A City in the Midst of Change: Portland, OR

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    Today, downtown Portland is overpopulated with no help given to the homeless, full of business and beautiful buildings boarded up or even shut down, and it seems as if the sun barely touches the city anymore like it used to. On the contrary, we are still a city united and we must fight for a brighter day. I believe our city will come today to become the environment it used to be just three years ago. 

    Growing up just an hour south of downtown Portland, some of the most blissful memories include taking weekend trips to the "big city". This perspective on the city throughout my younger days into adolescence grew to become a mindset as somewhere I would want to live someday. It's crazy to remember the days of the waterfront walkways in downtown Portland being full of people enjoying the views to thinking back on the hot summers where no basketball court or park was empty. It was these dreams I had hoped to live continuously throughout my college years here at Portland State. My freshman year, the atmosphere was just like I had always imagined before residing in downtown Portland. Then, it suddenly changed. Through the fight for social justice as well as becoming victim to a dangerous pandemic, our lives here urgently set on pause. All the friends I made in the city I loved, I couldn't see for a year. This city was a ghost town in just a blink of an eye.  


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