is a ghost town for the most part

[@StorytellingHeadshots]

That’s because portland is currently terrifying to walk downtown and take the Max. This is from someone who moved to Portland in2006 primarily because of the progressive transit-this used to be an amazing place. People don’t avoid downtown because there aren’t full office buildings -they don’t go downtown because drug addicts stoned out of their mind very possibly will attack you out of the blue. Or try to eat your face. (I’m not kidding, just actually happened.)

[@keitha.9788]

@@StorytellingHeadshots Bingo!!! I live across the river in Washington and use to frequently visit Portland. Not any more. With the crime, drug, and homeless problem, Portland is a dump......

[@Gloren50]

It really does depend on the time of day and whether it's a weekday or weekend. Since downtown has about 20% vacancy rate in the office buildings, you don't see nearly as many people downtown on weekdays anymore. Don't listen to these neurotic fear-mongers who responded with apocalyptic descriptions. I take MAX and walk downtown all the time and have never had a problem. The homeless mess was worse two years ago, but there's a serious drug problem again in the city. It's a complicated situation that the city will hopefully be able to fix. But every time they try something the Courts tell the city they can't do it. It's frustrating. The city is not a dump. Downtown is pleasant to walk around and I feel safe. It seems the paranoid and right-wing extremists love to bash the city and spread anti-Portland propaganda. Ignore them--they're idiots. The crime and drugs were much worse back in the 70s and early 80s.

[@vbkngx]

New favourite channel on YT, keep up the great work.

[@aritharolafson3379]

I like your contribution to the burnside bridge intersection, the separate signal light for turning right was a good choice.

[@briantykelley7617]

Thanks for covering Portland. I have to say that I never have a reason to go to those center city neighborhoods. I would be interested in hearing your thoughts on light rail generating development. I could really use a grocery store next to the Orange line. Cheers.

[@glitterpark]

Wow seeing the updates to Burnside Bridge is amazing. I used to walk the bridge every day from the Max stop to eastside for work. The walking space on both sides was so narrow and there was no buffer between car lanes and the slightly elevated path. The Max in general was an amazing way to get in and out of the city to surrounding areas, but that Burnside Max stop and the walk across the bridge were not pleasant experiences.

[@3clubforever]

You like those steps from the train that pop up by the mission? Always good company around there

[@MrKongsMom]

Thanks for sharing our amazing and beautiful city. I live in the burbs now but I love that the city is coming back after a rough couple of years. I’d never live anywhere else.

[@nadinekim375]

Welcome back, Ray! ☺️

[@whimsicalhamster88]

I always say that Portland reminds me of where I live, Seattle, but if no one seemed to have a job. Every time I visit the city seems extremely quiet and empty. Even all of your shots don't seem to show many people on the street for a "big city." After visiting a couple of times when I first moved to the PNW, I pretty much got my fill. Hawthorne Street is fun.

[@jazzcatjohn]

Downtown has changed a lot. Although much cleaner than a couple years ago it's pretty dead now since the office workers and many businesses left. I lived in Portland during the heyday of the 90s and 00s. It was beautiful and vibrant. Downtown was hopping. I moved to Seattle in 2019. The two cities have some similarities culturally and geographically but are two very different animals otherwise. The offshoot neighborhoods in SE, N, and NE again feel vibrant though, much improved over a couple years ago.

[@ficus3929]

I agree and I’d say Seattle feels definitely more cosmopolitan and diverse than Portland. Although for the PNW, I’d give Vancouver the top spot, just in my opinion.

[@curtismcallister9569]

downtown is certainly more quiet than it used to be on the weekdays. but it's always been quiet. the downtown core is mostly office space and government buildings, so i don't know what else people are expecting? if you want nightlife you have to get out of downtown that said, weekends in downtown still seem pretty active. people still go to soccer games, the saturday market, just out shopping or to events in general

[@oregonsenior4204]

@@ficus3929Vancouver BC, you mean?

[@bagenstb]

Portland was the site of my first ever 10 mile bike ride--the Steel Bridge south to Sellwood Bridge and back. It was definitely a great way to see much of Portland's beauty.

[@Jomoko89]

Seattlite here, I hope you enjoy the city! looking forward to your next video!

