To Councilor Novick's credit, he sent out an email with similar content last week, and then another today with the same text + chart

Agreed that some offices, especially satellite offices of businesses based elsewhere have left. Unfortunately, some of that is driven by vibes and unhinged media accounts of downtown! It's a vicious cycle

I don't honestly. But I spend a lot of time in Old Town. It's not good unfortunately, but blocks of the Tenderloin in SF, skid row in LA, skid row in Seattle, and parts of central ABQ were worse. Not saying things are good but just some perspective

Would never argue that unsheltered homelessness is worse in NYC. Just saying that there are a couple blocks in NYC that are worse than any individual spot in Portland. And from recent visits there are blocks of the Bay, LA, and Albuquerque that are worse than Portland as well

Would never argue Portland isn't facing challenges - the Oregon economy is stagnant and downtown specifically has struggled from WFH. But multifamily vacancies are still very low at 5.91% (w/ downtown even lower at 5.25ish%) and our urbanism is alive and well
assets.noviams.com/novi-file-up...

At least as of a few years ago, the blocks around 125th & Lex are worse than anywhere in Portland, Oregon

Also, since 2001 no U.S. city has built a higher proportion of new housing in walkable neighborhoods than Portland. Probably the best metric of increasing urbanism
ternercenter.berkeley.edu/research-and...

I'm from NJ and live in Portland. There is no place in the world where media accounts are more divorced from reality than Portland. It's extremely lovely. There is lots of homelessness in Old Town and a few parts of downtown, but frankly it's no different than the skid rows in most American cities

🚨 In the latest tally, Katie Wilson has once again gained vote share in the Seattle mayoral race and officially taken a narrow lead. Today's batch broke 55.57% for Wilson and 44.13% for Bruce Harrell. Wilson now still leads with 49.83% of the vote while Harrell still trails with 49.79% of the vote.

The two lines tracking reflects the VMT / resident staying almost flat in the last 25 years, which is a huge failure of transportation policy here

I could not be more supportive of the premise, but in this case the graph is showing a significant disconnect between VMT and fatalities in the last 15 years, with almost double the fatality rate per VMT today vs. 2010.