Portland to the Rest of the World: Stay Away! It's Not So Great

Sure, there's a lot of good things to be said about Portland. There's great food, without a doubt. It's really never too hot or too cold. A lot of great coffee. Great wine. Tons of artists. A really good basketball team. Some very good schools. A thriving tech industry.

And location! You go 90 minutes one way and you're at Mt. Hood. Ninety minutes the other way and you're at the coast. Ninety minute south - less actually - and you're in wine country.

But ask people who live in Portland what they think about the place, and they will paint a very different picture. A new city report describes a place you can't imagine anyone would want to live.

"Portlanders ratings of city livability drops to new low" is the title of the report issued Wednesday by the city's auditor's office. This the 26th year that they've done the report and pretty much across the board, the numbers are low — not "Escape from New York" low, but low.

People in Portland don't think the city is livable, they don't think they have any say in government, they don't feel safe, they think the streets are terrible. And don't ask them out the traffic - there's more of it. All the time.

First off - livability.

In 2012 - the year Charlie Hales was elected Mayor - 80 percent of the people living in Portland thought that the city was livable. Last year, it had fallen to 74 percent. This year, only 63 percent feel the city is livable.

Hales did not run for re-election.

Why is the city so unlivable?

The survey offers many - many - reasons.

Only 40 percent are satisfied with city government's overall delivery of services. That's an all-time low and a significant drop from the 47 percent last year.

There are fewer places to live. Yes, there's been lots of construction but most people don't think that's helping.

In 2012, only 21 percent thought the new construction was a problem that drove down affordability. This year that number was 59 percent - a dramatic increase over last year's 43 percent.

As mentioned, no one is happy with the traffic problems. It should not be a surprise that a lot of people think there's congestion during rush hour. But traffic problems during off-peak hours? In 2012, only seven percent thought it was a problem. This year - 27 percent.

It's hard to find people without a pothole story to tell in Portland and that comes across in the survey. In 2012, only 33 percent of people living in Portland thought street maintenance was good or very good.

Can't get worse, right? Wrong. Every year since. This year, the number is down to 23 percent.

As for how safe people feel - well, if it's daytime - pretty good. Ninety percent of people feel safe during their neighborhood during the day - around the same as it was four years ago.

At night - also pretty much the same as it was. The bad thing is, though, once the sun goes down, so does the feeling of being safe. In their own neighborhood, only 61 percent feel safe walking around at night.

Is there anything positive?

Sure. Seventy-six percent of residents feel positively about the quality of garbage/recycling/compost service - a significant increase over the 66 percent who felt that way in 2012.

Also - there has been a 4 percent increase in the number of people who participated in a city recreation program in the past year compared to 2012. Unfortunately, that jump was to 34 percent from 30 percent, which means two-thirds of people who live here did not participate.

You can read the whole report here. It breaks down responses by neighborhood, and you can see how people in Northeast Portland feel pretty good about their neighborhood while people in East Portland... not so much.

Another thing to consider: Maybe it's just a marketing scam to keep people away.