That Family Guy clip and people commenting are extremely disingenuous. I don't understand the angle really, maybe they don't want more people to move there?
The fact is that Burbank/Glendale area is likely the second nicest place to live in LA outside of the "West Side". The area is extremely safe, clean, and filled with nice shops/restaurants. Go drive above Kenneth in Burbank/Glendale and compare it to the Family Guy clip. There's a reason those houses cost $1-3 million.
It has a visible homeless problem, I don't know how you'd define bad. Large camps are mostly confined to certain areas but there are visible homeless people in every arrondissement.
This was my first time visiting in 22 years that I saw people sleeping in tents in Paris. I was there March 2020 and didn't see that, it's very new.
They do not, that was actually one thing I forgot to mention - it's also not a SCARY homeless problem. The P2P meth - and meth in general - is not there yet. SWIM said you can still get good coke. AFAIK fentanyl isn't an issue there yet either, because SWIM asked someone in the business about it and they told my friend they had no idea what they were talking about.
France is super weird about drugs in general - they're the highest consumers of cannabis in western Europe but it's still \*very\* illegal. Nothing is that hard to find, but you do not want to get caught with it.
And thank you!!!
Oh man, could you imagine what this place looked like back then? Tens of thousands of square miles of oaks, grass, native villages, herds of large animals, beautiful rolling hills, and not a fucking freeway or mega apartment complex to be seen for another 2400 years!
Not really, the reason they had such a short average life span was due to incredibly high rates of infant mortality. So, if you have 100 people and 50 of them die before 1 and 50 die at 70, you’re “average” is 35 years old. Plenty of people lived into their 60’s back then, you just needed to make it to 3 or 4 first.
With that said, getting injured or sick was WAY worse than it is now, for sure. Also, wolves, bears, and mountain lions saw humans as prey more so than now.
Common misconception. LA was/is grassland, alluvial plains, wetlands, marshes, oak and pine forests, shrub land, chaparral, and a river basin. You don’t really get deserts until you go east over the San Gabriel and Angeles mountains.
Mine are. As long as the bistro can tell me the name of the free range mother hen who laid the eggs for my omelette and provided her with postpartum counseling, I am so in. Women & Women First, baby!
The funny thing is, I just googled a little bit and there are people in Portland saying "it's bad but it's nowhere as bad as LA!"
[https://www.reddit.com/r/askportland/comments/rhe6w2/is\_portland\_really\_that\_terrifying/](https://www.reddit.com/r/askportland/comments/rhe6w2/is_portland_really_that_terrifying/)
Who to believe?
This. But like LA Portland is a connection of neighborhoods. There are certainly nicer areas than downtown Portland. I feel what OP wrote about for a while but I travel to Portland quite a bit and in the late 90s and aughts Downtown Portland was already a magnet for transients and drugs. Especially for young people and teens. It was quite jarring when I first started to visit because in LA our bums tended to be older. Hard lifers.
And similarly to what has happened in LA, most of those folks in the other neighborhoods just ignored it or even denied it was “that bad”. It seems to continue to be the case because the “not as bad as LA” is based on the belief those outside of LA that homelessness has hit every corner of LA.
Exactly. I try to explain this to people. LA is so big you really are spread out and in Portland or Seattle the downtown/city is so small that every issue in LA is compacted into such a small area.
All of this 100%. I used to live in Pdx and if you had to walk home from the opposite end of town it wasn’t a big deal because of the size. The weather also makes the homeless issue that much more depressing during the winter months. A constant drizzle, never fully rainy, and people doing drugs in front of your door. One time I had to call 911 because an aggressive homeless guy came into our building and the call went to voicemail lol . Downtown Portland was so fun and lively at one point, now it’s just sad and desolate
Yeah when I used to go there on the weekends from Seattle that was back when Portland was considered nicer than Seattle. There was always issues downtown pdx but not the same way. You could still pretty much walk the whole city without too much issue. Now I would say it’s pretty impossible to even enjoy.
At least here if you have a bad experience it’s easy to avoid the area bc there are so many other places to go. There you have so little option especially when living there and needing to go to a bus station or shop without a car.
Do not miss the rain either.
Seriously. I just visited Portland for the first time and everyone there was complaining about how bad it was. Our downtown makes theirs look like Disneyland
I really don’t understand OP, I think they’re going to the better neighborhoods in LA and comparing them to worse off areas in Portland, because people smoking fentanyl on the street, a dilapidated downtown (hello Skid Row…), and inescapable homeless all describe large parts of LA to a T.
I do agree there is a solid food scene here for sure though.
Thing about skid row is everyone knows to avoid it so the worst is in a bubble.
In Portland some touristy spots are in places that are similar to skid row in LA. Voodoo Doughnuts in Portland is in a really rough place.
Sure, skid row is an exception as it’s a literal containment zone and we know not to go there but there are also places in LA like your comparison to Portland that apply as well. Venice Beach up until a couple months ago was *really* sketchy, and we all know that its state right now is an exception that won’t last
U right. I guess because its familiar in LA it doesn't feel as dangerous. I bet Portlanders feel that way too. But i had minor incidents in the short time I was in Portland, and have rarely had an issue in LA and I work in dtla
I was there during the day eating at the outdoor seating of Dan and Louis Oyster Bar. (Same alley way as voodo donuts) Few days later I was eating around the corner at Kaizen Sushi.
Neither of these places felt that rough. Walking around dtla it’s tents everywhere! Numerous, even outside of skid row blocks will have tent after tent after tent.
Portland you’ll walk around and in some areas you’ll see 3 tents on a block. It’s so much LESS depressing to walk around there than it is Los Angeles. I have no clue what you people are seeing when you go to Portland?
Edit: Unless there’s a block in Portland completely taken over by RVs and tents, and tarps complete with buckets of human waste… I really don’t see what there is to complain about so hard up there?
Another edit- IS*
I took cross country road trips in 2015 (LA to Atlanta) and 2019 (Savannah to San Francisco) and I can tell you EVERY city is experience a lot of fucked up homeless shit and crime. St Louis (was probably the worst I saw), Nashville, Atlanta, Kansas City, Oklahoma City (encountered the most dangerous homeless situation here), Albuquerque, New Orleans, St George Utah, Memphis... It goes on and on. There are serious problems in each of these cities that are in red states. This is a country that is dedicated to the advancement of corporations and the upper 5% and the ENTIRE country is suffering.
Another example, South Bend Indiana. Went there a couple weeks of the year for school, stayed at a hotel and walked three blocks every morning to class. Every morning at 7:30am it seemed there were at least two homeless people that would not only ask for money, but literally follow you from two feet away HOUNDING you. I’ve never experienced that in LA. When there’s fewer people around there’s fewer distractions and fewer witnesses, and the homeless feel empowered to do whatever they want.
Damn that's sad. I went to a Notre Dame game in the 90s and remember it being a seemingly nice small community. Like old school Pasadena. Definitely don't remember any homeless people.
I recently moved up here from LA, and OP is somewhat exaggerating but not entirely. Those issues do exist, but Portland also has a pretty toxic online discourse that will make you hyper-focus on them.
The homeless issue and associated trash/crime/drugs are more noticeable here than LA, but not to the point where it is constantly top of mind. That said, it seems like OP has had some legitimately bad experiences, so I really can’t judge them for their perspective.
The mayor is reportedly going to announce a ban on unsanctioned camping next week, which is great news. There has also been an increase in sweeps over the past few months that has improved things somewhat. Downtown still has issues, but it’s gotten much better and people are starting to come back to it on the weekends.
I’m the last 2-3 years I’ve been to (for extended times) Sacramento, LA, Houston, Dallas, Portland and Seattle. Lived in some, gone to others for work. Each of these cites is suffering from homelessness running rampant and drug use causing other issues. We need to stop comparing one city to other, these issues are nation wide and growing out of hand. These are people who need help and not one of the local governments has had an actual helping plan. I’m just so tired of everyone trying to compare or claim one city is better then another when what I’ve seen is they all are about the same. This all rolls back to mental health and Americas healthcare system sucking ass.
Absolutely, it’s 100% a *national* problem. We all live in our own bubbles and it’s hard to get out of them and gain the perspective that this is indeed bigger than what’s in our own backyards.
Right? I’m from the Portland area (family still lives there) and now live in LA and thought this exact same thing! The PPB have definitely not been defunded, lol.
The police enforce like they were defunded, when they weren't. Soon the police union will ask for even more money to do their jobs. Same thing happening in Seattle.
"Don't like how we police, then we will quiet quit until the public demands us to crack down (and also give us more money)"
Portland Police Bureau is not underfunded, nor defunded—what it lacks is average cops-per-capita.
“The bureau’s vacancy rate has climbed sharply in recent years, leaving Portland with just one working officer for every 827 residents. That’s dramatically fewer cops per capita than the authorized national average, including some other mid-size cities with comparable metro areas, according to an analysis by The Oregonian/OregonLive.
Seattle, for example, staffs 29% more, with one officer for every 643 residents. Denver deploys 74% more cops per capita than Portland, with one for every 475 residents.
Portland leaders are now debating whether to increase the ranks of the police bureau and how to do it amid officer staffing shortages, attempts at public safety reform and record numbers of shootings and homicides across the city.”
