It's really, really bad in Eugene, Oregon. And Salem is a mess too. But the Portland metro is by an order of magnitude more populous. It's also desperately unde

It's really, really bad in Eugene, Oregon. And Salem is a mess too. But the Portland metro is by an order of magnitude more populous. It's also desperately underfunded, and it's got a situation in which the populace mostly hates the police, and the police feel the same way back. (Which led to an amazing announcement during early Covid, when people were being assaulted and houses broken into all over the city): https://www.kgw.com/article/news/health/coronavirus/portland-police-will-stop-responding-in-person-to-calls-that-arent-life-threatening-citing-coronavirus-concerns/283-ca357f8c-d0f1-42e4-b9f4-d3696b203494 https://www.kgw.com/article/news/health/coronavirus/portland... This effect hasn't worn off. And the combination of lawlessness and drug availability in Portland has led to a massive influx of people from every other part of the country that has less tolerance for a combination of open drug use + antisocial behavior. I don't think support services even register as part of the draw. There are no cops here and drugs are everywhere, it's open season on people who own property (still), or just anyone walking down the street with $10 in his pocket. It's a separate subject whether the Portland police are essentially allowing this because (a) they're pissed off at the DA who won't prosecute anyone they arrest and (b) they're pissed off at the denizens and (c) they can't even hire anyone from Portland itself, since Portlanders hate the police so much. All those are basically true, and they're holding the city hostage by not doing their job. But this is why it doesn't work on a local level. If half the junkies in Idaho weren't robbing people here to buy fentanyl, they'd have to rob people in Boise. White America did not give a fuck about the effects of street drugs on their loved ones when only Black Americans were enduring the crack epidemic. They only started to care once it affected their neighbors and their kids. Shipping those all off to the one place in the country that allows reckless abuse and has no enforcement is a way of washing their hands of their problems and blaming "liberal cities" like ours.