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Last week, WW examined the state of East Portland’s Gateway neighborhood, which lies east of Interstate 205 and is plagued by crime, homelessness and most recently, the impending closure of the Gateway Fred Meyer (“Gateway to Nowhere,” Aug. 27). That’s despite the city’s economic development agency, Prosper Portland, spending $88 million since 2001 to improve the neighborhood through its urban renewal program. Over the course of three weeks, WW staff spoke to Gateway residents, nonprofit leaders, small business owners and developers to learn more about why the city’s investments have done so little. The feeling in the neighborhood was unanimous: Things are worse than they were 25 years ago. Here’s what our readers had to say:
Isabel4578 via wweek.com: “Rampant crime is what killed this area. The Gateway MAX station was a hub of activity and a convenient getaway vehicle for drug addicts that rode the train to steal from stores in that plaza. It was like Zombie Nation, with intoxicated addicts stumbling around the parking lots. Freddie’s bore the brunt of the shoplifting and did their best to remain afloat, to no avail. Towards the end, that store became such a fortress it was a totally unpleasant experience to shop there. I used to frequent Gateway on a weekly basis, but haven’t been there in years. Between all the shady characters loitering around and fear of having my car stolen or vandalized, it wasn’t worth the stress. And now most of the stores are gone.”
7 bad words via wweek.com: “Apparently, rolling out the red carpet for addicts, dealers and associated criminals via Measure 110 while simultaneously defunding the police and generally undermining law enforcement via anarchist DA Mike Schmidt isn’t a recipe for economic prosperity. Councilor Angelita Morillo’s encouragement of shoplifters doesn’t help either. Crazy...“Sorry Jamie and Candace... there’s no amount of economic investment that can overcome woke, progressive self-destructive policy. Blaming Prosper Portland for Gateway’s degradation is like blaming the beach for the tsunami.”
Aesir_Auditor via Reddit: “When you look at where the $88 million went, it makes sense why nothing looks or feels any better. They’ve used it to merely buy up vacant lots, do small development projects, and other small fry activity. Including bailing out failed land speculation. They’ve wound up with so many options they chased most of them all at once, and to no one’s surprise got nowhere.”
Eli Lynch via Facebook: “Greed is killing Portland. Nobody can afford to live here thanks to explosive rents and housing prices. Y’all can blame the homeless all you want, but the simple fact is that people can’t afford to live. Our taxes are poorly managed. And our leadership seems to be the weakest I’ve ever seen. WinCo is cheaper. Fred Myer wasn’t offering anything better. Simple business, as the right would call it. We need to address so many social inequalities in this city along with classism.”
Duckie158 via Reddit: “I think the public improvements in Gateway have been good, but it’s just not a popular neighborhood like inner eastside neighborhoods. Not much PP can do to change that.”
zzxcvnsubg via wweek.com: “Prosper Portland does deserve some blame. They went full Progressive, fearing doing things that might change the area’s demographics. If an area improves, property values increase. That inevitably prices some out and brings in different people. By making it a priority to not increase property values, they’re just spinning their wheels. They also can’t produce more property tax revenue to pay for the spending.”
