The Realities In Portland Oregon | Angela Todd

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Angela, are progressive policies hurting people in Portland, Oregon?

In so many ways, it's almost like how do I even narrow it down? Absolutely.

Number one, cost of living is driving businesses out, which is changing business and the economic conditions.

I think one of the biggest things people know about Portland for is our homelessness and our mental health issues.

We've got more people and unsheltered homelessness on a lot of different graphs than any other city, or we're in the top five in the nation.

We have mental health problems that are just left out on the street. We've got public safety issues where they've unfunded our jails and our criminal justice system.

I mean, there are so many people harmed, Peter. I don't even know. I mean, I could keep going, but yeah, it's a real problem.

It's like a great place.

I was thinking the last time we had a show together was 2021 and you were here and so I was thinking a lot's happened, but not really.

Just got worse.

So what are the, you know, I had Brian Dow green on the show. So what are the policies? Let's just take them one by one.

What are the policies about homelessness? Because when when I go to a place like Naples or doesn't matter, like I noticed a stark difference.

Like blue cities and blue states have high homelessness. Red cities and red states don't. I can't think of an exception to that, but again, I haven't traveled in every state.

So what are the blue cities and blue states? Like what is Portland not doing?

The biggest piece. I mean, we had the complications, of course, of measure 110. I'm sorry, which was the decriminalization of drugs, but really it has to do with this housing first policy, which is that if somebody is mentally ill or they're using drugs and frankly,

even our county numbers in Portland say that's about 70% of the people out there on the streets. They want to house them first.

And it sounds, you know, for people that are compassionate, it's like, well, you can't get anything done unless you have a home.

And while that may be true, what that looks like is we're using public dollars to put people in housing. They're, they're overdoses go up because then they're not sort of getting by day to day on the street, you know, getting pens and money and they have more time to just use.

And it also has created environments where the organized crime element is using these units to sell drugs, traffic people. I mean, it's just it is really something.

And you have situations where people are continuing to use harm one another. You have some people that are sober in these environments. You can't stay sober. It's just a really expensive, ineffective housing first. That's how I would describe it.

Yeah, so shelling burger in San Francisco talks about that very extensively. Yeah, so first housing earned and what are the complications for. Okay, so, so I'm, I'm truly Angela. I'm genuinely trying to figure this out.

If it is true and let's just assume for the purpose of the conversation, it is true that this is what the data and evidence show why don't people do that there must be some ideological reason.

Why are people giving. Why aren't they incentivizing sobriety? Why isn't it shelter first housing earned. What do they think it's going to happen when they just give people a house?

I think it's I think it's the money grift. You know what we have in Oregon is we have an environment where we we have an ethos where growing government is a priority.

The public unions are very much in charge here and the nonprofits that are funded by the politicians and it's a vicious loop.

And you know, we've all heard this for many years and many different situations follow the money and I have to say being an activist for a decade that that is the conclusion that I've come to.

There are the haves and have nots and there are people that are there's a lot of people in infrastructure and programs that are profiting from people suffering.

It's really awful.

Interesting. So you think it's you just think it's all about the Benjamin's all about the dollars that that's why people are doing this.

Yeah, I do. You know, one of the historical things that we've talked about on our channel that a lot of people don't know or didn't know before we spoke about.

So one example was when we decriminalized drugs right before that our state had applied for a substance use disorder that gave housing to people that we're using.

And so what we did is we sort of put out a whistle call to all addicts in the nation. Come on, we got you.

The place one of the cities that is really easy to use drugs. There's not consequences.

And frankly, the cartel knows that too. This is a good place for business. It's a great place for business.

And so I think it's interesting that the that when you talked about the financial incentives that it's not incompetence or ideology, it's just money.

It's just assume that they latched on to the wrong ideas and that.

So maybe, you know, I'm trying to think this, this stuff out too, because it's so conspicuous.

Again, when you travel and you look at the data and Schellenberger is subsequently pretty much spelled out the data.

So what would a sane rational reasonable.

I mean, I just shouldn't all policies be.

I love it here. I love that you're so pragmatic.

I'm not like I'm opinionated because I have been in meetings and we have shared evidence based kind of things.

We have talked about the stories of how this is aren't people.

I do think that some people are very sort of ideologically captured for sure.

I think that some of those people even are very compassionate.

It's also the system is so big and a lot of people just have this little piece.

And so it's like, it's like so complicated.

The problem here from how things get talked about how people think about it.

What are local mainstream media is willing to say that's a huge problem.

Yeah, that's a huge problem.

So let's just want to linger on that for a second.

So I remember in COVID, they would always when people were clearly rioting,

hurting people, destroying stuff.

They would say they're protesting.

And I would put out tweets. These are not put like the words that you use.

And you have a kind of journalistic responsibility to maintain integrity.

So people will trust you.

You have to use the right words.

And I don't need to be pedantic, but those things matter.

The other thing that's interesting to me, you know, the mayor,

the current mayor of Portland ran on a platform.

I can't remember his exact words, but something like reads fine.

How is everybody in one year?

And I bet him, I think I bet him $10,000 is publicly that he could not do that.

I mean, that would have been the easiest way I've never back with you on that.

Well, I mean, of course not because he's, I think he's a pathological liar.

Like he's either a complete fool.

If you actually believe that, but the thing is people voted for him.

People voted for someone who was an inveterate liar.

I mean, that's, I guess, you know, Hitler said,

if you're going to lie, you might as well do the big lie.

People have really underestimated this issue.

And it's continued to grow in Portland despite the fact that we continue to give it more money.

And they just want to hear that it's simple.

And I would say, and maybe this makes me sound like I'm to the right of center,

but it's kind of like, I don't think this problem is going to be resolved by the government.

I mean, I think that they've taken away from some of the faith-based systems

and not even funding those, which, you know, you may be like,

well, of course, you need to take out the faith-based.

And Peter, I'm aware of your atheism.

But I'm saying that like, I have a disease.

I don't know.

I'm going to bring up faith.

No, no, I didn't mean it that way.

I just, I understand that, but I'm saying these programs are about,

like AA, you know, it's about higher power and like, you know,

taking some responsibility for yourself.

