The louse that roared

A gig I would not want is promoting tourism in Portland in this era. It's a tough sell. And I would have a hard time looking the tourists in the eye when they got a good dose of what's happening here.

The guy who's currently getting paid to perform this task made some comical headlines the other day when he declared that tourism in town is "really roaring back." He's feeling pretty good now that he's managed to get the national teachers' union to commit to hold their annual confab here two years from now, in our white elephant Convention Center. They're more daring than I would be. 

Between now and then, I'm sure the tourism bureau's going to continue insisting that we all need to start going downtown again to make it seem more "vibrant." But as they well know, the locals are a lot smarter than the tourists. Even the arrogant bureaucrats in city government refuse to risk a daily round trip through the ongoing fentanyl festival to work in person at City Hall.

Undaunted, the tourism guy prattles on. His new motto is "We're no worse than anywhere else."

“We as Portlanders are surprised by what we see and what we’ve seen. But we are also hearing very positive news from the mayor and from our elected officials that change is happening, and we actually do see it on the streets too,” Miller said.

“Come downtown, see it, see how exciting it is. Go out to a restaurant, we’ve got Ticket to Dine going on right now. So, there’s lots of good reasons to get you back downtown.”

Maybe if you never knew downtown when it was good, you wouldn't regard its current state as a disaster. But for the rest of us, there's simply no reason to go down there any more. Maybe a rare musical event – maybe. Then again, even the Portland Jazz Festival is running some of its shows in Beaverton these days. Until people feel safe, there will be no "excitement," at least none of the good kind, in inner Portland. I doubt that day will arrive before the teachers from Des Moines do.