After 25 years as homeowners in Southeast Portland’s Richmond neighborhood, we said goodbye to my wife’s beautiful garden, our wonderful neighbors and friends, the intrepid restaurateurs, bakers and shopkeepers and the things we loved about our adopted Rose City. After the Homeless Industrial Complex took over the city government’s social services, after the developers corrupted zoning in various ways (such as no requirements for off-street parking or decent setbacks), after the city council abdicated respect for homeowners and their neighborhoods, after the council’s thoughtless disdain for law enforcement, it became too much. Life is way too short to keep pulling on these reins. Portland will survive and hopefully turn around. We hope so, because it is full of wonderful citizens of good and generous temperaments. So, adieu Portland, and may you thrive and flourish.
Frank DiMarco, Goleta, Calif.
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