Like, you know, I didn't even bring up the whole harm reduction thing here.

It's insane.

I mean, we spend money giving out booping kits for telling people how to put drugs up their butt.

We give people needles, pipes, foil, condoms.

We give them knowledge.

Before he could get that information.

I'm happy to send you a flyer.

I'm not kidding.

Oh, my God.

And then I just learned that term.

I just learned that term recently.

And I was like, wow, that's like not even a term.

There's enough people who do that.

That there's an actual term for it.

Yeah, I'm sorry.

Go ahead.

Yeah.

And you need directions.

You need to get those to read immediately before he hinges himself.

Yeah.

We've done stuff where we go to some of these harm reduction needle exchanges.

I have to tell you we haven't done it a while because we're kind of disgusted.

But my partner is, you know, wore a hoodie and gone up and asked and so forth and asked for treatment.

And they don't even, they're like, well, we'll have to get back with you.

You know, we don't have anything here.

Okay.

Well, why don't you write down this phone number?

We can't give you this card and then call this person.

And maybe they can help you with the county.

And we've called and it's just, it's, you would not believe what it's like if you're ready.

And if you know anything about addiction, there are moments where people are ready.

And if they, it could be hours later, 12 hours later, if it takes three weeks to get into rehab.

And by the way, it does here often or even longer, you have to stand in line at 5 a.m.

And they turn away people.

I mean, in the drug dealers are right there on the block waiting for them.

I mean, it's just, it is so part of just what we've done is just try and vivid detail to tell people what's really going on because our media has done such a poor job, sort of almost being.

I'm going to be really, really strong on this and say that I feel that they are part of the political capture that's going on here.

Yeah, they're an organ of the Democratic Party.

So let's, I want to dwell on our, I want to talk about the idea of harm reduction.

So is the idea, and I've also been to, to a facility where they supply needles to people, although they looked at me and they didn't wear a hoodie.

And they looked at me very suspiciously when I went in.

So is the idea that if you give, yeah, yeah, eventually, yeah.

Is the idea that if you provide a drug paraphernalia to people that they will then be less likely to injure themselves or die of an overdose.

So the state has to have some mechanism to ensure their safety.

Is that the idea?

It's the idea.

I think the argument whenever we had needles here, you know, whenever fentanyl came in, you can't inject fentanyl.

So when it was met, and it was heroin, which was a problem in Portland before fentanyl came in on the scene.

I'm not great with dates, but I want to say it was around 2003, 2023, somewhere in there, maybe 22.

And then all of a sudden the needles were not all over our public streets and parks and so forth.

You still see them, but it's not as much.

So they moved into pipes and giving out aluminum foil and things like that.

I would say that it's really about, it was the way they sell it is, hey, we want it, we want to engage with them.

But when we have talked to other people and then finally we tried to say, hey, I want to get some help.

How do I do that?

The harm reduction, they're not really into that.

And, you know, I want to paint a picture. So this is pretty common in Portland. You have a tent.

It may get moved because things are cleaned up here now quite a bit.

You'll move a block or two away.

But while you were in that camp before the weeks, it takes to clean it up.

You might have during the day somebody bring you food.

If you lose your tent, which sometimes they do with retaliation or they just leave it behind when they're swept or whatever.

Everything is sort of given to you.

And the drug dealers just, I mean, it is sort of like Uber eats.

And if certain places you can just watch them come and sell nothing's done about it.

When you call, it's not necessarily like anyone's going to come and address it.

It's the way that it has best stirred here is so.

We're a little bit like frogs in a pot.

I still see it.

I think, but when I have people come into town and they're just like, I cannot believe this.

I love that word, Fester. I think that's perfect.

Okay. So we've talked a little bit about the homeless.

Excuse me.

Situation.

And I asked our progressive policies, hurting people in Portland and more broadly organ, you should yes.

And then you itemize them.

So the second thing, as you said, businesses, and I know many, many businesses are leaving the city of Portland.

And I'll just tell you a quick story.

I have a guy I used to do Jiu Jitsu with.

He was telling me that he works in a building maintenance.

And he was telling me that many of the, he's losing jobs now because the buildings can't get insurance.

And if they're in the downtown area and so they're leaving.

And so, yeah, could you, can you comment on that?

Yeah, yeah.

So in addition to the homeless issue, we talked previously about the protest, some of which went definitely went into flat out riots.

And also damaged businesses, you know, stole from them, broke their windows, those type of things.

Some of those, those people, a lot of them lost their insurance or their deductibles were something like, you know, $20,000 or more.

And so they don't even want to turn it in.

And speaking of insurance, we've also had on the, what do we want to call it, the affordable housing, the government housing or the nonprofit housing.

They're having a hard time with their insurance policies too.

Because they're moving people who don't have mental health or drug treatment in these, these buildings.

And they're leaving their water on.

They're not taking care of things.

I mean, just a number of things whenever you're outside for that long, you don't really know how to properly take care of yourself or your space.

And, you know, fires, I mean, I could go on shootings, you know, I mean, the insurance policies are pretty considerable in those places.

Not to mention sometimes people steal things in the unit because they're worth money to sell them.

So yeah, it's interesting.

When the last time I was in Portland with Travis, I was, we were in a, I always mix up new seasons and Whole Foods.

I can never remember which is which.

But we're in, yeah, we're in one of those, those stores that was the one on, it's been so long from Portland.

I can't remember where it was, but it was in the southeast.

But we saw this guy who was clearly homeless and he looked drugged out.

He was, he had obviously stolen a bag of groceries and he was walking out of the store.

And I said to the guy at the deli, hey, this guy's stealing stuff.

He's like, yeah, don't tell anybody, but we're not allowed to stop them.

And I'm like, of course, the first thing I do is I pick up my phone and I'm like, hey, you can steal anything you want.

And so I went to the, I went to the restroom and I came back.

And another guy was walking out, another guy was walking out of the business with his own grocery.

And I just, that's just not, that's crazy.

We've lost so much business because of this, you know, REI is not in Portland anymore.

They're kind of a co-op place that sells like outdoor gear.

And of course, you live in Oregon and you put up with Portland.

