by Chris Bodenner
A reader sends the above map and writes:
I read with interest your reader's letter about Portlanders blaming gays for changing Portland from "pleasant but affordable" to "a super-hip but very expensive place from which families are fleeing." First, I assumed that Portlanders blamed Californians for raising home prices, e.g., the "Don't Californicate Oregon" bumper stickers. (California tech companies provide many jobs in and around Portland, which attract younger, higher income people.) LGBT people and Californians have helped locals make Portland's arts community and food and wine scene among the most interesting in the country. Perhaps some blame gays for gentrification because of their prominence in the community, including the out gay mayor. But by comparison to other West Coast cities, Portland is still pleasant but affordable; that's why Californians and gays are still moving there. And given Portland's dropping real estate prices (the hip, urban Pearl District is down about 10% in the past year), perhaps locals' attitudes may soften on outsiders buying homes there.
Another writes:
While housing in Portland has gotten expensive compared to the suburbs, it's not clear that childless households are the cause of this.
Portland, if anything, has a glut of housing geared towards singles and couples in trendy neighborhoods like the Pearl and South Waterfront; what the city has less of is housing geared towards families with kids. And furthermore, it's utterly incorrect to suggest that quality issues with Portland Public Schools are the result of childless couples (whether gay, empty-nest, or whatever else) failing to support the schools at the ballot box. Portland residents have long been supportive towards PPS, and city government has even stepped up to help the schools from time to time (despite the fact that public education is not a City function). However, like many urban school districts, PPS has to deal with decrepit buildings, and a larger number of poor families within the district – concerns that suburban school districts (with modern facilities and zoning policies which exclude the poor by limiting multi-family housing) don't have to deal with. On top of that, a significant amount of public school funding comes from the state of Oregon (local property tax funding of education is capped by state law); and the funding formula used is highly detrimental to urban school districts such as Portland.
Plus, your reader's eagerness to identify soccer as a "gay" pursuit ought to earn him a yellow card, at minimum.
The Dish 