[SOURCE](https://www.oregonlive.com/data/2021/11/why-portland-has-less-cops-now-than-any-point-in-past-30-years.html?outputType=amp)
Exactly, this is the PPB (which is mostly staffed with people from outside the city) not doing their job to 'get back' at city officials. The poor white supremacists are being oppressed and this is their way of acting out.
Bro that's really sad that your two friends were killed by homeless people. When did that happen and did they ever catch them?
How can I tell if someone is smoking fentanyl versus some other drug?
Crack is usually smoked out of a cylindrical glass tube
Meth is usually smoked out of a glass tube with a round globe at the end - a "pookie"
I don't know how people are smoking opiates but traditionally this was done on aluminum foil.
Yeah that's how it is in movies. But the truth is you can't tell what people are smoking when you walk by them and OP is picking Fentanyl because it's scary.
OP also has no idea who killed his friends and is picking homeless people because he has a political agenda. He posted about the murders and both are unsolved.
People manage to complain about the homeless all the time on this sub without this kind of reckless speculation.
FWIW, I moved to Portland last November and I tell everyone who bitches about Portland that it’s not nearly as sketchy as LA.
Per Capita, I would say Portland is more sketchy, but there’s little downtown Portlands ALL OVER Los Angeles.
But, quite frankly I love both cities and think they’re both awesome places to live!
Having visited Portland since the early 90s the sketchiest people are the 2A weirdos that love the shit on CA then freeze when you bring up responsible gun ownership.
This really feels like bait. Cops in Portland are almost as crooked as LAPD. Feels like a way to boost pro-cop views and a way to bitch about the homeless here. It IS a problem, but it's more so a systemic problem, not that they exist.
I've lived in k-town, I've lived right on the border of the tenderloin in SF. I've had my issues with individual unhoused people, but the way some people on here talk about the homeless as a whole just chills me. Just really gross.
I have just as many issues with housed individuals as I do homeless individuals. LA and Portland are big places with millions of people. I worked in K-Town for 1.5 year (2020-2022) showing up and leaving at random hours (I worked at the wiltern) and it was so chill.
Edit : the most “dangerous” place I’ve felt I’ve ever been too is actually downtown Wichita KS at 3am
And decriminalizing drugs is not what's causing addiction. Fentanyl wasn't created by the streets. But somehow it's an issue that the solution isn't immediately to put addicts in jail??
>And decriminalizing drugs is not what's causing addiction. Fentanyl wasn't created by the streets.
Well, it kind of is / was. Marijuana used to make up 50% of the cartels' income, and once weed was legalized, they had to get that 50% from somewhere else.
That somewhere else was meth and opioids, and once they figured out they could buy the precursor ingredients cheap in China (which thanks to the history of the Opium wars didn't have many qualms about returning the favor), they stopped bothering with growing poppies in Mexico and just set up labs to mix up meth and fentanyl and then export it to the U.S.
That increased focus on meth and fentanyl, combined with the reformulation of meth, has caused addiction to go through the roof, especially since there's basically a revolving door for many dealers in the justice system.
My point is keeping strict marijuana laws in place and punishing the addicts for drug use wasn't going to help. Fentanyl wasn't created by the streets and making weed less illegal didn't cause the opioid crisis.
I can’t say for sure what Portland did, but I’d caution than “lowering the budget” is not the same as “not increasing the budget.”
I’d also like to note that Portland PD’s budget was more than $230 million at the time of that article, before the increase. That’s not nothing.
Im born and raised LA native, is it currently better than 80s/90s? Yeah it is, but it’s a steady decline so at our current rate we might end up back to 80s/90s or worse. Also there’s new factors now. Back then gang violence was high, I remember not being able to go to certain restaurants late at night in SGV due to drive bys and gang wars.
Now our homeless problem is worse than ever. Starting to see homeless pop up in suburbs where it’s normally quiet and clean. Thefts and home invasions are now happening in towns that are considered safe and quiet. So many random fires now by the homeless.
These posts saying “oh it’s not as bad as 80s/90s” “it’s not as bad as Portland / Seattle” are a bit misleading because it ignores the fact that we are on a path to getting there.
Saying at least LA isn’t as bad as it was in 90’s or it’s not as bad as Portland/Seattle is so misleading!
It’s like saying we have to use dial-up internet now but at least it’s not as bad as pre-internet days!!
LA is worse than pre-pandemic and that’s a problem. I like the optimism in these type of posts but we shouldn’t be okay with the trajectory of current conditions.
Homeless are invading our area. Last night someone was trying to open our gate, luckily it was locked and secure. It’s getting out of hand. Lawlessness
A steady decline?
Crime rates had been going down year over year for a long time until the pandemic hit.
Now we’re going through economic hardship and you’re surprised that crime rates have spiked? Tell me more about you’re incredible stroke of insight. I mean yes crime is worst now than it was a few years ago, but nowhere near where it used to be when it was really bad. Talk to me again when we see year over year increases in crime even during economically stable or improving conditions. Then you might have a point.
People say “ the cops don’t do anything. It took them 3 hours to get here. They wouldn’t even take a report “
Statistics based on arrests and reports say “ crime rates are going down”
Yeah, I feel like the OP is missing or glossing over a few things. Namely, back in the 80s/90s, we did not have the same amount and intensity of extremely angry, unpredictable folks out on the streets. It's a whole 'nother level nowadays.
Also, while we had road rage (remember that random freeway shooting "fad" for we had for awhile?), we didn't have the consistent, widespread, psycho-aggro drivers across all demographics and areas that we now have. Driving (and being a pedestrian) has a much higher level of stress now than back then.
Many things have improved, but it hasn't been as across-the-board as the OP suggests.
The 90's was 30 years ago. A 30% jump in homicide should cause alarm. In the 90's the homeless population didn't even hit 10,000. Now it's pushing 70,000. From my personal experience and just simple observation, LA is not safer than it was pre pandemic. Not by a long shot.
From the perspective of a native Oregonian, Portland/Oregon has always been gritty in areas and had a lot of homeless and mentally ill people on the streets because it used to be a cheap place to live. Homelessness has gone up **everywhere** on the west coast though, even Utah where it famously was going down for years, due to the increased cost of living exacerbated by the pandemic upsetting the balance of our society.
Crime, especially homicides, has spiked **everywhere** in cities during the pandemic even in places that didn't move around their police funding after the George Floyd protests. Portland is just like LA in the sense there's really nice safe areas with only property crime and then areas with higher chances of violent crime.
Drugs have always been an issue in Oregon falling into two camps. Either pot and psychedelics or meth and opioids. When I moved away in 2000, people were ripping guard rails off highways to sell for drug money. A couple of my high school classmates are dead from overdoses or in prison for drug related crimes. Portland has always been like that but you don't really notice it until you spend a good chunk of time there.
That said, Oregon is still a beautiful place and I wouldn't mind moving back at some point. Voodoo Donuts are for tourists and Blue Star is much better.
>The 90's were rough. I went through Northridge, the LA riots. Downtown LA was not a destination.
This sums it up perfectly for me!
I remember being a young kid and the gangs being way more visible. Cholos with there bald heads, baggy pants, constant late night shootings, etc. It still exists today but trust me it was waaaay worse.
I was in 5th grade when the riots broke out. School was almost out when word got out that the city was on fire. Places like the Newberry store on Venice & Western was burnt down among other place. Our Korean friends were under fire with there stores/businesses being targeted. It was crazy times indeed. Hell I still remember watching the news when all of a sudden Reginald Denny got pulled out of his truck and got brutally attacked! It's a miracle he survived that cinderblock to his head. SMH!
Good ol' Downtown was definitely not the spot to be back in the 90's. But it was good place to go to find cheap clothing, Grand Central Market was a good place to hit up.
And how can I forget about the Northridge earthquake. I was a young lad at that time and my apt. was rockin' & rollin literary! I could only imagine how it felt for the folks who actually lived in the epicenter because like I said my apt. shook like a mutha-efer!
I'll just say that the people who lived in L.A. around that time until now are freakin' survivors! We went through that and so much more, the good and the bad but in the end of the day I love this city. :)
I was born and raised in LA, never involved in gangs but they were apart of my life. Just coming out of the 90s, fresh into my first apartment… When I was 20-21 I lived in a neighborhood known for Bloods and they would hang out on the corner by my apt. Our building had 6 apt and all the tenants were either older or a family, with the exception of us, 3 stoners sharing an apartment and rocking out our early 20s… and two different times we had to hit the ground because of drive bys. Also, a guy down the street was taken out at like 6am when he was pulling out for work. Two guys ran up on him and emptied their guns into his truck. The guy was a snitch I heard …but gdamn this was a different time. Swat had a few appearances as well, and little kids constantly up the street as little look outs yelling “shark” when cops rolled up.
Now I wouldn’t even be able to afford my old apartment building’s rent and the neighborhood cleaned up pretty freakin nice. Didn’t hate living there but you had to have your head on a swivel, it was a wild time.
>Now I wouldn’t even be able to afford my old apartment building’s rent and the neighborhood cleaned up pretty freakin nice. Didn’t hate living there but you had to have your head on a swivel, it was a wild time.
Well said.
And it's the same with my old block. It's definitely more quiet now and it's still mostly Hispanic people living there, sprinkle in a handful of Korean & African American people. And my apt. (mom & I) was cheap back then, 2 bedrooms, 1 bath, decent sized kitchen & a nice small patio outside went for 5 hundred.