If you live here partially because you love the mountains and the rivers and hiking and, you know, being outside.

And so they sold a lot of outdoor equipment.

They left. They're now only in the suburbs.

I know people here don't really like the big corporation.

But, you know, whenever Walmart leaves and the, the grocery stores close, I mean, we have some major issues where you have to, you know, commute and drive farther to go to grocery and it increases prices.

We have a.

Can we linger on that for a second?

Yeah.

Like about that first thing real quick.

Thanks to mushy season for the five bucks. He likes the word Fester too.

Thanks for, and we appreciate Nathaniel Howlett for becoming a member.

Thanks.

Appreciate that.

So what is the thinking behind it?

In just, I'm, I'm really trying to give a charitable interpretation of this.

What is the thinking behind letting countless people walk out of the store with groceries?

Like, why would somebody think that?

I talk to these stores.

I mean, you know, because we have just real quick before I was going to say that we have a place where we get our prescriptions.

You know, it's a Walgreens and it's close.

And it's every time I'm in there, it's very upsetting.

And it's a lawsuit thing.

And so most of the places have told security.

It's a hands-off situation.

Oh, interesting.

Can I tell you a quick story?

Can I tell you a quick story?

So I used to live in Southeast Portland.

This is a great story.

I used to live in Southeast Portland near Woodstock.

And there was a, the Fred Meyer.

I think there's the Fred Myers there.

Oh, no.

I can't, God, it's been so long.

I can't even remember.

You know, the one on like 40th to 41st.

I used to go grocery shopping there.

And around 50% of the time, roughly, that I used to go there.

Somebody used to steal things and they used to, you know, shout at them, et cetera.

And I kind of, because that was the grocery store I always went to,

I got to know the manager and the people there, not, you know,

basically socially, hey, Peter, how's it going?

I'd say, hey, so I told my son, my son came and visited me.

And I said, listen, I'm going to tell you this.

And it's going to sound totally crazy to you.

But around 50% of the time I go to the store,

about one out of every two trips.

Somebody is stealing something.

And they're running after them or shouting at them or chasing them.

And so the moment we walked in the store,

there was some kind of commotion.

And somebody had stolen beer.

And the security guard was yelling at them and et cetera.

And then I told my son, there we go.

We, we've hit the mark.

And then we came out, you know, those little self-checkers,

where you go through, we're in the self-checkers.

And there's this massive commotion.

And I walked over, and the manager was there.

And I said to the guy, I think he's going to stand.

Like, what's that?

What just happened?

What's going on?

And he's an unusually big commotion.

And he said, he said, well, remember the person who stole something,

because I said hi to him when I walked in.

And I said, yeah.

He said, well, her boyfriend came back into the store

and started freaking out at the security guard

for yelling at his girlfriend.

Yeah, there's no.

I mean, he's laughing at that.

But it's so crazy.

It's so crazy.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, it's just, it's just.

Go ahead.

Yeah, living it is just something.

You know, one of the biggest videos that I ever posted,

a quick video was of somebody, you know,

our state literally does nothing about the inappropriate

and what's the word just that the waste of what goes on?

Like, we have this situation where our homeless get food cards, right?

Because we want them to eat.

And so they'll go into the grocery and they'll get water bottles.

And they will go outside and they will dump it in the parking lot

and bring them in for 10 cents a piece.

And when fentanyl, the prices have gone up a little bit,

but therefore a little bit, it was like a dollar a pill.

And, you know, they can literally get drugs from that.

Right.

And unlike federal benefit, which requires you to pay your own deposit,

you know, your own bottle deposit,

this is a money maker for them.

Right, right, right.

It was, it was 20 million views.

That's five times the over that that we,

of people that we have in the entire state of Oregon

that watch that video.

We had, it was nationally exposed.

There were all kinds of people that were asking the governor

et cetera about it.

It has been exposed before we did it.

And nothing has been done about it.

And it happens on any given day I could get you video of it.

And, you know, and I think too that if you don't mind,

I'd like to zoom in on a little bit of what can happen

with these policies.

We have an area called Gateway.

You might know about it.

It's off of Halsey and Southeast Portland.

And it is the city, the city of Portland,

spend a lot of money.

They call it tip districts to really build that up.

There was a Fred Meyer there.

It's a, it's a very big grocery chain that's now,

I think they're partially owned by Kroger now.

Kroger Corporation.

But they are homegrown Oregon.

And this place has been there since I believe it was 1930,

maybe 1940.

I mean, just a really nice nostalgic place.

And around it, they built, you know, a coals.

And they built a, and Nordstrom Rack.

And, you know, it was kind of like a really nice place

where you could shop and eat and so forth.

Everybody's gone.

Everybody's gone.

And so our, in our city, I'll tell you one of the reasons they're gone.

They have a bottle deposit nearby.

They built a bunch of different safe rest villages.

They built a place called Blackburn Center.

That is supposed to be sober housing.

It is, it is.

There are drug overdoses there.

Ever like three to four times a week.

I talked to Portland fire about that.

When people get off the max to go get treatment,

like post detox.

They're drug dealers trying to put fentanyl in their hands.

The entire neighborhood, people who live around there,

I feel horrible for them.

When I drive on, it's a hundred and twenty first.

I mean, I don't know that anybody who watches this and

doesn't even importantly care about that, but that particular road,

I cannot drive on after dark generally without being extremely careful

because you can hit someone on the road,

because they are high out of their mind,

fallen into the street, whatever the situation is.

There's been shootings.

I mean, they have completely ruined the neighborhood.

So in Portland, there are situations where the government just decides

we're here to help.

And they completely take the businesses.

I mean, I told you about big corporations,

but there are small businesses in there that have really suffered.

I mean, we know property owners that have just been like,

we're at it here.

So the policies really harm people.

Yeah.

So Reed, try to pull up the video that Angela is talking about.

I want to direct people there in case they have any questions.

Oh, it's so hard.

I think so.

Sorry.

Men, oh, you're good.

Reed will find that he's a wizard.

So I, I, you know, I remember walking down the street

and seeing all these bottles, constantly empty bottles.

And I just like, what were all these bottles?

What is, why are there all these bottles?

