I lived in SF for most of a decade, right next to the tenderloin. The dangers of it are overstated. Yes there are homeless and addicts there. Yes there are tenement hotels. But mostly, people are just doing their thing. There are people sleeping on the sidewalk and it smells like urine, but that’s almost everywhere in SF. 
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Surprised the WaPo journalist went all the way to Denver.
You can get close to this at home on DC’s X2 line, also a wretched hive of scum, villainy, and people throwing urine at the driver.
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And conservatives blame the victims, lament the degradation of society, but when progressives try to fix the problem, conservatives insist on just doing more of the same. Double down on a broken policing system, double down on tax breaks for the wealthy, double down on fossil fuels.
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I would say avoid anywhere east of Burnside, bellow NW 8th all times of day. The rest of the downtown area just keep an eye out for trouble. They’re usually a block or two away scream at the top of their lungs.
Portland still feels like a small city. If you’re going to use public transit, avoid the Max our light rail. Street car and bus are mostly okay.
One thing friends and family have complained about, is how most breakfast places don’t open before 8. Feel free to hit me up with any other questions.
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yep had seen that on a list of things to do, may pop by.
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I think you got your coordinates backwards: Burnside is East-West, while 8th is North-South. So it would be anywhere below Burnside and east of NW 8th.
But I disagree with that advice. While I wouldnt say there’s anything great to see in that area this time of year now that the cherry blossoms have fallen, I wouldn’t call it dangerous. And the near East Side is great! So many good shops and food carts!
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Revolution Hall rooftop bar near sunset! You get a great view of downtown and the West Hills.
ETA: They also have the best fried pickles! I know that sounds weird, but these are amazing.
If you plan to hike in the Columbia River Gorge, be aware that they’ve put a permit system in place even to drive through the waterfall area between Bridal Veil Falls and Ainsworth State Park. There are still a lot of other falls to see and hike if you don’t go to that area, but you should be aware incase you had the falls tour in mind.
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Do you want your transit system to fail because this is how your transit system fails
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Thank you very much!
Interseting and well done article. Yes, it does focus on all the negatives, but a LOT of that woman’s job is negatives. And it really shows what the decisions of Denver’s leadership has created - an underclass of people with little to no representation, barely hanging on, and being pushed around the city whenever gentrification wants their area. Get out of Downtown. Go live by the river. Get out of the hotels on i70. Get out get out get out, but never actually help.
This also shows the massive failures (well, success if you like lower taxes and don’t give a damn about humans) of Ronnie Raygun’s gutting of our psychiatric care in the USA. That was the beginning, but I fear the disaster of mental heatlh care we see today is not the end.
I used to work in an ER one block off Colfax. Every single day we dealt with stories like this. The hospital closed and the ownership company built a new fancier one further from Colfax to try to avoid taking care of the poor. While that somewhat backfired (there are still plenty of poor where they moved), it Did get them away from the Colfax corridor, which has continued to spiral into mess after mess (socioeconomic, mental heatlh, substance abuse, violence). That new hospital even lobbied against a homeless shelter being built nearby, despite the mission statement being to “extend the healing ministry of Christ” (yes, they hide behind Jesus to get their tax breaks).
The one shining star that Denver has accomplished is the STAR program. It truly makes a difference and should be a model for cities across the country.
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