Quick story, I was pretty much a latchkey kid growing up who watched t.v. waaaay too much. One afternoon I heard a ruckus outside my apt. So I took a peek through my window and the first thing I see is a gang banger hiding behind a car with a shotgun in his hand hiding from someone. I stood there for a quick second and then ran like hell to the bathroom to hide. LOL
That was just how it was back then and you got used to it. Sucks to say but it's true.
Eh, when I was in Portland I thought it was so much cleaner than most of dtla actually. Didn’t see anybody walking around with literal shit falling out of their pant leg for instance 🤷🏽♀️
Edit to add: way more homeless in LA too. It’s also way cheaper in Portland! I can get a rental my same size for like 500$ less a month in Portland.
I’m considering moving up there when my lease is up next year.
It’s also just way less homeless people though. For a city that will NOT remove tents or forcibly remove its homeless- I would expect a solid skid row. However, never saw one. 🤷🏽♀️
I lived in Portland for four years, and I have lived in LA on both sides of that. It is very Portland to be such a fucking pearl clutcher when Portland is an infinitely easier city to live in than somewhere like LA. I love LA more for a lot of reasons, but comparing a growing second tier city to a major metropolitan area is silly. Pockets of PDX are gritty, but it’s nowhere near as bad as places in major metropolitan areas, and to frame it as such is an absurdity.
I'm confused by your claim that Portland Police were "defunded".
>But two years after an initial push to defund the Portland Police Bureau, City Council approved a record $249 million PPB Budget — an amount more than $12 million higher than it was in fiscal year 2019-2020 before the racial justice protests of 2020 factored into budgeting discussions. While discussion of defunding was central, and accompanied by intense debate, police criticism and protests, the Portland Police Bureau only saw a brief dip in funding.
PPB’s total $225.5 million budget in the 2020-2021 fiscal year — covering July 2020 through June 2021 — was still the third-largest in bureau history at the time, trailing only the 2019-2020 budget by $11.4 million (4.8%), and 2018-2019 by $6.2 million (2.7%).
In total, since 2012-2013, when violent crime was at near-record lows in Portland according to FBI statistics, PPB’s budget increased by 47%, while the population increased by 12%, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Experts, studies and the city’s own data show the link between police funding and crime rates is, at best, inconclusive.
[It sounds like the police have more money than ever before?](https://www.streetroots.org/news/2022/08/03/ppb-budget-2022)
I follow the Portland subreddit because I’ve always liked the city and have visited a few times (last in 2019)
The mood has changed quite a bit on there in the past 3 years.
The mood has changed because the electorate has changed. Oregon is right now poised to elect a republican governor in november. Should tell you how even liberals are irritated.
Yep i used to live in Eugene Oregon about 2 years ago, and remember on my last year (after being there for almost 6 years) that the vibe had just gotten really dark in both Eugene and Portland. It's really sad because it used to be such an amazing place to live...
Right wing media has such a hard on for west coast cities and it’s seeped into the national consciousness. All of those cities are in better shape than the red states though.
Is it that Portland doesn't have a police force, or is that their existing police force heard some mild criticism and decided to pack it up and act like they'd been told to go on permanent vacation? I'm not here to say every defund the police move is wise but when it came up, you had cops saying that if you dared threaten their funding, you'd better watch out. This is what we were supposed to watch for, right? Them not doing their jobs and shit to get really bad so they could come back in with a big rhetorical splash to save the day and then ask for another budget increase?
I think that some of it was that things finally felt like they were improving in DTLA for the first time in, what, half a century? We had hope. Covid and then homelessness and all the petty crime that has come with it has killed a lot of that hope.
I am saddened to hear this report from Portland and hope parts are exaggerated nonetheless value your take and post.
You are correct. LA had so many segments that were inaccessible due to gangs alone. All of those now even have cafe scenes. There are bike lanes now, hope for the pollution to decrease further.
Also, You know everything else that is great about LA, since your from here. Even this latest scandal is an opportunity to clean house.
Yeah I visited Portland and can't tell if OP is exaggerating the details. In fact, I plan on visiting again in a month so we'll see how true their words are. My only gripe with Portland was the racism was more vocal/passive aggressive compared to here.
I live in PDX now. I like the lifestyle so much more than LA’s. (I have a 2br house with a massive yard in a nice neighborhood for literally less than half what I was paying for my shitty loft in Venice).
The people are grating and annoying to me. But whatever.
The homeless can be out of control depending on where you spend your time. And property crime is high.
And if you complain about it everyone just minimizes your shit getting broken into because of ‘mental illness’ or capitalism or whatever. As if that makes it okay. A while back I had someone break into one of my cars and use it to shoot up. I found it the next day: door open, needle, belt, etc. and some of my acquaintances’ responses were along the lines of ‘when it’s cold and rainy a car provides much needed warmth!’ Or ‘at least they didn’t tear your seat.’
So house and yard in quiet neighborhood ⚖️ annoying people.
I grew up near Portland and spent two years actually living in the city before moving down here to LA 5 months ago. OP is exaggerating or only goes to the shittiest parts of the city. Yeah, there's a lot of homeless and drugs around, but it was getting better when I left and the city was actually getting cleaned up a bit. I personally am really wanting to return to Portland, but am working at a promising looking startup so I'm stuck in LA for a bit.
I think OP is homesick, had a terrible thing happen to their friend group there, and doesn't have roots in that city. I can list a bunch of bad shit about LA compared to Portland, but it wouldn't be as populous as it is if everyone hated it.
Born and raised in Inglewood, moved to Portland in 2020 and moved back to Inglewood last week.
I have never felt more uncomfortable than I did living in Portland. I'm one of those people who hung out in Downtown LA at The Smell near Skid Row and all those warehouse parties. I never felt \*that\* scared in a group. In Portland? Heck no. On top of the lack of police, there are no fucking streetlights. Crackheads just coming out of dark bushes and tents. No thanks. I'm very passionate and I've spent a lottttt of time volunteering for various organizations to help the houseless, but a lot of the folks I've run into are fent and meth heads with weapons. City is too left and can't recruit more cops, plus no community support. Loved the trees and nature but I like to feel semi-safe walking in my neighborhood.
My younger years I lived in Portland and my teens+ were in LA. I visit Portland once a year and it has gotten extremely bad since I left over a decade ago. Saw homeless people inside the airport just roaming and taking up all the paper towels in the bathroom. Saw a guy with a machete walking on the side of the highway. Saw a guy shooting up in the open on the sidewalk.
But then again, in LA I’ve seen people use a fire hydrant to shower, pull down their pants and poop on the sidewalk, a mentally unstable person tried to threw a punch at me, seen a make shift “stove” under the freeway bridge… the one that takes the cake is LA has a large pool of unsafe/dangerous/entitled drivers.
Anyways LA, SF, Portland, Seattle are all fucked with homeless encampments. Sadly, it’s the only cities I would consider living in 😅
Portland didn't defund the police.
Also downtown isn't trashed and I've never seen anyone smoking fentanyl in front of a grocery store. Wild generalizations.
This is an interesting perspective. Also born and raised in the LA area (Pasadena) and still live here. My sister lives in Portland and my wife and I are considering moving up there because we just can't afford a home down here.
I don't hear much of this from my sister. Granted, we're Pasadena girls which I think is a bit different growing up experience than LA proper. Also, she lives a bit out in the burbs of Portland and I don't think she spends much time downtown. I know she's a bit on edge living alone because of some breakins in her neighborhood lately but otherwise she loves it there and thinks it's the best and we should all move up there. We've visited plenty and honestly have never found it to be worse than LA - but that's just our perspective as tourists.
Just like downtown LA shouldn’t define Los Angeles, downtown Portland shouldn’t define Portland.
But when tourists go visit Portland, they are almost certainly going to downtown exclusively. They hear it’s a “walkable” city and they don’t rent a car.
You should absolutely have a car if you’re staying for more than a few days in Portland. You should visit at least one nearby cool destination.
I was in Seattle for a good part of this summer. Though a bit limited to Downtown Seattle + surrounding area but, homeless in seattle is kinda like in between KTown and Civic Center level of homelessness if that makes sense
I moved back to LA less than a year ago from having lived in Seattle for three years. Seattle is like your first bag of Dick's... disappointing.
Seattle was expensive and always gave me less bang for buck. The homeless camps were massive and stretched along the freeway. For a while they were throwing bricks and rocks at cars for shits n giggles. I can't even think of a single thing I miss. The music scene was meh, the night life was nonexistent, the food was meh and it was usually wet.
Disagree respectfully. I have a nice dent in my car from living here in LA from a homeless gentleman throwing a brick, so that can happen anywhere. I think Seattle has great food, especially Vietnamese and Chinese. It is very expensive though, very comparable to LA if not the same.
What great Chinese?? I sampled so many places all over Seattle finding great chinese and came out empty-handed. The ONE place in ID I found with delicious bbq pork made my ass bleed.
Can confirm, visited Portland for the first time last summer and, well, it was a let-down. Trying to get near any parks, riverside or major attractions, it was bad homelessness, like Gower underpass homelessness. Passed a big bum tent fire downtown with fire engine responding. Did not feel comfortable parking my car anywhere.