But did you, can you just explain that just very briefly for people

to make that more clear for why there are so many empty plastic bottles

everywhere in Portland?

Yeah.

So generally, they're, they're normally cats that you find.

So you think of like a water bottle that you get at Costco,

you know, the big ones that you might take to a party because you're doing,

you know, you have a summer outing, but, you know,

you don't want to do glasses or something.

And, and so a lot of times they'll just take,

I'm dump them out, leave the caps where they are.

And you'll see it's completely wet.

And there's caps, but they're taking all those in for 10 cents a piece

because we have a bottle deposit situation here.

It's interesting.

Oregon was the first state if I recall properly to,

to have a bottle deposit.

And this I believe was, I should know the soft hand.

I've studied it, but you forget dates.

I think it was like 1970s, maybe early 1980s.

But currently we have over 70% of our bottles are at curbside.

So, so we continue to do this to not have bottles out.

But even curbside day, you know, we wait to take our recycling out

because you have people that go through your trash and recycling

and then leave a big mess out at your curb.

And I don't know about you, but I don't want somebody going through my stuff.

Even the check.

It's not mine if it's at the curb.

So, I'm, again, I'm trying to give the most possible charitable interpretation

of the whole phenomenon.

Judy, you know, sorry, I have something in my throat.

I apologize.

I'm trying to give the most charitable interpretation possible

of all those things we, sorry, sorry, sorry.

I'll do the same.

So, and I'm, I'm folding my arms because I have a bad shoulder.

Some people say I'm being defensive, but I have my shoulders killing me constantly.

So.

Sorry to hear it.

Is?

Yeah, I know.

But I'm, I'm a moron because I keep, I keep my drink.

So, is the reason that people do this?

Is it primarily motivated by this idea that we should be compassionate to people?

And is the argument that the progressives would make?

And I would love to have a progressive on the show, but virtually nobody will, will talk to me.

Is the argument that the reason.

You're 100% agree with them or you're out in every way.

Yeah, or they don't like my own personal.

I don't like critical things.

Yeah, well, they don't like to be challenged on their beliefs because that's a form of a gemini.

Sorry.

No, no, no, no, that's fine.

Is the reason that they would give for why the city is falling apart?

Because drug addicts go to the city, whereas they don't go to other cities in red.

Like because they offer services to help them.

No, it's like.

Is that the reason they give?

I think that we, I think this is a big.

There is a bit of a divide in that you believe in housing first.

You think that it will work.

If you just have enough money, we have to build more housing so that we can house these people.

I'm going to say something that's controversial for some people.

I mean, to me, that sounds like eventually socialism to the extent of communism, like the state's controlling everything, all property.

And it's really not a lot of building going on here because the private sector is really in trouble.

It's very expensive and it's anti-business climate, but the government keeps building.

We have plenty of housing.

The housing that we have is expensive because they keep increasing prices.

But to your question, I think that what we're talking about is that the government is making money on these programs.

We're not thinking about 33% of all Oregonians being on, say, Medicaid.

And how many people are on food assistance and also rent assistance, etc.

The part about the class that works.

And there's always going to be people who can't.

There's the class that works is not able to continue to support this.

It's a balance isn't there.

You know, government, I don't have the stat rate in front of me.

If I looked, I could probably find it on some notes here.

But government has grown is like, no, I do remember.

Government is grown by like 30% here.

And since 2020 and like economically, that's just government just getting bigger.

Whereas we've lost populace and our tax base is down because there's a mass exodus out of here.

People are scared.

And you can't prosper in this very well.

I mean, I respect people that can.

If you're, there's a lot of businesses have really been impacted.

And I would say that if you are working in the public sector, you're continuing to get cost of living, increased kind of things.

And so many, I mean, we're really talking about homelessness, but I would say that there's all kinds of policies.

You know, whenever we talk about our immigration policy, we're giving.

We are literally, we have given people that don't have citizenship.

First time house like down payments for houses.

I'm not kidding.

This was a big story we broke about a year ago.

And we give them health insurance.

And I know that this is really for people of blue versus a red issue.

And I'm sorry.

But what I'm telling you is that there are a lot of people that are 50% of Oregonians are living month to month.

This is not Washington or California where we don't have as much wealth as those states.

We've been a petri dish for all of these progressive ideas.

People paying for it from outside of Oregon.

And they just want to try it here because we have a very low propensity for our voters to be involved.

We kind of like leave us alone.

We're in the wilderness.

The older things.

But the government wants to grow.

And it does.

And it continues to.

And.

And it is really.

It's gluttony here.

It really is.

And it doesn't.

It doesn't seem to matter how many people get harmed.

And there's a lot of cognitive dissonance about.

Like the common sense of the problem.

Okay.

So let me let me push back on that and ask a question.

So the people of New York have elected a mayor.

Whatever you think of the mayor, he was democratically elected.

As far as I know, there's.

There's no claim of vote voter fraud or anything like that.

And the people of New York are now getting what they deserve.

The people of Oregon consistently vote in this in the same people.

So isn't it reasonable to say that in democratic systems, they're getting what they deserve?

So I hate this point.

Because I hear it all the time.

You voted for this.

And I'm like, wait a second.

No.

I am.

I am American.

No, just hear me out.

Because it.

It works me up.

Let me just be worked up for a second.

Like.

Sure.

I didn't vote for this.

I'm an American.

And I have like.

We are.

We are based in a country of that.

The people.

They're ingenuity.

And their ability to work and prosper and liberty.

Should not be infringed upon.

We are politically captured here.

They have sort of broken the game in thousands of ways.

That it's so hard for us to even get any type of input that they care about.

They just keep sort of going and going and going and implementing these things.

Every single week right now.

And I am 100% not exaggerating.

We are having conversations about more taxes and fees.

We are second in taxes only to New York.

And what about the people that not everybody votes for this is a matter of fact,

depending on the policy.

It's not even 60% are voting for it.

So what about our rights?

You know, and then people say, well, then you should move.

And I'm like, well, maybe I should fight before this spreads all over the United States.

Because it seems to me it is.

Well, that's my attitude.

That's one of the reasons I do what I do.

Because I fight back against this.

