Mayor Ted Wheeler today took issue with a recent essay published in Forbes magazine by Bill Conerly, an economist who lives in Lake Oswego.

Related: Portland is the new Pompeii, according to Forbes.

In a brief Zoom interview, Wheeler responded to Conerly's premise: that Portland is being systematically destroyed by crime, protests and visible homelessness.

“It’s very unusual when somebody who lives in a community trashes the community for the national media,” Wheeler said. “I can’t understand what purpose that is serving, particularly when he’s wrong.”