Human waste littering the street, drugged out people lying against buildings and on sidewalks that people step around/over, elaborate encampents on sidewalks concocted with tents, tarps, plastic crates and woodpallets, syringes on the ground in city parks are pretty regular, everyday things in Portland and San Francisco in "good" neighborhoods and, of course, the "bad" for years now, even the last couple decades.
When I would walk to work twenty years ago in Portland through the Pearl Distict to downtown, past $750K condos, there would be morning sweeps of playgrounds where needles would regularly be picked up. Now, its even worse....
Today on a jog I went down a side street that normally has about 4 or 5 derelict RVs parked with broken windows, tarps over the tops of them, filthy and disheveled blinds covering the windows, along with broken down cars jacked up with wheels missing, tarps covering missing windows, seats in fully reclined position for sleeping, tons of garbage in the back seat. There were easily a dozen RVs and another half dozen cars, where people live/sleep each night that I joggedpast today. People sit outside of them with their dogs and keep busy shuffling their stuff around. This isn't in a shttty part of Portland. This is next to $700K homes...
Down by the river you can see fires burning at dusk along the waterfront in front of industrial properties. People live down by the river as well. Its a lot worse in the poor parts of town.
People are not doing well. And there are A LOT of people not doing well. I've talked to some of them to see how they got to this place in their lives. They are mostly really defeated and dont see anybody who has their best interest in mind, in the slightest.... or they seem really, really angry, I dont talk to them, they obviously have mental issues that are not being addressed. But more and more, people"down on their luck" seem to be populating the streets...
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