You know, we interviewed.

We talked to people.

We're trying to fight back against a myriad of problems.

You know, the one of the few things that you said I want to pick up on.

I think they're super interesting.

Why do you think that people think that communism is the best way to be empathetic and to be compassionate?

And so you put out a tweet that we will pull up here.

It's seen in downtown Portland yesterday.

Having communist insignia in one's car without any license plates,

perfectly epitomizes anarcho communism.

Why do people think that communism is a way to be compassionate?

Like, I just, I don't get that.

Is that just historical literacy or what?

There is an entire ethos of entitlement.

Like you get points if like you're a minority or things have been hard for you.

And like, I come from a place where it's like,

we all have had different adversity and sure some of us worse than others.

But it's all about overcoming and also like providing and community instead of saying,

well, these people have it good.

And so you owe me.

And that's really what's going on here.

I think it's this general idea that everyone owes you something.

You know, people need to, everybody, you have it better.

So you need to provide to me.

And people have lost, you know, everything that builds people.

When you meet people that are really doing great in terms of their spiritualness

and their kindness to others and so forth, like they have rose.

They have rose through adversity.

And sure other people have helped them.

But they're, it's not about being given.

Like we are robbing people of their own satisfaction and being happy

by not giving them past to prosperity instead of, oh, I'm just going to give it to you.

And don't get me wrong.

I definitely think there's people in our society that we need to care for.

I know even some of these people that are outside.

They've used drugs at the point that, you know, it's not even clear

if the mental illness started first or the homelessness.

We have, we have elderly, we have people who can't work.

Like I'm sort of thinking that.

So I totally agree with social programs from that perspective.

But in my state, there are every day.

There are situations where people are really provided for

that should be more putting their shoulder to the wheel

and not being robbed of the opportunity to find their way.

Because it's not about, it's about who you become as a result of your free agency

and your success in life.

That's not how I feel.

Yeah, we don't talk, we don't teach that.

We don't teach that kind of resilience, that kind of grit in schools.

It's just the idea that you're owed something when you're born in the United States.

Somebody, this is the problem when people don't know how to reason.

Someone from outside the United States could say that people,

even poor people in the United States owe them something

because they're born out of the United States in worse conditions.

Right.

So it's, it's, that, that, I blame that.

I don't think that's the human condition.

I think that's part of how we've institutionalized various narratives

and viewpoints in our educational system, which has failed people.

Okay.

So we've talked about homelessness.

We've talked about business.

We've talked about the, the mayor of Portland being

I mean, I don't know, Ted Wheeler was just inconceivable to me

that anybody could vote for that man.

He was just, what other problems, how, how else are progressive policies

hurting the city of Portland in specific and Oregon more generally?

So we, we currently have a block of democratic socialist of America on city council.

They passed a ranked choice voting initiative within the city of Portland.

And it was supposed to make it sort of more people in each district,

you know, different blocks of people would have a voice.

But really what happened is we have a very progressive and even like socialist block within city council.

And they've been, they've definitely had complaints because they, you know,

have been meeting outside of public meetings and so forth.

And so there's been ethics complaints.

And we've had, we've had pressed about that.

But they are very intent on, for example, they just had something where they were trying to pass it.

So you couldn't have Bo Gua, you know, the.

Oh, yeah, yeah.

In Portland, they just focused on some money was found that wasn't used on housing.

And they put it towards more rent assistance to keep people from being evicted.

They've been doing this since 2020.

I mean, we know people who just do not pay their rent.

And it's like, well, you know, really, I mean, I don't always like working.

I actually like working a lot to be honest with you.

But sometimes I'd like to sit around and not work.

But I mean, this is just, this builds good people.

Like, you know, we all got a job to do in the community.

I think even when we.

So it's just again, it goes back to just this thinking that like it's easy for everybody else.

And it's hard for me and I need mine.

And there is no.

What do you mean they don't pay rent?

Like how do you live without paying?

Like how do you live without paying rent?

The government has been our local government in city has been doing these programs

that give eviction assistance for, I mean, six years that I know about.

And they just keep pushing money towards it.

Well, these people are going to be evicted.

So a lot of our money that comes in for homeless or not a lot.

But there's a portion of this $750 million that is kept to keep people from being evicted.

They call them marginalized because things are so expensive.

But as you probably know, any time the government ministers something, it's more expensive.

And it's less efficient.

And it's here.

It's not accountable at all.

But I think anybody in any other city would say, well, there's less accountability than there is in the private sector

where you got to sink or swim.

And so the more we add to all this, the more expensive it gets.

And it's just a colossal mess.

So I think I know the answer, which is the taxpayer, but I'm going to ask the question anyway.

So who's who's paying for that?

Yeah, the taxpayer, taxpayer and the business owners.

You know, we have two taxes here.

Let me get these right.

We have one for supportive housing measure that was voted in.

So it's, it's a lot of money.

And 10% goes to Metro who administrative, which is another level of government we arguably don't need.

And so this money is supposed to go to, you know, support people in housing.

But the way that it's taxed is if you're a single person, I think it's $125,000 that you would make, which nowadays is, you know, you're doing all right.

But it's not wealth.

And if you're a household and you're making 250, I think it's 1% of your of your net.

Is it gross or net?

You know, it's just there's so many taxes that are sort of tax the wealthy.

And not only are a lot of the people being taxed not wealthy, but also they just pick up their marbles and leave.

Right.

Yeah, that's what happened when the CEO of Starbucks who has all these crazy social justice policies announced when the mayor of Seattle said that there's going to be a wealth tax.

He just moved to a state without it.

And he brought his woke policies with him.

So I guess my question is, I mean, just taking a step back, like, what an absolute catastrophe.

I remember I got a, I got a Multnomah County homeless tax before I left.

And I had no, you know, I had to come up with that money.

I had no idea that I was going to be, I just, and the interesting thing, the thing that utterly enraged and infuriated me about that was.

That day, the, the 24 hours before that, my car got broken into.

And what they used to do is they used to smash the window of my car.

And I think this was like among the final straws.

I hadn't met in there many final straws, but I really wanted to stay in the city of Portland and fight for it.

But it just became impossible.

