Until a year ago, Portland, Ore., was best known nationally for its ambrosial food scene, craft breweries and 'Portlandia' hipsters.
The smell of fresh empanadas wafted through the stands at Portland’s Saturday Market. People talked through their masks with artists as others sifted through fork windchimes, crystal necklaces, tie-dye dresses and clay mugs.
The scenes are from a city trying to emerge from one of its most wrenching periods, one that saw its reputation go from quirky “Portlandia” to violent dystopia in the minds of many on the outside looking in.The Pacific Northwest city had best been known nationally for its ambrosial food scene, craft breweries and nature-loving hipsters.
City officials insist Portland is resilient as they launch a revitalization plan — in the form of citywide cleanups of protest damage, aggressive encampment removals, increased homeless services and police reform — to repair its reputation. “A year ago, when we were at the end of the longest economic expansion in post-world-war history in this country, we had 100,000-plus individuals coming in and out of downtown daily,” said Andrew Hoan, president and CEO of the Portland Business Alliance. “And then, overnight, they disappeared.”
“We’re in a virtuous cycle now, where one element feeds the other,” Hoan said, noting customers are again lining up outside the famous Powell’s Books and fans are returning to Timbers’ soccer games. But as time passed, scenes of chaos emerged: violent clashes between protesters and federal agents sent by Trump. In late August, a Trump supporter was shot and killed downtown when a large caravan of Trump supporters and Black Lives Matter protesters clashed in the streets.
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