It seemed like a fantastic city, if they ever decide to clean it back up. Until then it felt kinda unworthwhile (throw San Francisco in that bucket too, sadly.) Motels were a nightmare, too - ended up happier the nights I stayed in Washington.
tl:dr; Boo on Portland
On that note of SF:
I don't understand the hype, it's just tech bros and med bros in that city. Homelessness wasn't an issue to me personally, just the sheer smugness of SF was too much. Great Chinese food, though.
SF has some very cool architecture, unique neighborhoods and topography, beautiful old homes, beautiful nature within easy access, cool-ass bridges, great food, decent public transit and the Sutro bath ruins. It's too cold for me up there, but I'm not gonna pretend it's not got things people want
i lived in SF for a year in 2007 and it didn't have the current problems, but what was surprising for what a beautiful place it is is how empty it felt. really felt like a fish out of water in the bay area. possibly the prettiest city i've ever seen though, and a great ball park
Grass is always greener. I recently visited Portland after living in LA for 10 years and thought it was really nice. Streets we're clean, easy to walk around. It was bigger than I expected so I didn't see everything. But overall seemed clean.
Had the same perspective of Portland two years ago, sounds worse now. Junkies nodding out on corners downtown, falling into the crosswalk, cars speeding by. Parks completely trashed, apparently abandoned by the general public, only homeless guys, not a child, or a runner, or a family picnic in sight. It seemed lawless.
>LA actually has a police force whereas Portland does not.
I felt this in my soul. I'm a trucker, and I've been side swiped twice in the Portland kill zone. Caught entirely on dashcam, major accident that pins me blocking an entire lane on I-84 near the I-5 junction, and what do cops tell me when I call it in?
*"We will add it to the list of thousands of hit and run accidents."*
Several close calls but nothing as bad as I've had in Portland. The accident I had that was really bad? Was during The Great TP Shortage as well. I was hauling nothing but floor to ceiling wall to wall TP. I'm amazed I didn't end up wiped out with TP covering all 4 lanes.
I was just in DC last week and the homelessness problem is just as bad there than here. Take a drive out of the city area and on your way to Baltimore that place is trashed.
I love LA.
I blame Fox News and the conservative movement to shit on LA/CA cause it’s cool. Most of my friends who talk shit about LA have literally never left the state in years.
It’s all about perspective and time, much like the stock market. If you look at a market graph for just the past few months, it looks bad. Zoom out a bit and you get a different perspective.
It just depends on when you got in. If I moved to LA or invested in the stock market 30 years ago, yeah, things are looking good. But if I did either two years ago, things look like shit.
Neither perspective is right or wrong.
Is America less racist than it was in the 1950s? Yes. But does that mean we can’t complain about racism that exists today?
I moved to LA last year after living in Portland for 10 years and I’ve never been happier. I definitely lived in PDX during the height of its glory days imo. I went back to visit friends and was depressed as fuck. The food scene used to be amazing and I lived downtown most of my time there. Now it’s just what you said plus absolutely desolate and creepy quiet. It’s sad because it used to be so fun and cheap
I'm also born and raised in LA, lived through the same things, currently living in Portland. You could find similar complaints in the sub of any West Coast metro city. You can't drive around LA and not notice how much homelessness has grown over the last 10 years or so. I've gone back and forth between cities for the past several years. I defend Portland in this sub, and I defend LA in the Portland sub :)
Yes, there is a really bad homeless problem here in Portland that is exacerbated by the drug problem, which is tied to the severe mental illness problem. I agree that Portland is not the same as it was 8-10 years ago. Neither is LA, which generally *is* getting worse just like most metro cities in the country. That upswing that LA seemed to have 10-15 years ago has flattened out, at best.
The Portland police dept had their budget decreased for about a year, along with other city bureaus. But their overall percentage of the city fund stayed around 29-33% from '19-'22. This "defunding" is not an excuse for how unavailable the police have been to the public. They've had a hiring problem, not because of money, but because they can't convince anyone. No one was hired all of last year.
Decriminalizing drugs can work, but not when you shoehorn it into an existing infrastructure that was built on a totally different blueprint. LA has similar conflicts.
"Downtown Portland is trashed" is a myth, just like "the liberals burned Portland to the ground for BLM". I mean, it was pretty terrible for a while and still has the occasional literal dumpster fire. I was in Old Town two weeks ago and I had to avoid a drug addict that dressed and moved like a Thriller zombie. But regular folks are still out there lining up for Voodoo (meh), going to the waterfront, going to shows, etc. OP just glossed over how DTLA has been trying to fight off the return of what it was before the start of gentrification about 20 years ago. OP, no disrespect, but I think this is mostly your homesickness talking, lol. I hope you've found a decent go-to taco spot. They're very hard to come by out here.
>LA actually has a police force
I guess you could call it that.
> not another bike lane or a food cart pod where people in tents are dying in front of
LOL.
\*This OP proudly sponsored by Mike Bonin.
You don’t need to say “those experiencing homelessness.” Its overly wordy and it sounds like your friends were murdered by a couple of piece of shit bums
Oh stop. I've spent a lot of time in Portland over the last couple years and it's a really nice city outside of a small area of downtown and east side. Amazing food carts and restaurants, mostly chill friendly people not obsessed with the entertainment business, and stunning nature. Not to mention way more affordable.
I am sorry about you loosing your friends. I hope you find your way back To L.A
But until you do, May you find hope and light in every one of your days.
I visited Portland last year and was so disappointed in the downtown area. I felt super unsafe and there were 10x more unhoused folks than tourists and people walking around.
Just moved to North Milwaukie from NELA. I work a hybrid schedule in Downtown around Morrison and 12th. Open use is definitely sus but I actually feel like Portland is just a less shitty LA. LA is just so spread out that you aren't affected by the unhoused from day to day. Same hot mess of the unhoused on the Metro and the Max. We have kids hence the move to Milwaukie but we are loving it here. We actually feel safe for our kids to venture out on their own. I do miss my SGV Asian spots and Chile Relleno Burritos from La Azteca but food is awesome here.
I keep hearing this from people living there or recently relocated. Having lived in Portland in the early 2000’s (my partner lived their first 25 years there in the 80’s and 90’s), your description of what it once was is spot on. So sad!!
lmao what a joke people literally do meth on the bus and out in public, there are drug users almost everywhere in this city, you’re literally from LA so of course you feel safer, you’re not even here to know what’s going on in the first place since you haven’t been here this post is so useless
"L.A., not quite as shitty as Portland." There's the slogan for the 2028 Olympics.
It’s like that guy who made a commercial for Cleveland, at least we’re not Detroit!
Been working in Burbank on the last few shows, and I think about this all the time on my way to work: https://youtu.be/d4sYQXyaeJQ
😂🤣
Lol and here I was thinking Burbank was one of the nicer parts of The Valley lol
That Family Guy clip and people commenting are extremely disingenuous. I don't understand the angle really, maybe they don't want more people to move there? The fact is that Burbank/Glendale area is likely the second nicest place to live in LA outside of the "West Side". The area is extremely safe, clean, and filled with nice shops/restaurants. Go drive above Kenneth in Burbank/Glendale and compare it to the Family Guy clip. There's a reason those houses cost $1-3 million.
I think it is... Ever been to Santa Clarita?
*🎶Our chief export is crippling depression! 🎶*
I just went to Cleveland. Those videos rock. But also, I liked Cleveland. Had a good time there.
"If dog shit is OK for Paris 2024, bum shit is OK for LA 2028"
Uh, spent all summer in Paris, can confirm, they now have bum shit on the sidewalks too
Paris has a bad homeless problem?
It has a visible homeless problem, I don't know how you'd define bad. Large camps are mostly confined to certain areas but there are visible homeless people in every arrondissement. This was my first time visiting in 22 years that I saw people sleeping in tents in Paris. I was there March 2020 and didn't see that, it's very new.
Do they have a meth problem there? Also, happy cake day!
They do not, that was actually one thing I forgot to mention - it's also not a SCARY homeless problem. The P2P meth - and meth in general - is not there yet. SWIM said you can still get good coke. AFAIK fentanyl isn't an issue there yet either, because SWIM asked someone in the business about it and they told my friend they had no idea what they were talking about. France is super weird about drugs in general - they're the highest consumers of cannabis in western Europe but it's still \*very\* illegal. Nothing is that hard to find, but you do not want to get caught with it. And thank you!!!
"L.A., not as bad as it was 500 B.C."
Strong disagree. 500BC LA was chill as fuck.
Oh man, could you imagine what this place looked like back then? Tens of thousands of square miles of oaks, grass, native villages, herds of large animals, beautiful rolling hills, and not a fucking freeway or mega apartment complex to be seen for another 2400 years!
Gas under $6 a gallon
Man, you could just scoop the oil right out of the ground yourself. Didn’t cost anything
And tar pits!
Take me back
Everyone died by the time they were 22
45 is a better estimate but your point stands. Now is not better or worse than before. It's different.
Not really, the reason they had such a short average life span was due to incredibly high rates of infant mortality. So, if you have 100 people and 50 of them die before 1 and 50 die at 70, you’re “average” is 35 years old. Plenty of people lived into their 60’s back then, you just needed to make it to 3 or 4 first. With that said, getting injured or sick was WAY worse than it is now, for sure. Also, wolves, bears, and mountain lions saw humans as prey more so than now.
Less zoonotic illnesses because chickens & pigs weren't domesticated.
