Education

Portland Should Welcome Growth, Not Run From It

Metal Toad recently shared an infographic on Facebook that illustrate

Joaquin Lippincott, CEO
Aug 14, 2015
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Metal Toad recently shared an infographic on Facebook that illustrated the influx of people to Portland split by geography:

Top 50 MSA Migration into Portland Metro

This growth has me very excited for Portland's future but, to my surprise, almost of the comments were not only negative, but some were even borderline racist or extremely xenophobic.  Here are just a few of the more than 50 comments posted:

F***ing Califonians, and New Yorkers. They waste their resources, poorly plan their cities and create unliivable and/or unaffordable neighborhoods and they are now here to do the same.

Portland, you're better than that.

I moved up to Portland 9 years ago from San Diego, a city that has seen more than it's share of new faces. During this growth, San Diego made some bad choices by ignoring what was happening - something that Portland can learn from.

To their credit, a few people were a little more introspective in their responses:

NY,LA,SF have the highest rent in the country and the truth is that people In those cities can't even afford their own apartment. The reality is that people in those cities live in a small apartment with two-four families living in the same apartment cramped, overrun and I'm sure the conditions are very desperate and dier- that's the real truth that no one knows and talks about up here- that is what every transplants has told me personally- I also meet transplants who expressed to me that they lived in LA all their lives and this the first time ever they where ever able to buy a home, up here in our state. The ugly truth is- gentrification destroyed their communities and as Oregonians we have to do everything in our power to stop gentrifying Portland and Stop those Yuppies in turning and developing PDX into a YUPPIE San Fransisco Jr!

People are moving to Portland. The population will continue to grow and house prices will rise. This means an increased tax base for education and infrastructure, new challenges, and new responsibilities. I, for one, am very excited about the opportunities this provides and look forward to the chance to get things right.

Let's learn from the mistakes that were made in California and do better, not turn into crazy xenophobes. Let's welcome growth, not run from it.
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