RealClearInvestigations editor Peder Zane joined the RCP Podcast on Thursday the show to talk about Mark Hemingway’s latest piece on the decline of Portland: “Model City: Portland’s Journey From Symbol of Chic to Shabby” “Portland is a great test case because as recently as 2009, it was a hipster paradise – a city that worked, a place people wanted to move to,” he explained. “And in the years since, for a variety of reasons, including the embrace of progressive policies that were often ineffective at creating safety and jobs, the city declined in a measurable way.” “Just like Chicago, San Francisco, and other cities dealing with urban problems, many people are having wonderful lives in Portland. But that does not negate the pattern of decline that makes it harder for many people to live there,” Zane said. “We don’t know how to resolve this tension. We are becoming more and more divided, which means the government basically has to impose one set of beliefs that are fiercely opposed by a huge group of people in their state,” Zane said. “Until we can figure out how to come together and solve these problems, I think a lot of people are despairing.” Zane and the RCP panel also discuss the Greater Idaho movement, where 13 counties in eastern Oregon are seriously talking about leaving the state to join Idaho. “In Oregon, Washington, and California, you see progressive urban centers control state governments and impose policies on large parts of the state who don’t agree,” Zane explained. “The Greater Idaho movement is partly saying: We don’t know how to resolve this tension.”
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