That's bad.
No wonder housing wasn't a problem.
I thought LA was mostly desert aside from the mountain areas?
Common misconception. LA was/is grassland, alluvial plains, wetlands, marshes, oak and pine forests, shrub land, chaparral, and a river basin. You don’t really get deserts until you go east over the San Gabriel and Angeles mountains.
Thank you for the clarification.
Actual LOL.
*“We’re not as bad as we used to be.”*
Which isn’t fair for selling the city, but is fair when someone says “This is the worst I’ve ever seen of L.A. for decades.”
"AT LEAST. WE'RE NOT. DETROIT!.......WE'RE NOT DETROIT"
Love this. Can't stop laughing. I'm seriously using this as LA's calling card.
Are the dreams of the 90s alive in portland?
Mine are. As long as the bistro can tell me the name of the free range mother hen who laid the eggs for my omelette and provided her with postpartum counseling, I am so in. Women & Women First, baby!
Now this Colin...did he, ya know, pal around with his friends?
You unlocked a memory I didn't know I had
If your dream was to never hear another Eddie Vedder song again, then no.
Hell yeah! Sleep till 11 you’ll be in heaven. 😂
If Agent Cooper is mayor, then yes.
The funny thing is, I just googled a little bit and there are people in Portland saying "it's bad but it's nowhere as bad as LA!" [https://www.reddit.com/r/askportland/comments/rhe6w2/is\_portland\_really\_that\_terrifying/](https://www.reddit.com/r/askportland/comments/rhe6w2/is_portland_really_that_terrifying/) Who to believe?
Portland is just so small, you can’t compare it to LA
This. But like LA Portland is a connection of neighborhoods. There are certainly nicer areas than downtown Portland. I feel what OP wrote about for a while but I travel to Portland quite a bit and in the late 90s and aughts Downtown Portland was already a magnet for transients and drugs. Especially for young people and teens. It was quite jarring when I first started to visit because in LA our bums tended to be older. Hard lifers. And similarly to what has happened in LA, most of those folks in the other neighborhoods just ignored it or even denied it was “that bad”. It seems to continue to be the case because the “not as bad as LA” is based on the belief those outside of LA that homelessness has hit every corner of LA.
Exactly. I try to explain this to people. LA is so big you really are spread out and in Portland or Seattle the downtown/city is so small that every issue in LA is compacted into such a small area.
All of this 100%. I used to live in Pdx and if you had to walk home from the opposite end of town it wasn’t a big deal because of the size. The weather also makes the homeless issue that much more depressing during the winter months. A constant drizzle, never fully rainy, and people doing drugs in front of your door. One time I had to call 911 because an aggressive homeless guy came into our building and the call went to voicemail lol . Downtown Portland was so fun and lively at one point, now it’s just sad and desolate
Yeah when I used to go there on the weekends from Seattle that was back when Portland was considered nicer than Seattle. There was always issues downtown pdx but not the same way. You could still pretty much walk the whole city without too much issue. Now I would say it’s pretty impossible to even enjoy. At least here if you have a bad experience it’s easy to avoid the area bc there are so many other places to go. There you have so little option especially when living there and needing to go to a bus station or shop without a car. Do not miss the rain either.
Recently visited Portland. Can confirm. Their worst is just common here.
Seriously. I just visited Portland for the first time and everyone there was complaining about how bad it was. Our downtown makes theirs look like Disneyland
I really don’t understand OP, I think they’re going to the better neighborhoods in LA and comparing them to worse off areas in Portland, because people smoking fentanyl on the street, a dilapidated downtown (hello Skid Row…), and inescapable homeless all describe large parts of LA to a T. I do agree there is a solid food scene here for sure though.
Thing about skid row is everyone knows to avoid it so the worst is in a bubble. In Portland some touristy spots are in places that are similar to skid row in LA. Voodoo Doughnuts in Portland is in a really rough place.
Sure, skid row is an exception as it’s a literal containment zone and we know not to go there but there are also places in LA like your comparison to Portland that apply as well. Venice Beach up until a couple months ago was *really* sketchy, and we all know that its state right now is an exception that won’t last
U right. I guess because its familiar in LA it doesn't feel as dangerous. I bet Portlanders feel that way too. But i had minor incidents in the short time I was in Portland, and have rarely had an issue in LA and I work in dtla
I was there during the day eating at the outdoor seating of Dan and Louis Oyster Bar. (Same alley way as voodo donuts) Few days later I was eating around the corner at Kaizen Sushi. Neither of these places felt that rough. Walking around dtla it’s tents everywhere! Numerous, even outside of skid row blocks will have tent after tent after tent. Portland you’ll walk around and in some areas you’ll see 3 tents on a block. It’s so much LESS depressing to walk around there than it is Los Angeles. I have no clue what you people are seeing when you go to Portland? Edit: Unless there’s a block in Portland completely taken over by RVs and tents, and tarps complete with buckets of human waste… I really don’t see what there is to complain about so hard up there? Another edit- IS*
I took cross country road trips in 2015 (LA to Atlanta) and 2019 (Savannah to San Francisco) and I can tell you EVERY city is experience a lot of fucked up homeless shit and crime. St Louis (was probably the worst I saw), Nashville, Atlanta, Kansas City, Oklahoma City (encountered the most dangerous homeless situation here), Albuquerque, New Orleans, St George Utah, Memphis... It goes on and on. There are serious problems in each of these cities that are in red states. This is a country that is dedicated to the advancement of corporations and the upper 5% and the ENTIRE country is suffering.
Another example, South Bend Indiana. Went there a couple weeks of the year for school, stayed at a hotel and walked three blocks every morning to class. Every morning at 7:30am it seemed there were at least two homeless people that would not only ask for money, but literally follow you from two feet away HOUNDING you. I’ve never experienced that in LA. When there’s fewer people around there’s fewer distractions and fewer witnesses, and the homeless feel empowered to do whatever they want.
Damn that's sad. I went to a Notre Dame game in the 90s and remember it being a seemingly nice small community. Like old school Pasadena. Definitely don't remember any homeless people.
10000%
It’s almost like internet testimonials will be almost entirely anecdotal
I recently moved up here from LA, and OP is somewhat exaggerating but not entirely. Those issues do exist, but Portland also has a pretty toxic online discourse that will make you hyper-focus on them. The homeless issue and associated trash/crime/drugs are more noticeable here than LA, but not to the point where it is constantly top of mind. That said, it seems like OP has had some legitimately bad experiences, so I really can’t judge them for their perspective. The mayor is reportedly going to announce a ban on unsanctioned camping next week, which is great news. There has also been an increase in sweeps over the past few months that has improved things somewhat. Downtown still has issues, but it’s gotten much better and people are starting to come back to it on the weekends.
Glad to hear it, the last 2 times I went, downtown Portland was brutal.
Imagine if skid row was all of downtown
Portland is nowhere near that make believe scenario. If anything, DTLA is closer to being one big Skid Row.
They're both great cities with serious problems. Believe the rational sounding people from both cities, not the fear mongers or deniers.
My money is on both
I’m the last 2-3 years I’ve been to (for extended times) Sacramento, LA, Houston, Dallas, Portland and Seattle. Lived in some, gone to others for work. Each of these cites is suffering from homelessness running rampant and drug use causing other issues. We need to stop comparing one city to other, these issues are nation wide and growing out of hand. These are people who need help and not one of the local governments has had an actual helping plan. I’m just so tired of everyone trying to compare or claim one city is better then another when what I’ve seen is they all are about the same. This all rolls back to mental health and Americas healthcare system sucking ass.
Absolutely, it’s 100% a *national* problem. We all live in our own bubbles and it’s hard to get out of them and gain the perspective that this is indeed bigger than what’s in our own backyards.
Except Portland didnt really [defund their police](https://www.streetroots.org/news/2022/08/03/ppb-budget-2022).
Right? I’m from the Portland area (family still lives there) and now live in LA and thought this exact same thing! The PPB have definitely not been defunded, lol.
The police enforce like they were defunded, when they weren't. Soon the police union will ask for even more money to do their jobs. Same thing happening in Seattle. "Don't like how we police, then we will quiet quit until the public demands us to crack down (and also give us more money)"
Portland Police Bureau is not underfunded, nor defunded—what it lacks is average cops-per-capita. “The bureau’s vacancy rate has climbed sharply in recent years, leaving Portland with just one working officer for every 827 residents. That’s dramatically fewer cops per capita than the authorized national average, including some other mid-size cities with comparable metro areas, according to an analysis by The Oregonian/OregonLive. Seattle, for example, staffs 29% more, with one officer for every 643 residents. Denver deploys 74% more cops per capita than Portland, with one for every 475 residents. Portland leaders are now debating whether to increase the ranks of the police bureau and how to do it amid officer staffing shortages, attempts at public safety reform and record numbers of shootings and homicides across the city.” [SOURCE](https://www.oregonlive.com/data/2021/11/why-portland-has-less-cops-now-than-any-point-in-past-30-years.html?outputType=amp)
Exactly, this is the PPB (which is mostly staffed with people from outside the city) not doing their job to 'get back' at city officials. The poor white supremacists are being oppressed and this is their way of acting out.
Bro that's really sad that your two friends were killed by homeless people. When did that happen and did they ever catch them? How can I tell if someone is smoking fentanyl versus some other drug?
They'll be dead quicker.
