Numbers games

Any time the Portland street crime crisis subsides, even momentarily, the cheerleaders for this troubled city jump up and point it out. Apparently we went 30 days without a murder recently, which was hailed as some sort of achievement. But we've picked right back up again in October. Currently we're at 57 homicides for the calendar year, on track to hit roughly 75. Last year there were 101. Break out the champagne! Try to ignore the fact that in 2013 there were 16.

They say that reported car thefts are down for the year, too. From March to August, there were reportedly 35 percent fewer than in the same period in 2022. But when you look, you see that 3,890 vehicles were reported stolen in the city during those six months this year. That's still a vehicle reported stolen every 68 minutes. For the 12 months ended August 31, 2023, I count 9,329 reported vehicle thefts, or one every 56 minutes.

Then there are the smash-and-grab crimes, for which statistics aren't thrown around quite as much. That's an even more widespread plague.

Anyway, if things are moving in the right direction, it's better than nothing. But given how far Portland has fallen, we're still looking at a long, and perhaps impossible, climb back.