Experts say media coverage of crime and implicit biases create conditions under which the public believes a false narrative Numerous public polls in recent years found crime and public safety are near the top of Portlanders’ concerns. There’s plenty of ex ...
21 Aug 2024 - K. Rambo
Despite pervasive police narratives and shocking statements from officials, Portland’s post-2020 ‘crime wave’ is exaggerated “Everybody that I know who doesn’t live in Portland is convinced that we burned it to the ground in 2020,” Aaron Roussell, an asso ...
21 Aug 2024 - K. Rambo and Jeremiah Hayden
Proponents of proactive policing argue more police means less crime, but skeptics — and data — paint a more complex picture Narratives abound describing Portland’s mythical defunding of its police force in 2020. As straw man arguments about the lack of po ...
21 Aug 2024 - K. Rambo and Jeremiah Hayden
Sen. Wyden, Rep. Bonamici and others urge Biden to act on affordable housing as local officials continue public space race to criminalize homelessness “Under my strategy, working with states, we will BAN urban camping wherever possible,” Donald Trump said ...
14 Aug 2024 - Jeremiah Hayden
Sheriff Nicole Morrisey O’Donnell urges focus on creating pathways out of homelessness in a statement explaining the policy; Wheeler pushes PPB to continue enforcement Just under a month after Mayor Ted Wheeler directed the Portland Police Bureau, or PPB, ...
7 Aug 2024 - Kimberly Cortez
A new report, paid for by federal law enforcement agencies and conducted by PSU, complicates anecdotes used in recriminalization of drugs As it turns out, significant pieces of the narrative around Oregon’s short-lived run decriminalizing drugs do not ali ...
24 Jul 2024 - Jeremiah Hayden
Despite a new plan’s optimism, city-county homelessness agreement discourse follows age-old pattern in a ginned up moral panic The city of Portland began enforcing its updated anti-public sleeping ordinance July 1, threatening to fine and arrest homeless ...
17 Jul 2024 - Jeremiah Hayden
Born out of a need to communicate across difference and build community, Street Roots civic circles engage Portlanders in dialogue For a few months now, Street Roots vendors Sonya Aho, Robin “Shaggy” Douglas, George McCarthy, Craig Preston and Robert Wate ...
29 May 2024 - Thijs Kleinpaste
After contentious public testimony, the board passed a resolution tailored for consensus The Multnomah County Board of Commissioners unanimously voted in favor of a resolution demanding a ceasefire in Gaza on March 7. Demonstrators gathered outside the Mu ...
6 Mar 2024 - Jeremiah Hayden
The Portland Business Alliance contract requires buy in, offers little transparency “It is a parallel to taxation without representation,” Anita Davidson, a downtown condominium owner, said. “I just don’t call it that because they have worked around state ...
21 Feb 2024 - Jeremiah Hayden