WOKE POLICIES KILLING PORTLAND SUBURBS: IMPORTING HOMELESS

Suicide Or Murder?

This is beautiful West Linn Central Village which this writer watched being built 17 years ago.  My law office was right across the street, and next door to the proposed homeless camp.  What will it look like two years from now?

The beautiful upscale suburb with 600 acres of parks, West Linn, Oregon, began to die about 10 years ago when enough arrogant, nasty Liberals/Democrats moved from California and other blue states and banded together to neuter police and to take over the city council.  I did not notice the necrosis until 2016/17 when activists dropped their masks of normality, and charged ahead with all their hatred to condemn their neighbors who disagreed with Liberal/Marxist policies. They threatened & intimidated city government into implementing DEI and other racist policies until the sane employees, volunteers & elected/appointed officials left, hid their true identity or caved to the madness. 

During the 32 years my husband & I resided there, the mayor and the three council positions often went begging for residents to fill them.*  However, FOURTEEN residents filed to run for city council & mayor during the 2020 election.   All but one openly supported Portland’s Black Lives Matter violence that lasted from May to October that year.  That July, West Linn’s local thugs (mostly privileged teens) were joined by Portland’s BLM and Antifa terrorists (mostly losers with criminal records) to harass residents with impunity.  Police were told to cite anyone who “interfered” with the rioters, but not to cite the rioters. 

West Linn voters recently elected a 23-year-old man as mayor.  Rory Bialostosky grew up in West Linn and, no doubt, was thoroughly indoctrinated with Liberal/Democrat/Progressive/Marxist ideology in the school system.  He is a recent undergraduate of the very school where this writer received her law degree in 1986: Lewis & Clark College.  It was training Little Marxists then, and I have no reason to believe it has changed. 

IMPORTING THE HOMELESS

Portland has been awash in homeless people living wherever they choose for about a decade now.  The crime and filth got progressively worse after Portland turned their police into social workers three years ago. Police are prohibited from moving trespassers off homeowners’ lawns, driveways, and back yards.  Indeed, if you go on vacation, you run the risk of finding squatters living in your home when you return.  The police will do nothing and you are not allowed to evict them.  Some residential areas have blocks & blocks of tents & make shift structures on sidewalks, alleys, empty lots, etc.  The homeless are not polite!

The City of West Linn does not have any homeless residents; however, the baby mayor & city council unanimously voted to start the process of inviting them to move from Portland to this beautiful, crimeless suburb, after ignoring the pleas of taxpaying, long term residents.**  No doubt, crime and filth will quickly follow.  Indeed, it is already showing up. In 2019 the City Council ordered the police to stop enforcing the ban on camping on city property. All nine residents who spoke at the May 8th meeting argued against allowing camping on city property because the residents have already seen a significant increase in nudity, public defecation, illegal drug use, et al in the parks and neighborhoods.   The five campers’ sites they are currently considering are:

1)   The police station parking lot.  Will policemen be serving their meals?

2)   City Hall parking lot.  Perhaps the city attorney will do their laundry.

3)   Bolton Reservoir.  This is located about a quarter of a mile from the dream house we built in 1988.  It is across the road from the wooded Wilderness Park where we walked our dogs virtually every day.  Of course, these camp dwellers will be spending time in the park (and residents will no longer feel safe to walk the park’s paths) and at the nearby high school where these new residents can sell drugs to the students.  This camp site is also just a short walk away from Sunset Grade School that our tax dollars built in 2017.  Will the little kids be safe playing outside during recess?  

4)   Bolton Fire Station parking lot.  Likely the camp dwellers will be showering with the firefighters.

5)   The West Linn Public Library parking lot.  Perhaps the librarians, “tolerant” Liberals all, will be reading to them. The public library is next door to the small office building where I practiced law for 11 years. 

Foresight is a wonderful thing!  We could see that the quality of life in West Linn would only go downhill, not uphill.  Now we know that we “got out of Dodge” just in time!  This proposed homeless campsite is also across the street from that beautiful small shopping mall in the photo above.  But, don’t worry about it because the virtue signaling jackasses** who are importing these camp dwellers will use their own personal funds, time and efforts to be sure these non-residents are comfortable, and they don’t bother residents.  Not!

WEST LINN PUBLIC SCHOOLS ARE LITTLE MORE THAN INDOCTRINATION CENTERS

In the 80s & 90s young families moved to West Linn because it was said to have the best school system in Oregon.  It certainly had the wealthiest because homeowners paid the highest property taxes in Oregon.  As we were preparing our house for sale, I recall looking at our $8,000-odd property tax statement: over $7,000 for schools and less than $300 for police & fire. 

My husband & I did not have children; however, by 2001 we were hearing about the Leftist indoctrination that was replacing real education.  Long before Trump arrived on the scene “conservative” thoughts could not be expressed in the classroom or in homework assignments.  After his arrival it got much worse.  A positive remark about President Trump or one of his policies could get you kicked out of class, or an F on your paper.  By 2017 they were transgendering little kids as young as age 6 without parental knowledge or permission. 

Since my law office was in West Linn from 2000 to 2020, I noticed the decline of reading, writing & math abilities among my younger clients, including those who went all the way through “the best school district in Oregon.” The most bizarre thing I personally witnessed was the “abilities” of the student editor of the high school newspaper.  She struggled to write a coherent sentence that the reader could understand, but she was fully versed in both profanity and Leftist ideology.

This confused, abused boy is running for high school student body president.

Now, young families are leaving West Linn, to provide their kids will quality education AND to protect them from damaging indoctrination, such as Critical Race Theory & transgendering.  

DEPOPULATION WILL ACCELERATE

West Linn has gained population every year since inception in 1845.  It reached its peak of 27,367 in 2020 and has been losing residents ever since.  Since then, this beautiful suburb SE of Portland, across the Willamette River from Oregon City and bordering the Tualatin River, has lost almost a thousand residents.  Importing homeless will only serve to further depopulate West Linn, as the filth & crime the homeless bring with them chases more residents away.

In the title I used the plural form, “suburbs.” The adjacent burb, Lake Oswego, where my husband grew up, is also losing population after city government was taken over by Far Left Extremists who have implemented Woke policies. They have been importing homeless, as well. Another burb, Milwaukie, has also lost significant population since 2020. After a century of increased population, Oregon City, another Portland suburb, is losing population. They allowed BLM/Antifa rioting and adopted Diversity Equity & Inclusion indoctrination. Could that be the cause of their depopulation, or have they been importing the homeless from Portland?

SUICIDE OR MURDER?

In the subtitle of this article I asked: “Suicide Or Murder?”  I have concluded that West Linn is committing suicide because they just elected a 23-year-old Woke mayor by 80%.  Really?  What was SO wrong with the other candidate?  He certainly had far more experience, was better educated, has been on the city council for four years, and was a long time volunteer in the community.

*The mayor’s annual salary is currently $6,400 and the three city councilors each receive $4,000. It wasn’t that long ago when their annual salaries were $400.

**At the May 8th council meeting fully masked City Councilor Mary Baumgartner was so upset by residents’ comments against their homeless camping plans the mayor called for a recess to allow her time to take her smelling salts.