I visited a poker room, aka “Social Club” in Portland, OR yesterday. They had 3 tables going with 9 players plus one dealer each. At least they had masks on. It has been two years since I’ve played poker in Portland. This poker room used to be at Portland Meadows, but it has apparently since been replaced by a Amazon Distribution Center and other industrial type businesses. While I did not recognize most players there, the few I did are semi-professional level. It was almost dead silence in the room, even though it was a Friday night, indicating easy money recreational players were few and far between. Portland is a fun town and there are lots of places that are bike and pedestrian friendly with great paths along the Columbia river and across the bridge into Vancouver, WA. Even more homeless than two years ago and one can expect many encounters on the various paths.
Many of us here, myself included, lash out at Portland and Seattle- not because we are not familiar with the good days and the good times in those cities- but because we are. And some of us still are or are not there or nearby.
holy shit, i'm batting zero today, now geography. I'm not sure why I always put Portland and Seattle in the same state.
I didn’t intend to sound critical of those being critical about Portland, etc. The many trash piles left by the homeless cheapens Portland’s image to the probable detriment of high revenue generating tourism, thus leaving less resources for local government to ease the homeless situation, among other things. On a more humanistic level, it is sad to see people living in squalor in the land of opportunity. Quite a few of the homeless are veterans that come back with PTSD or disillusionment, single mothers, and the laid off. Others are a result of a broken home and dysfunctional upbringing. Sure, people have their own responsibility on how they want to live, but it still feels like a systemic problem for many cases. Homelessness feels like a problem that should be addressed, but quick solutions are difficult to identify. More likely, we are dealing with long term behavioral and culture changes that effectively address the issues of broken and absentee parents. It seems something is missing in helping some veterans returning to society after a war. Using the TV or social media to raise our kids has not been working out so far, if you’ll allow me to characterize much of the current homeless situation as such. Of course, there is the drug abuse issue... As far as politics are concerned, I think it is hard for either party, although one particular party is top of mind, to turn down an opportunity to justify ever larger government, but government programs never really provides a solution. By most measures, over the last few decades our Government has been growing at a faster rate, but our problems seem to be worsening. Anyone else sense this pattern?