Crack is usually smoked out of a cylindrical glass tube Meth is usually smoked out of a glass tube with a round globe at the end - a "pookie" I don't know how people are smoking opiates but traditionally this was done on aluminum foil.
Yeah that's how it is in movies. But the truth is you can't tell what people are smoking when you walk by them and OP is picking Fentanyl because it's scary. OP also has no idea who killed his friends and is picking homeless people because he has a political agenda. He posted about the murders and both are unsolved. People manage to complain about the homeless all the time on this sub without this kind of reckless speculation.
Yeah, maybe I'm just online too much, but I smell an agenda.
FWIW, I moved to Portland last November and I tell everyone who bitches about Portland that it’s not nearly as sketchy as LA. Per Capita, I would say Portland is more sketchy, but there’s little downtown Portlands ALL OVER Los Angeles. But, quite frankly I love both cities and think they’re both awesome places to live!
Having visited Portland since the early 90s the sketchiest people are the 2A weirdos that love the shit on CA then freeze when you bring up responsible gun ownership.
There is not a police force in America that has been defunded. Not Portland. Not anywhere. Not one.
This really feels like bait. Cops in Portland are almost as crooked as LAPD. Feels like a way to boost pro-cop views and a way to bitch about the homeless here. It IS a problem, but it's more so a systemic problem, not that they exist. I've lived in k-town, I've lived right on the border of the tenderloin in SF. I've had my issues with individual unhoused people, but the way some people on here talk about the homeless as a whole just chills me. Just really gross.
Yeah, it’s clearly just bull shit
Spot on!
The sub hates homeless people and folks who defend them. It’s the main reason why I dislike this subreddit.
And seems to love cops
I have just as many issues with housed individuals as I do homeless individuals. LA and Portland are big places with millions of people. I worked in K-Town for 1.5 year (2020-2022) showing up and leaving at random hours (I worked at the wiltern) and it was so chill. Edit : the most “dangerous” place I’ve felt I’ve ever been too is actually downtown Wichita KS at 3am
And decriminalizing drugs is not what's causing addiction. Fentanyl wasn't created by the streets. But somehow it's an issue that the solution isn't immediately to put addicts in jail??
>And decriminalizing drugs is not what's causing addiction. Fentanyl wasn't created by the streets. Well, it kind of is / was. Marijuana used to make up 50% of the cartels' income, and once weed was legalized, they had to get that 50% from somewhere else. That somewhere else was meth and opioids, and once they figured out they could buy the precursor ingredients cheap in China (which thanks to the history of the Opium wars didn't have many qualms about returning the favor), they stopped bothering with growing poppies in Mexico and just set up labs to mix up meth and fentanyl and then export it to the U.S. That increased focus on meth and fentanyl, combined with the reformulation of meth, has caused addiction to go through the roof, especially since there's basically a revolving door for many dealers in the justice system.
My point is keeping strict marijuana laws in place and punishing the addicts for drug use wasn't going to help. Fentanyl wasn't created by the streets and making weed less illegal didn't cause the opioid crisis.
Yeah this is like a stealth caruso post
Op: im not a bootlicker Also Op: says bootlicker talking point
[удалено]
I can’t say for sure what Portland did, but I’d caution than “lowering the budget” is not the same as “not increasing the budget.” I’d also like to note that Portland PD’s budget was more than $230 million at the time of that article, before the increase. That’s not nothing.
They just shift money around. Not one police force has been defunded. And most have had their budgets increased
Im born and raised LA native, is it currently better than 80s/90s? Yeah it is, but it’s a steady decline so at our current rate we might end up back to 80s/90s or worse. Also there’s new factors now. Back then gang violence was high, I remember not being able to go to certain restaurants late at night in SGV due to drive bys and gang wars. Now our homeless problem is worse than ever. Starting to see homeless pop up in suburbs where it’s normally quiet and clean. Thefts and home invasions are now happening in towns that are considered safe and quiet. So many random fires now by the homeless. These posts saying “oh it’s not as bad as 80s/90s” “it’s not as bad as Portland / Seattle” are a bit misleading because it ignores the fact that we are on a path to getting there.
Saying at least LA isn’t as bad as it was in 90’s or it’s not as bad as Portland/Seattle is so misleading! It’s like saying we have to use dial-up internet now but at least it’s not as bad as pre-internet days!! LA is worse than pre-pandemic and that’s a problem. I like the optimism in these type of posts but we shouldn’t be okay with the trajectory of current conditions.
Homeless are invading our area. Last night someone was trying to open our gate, luckily it was locked and secure. It’s getting out of hand. Lawlessness
Thanks for reminding me. I grew up in the SGV and I remember the drive bys vividly. Those were some wild years.
A steady decline? Crime rates had been going down year over year for a long time until the pandemic hit. Now we’re going through economic hardship and you’re surprised that crime rates have spiked? Tell me more about you’re incredible stroke of insight. I mean yes crime is worst now than it was a few years ago, but nowhere near where it used to be when it was really bad. Talk to me again when we see year over year increases in crime even during economically stable or improving conditions. Then you might have a point.
People say “ the cops don’t do anything. It took them 3 hours to get here. They wouldn’t even take a report “ Statistics based on arrests and reports say “ crime rates are going down”
Huh? Crime is generally not based on "arrests"...do you have a study that shows that?
Yeah, I feel like the OP is missing or glossing over a few things. Namely, back in the 80s/90s, we did not have the same amount and intensity of extremely angry, unpredictable folks out on the streets. It's a whole 'nother level nowadays. Also, while we had road rage (remember that random freeway shooting "fad" for we had for awhile?), we didn't have the consistent, widespread, psycho-aggro drivers across all demographics and areas that we now have. Driving (and being a pedestrian) has a much higher level of stress now than back then. Many things have improved, but it hasn't been as across-the-board as the OP suggests.
The 90's was 30 years ago. A 30% jump in homicide should cause alarm. In the 90's the homeless population didn't even hit 10,000. Now it's pushing 70,000. From my personal experience and just simple observation, LA is not safer than it was pre pandemic. Not by a long shot.
Dream of the 90s is Alive in ~~Portland~~ Los Angeles
From the perspective of a native Oregonian, Portland/Oregon has always been gritty in areas and had a lot of homeless and mentally ill people on the streets because it used to be a cheap place to live. Homelessness has gone up **everywhere** on the west coast though, even Utah where it famously was going down for years, due to the increased cost of living exacerbated by the pandemic upsetting the balance of our society. Crime, especially homicides, has spiked **everywhere** in cities during the pandemic even in places that didn't move around their police funding after the George Floyd protests. Portland is just like LA in the sense there's really nice safe areas with only property crime and then areas with higher chances of violent crime. Drugs have always been an issue in Oregon falling into two camps. Either pot and psychedelics or meth and opioids. When I moved away in 2000, people were ripping guard rails off highways to sell for drug money. A couple of my high school classmates are dead from overdoses or in prison for drug related crimes. Portland has always been like that but you don't really notice it until you spend a good chunk of time there. That said, Oregon is still a beautiful place and I wouldn't mind moving back at some point. Voodoo Donuts are for tourists and Blue Star is much better.
My dad has had a house in southern Oregon for 30 years and one of my first understandings of Oregon as a child was "lots of meth"
>The 90's were rough. I went through Northridge, the LA riots. Downtown LA was not a destination. This sums it up perfectly for me! I remember being a young kid and the gangs being way more visible. Cholos with there bald heads, baggy pants, constant late night shootings, etc. It still exists today but trust me it was waaaay worse. I was in 5th grade when the riots broke out. School was almost out when word got out that the city was on fire. Places like the Newberry store on Venice & Western was burnt down among other place. Our Korean friends were under fire with there stores/businesses being targeted. It was crazy times indeed. Hell I still remember watching the news when all of a sudden Reginald Denny got pulled out of his truck and got brutally attacked! It's a miracle he survived that cinderblock to his head. SMH! Good ol' Downtown was definitely not the spot to be back in the 90's. But it was good place to go to find cheap clothing, Grand Central Market was a good place to hit up. And how can I forget about the Northridge earthquake. I was a young lad at that time and my apt. was rockin' & rollin literary! I could only imagine how it felt for the folks who actually lived in the epicenter because like I said my apt. shook like a mutha-efer! I'll just say that the people who lived in L.A. around that time until now are freakin' survivors! We went through that and so much more, the good and the bad but in the end of the day I love this city. :)
damn you a OG Angeleno fr fr
Get that vato some dickies
I was born and raised in LA, never involved in gangs but they were apart of my life. Just coming out of the 90s, fresh into my first apartment… When I was 20-21 I lived in a neighborhood known for Bloods and they would hang out on the corner by my apt. Our building had 6 apt and all the tenants were either older or a family, with the exception of us, 3 stoners sharing an apartment and rocking out our early 20s… and two different times we had to hit the ground because of drive bys. Also, a guy down the street was taken out at like 6am when he was pulling out for work. Two guys ran up on him and emptied their guns into his truck. The guy was a snitch I heard …but gdamn this was a different time. Swat had a few appearances as well, and little kids constantly up the street as little look outs yelling “shark” when cops rolled up. Now I wouldn’t even be able to afford my old apartment building’s rent and the neighborhood cleaned up pretty freakin nice. Didn’t hate living there but you had to have your head on a swivel, it was a wild time.