I mean, you know, everyone's complaining about the system.

I mean, they were just, they're too many people.

But anyway, so, but the deductible from when my car was broken didn't cover.

So I had to pay.

I can't remember if he was like 250 and then my car was out for days.

And it just kept happening.

And then I got a housing housing tax on top of it.

But I was switching gears a little bit.

I remember Renee Gonzalez was running for mayor.

And he was threatened.

He was harassed.

And people said that he was on the right.

Renee Gonzalez is like an inventor at leftist.

He's like a hardcore Democrat, like Democrat Democrat.

He's a minority.

He's like.

And he's been a Democrat his whole life.

Yeah.

And he's just pragmatic.

You know, it's interesting about Renee and is that one of the things that happened in his campaign is that they started to turn over to the press that there was all these campaign finance violations.

Because we have this donor match thing where you have people donate say $5 and it's a nine time match.

And it's supposedly to keep big business out of the election so that real people can get elected.

And they were they were saying things about Renee and how he spent money that was really unfair.

And the auditor stepped aside because she was running and the other person in the auditor's office was literally owned property and has been in a.

From what I could gather, I think it was a romantic relationship, but definitely they live together with the person that filed the complaint who was over the pack that was don't rank Renee.

I mean, the actual the actual city of Portland and the viper's nest of the attorney's office participated in keeping Renee Gonzalez out of the mayoral job because they knew from his work as a city counselor that he knew what was going on.

And he was going to put a stop to it and you know another note about you moving and I think you're being gracious like talking about the window breaking and so forth like most people who fight hard enough here eventually move because it is so intense the way they will come after you.

You know you're in the boat of you know Andy know I mean there's whenever we had the stuff going on at the ice facility.

A lot of the people that were covering it were from out of town and you know in me I mean I do speak out but I also pick my battles because when they come it's not that I'm afraid it's just sometimes you're afraid but other times it's like this is really distracting and then you're running interference on all the isms they're calling you right you're.

You're you're I mean the early terms were nicer right you're in them be you know you're a neo Nazi your republican you know your anti homeless and then it comes into like just horrible things like you're you know you're fascist you know you you want children in Palestine to die and you haven't even talked about Palestine.

I mean yeah I find that I find that fascinating so let's linger on that for a second because it's important but first I want to say thanks to the Canadian there Canadian a thanks Peter you're important voice right now because you're critical thinking first principles which seem to me see kind thanks I appreciate that that that keeps the show funded so I want to talk about.

Something that you said you know I was physically run physically two groups of young man I can't prove they're in T for but I strongly suggested in T for cornered me I eventually left because I just I tried to what I were read nine the nonprofit we're trying to find on kind of national global issues right now for the United States and so we're really working on these national issues and.

But but it is disheartening when I hear you say it because every single person I know meets what you just said who lives in the city of Portland is thinking about moving or has moved or wants to move and it's disheartening but we also need people to fight back which is right so I'm trying to reconcile like how do you motivate people what can someone do if they want to fight back against this progressive bureaucracy.

That's ideologically captured and doing just crazy crazy stuff to the city of Portland.

It's almost like they have a backward road map to success.

So here's how I'm preceded so our particular PDX real has been not only that we're doing local citizen journalism but we're also activating people to know how to talk to people and also be armed with information.

We have focused specifically on issues that people can agree with regard you know moderates can agree with on all sides which is what affordability affordability big issue why is it not affordable here why is everything going up farther than it is in the United States.

The other is we all can agree about public safety like all of us love our family and we care about our own well being so public safety is big deal.

So we spent a lot of time talking about those and then also like it when your compassion is like I don't want people to suffer so I those have been our pieces that we've really focused on and also just encouraging I think the reason Portland is somewhat here and this is a United States problem but it's certainly here as well.

And I'm over 50 now and in my lifetime it was just like the government was handled there was that thing over there and somebody else does that and we just were not civically involved we don't even know who does what what the county does with the city does with the legislature does who you interact with when there's a problem and how you can change something or how you can make your voice heard.

And so we've been working on those principles which I think is a is a renaissance that frankly the United States needs I consider it as hard as it is here I consider it almost a privilege to be here because long after I'm gone I feel that the work that we can do can warn people in other areas about what they need to be focused on

and also what they need to be thinking about in terms of engagement the trouble with government is if nobody is watching it and reporting on it and engaging in it it just does what it wants to do and it's not really set up for that to help the people.

You know we we talk a lot about democratic policies but I moved here because it was the most I moved here in 96 it was the most fabulous liberal city I had ever I was so happy to be here.

I know I know it was a lot of work was done right yeah it was safe it was safe and nobody cared what your opinion was it was just like to do your thing just whatever you want to do whatever you think whatever and then it turned into this like

situation where it's like we're in charge and if you don't agree with us you're bad and we're going to say these names about you and we're going to ostracize you and it has been for a lot of people like really scared them.

I find that with pdx real you know um peter like in some ways what was going on with you years ago you know we we sort of knew each other through people then and I watched this whole thing and by staying here I was like we need to focus on what we can do and I also notice with some of the far left issues that engaging with them is like almost like a no some game because all they want to do a lot of times is get angry and fight and it's like I want to share ideas and I want to build it.

And I want to build something I don't want to destroy things you know yeah it's interesting listen to your talk one of the things i'm i'm much older than you i'm closing approaching sixty very quickly but one of the things that well thank you thank you very much appreciate that one of the things that i've learned in my life was i always assumed growing up you know i was born in 1966 i always assumed that like the police officers would try to catch criminals the prosecutors would try to process

you criminals the judge would adjudicate the penal system would encarsher the reform the the parole system like it was just I never really thought about it was just to get my default assumption and then if I can tell you another quick quick story if you get bored of my stories let me know but now one one day when Mike Schmidt was the DA my my roommate had two two of her cars stolen from from eight one was in our driveway I think and the other one I think was pretty good.

Parked on the street if I remember correctly and she had like this little van and they were just stolen and so we waited we waited we waited and finally they they found one of the vehicles and so I was in the room at the time and she's on the phone on a recorded line I can't remember if it was clack of this aggression or something and so she was talking to a police officer they made her pay in pounds and they know no that's not where I was going to story where I was going.