[@apurpleviolet6773]

oh man, so nice to see you covering PDX. I live in inner SE and walk to work in SW over the Burnside bridge everyday. I am soooo thankful for the added bus lane on Burnside and the improved bike infrastructure. Thanks so much for whatever part you paid in that! It honestly makes the days I chose to bike or bus so much better

[@gars129]

As someone who lives close to OId San Juan I can relate. It's easy to view it as a perfect European style city in the tropics, but after a while there are serious issues.

[@a1esum]

Another great video. Like many cities Portland's downtown is struggling in the post-covid WFH era despite doing most things (not everything) right. I was wondering if you had any takes on the future of urban planning in a world where downtowns aren't the centers of activity they used to be and if the situation could potentially be reversed

[@wjackb.]

I always appreciate your videos, but I give you extra points for the Mix 12" on the wall.

[@baseballfan99]

Visited Portland in February as part of my cross country train tour, so quite a lot of snow on the ground. Getting around was easy on Public Transport was fine though like in LA a lot of people use it as a way to keep warm. Downtown at night was deserted when I walked the the delightful Hubers Cafe. The inner neighbourhoods were great, especially North West area west of Nob Hill and Washington Park. Everything I ate in Portland was delicious, especially the food carts and sandwich shops. I would love to visit in the summer when the outdoor scene would be in full swing.

[@georgeh6856]

In that last clip where the cars are using the bike lane as a right turn lane, just put in poles to keep the cars out. Sure, the cars could still illegally use the bus lane to turn right, but at least some drivers would be less likely to turn into a red lane than a green lane. Update: I wonder if busses would need that space to turn right. That may be the reason why there are no poles separating lanes there.

[@jonathanowens2337]

Or an enforcement camera. Catch your license plate in the bike lane block, you get a ticket.

[@fujoshis_rights]

None of the bus lines that run over the bridge turn right there, they all continue straight, so your solution would work just fine there, FWIW!

[@julietardos5044]

It's possible that drivers aren't aware of the law. Perhaps painting a No Cars (with the red line over a car) sign on the bike lane would communicate the message more effectively.

[@ivoryandgrey7053]

@@julietardos5044There is a sign that says no turn on red. The cars are driving in the bike lane to turn red against the light. They just don’t care. They don’t look and they don’t care. It’s especially dangerous when they make a right on red from the car lane because there is a bike signal there that turns green before the cars to give the bikes a head start.

[@julietardos5044]

@@ivoryandgrey7053 Good to know.

[@mattgalper5397]

I think the one way vs two way debate depends on the width of the street. There's a few streets in downtown Pittsburgh that are one way streets with contraflow bike lanes. I think the more narrow streets can benefit from being one way, especially if you can accommodate multi-modal options as well. But some other instances where I think two way traffic is better would be the two way conversion they did around Allegheny Center in the North Side and the current conversion they're doing in East Liberty. Both of those roads were wide, urban renewal era projects that were one way, multi-lane ring roads around shopping the city was trying to get people to go to back when people were fleeing to the suburbs. They've been, or are in the process of being, converted to two way vehicle traffic with protected bike lanes (even the intersections have protection!) which I think slows people down more than having multiple wide lanes to travel down.

[@pjrawlins]

Would love to hear your thoughts on what could possibly be done to address the Marquam bridge problem.

[@vraisairs9201]

I’m in SW Portland and it feels pretty bad to travel. Getting to the main city takes 25 min by car or an hour by public transit and you don’t see a lot of people just hanging out around town. Everything is just too spread out

[@sunspower2]

I love your fair analysis of my city. I hope that things improve, especially the number of folks coming downtown. I live next to PSU and love it.

[@turbokid8719]

It won’t not for a long time 😂people need to stop voting for bad ideas & leaders also face reality that not everyone can saved.

[@joebehrdenver]

Thanks so much for this. I have lots of friends in Portland and think it does most parts of urbanism better than Seattle (my PNW landing spot).

[@Dimewick21]

Love PDX! As a senior pilot at the airline I work for, I usually only do day trips. But I will pick up a Good Portland overnight once or twice a month. We stay at the Dunaway just off Pioneer Square. While it was calmed down quite a bit, it’s definitely not dead.

[@williamruss8157]

Thanks!

[@CityNerd]

No problem!

[@josephyoung6749]

My neighborhood in Brooklyn is mostly one-way streets... it's definitely much safer and efficient than 2-way streets based on my experience, especially if you're biking or driving and need to know where traffic is coming from while crossing an intersection. The idea that a "trend" could possibly consist of changing these nice 1 -way streets into 2-way streets is disturbing, wasteful and stupid.

