You’ve seen the headlines. Article after article proclaiming that Portland is dead, a city fallen far from its halcyon days of safe and affordable living, just another casualty of lenient liberal policies. And beyond the headlines, you’ve seen the reality. Tent cities line the sidewalks, treasured natural areas overrun with drug use, vandalism, theft and homicides at an all time high. And maybe you find it difficult to be optimistic about the future of our city. Maybe you find yourself beginning to agree, horrifyingly, with those who view Portland as nothing more than an unredeemable shell of its former self. 

With that attitude, you would be right. Because the future of Portland depends upon the actions and opinions of every citizen in the metro area. If we act like Portland is dying, we will soon be digging its grave.

The key to the well-being of any city is foot traffic, and Portland is severely lacking. Especially when it comes to increasing pedestrian traffic to meet or surpass pre-pandemic levels of foot traffic. Most studies show downtown Portland near the bottom, or at the very bottom, of the list of foot traffic in major cities. It is clear that Portlanders are unwilling to return to the main commercial areas of the city, but by fixing this issue first instead of hyper fixating on zeroing in its causes, those causes will solve themselves. 

The reason foot traffic is so crucial to a city’s well-being is because it discourages unwanted criminal activity. When pedestrians disappear, businesses struggle, leading to empty storefronts which attract squatting, vandalism, and drug use — vastly decreasing an area’s livability. So by increasing foot traffic in the city of Portland, or at the very least maintaining current levels of traffic so that existing businesses are able to survive, we are promoting the well-being of the city. 

This is why police reports and the media present problems. Consistent reporting on issues of public safety, while important for the safety of our communities, may actually be part of the problem. Media coverage of violence and break-ins in Portland have become increasingly common among the major news outlets, because viewers enjoy reading about crime in areas that aren’t their own, so these stories increase those outlets’ clicks. However, this reporting on crime is often overblown, and leads to certain areas of the city being thought of as dangerous, thereby decreasing their foot traffic even more and increasing their proneness to violence and other crimes. 

Perplexing as it may seem, a decrease in the amount of public safety reporting would certainly help to alleviate the issue of stereotyping certain areas of Portland as violent or homeless-ridden, especially areas that are statistically quite safe but receive absurd amounts of media coverage for the few violent acts that occur in them. While decreasing the media’s coverage of crime would unfortunately not be feasible due to the First Amendment, it serves as an example of how perception alters reality. 

What Portland really needs is you. The simple act of walking down a downtown street decreases the area’s propensity for violence. The same holds true for any other district in Portland. When Portlanders adopt this philosophy and begin to walk through their city, that’s when we’ll see change really start to happen. Events like the Rose Festival, which is currently going on, are a great way to rediscover Portland’s beauty and show each other what we are capable of when we work in large numbers. Imagine what Portland could be like if Portlanders flooded both sides of the Willamette like we do when the fireworks kick off the Rose Festival. Concerns of safety would become a thing of the past and businesses would finally begin to thrive in our otherwise-hostile business climate. 

Transforming Portland into a better city than it was before the pandemic is easier said than done. For many, concerns of safety are very real, and affect decisions that they make, including what areas of the city to visit, when to visit, and whether or not they will use public transportation.

Don’t feel safe? Take a friend. Traveling in groups is always safer than traveling alone. I believe that the only way to make our city a better place is by supporting it every chance we get, and that starts by simply walking in Portland. If we act together, Portland will rise from the ashes just as it has countless times before and regain its national status as what us Portlanders all know that our city is: a verdant, vibrant place where everyone is welcome. So, don’t you think it’s time to take back our city?