The story was yeah about the failure of the system in the state of Oregon in Portland specifically my roommate said and again I'm in I'm in the room listening to the call she said have you found the have you have you found the people who stole the car and the police officer said no we're not going to we're not going to look for them and my roommate said what what do you mean we're not going to look oh you know you know where the story is going yeah like what do you mean we're not going to look for them like I'm going to look for them like I'm going to look for them.

That's literally your job your job is to find criminals and and look for them she said no there's no point in looking for them because the district the Portland district attorney Mike Schmidt won't prosecute them so you're not going to prosecute a car like if this is not a random person on the street this is a police officer on a recorded line a sworn you know you swear the oath when you're a police officer and it just in that moment I was completely blown away like the whole system that I thought was

set up so that citizens like myself did not have to think about it I now have to think about it and I now have to try to figure out how to fix this system so yeah and now with and we were we you know he was a D he was a sort of progressive outside the state funded district attorney a lot of people would say just to make it quick like always sorrows funded but you know it's a lot of the progressive money that comes in and he was even once we got him out and we

brought in somebody who you know is a is a practical prosecutor and doesn't want to prosecute people we've elected it into our county people who are unfunding the jail you know the criminal justice system we have a quote-unquote at the paper says that has been saying we're having a public defender crisis but it's an agency that the governor manages and they're continuing not to do anything

about this even though we have more public defenders than DA's what's really happening is they want to get paid more and they want to turn down cases to pay pressure and all that like the whole system like brick by brick they've broken down the system like I guess without sounding conspirator we have a lot of people that are working in our government who are also been elected that want to see this sort of changed and some of them want and

in our key I don't know what's the second is it okay if I tell you I'm sorry I'm telling you so many stories can I tell you one more story yeah please so I was driving home one night it was late late at night I was driving home from my buddy's house we played Dungeon Dragons and some got so you know there are those people some people call 911 like you know every day or every week and then there are people like me like once every decade call 911 so if I'm calling 911

serious shit is happening like this is not a capricious call so some guy so I'm driving home it was late at night and some guy was not only driving like a lunatic he was throwing bottles at people he was serving he was like driving like a lunatic

unbelievably hostile he must have been on some kind of drug and so so I call 911 and I am immediately on hold and I'm on hold and I'm like well what am I going to do I'm on hold

this guy is going to hurt somebody so I start following this guy I'm not you know investigator or anything I don't know how to tell people but I did the best that I could I guess I've watched enough movies but sooner or later and I'm still on at 911 15 minutes later I literally looked at 15 minutes later I'm still on 911 they haven't gotten to my call this guy spots me and I'm like holy shit so and then he starts coming at me and then I just sped away but my point is like you shouldn't have to

be on a call 16 minutes for 911 before they pick up an answer because this guy is going to literally hurt somebody so I want to just press I want to stress to you you're telling stories that I would say are 2022 and before stories the way this is progressed I have right now friends that have had family members murdered and there is no investigation you did hear me say that the detectives are still working

from home since before 2020 pretty much all of our government where can you imagine being a detective working at home and literally like these phone numbers are they might as well go to hell like you don't even hear from these people like it's horrible situations like this where it's like really serious things that the property the property and crime and damage and vandalizing and also just reckless driving has continued but it is also gone to the public

that is where there is like retalitory fires you've got people you know squatting at homes whenever things are under real estate you've got murder investigations nothing's done you've got a major assaults where people are let go the next day for trial and they have I remember the top one I found was 45 failures to appear of one person you know they just kept getting them on warrant and taking them back in and releasing them.

them and telling them to show it for court, he's an addict.

He doesn't care.

He doesn't care right now in the 80s and so I mean, it is it is

progressed to debt life and death at this point in some cases.

And if you're unlucky, you're in a bad neighborhood.

I mean, I respect that I respect that you that like I remember

that period of time, but it's just kind of making me recollect

on kind of how crazy it's gotten.

We had a situation where we knew somebody, I mean, we have

whistleblowers that call us all the time, but you know,

Portland has only a few degrees of separation, as I think

you know, it's not huge.

And I got a call from someone who is by marriage related

to a bar, like a neighborhood bar in North Portland.

They have a, I want to say seven to nine cameras at this place,

indoors, outdoors, et cetera.

There was a robbery when they opened up on a Sunday with the

bartender, nobody was there.

A guy came in, was playing video poker.

Another left, another man came in with a machete and robbed her

with the knife, knew where the safe was in the basement in one

of the rooms that was marked as an electrical room.

The immigrant owners of this business hadn't been to the bank yet.

And they also have lottery machines there.

So the state requires that you have so much payout on hand.

I believe it was $30,000 that they got away with.

The victim, I mean, honestly, the owner thought that the bartender

was in on it.

The bartender, I had stayed in contact with her in addition

to the family, just telling the story.

And she, one of her friends, she had described, had paid attention

to his tattoos and his shoes and like really his watch.

And certain things about him that were very distinctive.

And one of her friends found him on a dating site, you know,

Facebook has its dating.

And it was very clear, like same hat, same shoes, same whatever.

I called the detective myself, represented who I was.

Good for you.

And gave all the information.

They literally never did anything about it.

I'm not exaggerating.

I mean, it was very thorough.

It was very powerful.

A fear of racism?

Was it a fear of racism or just incompetence or?

He was a white man.

So it wasn't that.

So why didn't they, they just, were they understat?

What was the reason they just, are they didn't give you any reason?

They're like, I think it's, I think it's

I, I think it's just that everybody, this is me speaking.

But I think it's just retirements coming soon.

And I'm just going to do the minimum and the city, you know,

it's just, it is what it is.

People are not held accountable to do their job.

I mean, we gave them an open and shut case.

And I'm just giving you one example.

There's been other examples like this.

Like is that, you know, because I'm, yes, I'm a, I'm a, you know,

community journalist, but I'm also sort of an activist.

I mean, I care about these people, you know, and what's happening.

And so we try to get results for them.

And, you know, that one of the murders I was talking you about is one

of my dearest girlfriends whose nephew was murdered and shot and killed.

I'm sorry.

