P erhaps few other cities have experienced the consequences of a fracturing American consensus as sharply as Portland, Oregon. Our city has the largest perception gap between men and women (a staggering 30 points), vastly disparate coverage by news outlets favored by the political right and left, and, too often, a yawning chasm between national coverage and how we see ourselves.
As mayor of Portland, I see an even more intractable and frustrating gap between what the president has said and what I see every day. He has called Portland “a hellhole,” “war ravaged,” a controversial federal facility facing predominantly peaceful protests is “under siege,” and that he’ll “do a number” on our city with “Full Force.” There is no squaring these words with the Portland I see every day, a Portland of creativity and natural beauty, of kindness and compassion, and of community principles and purpose.
To those who are most aggrieved by Portland, I would ask this: If you visited our schools, would you fund teachers or would you send troops? If you drove our bridges, would you send engineers or would you send troops? If you saw our hospitals, would you support Medicaid, or would you send troops? If you worked with our homeless, would you send outreach workers and addiction specialists or would you send troops? If you met with the daughters whose immigrant fathers were ripped away on their way to school drop-off, would you still send men in masks to further traumatize our neighborhoods?…