1. A few thoughts about press pieces that advance cynical narratives about the “end of Portland” because, apparently, protesters and homeless people have made the city, or the downtown, unsafe.

2. First off let’s stop pretending these narratives are “objective journalism” as opposed to cynical narratives advanced by PR flacks for downtown business interests designed to advance their idea who is allowed to enjoy our public lands.

3. Like white settlers of Oregon 150 years ago, downtown business interests want control of our commons. They want to exile homeless, addicted, mentally ill, poor, black and brown people from space that they want for their interests – a placid consumerism.

4. The downtown business interests could mostly address the problem through far more substantial investments in social services, but that would involve paying taxes and conceding that they have some connection to and obligation to helping our neighbors.

5. But instead they choose, over and over again, to shortchange those solutions, in favor of a policy of hyper-criminalization and hyper-policing. And they demand this solution through cynical campaigns of fear.

6. The irony is that hyper-policing is costly and ineffective (and cruel). So it doesn’t actually work all that well. But the ideology of mass incarceration is far more important to them than actual solutions. Police are their allies and the solution they want.

7. In any event, this all leads to them pimping fearmongering pieces to the press, and reporters infatuated with power and money, lazily adopting these fearmongering frames. EVEN WHEN THE CRIME DATA CONFLICTS WITH THE FRAME.

8. Looked at over a broad swath of time, our city is the safest its been in decades. This graph doesn’t include 2020 because the police department hasn’t made comparable data available for 2020 yet, but here is the broad context.

9. Using what data we do have for 2020, here are person & property crimes for the city for the past 5 years. As you can see, in 2020, both person & property crimes were about the same as they were the prior few years. NEITHER PERSON NOR PROPERTY CRIMES hit a 5 year high last year

10. But what about the downtown – that’s where those radical rebellious anarchist antifa baddies were located. Once again, when it comes to personal safety, 2020 was a very safe year. 15% SAFER than 2019. Tho true, property crimes went up about 10%. End of civilization I guess.

11. And if you expand the analysis slightly to include what I think of as the three main downtown neighborhoods (what the police call “downtown” plus the Pearl and Chinatown/Old Town) person crimes were DOWN 20%. Property crimes were up, but down compared to two years ago.

12. So let’s dispense with this idea of the END OF PORTLAND. Or the end of downtown. Or “the protesters destroyed our city.” Or whatever Trump-type nonsense that our downtown business leaders and the @oregonian newspaper is pushing. Because its nonsense.

13. And the truth is the nonsense matters. The crime-fear is like fuel for our costly, ineffective and cruel hyper-policing and caging of our most vulnerable neighbors. It’s not just a difference of opinion. It’s cruel. It hurts people.

14. And here’s the irony: it prevents us from having a serious discussion about how we might humanely address these needs, solve these problems, address the real externalities that vulnerable people and protesters impose on the collective.