Portland, OR: Where the People Get What They Want

One of an estimated 800 encampments in Portland

Portland reverses its 3-year Progressive experiment on "victimless" drugs.

Oregon’s political leaders...are now on the cusp of ending a three-year experiment as the first and only state in the nation to allow people to freely use drugs from heroin to cocaine to fentanyl...

Backers of the 2020 ballot measure, which passed with 58% support, successfully convinced their fellow residents of the left-leaning state that decriminalization would mean fewer nonviolent drug addicts in prison and more in treatment.

But while the first part of the prediction proved true, the second didn’t. Without the threat of imprisonment, few people have proved willing to take advantage of the expanded addiction services the measure funded. Instead, public drug use has become rampant, as people can now smoke fentanyl and use other drugs on sidewalks with no consequences.

Residents, business owners and law-enforcement officials have become infuriated, and a poll last year found most people wanted to reverse course and make drug possession a crime again. Advocates said they would try to put a measure on this year’s ballot ending decriminalization if the legislature didn’t act.

Up and down the West Coast people are realizing that these nostrums don't work. Homelessness, property crime, and deaths from substance abuse are all up because of the Progressive belief that "carceral" systems not only unjustly punish but are racist to boot. The whole episode has a silver lining: democracy works, because the voters got what they wanted in 2020, and now they're getting what they want in 2024.

Powell's City of Books

One section of one floor

Our second stop in Portland was Powell's City of Books, billed as the largest independent new and used bookstore in the world, which

Powell's politics is the same as SF bookstores'.

occupies a full city block between NW 10th and 11th Avenues and between W. Burnside and NW Couch Streets. It contains over 68,000 square feet (6,300 m2), about 1.6 acres of retail floor space. CNN rates it one of the ten "coolest" bookstores in the world. The City of Books has nine color-coded rooms and over 3,500 different sections.

I'd been meaning to read Jack Kerouac's On the Road (1957), but the local library always had it checked out. (It's only about 12 bucks on Amazon, but for one reason or another I failed to pull the trigger.)

I asked the lady at Information where I could find a copy. Without having to look at a computer she said, "That's in Literature, the Blue Room." The Blue Room itself was huge, the size of a small Barnes & Noble. There were two dozen copies of On the Road, four different editions, most used, and in good condition.

There were even copies of the Original Scroll, the longer uncut edition that was published in 2007, 38 years after Kerouac's death. I picked up a copy of the 1957 version for $9.95, which allowed me to validate the parking stub and save $3.

Another benefit: there was no sales tax in Oregon. Don't scoff; at 8.75% in San Mateo County it adds up.

As Much For Its Ambience As Its Fare

Budgeting three hours in Portland on the way to Seattle for a wedding, we had time for only two stops. The first was Voodoo Doughnut, a shop known as much for its ambience as its fare. With three locations in Portland we didn't expect a line on late Friday morning.

We were wrong. There was a wait, made more prolonged by a couple of large orders served in a coffin.

A father of two young daughters, both of whom clearly were familiar with the store, told us which doughnut was the best for first-timers.

He named the Voodoo Doll ("raised yeast doughnut filled with raspberry jelly topped with chocolate frosting and a pretzel stake"), so we bought two.

The doughnuts were indeed fresh but a little too sweet for my taste.

I'm glad we visited but won't be stopping by again when we head home in three days.

Stopping on the Way to Seattle

Portland at night (Flickr photo)

Portland at night is beautiful. Unfortunately I couldn't enjoy much of that beauty because my eyes were glued to the car's navigation screen. Driving Portland's circuitous streets and bridges, even with the aid of GPS, can be confusing. (I hadn't visited the City of Roses for 30 years.)

We got a late start leaving the Bay Area and, 650 miles later, found ourselves looking for an eatery at 10:30 p.m.

"Woody Royale" - burger with
pork belly

A quick scan of Yelp led us to Tilt, which was only 3 miles from the hotel. A few wrong turns sparked excitement, but a kindly waiter let us in 5 minutes before the 11 o'clock closing.

Dietary discipline went out the window. We were on vacation, and we were hungry.