>Now I wouldn’t even be able to afford my old apartment building’s rent and the neighborhood cleaned up pretty freakin nice. Didn’t hate living there but you had to have your head on a swivel, it was a wild time. Well said. And it's the same with my old block. It's definitely more quiet now and it's still mostly Hispanic people living there, sprinkle in a handful of Korean & African American people. And my apt. (mom & I) was cheap back then, 2 bedrooms, 1 bath, decent sized kitchen & a nice small patio outside went for 5 hundred. Quick story, I was pretty much a latchkey kid growing up who watched t.v. waaaay too much. One afternoon I heard a ruckus outside my apt. So I took a peek through my window and the first thing I see is a gang banger hiding behind a car with a shotgun in his hand hiding from someone. I stood there for a quick second and then ran like hell to the bathroom to hide. LOL That was just how it was back then and you got used to it. Sucks to say but it's true.
Eh, when I was in Portland I thought it was so much cleaner than most of dtla actually. Didn’t see anybody walking around with literal shit falling out of their pant leg for instance 🤷🏽♀️ Edit to add: way more homeless in LA too. It’s also way cheaper in Portland! I can get a rental my same size for like 500$ less a month in Portland. I’m considering moving up there when my lease is up next year.
It’s only cleaner because the rain washes the shit away more often than it does here.
It’s also just way less homeless people though. For a city that will NOT remove tents or forcibly remove its homeless- I would expect a solid skid row. However, never saw one. 🤷🏽♀️
I lived in Portland for four years, and I have lived in LA on both sides of that. It is very Portland to be such a fucking pearl clutcher when Portland is an infinitely easier city to live in than somewhere like LA. I love LA more for a lot of reasons, but comparing a growing second tier city to a major metropolitan area is silly. Pockets of PDX are gritty, but it’s nowhere near as bad as places in major metropolitan areas, and to frame it as such is an absurdity.
Yeah I don’t get OP, even the whole thing about there isn’t police? Like I saw police several times while I was last in Portland like 2 weeks ago?
I'm confused by your claim that Portland Police were "defunded". >But two years after an initial push to defund the Portland Police Bureau, City Council approved a record $249 million PPB Budget — an amount more than $12 million higher than it was in fiscal year 2019-2020 before the racial justice protests of 2020 factored into budgeting discussions. While discussion of defunding was central, and accompanied by intense debate, police criticism and protests, the Portland Police Bureau only saw a brief dip in funding. PPB’s total $225.5 million budget in the 2020-2021 fiscal year — covering July 2020 through June 2021 — was still the third-largest in bureau history at the time, trailing only the 2019-2020 budget by $11.4 million (4.8%), and 2018-2019 by $6.2 million (2.7%). In total, since 2012-2013, when violent crime was at near-record lows in Portland according to FBI statistics, PPB’s budget increased by 47%, while the population increased by 12%, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Experts, studies and the city’s own data show the link between police funding and crime rates is, at best, inconclusive. [It sounds like the police have more money than ever before?](https://www.streetroots.org/news/2022/08/03/ppb-budget-2022)
OPs whole post is bullshit pro-police propaganda
I follow the Portland subreddit because I’ve always liked the city and have visited a few times (last in 2019) The mood has changed quite a bit on there in the past 3 years.
That sub is about the most right-wing thing in Portland’s city limits.
Similar to this sub with where the "Final Solution" to homelessness is teased on a daily basis.
And it's a lot of people who don't even live in Portland, just like the police.
The mood has changed because the electorate has changed. Oregon is right now poised to elect a republican governor in november. Should tell you how even liberals are irritated.
Yep i used to live in Eugene Oregon about 2 years ago, and remember on my last year (after being there for almost 6 years) that the vibe had just gotten really dark in both Eugene and Portland. It's really sad because it used to be such an amazing place to live...
The mood of this entire city has shifted. It's grim and not a pun intended.
Right wing media has such a hard on for west coast cities and it’s seeped into the national consciousness. All of those cities are in better shape than the red states though.
Is it that Portland doesn't have a police force, or is that their existing police force heard some mild criticism and decided to pack it up and act like they'd been told to go on permanent vacation? I'm not here to say every defund the police move is wise but when it came up, you had cops saying that if you dared threaten their funding, you'd better watch out. This is what we were supposed to watch for, right? Them not doing their jobs and shit to get really bad so they could come back in with a big rhetorical splash to save the day and then ask for another budget increase?
I call bullshit. Portland is a dumpster fire, but downtown Portland is small. Compare our downtown to yours, you’ll see how wrong you are:
People are not smoking fent in front of the grocery store man. I don’t believe that for a second
I think that some of it was that things finally felt like they were improving in DTLA for the first time in, what, half a century? We had hope. Covid and then homelessness and all the petty crime that has come with it has killed a lot of that hope.
I am saddened to hear this report from Portland and hope parts are exaggerated nonetheless value your take and post. You are correct. LA had so many segments that were inaccessible due to gangs alone. All of those now even have cafe scenes. There are bike lanes now, hope for the pollution to decrease further. Also, You know everything else that is great about LA, since your from here. Even this latest scandal is an opportunity to clean house.
Yeah I visited Portland and can't tell if OP is exaggerating the details. In fact, I plan on visiting again in a month so we'll see how true their words are. My only gripe with Portland was the racism was more vocal/passive aggressive compared to here.
I live in PDX now. I like the lifestyle so much more than LA’s. (I have a 2br house with a massive yard in a nice neighborhood for literally less than half what I was paying for my shitty loft in Venice). The people are grating and annoying to me. But whatever. The homeless can be out of control depending on where you spend your time. And property crime is high. And if you complain about it everyone just minimizes your shit getting broken into because of ‘mental illness’ or capitalism or whatever. As if that makes it okay. A while back I had someone break into one of my cars and use it to shoot up. I found it the next day: door open, needle, belt, etc. and some of my acquaintances’ responses were along the lines of ‘when it’s cold and rainy a car provides much needed warmth!’ Or ‘at least they didn’t tear your seat.’ So house and yard in quiet neighborhood ⚖️ annoying people.
It is exaggerated. I spend time In both the cities and there are good and bad arts of each.
I grew up near Portland and spent two years actually living in the city before moving down here to LA 5 months ago. OP is exaggerating or only goes to the shittiest parts of the city. Yeah, there's a lot of homeless and drugs around, but it was getting better when I left and the city was actually getting cleaned up a bit. I personally am really wanting to return to Portland, but am working at a promising looking startup so I'm stuck in LA for a bit. I think OP is homesick, had a terrible thing happen to their friend group there, and doesn't have roots in that city. I can list a bunch of bad shit about LA compared to Portland, but it wouldn't be as populous as it is if everyone hated it.
Born and raised in Inglewood, moved to Portland in 2020 and moved back to Inglewood last week. I have never felt more uncomfortable than I did living in Portland. I'm one of those people who hung out in Downtown LA at The Smell near Skid Row and all those warehouse parties. I never felt \*that\* scared in a group. In Portland? Heck no. On top of the lack of police, there are no fucking streetlights. Crackheads just coming out of dark bushes and tents. No thanks. I'm very passionate and I've spent a lottttt of time volunteering for various organizations to help the houseless, but a lot of the folks I've run into are fent and meth heads with weapons. City is too left and can't recruit more cops, plus no community support. Loved the trees and nature but I like to feel semi-safe walking in my neighborhood.
Exactly how I feel. It’s wild here. Like. A scary safari.
My younger years I lived in Portland and my teens+ were in LA. I visit Portland once a year and it has gotten extremely bad since I left over a decade ago. Saw homeless people inside the airport just roaming and taking up all the paper towels in the bathroom. Saw a guy with a machete walking on the side of the highway. Saw a guy shooting up in the open on the sidewalk. But then again, in LA I’ve seen people use a fire hydrant to shower, pull down their pants and poop on the sidewalk, a mentally unstable person tried to threw a punch at me, seen a make shift “stove” under the freeway bridge… the one that takes the cake is LA has a large pool of unsafe/dangerous/entitled drivers. Anyways LA, SF, Portland, Seattle are all fucked with homeless encampments. Sadly, it’s the only cities I would consider living in 😅
Portland didn't defund the police. Also downtown isn't trashed and I've never seen anyone smoking fentanyl in front of a grocery store. Wild generalizations.
This is an interesting perspective. Also born and raised in the LA area (Pasadena) and still live here. My sister lives in Portland and my wife and I are considering moving up there because we just can't afford a home down here. I don't hear much of this from my sister. Granted, we're Pasadena girls which I think is a bit different growing up experience than LA proper. Also, she lives a bit out in the burbs of Portland and I don't think she spends much time downtown. I know she's a bit on edge living alone because of some breakins in her neighborhood lately but otherwise she loves it there and thinks it's the best and we should all move up there. We've visited plenty and honestly have never found it to be worse than LA - but that's just our perspective as tourists.
Casual “two of my friend were murdered.” Ummmm…. Wtf!?!?
Just like downtown LA shouldn’t define Los Angeles, downtown Portland shouldn’t define Portland. But when tourists go visit Portland, they are almost certainly going to downtown exclusively. They hear it’s a “walkable” city and they don’t rent a car. You should absolutely have a car if you’re staying for more than a few days in Portland. You should visit at least one nearby cool destination.