[@waywrdsun]

Great review. Portland is my city, and I think you're right on. We have some serious problems in city hall right now, but I don't think they'll last. I love this city.

[@Newspeak.]

The new charter can't get implemented fast enough.

[@annejetta]

Great to see your insights on Portland. I’m visiting the west coast from Amsterdam and it’s interesting to see the investments in biking infrastructure. San Diego clearly had some new cycling paths but it was hard to bike across town. I’m curious to hear what you think about this

[@bronsonkim6652]

This video really made me appreciate a lot of things that I'd been taking for granted! Also the VPN trick for booking hotels/rentals/etc is really good to know!

[@jspihlman]

If you wanted to look at another case study in one-way grid downtowns look into Waikiki in Honolulu, HI. I lived there and the one way streets can be really annoying if you miss your stop/destination/turn, etc. because of just how much traffic there is down in Waikiki.

[@RobBlazoff]

@citynerd needs to go to Honolulu, you say? 😅

[@andrewinnj]

Man, Mingus is the worst of the worst on that council. Hopefully voters get wise and push him out of office - and politics altogether.

[@sadistcobra]

I can't imagine how a guy whose whole election pitch was "I'm a disgruntled former employee of the current commissioner so vote me instead of Chloe" could possibly turn out to be a terrible politician.

[@Newspeak.]

The whole council is a dumpster fire and they keep coming up with shitty ideas that are massively unpopular and in some cases are directly at odds with the will of the voters like what Mapps and Gonzalez where trying to do to the already voter approved charter reform. Near as I can tell all that's happened is that they keep having to back pedal when they face massive pushback. It's scary to think what might have happened to that bike lane without Bike Portland's coverage.

[@mrp4242]

@@Ethantheveganthat’s it. It’s the ‘conservatives’ that are ruining Portland. This is why you can’t have nice things.

[@sfhayesvalley]

OMG! I actually listened to your NordVPN ad!

[@StorytellingHeadshots]

Thank you. Finally, some honesty about the dysfunction that is driving residents crazy.

[@jaredeiesland]

If businesses want people to come back to downtown, they need to start charging less. People can't afford all the huge price hikes that came around after the pandemic and with all the other price increases that wildly outpaced incomes in the last couple years, work from home is the only financially feasible move.

[@areader2253]

Also asking for tips that start at 25% everywhere lol

[@LimitedWard]

This video leaves me with a bittersweet taste in my mouth. I visited Portland earlier this year and fell in love with the city. I planned on moving there at the end of September, but my employer told me I'd be taking at huge pay cut due to the lower CoL. I still get irrationally angry whenever I see articles talking about how Portland is a "lifeless hellhole". Even in it's "recessed" state, Portland is a really cool city with so much character. I don't know of any other PNW city that can compare. Seattle has elements of it, but feels so much more vanilla and corporate by comparison (sorry Seattleites). Super frustrating to see PBOT backpedaling on their commitments to building a complete bike network.

[@florencejessup2432]

Where would you be moving from that has a lower COL? I love Portland and still have family there but I had to leave because I couldn't afford housing, even working two jobs. I'm approaching retirement age and was afraid the drop in income after retirement would leave me on the streets.

[@patrickd6954]

I love your laptop stickers. Where did you get them?

[@OrangeChicken417]

Great video, all the video content made great points as a resident here my entire life! Where do you live now?

[@TheChoosenOneGaming0]

i would be interested in a video discussing the conversation around rent inequality and affordability issues and how many of the best urban cities tend to be inaccessible for many people! love your videos

[@clayton97330]

Any feedback on the efficacy of Portlands density infill rules, like allowing anybody to have a ADU and eliminating parking requirements?

[@ArturB993]

Great video. Came across your channel by accident after watching Peter Dibble's videos. Thank you for mentioning the Broadway bike lane. Having worked at The Benson for nearly 5 years as a Valet, seeing that bike lane go in I immediately knew it would hurt the profits of the Hotels and Valets (tips). I left the Benson before the completion of the bike lane, had I still been there and saw this video I'd probably have taken a more defensive stance in my response . That said I really like hearing your insight into current day Portland and agree with many of yours points and observations.