Commentary By Samuel Strait – January 4, 2022 As most that read the Crescent City Times regularly know that I spent much of November and on into December traveling about the northern portion of the three western states, Washington, Oregon and California. Part of that time was spent in what was once the very beautiful city, Portland, Oregon. Not so, any more. I have a number of friends and relatives who call Portland home, grudgingly, as they are no longer proud to be living there. It doesn't really have much to do with politics, it is more about the rise in crime, homelessness, pandemic insanity, and a host of other issues that have turned Portland into a dirty, trash laden city over run with crime and lawlessness. It is not something that has just afflicted Portland, Oregon, as California and Washington have experienced the same decline in their urban settings. Los Angeles, San Diego, Sacramento, and San Francisco in California and Seattle, Tacoma, and Olympia in Washington all have shared the same fate as with Portland. Most of this decline can be assigned to the recent leadership's policies in these urban settings, not even restricted to the West Coast of the United States. Defund the police, no serious prosecutorial presence, weak leadership, with no serious effort to change course. The question becomes, will this condition urban centers find themselves in become a pattern for first mid sized cities and then finally find its way to rural areas? On the West Coast at least, this appears to be the direction that many mid sized cities in California, Washington, and Oregon have tended to go. Are we in danger of becoming a third world nation? When I first came to Crescent City nearly fifty years ago, I would have said never. Now I am not so certain. Weak leadership – Check Homelessness – Check Rise in Crime – Check Government economy – Check Pot holes in the street – Check All signs that we are moving along a path that the Urban centers have tread. At a point in time when I first arrived in the County, government pay checks did not dominate the local economy. Logging, Lumber, Fishing, and Mining were a viable economy that filled the pockets of many families with sustenance, and a roof over their heads. All of those economies have since vanished. It is not as though there are no more trees to make into lumber, or fish in the ocean to provide food, or even minerals in the ground to mine, no California has regulated all that away in return for more local government which spends money it doesn't have for things local people have no need. Millions of dollars from grants and loans further the spending spree local leadership has to waste on more non essential decorations, palaces, and public castles. If anyone thinks that Portland, Oregon is a grand place to live now that the "summer of love" has taken place, riots, businesses burned to the ground, utter carnage on the streets after dark, a glimpse of a recent night in Portland, Oregon, where two gunman in a running battle fired over 100 rounds of live ammunition, peppering homes and a restaurant before disappearing into the night. Perhaps rather than sending Portland's recently disbanded gun and gang team, the "Focused Intervention Team", I kid you not, will be able to sort this one out. The recently activated FIT is expected "to deescalate and lower tensions in the community that are feeding on the contagious gun violence crisis." I guess the thinking is that if you wish it wouldn't happen then magically it won't. While this County of Del Norte has many of the signs that have created the problems that dominate urban centers like Portland, Oregon, one can only hope the local population will wake up in time. The schools are a disgrace. County and City governments equally so. The time for change can be as soon as the next election. Sources for excess government spending to be curtailed, new representatives in District three and four to consider, and a message to the remainder of leadership in the County that a sharp course correction is necessary. Sign the petition to eliminate both the City and County's one percent sales tax is a good place to start…