I Drove Through The WORST Neighborhoods In Portland, Oregon

Portland has some sketchy areas for sure, and it's TOTALLY worth seeing what they look like.

So if you asked people in the Portland area where the bad side of town is, everyone will tell you either north Portland by the airport or east Portland. Both areas are across the Willamette. It’s a very large area that makes up a big chunk of the city of Portland proper. This is where crime and poverty is the highest in Portland.

So, I had to go there. And while there are pockets that are clearly worse than others, overall, I didn’t find it that bad at all. At least visually. I went to this part of Portland in late October. Here’s the map of the general area that we’ll be driving through.

Now if you look at violent crime - everything from murders and assaults to rapes, Portland is quite tame compared to other major US cities. This city ranks 62nd in the US for violent crime, somewhere about as dangerous as Colorado Springs or Arlington Texas. Portland has about 4 times less violence than the most violent city in the country, St. Louis.

But property crime is a different story. You may not think of Portland as being a place with high numbers of robberies and burglaries, but it ranks 6th highest of all US major metros when it comes to these types of crimes. Portland actually has more property crimes than Baton Rouge, and it closes to Oakland for thefts and breakins and vandalism. There are lots of stolen bikes, smashed car windows and daytime home breakins. A big part of that is because of this city’s long history with drug addiction and homelessness.

And crime in Portland is going up fast nowadays, too. While homicides are up 30% nationally, here in Portland, murders are up a whopping 83% in the last two years. Many Portlanders speculate the huge spike in crime is due to a reduction of police and the elimination of its Gun Violence Reduction team.

It’s not a shocker, right? Take cops of the streets and pander to violent protesters and the homeless population, and they’re going to take advantage of that. And a lot of the uptick in crime in Portland comes from over here in East Portland.

Large parts of East Portland are relatively poorer than the rest of the city. But while a lot of people in East Portland don’t earn a lot of money, this city ranks far below other major US cities in terms of poverty rate. About 14% of the population lives in poverty here, but there are about 360 other US cities that have a higher poverty rate than Portland does. It’s about as poor here as Little Rock Arkansas, but that also takes into account the cost of living. In Little Rock, it’s much cheaper to live than in Portland.

Home prices in Portland are $542,000 on average city wide, but over here in many of the areas we’ll see, it’s gonna be closer to $350,000. This is where you might wind up if you’re not wealthy and you want to move here. A lot of the housing out this way is substandard, and there are a lot of landlords who are disinclined to make improvements to their properties. There are lots of ugly strip malls and vacant properties on this side of the river, and a lack of businesses in which to shop. And all of the good jobs are across the river in downtown. East and north Portland certainly don’t have a lot of amenities, but there are plenty of places for the homeless to camp. A lot of people say east portland has been neglected in favor of downtown and the wealthy homes on the west side of town. But again, while a lot of East Portland might be down on their luck, it’s still far much better here than in most other worse sides of town I’ve ever seen.

#oregon #moving

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