He got 91 while he died.

There was a recording, it's, it's sick, it's sick.

And in the meantime, they're saying, well, we just need more money.

In the meantime, what is it?

$8 billion is our budget here in Milwaukee.

Same size in Wisconsin is $5 billion.

Like it's just, our money is being spent on a lot of pet projects,

a lot of ideology and not on basic infrastructure.

And then they're always coming after more with their pity party.

It's just, it's really sick.

It's very sick.

I mean, it's, it's taxation without representation.

I can't, I can't wait.

I can't wait until we turn this around.

I really, yeah, well, we have to, you have to, you have to keep,

you have to keep fighting.

I mean, I'm on to different battles.

But Reed, let's pull up some of those comments.

I want to thank some people.

Everybody's got a job to do, Peter Pagotian.

Yeah, well, thank you, I know.

Melissa Jones, hey, welcome.

Thanks for coming to remember.

We appreciate it.

And, uh, mushy season, friend of the show,

uh, Irish coffee for Reed, Reed needs extra Irish coffee.

And then, uh, Nathaniel Howellit,

10, uh, hey, Peter, thanks for your work.

Been following your career since the Sokol Square to Fair

and can't fathom why I haven't supported you financially.

But as far as thanks are really sincerely

appreciate that carry on, solder.

Much love from Nate from Canada.

Awesome, bro.

Thanks.

Uh, and then, uh, friend of the show, uh,

it's, I think it changes name.

Nia Opsis, 499, the PDX base will dwindle to nothing.

Like you say, no federal bail out at some point.

They will vote in change, hopefully.

Yeah, so I wanted to ask you about, uh,

the communism, uh, uh, uh, something in communism.

And it is the solution to this, let's see, far,

is the solution to this problem?

Can this be fixed by voting for the right wing?

Is like, is it, like, what is this?

What is the solution to the problem?

Yeah, so, um, number one, like on a good note,

because we've talked a lot about what's not working.

So we just had our state legislature,

the Simpholves Portland too, um,

work to pass a transportation tax when they were spending a lot of the money,

not on roads and bridges,

but they were spending the money on sort of bike lanes and multimodal things and

DEI, et cetera.

And so that we already have a lot of gas tax.

We pay very high gases, gas prices here.

And so we came together as citizens, uh,

for what you call referendum,

which is we put together a petition.

Um, the, we, I covered this for eight months,

but during the legislative session,

they did everything they could to get this to pass,

because they have the super majority.

And then whenever they knew that we were going to,

we had, we had, it was over 80% of the letters that came in were in opposition.

I mean, the state is just completely against more taxes on the gas,

gas taxes affect everything.

We came together and signed in 38 days.

We got over 250,000 signatures to push back to put it on the ballot so the people can vote.

So the people of Oregon are coming together.

We are coming together of sound mind on similar issues that enough is enough.

Government growth is,

and more cost of living is not going to be better for Oregonians across board.

And you were asking generally about, you know, the minority party,

you know, I personally have been a registered libertarian for some time.

It's a philosophy for me.

Most people, a lot of people here are non-affiliated voters.

And certainly we have a very big democratic base,

particularly in Portland and Eugene and Bend is growing in that too.

But, you know, conservative Republican quote unquote,

people here are not the same as other parts of the country.

They tend to be very liberal in social issues.

You know, it's the great frontier out here, right?

And so it's, right now it's about,

we have a gubernatorial governor election that's coming in November.

And so we've been encouraging people to think about,

we have a close primary,

you know, being part of the minority party so they can vote in the primary

and pick a good candidate that will stand against what is the status quo

with our governor who's an incumbent.

There does not seem to be any pull out of the direction they're going,

no matter how much the people protest.

As a matter of fact, our governor did things like called special sessions on weekends,

where people have to find on Sundays, not showing,

bringing in legislators that would vote how she wanted them to,

who had strokes and one of them that was in hospice that passed away.

They are brutal.

So we covered that in vivid detail.

So citizens by the time we did the petition gather,

we're really fired up.

We have thousands of volunteers and we broke Oregon history doing it.

So I think people will have had it.

Yeah.

Okay, cool.

So we're a little over here,

but I wanted to just very quickly,

is there anything I shouldn't ask you,

is there anything I didn't ask you that I should have asked you,

or is there anything you want to ask me?

When are you coming back to visit?

Good question.

I'm not sure yet.

I'm not sure when I'm going to come back next.

Let me know.

Okay, cool.

Yeah, we'll all go out.

Let's go around.

Yeah, that'll be if I show you around.

It's showing me around the homeless encampments and the,

yeah, I'm not.

There's another thing besides the homeless encampments.

Also, you're good time too.

Awesome.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Appreciate that.

Peter, thank you so much for letting us tell this story out here.

I appreciate it.

It's vital.

I support you and I support your work.

And I just want to say,

I think that every time these things are framed,

I think the best framing of this is like,

what's the evidence?

What are the reasons?

And sometimes the left is right.

Sometimes the right is right.

Sometimes the libertarianism.

Like, I just think that we have to get beyond ideology

and look at what is the data evidence?

Like, what is the data for shelter first housing earned?

Is, what is the data for?

Like, we just have to think about these problems in terms of evidence.

And the moment that we don't,

we become beholden to an ideology.

So, that's right.

And if anybody disagrees with me or disagrees with you,

you're welcome to come on the show.

As long as you have some kind of qualifications

and credentials that you work in these areas,

provided, I always stipulation

that it haven't harassed me in the past.

Okay, where can we find your work?

So, on YouTube, we were called PDX real.

PDX is, stands for Portland.

So, PDX real.

We have a pretty good following on Instagram and X as well.

We're starting to do long format.

So, our YouTube is a little,

it's coming together,

but we do have some information on energy

and some of the gubernatorial candidates.

Just recently that we've been posting

and we'd love to have you join the conversation.

Excellent. Well, Angela, thanks so much.

Keep your brows open.

And I appreciate the work you're doing trying to save

the city that I still love.

Portland, Oregon.

It's not all is not lost.

So, thank you for your work so much.

Appreciate it.

Thank you, Peter.

And thanks, Reed, for your help.