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I was in Seattle for a good part of this summer. Though a bit limited to Downtown Seattle + surrounding area but, homeless in seattle is kinda like in between KTown and Civic Center level of homelessness if that makes sense
I moved back to LA less than a year ago from having lived in Seattle for three years. Seattle is like your first bag of Dick's... disappointing. Seattle was expensive and always gave me less bang for buck. The homeless camps were massive and stretched along the freeway. For a while they were throwing bricks and rocks at cars for shits n giggles. I can't even think of a single thing I miss. The music scene was meh, the night life was nonexistent, the food was meh and it was usually wet.
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Very much a "No". Great after a bar, but honestly McDs would've been better.
Seems a bag of dicks might be more comparable to 5 guys.
Disagree respectfully. I have a nice dent in my car from living here in LA from a homeless gentleman throwing a brick, so that can happen anywhere. I think Seattle has great food, especially Vietnamese and Chinese. It is very expensive though, very comparable to LA if not the same.
What great Chinese?? I sampled so many places all over Seattle finding great chinese and came out empty-handed. The ONE place in ID I found with delicious bbq pork made my ass bleed.
Can confirm, visited Portland for the first time last summer and, well, it was a let-down. Trying to get near any parks, riverside or major attractions, it was bad homelessness, like Gower underpass homelessness. Passed a big bum tent fire downtown with fire engine responding. Did not feel comfortable parking my car anywhere. It seemed like a fantastic city, if they ever decide to clean it back up. Until then it felt kinda unworthwhile (throw San Francisco in that bucket too, sadly.) Motels were a nightmare, too - ended up happier the nights I stayed in Washington. tl:dr; Boo on Portland
On that note of SF: I don't understand the hype, it's just tech bros and med bros in that city. Homelessness wasn't an issue to me personally, just the sheer smugness of SF was too much. Great Chinese food, though.
SF has some very cool architecture, unique neighborhoods and topography, beautiful old homes, beautiful nature within easy access, cool-ass bridges, great food, decent public transit and the Sutro bath ruins. It's too cold for me up there, but I'm not gonna pretend it's not got things people want
i lived in SF for a year in 2007 and it didn't have the current problems, but what was surprising for what a beautiful place it is is how empty it felt. really felt like a fish out of water in the bay area. possibly the prettiest city i've ever seen though, and a great ball park
not true. the homeless/ drug mess in LA is worse by a landslide and you can see that supported by the numbers.
I will forever be priced out of my hometown of Pacific Palisades and that makes me sad.
Manhattan Beach here. I get it.
Grass is always greener. I recently visited Portland after living in LA for 10 years and thought it was really nice. Streets we're clean, easy to walk around. It was bigger than I expected so I didn't see everything. But overall seemed clean.
Bullshit post about L.A. and Portland
Yep the LA police department they sure are good at shooting people in the back.
As an Angeleno residing in Los Angeles, I concur.
Had the same perspective of Portland two years ago, sounds worse now. Junkies nodding out on corners downtown, falling into the crosswalk, cars speeding by. Parks completely trashed, apparently abandoned by the general public, only homeless guys, not a child, or a runner, or a family picnic in sight. It seemed lawless.
>LA actually has a police force whereas Portland does not. I felt this in my soul. I'm a trucker, and I've been side swiped twice in the Portland kill zone. Caught entirely on dashcam, major accident that pins me blocking an entire lane on I-84 near the I-5 junction, and what do cops tell me when I call it in? *"We will add it to the list of thousands of hit and run accidents."*
Have you had to report anything in Los Angeles, city or county, lately?
Several close calls but nothing as bad as I've had in Portland. The accident I had that was really bad? Was during The Great TP Shortage as well. I was hauling nothing but floor to ceiling wall to wall TP. I'm amazed I didn't end up wiped out with TP covering all 4 lanes.
I was just in DC last week and the homelessness problem is just as bad there than here. Take a drive out of the city area and on your way to Baltimore that place is trashed. I love LA. I blame Fox News and the conservative movement to shit on LA/CA cause it’s cool. Most of my friends who talk shit about LA have literally never left the state in years.
"LA is not as bad is Portland" or "LA is not as bad as it was in the height of 90s crime" =/= "LA is doing ok"
It’s all about perspective and time, much like the stock market. If you look at a market graph for just the past few months, it looks bad. Zoom out a bit and you get a different perspective. It just depends on when you got in. If I moved to LA or invested in the stock market 30 years ago, yeah, things are looking good. But if I did either two years ago, things look like shit. Neither perspective is right or wrong. Is America less racist than it was in the 1950s? Yes. But does that mean we can’t complain about racism that exists today?
the racism analogy is spot on.
I moved to LA last year after living in Portland for 10 years and I’ve never been happier. I definitely lived in PDX during the height of its glory days imo. I went back to visit friends and was depressed as fuck. The food scene used to be amazing and I lived downtown most of my time there. Now it’s just what you said plus absolutely desolate and creepy quiet. It’s sad because it used to be so fun and cheap
Los Angeles should already have the worst of the worst under its belt. The other cities are just hitting city puberty.
I'm also born and raised in LA, lived through the same things, currently living in Portland. You could find similar complaints in the sub of any West Coast metro city. You can't drive around LA and not notice how much homelessness has grown over the last 10 years or so. I've gone back and forth between cities for the past several years. I defend Portland in this sub, and I defend LA in the Portland sub :) Yes, there is a really bad homeless problem here in Portland that is exacerbated by the drug problem, which is tied to the severe mental illness problem. I agree that Portland is not the same as it was 8-10 years ago. Neither is LA, which generally *is* getting worse just like most metro cities in the country. That upswing that LA seemed to have 10-15 years ago has flattened out, at best. The Portland police dept had their budget decreased for about a year, along with other city bureaus. But their overall percentage of the city fund stayed around 29-33% from '19-'22. This "defunding" is not an excuse for how unavailable the police have been to the public. They've had a hiring problem, not because of money, but because they can't convince anyone. No one was hired all of last year. Decriminalizing drugs can work, but not when you shoehorn it into an existing infrastructure that was built on a totally different blueprint. LA has similar conflicts. "Downtown Portland is trashed" is a myth, just like "the liberals burned Portland to the ground for BLM". I mean, it was pretty terrible for a while and still has the occasional literal dumpster fire. I was in Old Town two weeks ago and I had to avoid a drug addict that dressed and moved like a Thriller zombie. But regular folks are still out there lining up for Voodoo (meh), going to the waterfront, going to shows, etc. OP just glossed over how DTLA has been trying to fight off the return of what it was before the start of gentrification about 20 years ago. OP, no disrespect, but I think this is mostly your homesickness talking, lol. I hope you've found a decent go-to taco spot. They're very hard to come by out here.
portland's falafel trucks are outstanding though
They really are. I haven't had a bad one yet.
>LA actually has a police force I guess you could call it that. > not another bike lane or a food cart pod where people in tents are dying in front of LOL. \*This OP proudly sponsored by Mike Bonin.
You do know that the PPB is literally just intentionally letting Downtown Portland go to hell to make a point right?
You don’t need to say “those experiencing homelessness.” Its overly wordy and it sounds like your friends were murdered by a couple of piece of shit bums
I never know who is going to cancel me.
This guy definitely lives in Portland.
lol do you not live in Highland Park?
Won’t be me baby
Oh stop. I've spent a lot of time in Portland over the last couple years and it's a really nice city outside of a small area of downtown and east side. Amazing food carts and restaurants, mostly chill friendly people not obsessed with the entertainment business, and stunning nature. Not to mention way more affordable.
I am sorry about you loosing your friends. I hope you find your way back To L.A But until you do, May you find hope and light in every one of your days.
LA leaders, city and county, should be embarrassed. If Portland is worse, then those leaders should be, too.
Yea la is good if you have money to spend. That’s the problem.
I visited Portland last year and was so disappointed in the downtown area. I felt super unsafe and there were 10x more unhoused folks than tourists and people walking around.
To be fair, even during Portland's good days it still felt like there more homeless people than regular people downtown
Just moved to North Milwaukie from NELA. I work a hybrid schedule in Downtown around Morrison and 12th. Open use is definitely sus but I actually feel like Portland is just a less shitty LA. LA is just so spread out that you aren't affected by the unhoused from day to day. Same hot mess of the unhoused on the Metro and the Max. We have kids hence the move to Milwaukie but we are loving it here. We actually feel safe for our kids to venture out on their own. I do miss my SGV Asian spots and Chile Relleno Burritos from La Azteca but food is awesome here.
“Yeah being a paraplegic isn’t so bad. You could be a quadriplegic, like me.”
I don't have an opinion either way, but I feel like what you say about Portland and it's homeless problems, is what most say about LA.
Thank you! I love los angeles so much! She is a beauty and continuing to improve year after year!
Is this bootlicker slur a thing everywhere? Wanting cops to do their cop jobs is common sense.
I keep hearing this from people living there or recently relocated. Having lived in Portland in the early 2000’s (my partner lived their first 25 years there in the 80’s and 90’s), your description of what it once was is spot on. So sad!!
lmao what a joke people literally do meth on the bus and out in public, there are drug users almost everywhere in this city, you’re literally from LA so of course you feel safer, you’re not even here to know what’s going on in the first place since you haven’t been here this post is so useless
Oh look, right wing propaganda. How rare on Reddit.