"... to Portland, it won’t be for the benefit of the people who call the city home. The intent will be to incite a spectacle of chaos, manufacturing a crisis to retroactively justify the belief that Democrat-run cities are in need of forceful takeover. The provocation will be the point. Don’t fall for it. The Portland of right-wing imagination is a city engulfed by flames and violence, a vivid warning of what will befall other places if they vote for Democrats. 'Unimaginably bad things would happen to America' if Biden were elected, Trump posted in 2020, specifically citing the 'anarchy' of Portland.... The reality is that the problems facing Portland and other cities are nothing that can’t be addressed through normal governance, and that these are on the whole vibrant and quite pleasant places to live. 'Real America' can mean things like biking to get a vegan ube latte from a purple-haired barista, and if you’d like a taste of what makes America truly great, you can find it in a coffee shop—in Portland, certainly, and probably a short ride from where you live."
Writes Jacob Grier, in "100 Cups of Coffee in a City on Fire/President Trump keeps saying Portland is an anarchic hellscape in need of the National Guard. With the help of my bike and a serious caffeine addiction, I set out to discover the truth" (Slate).It's nice to hear progressives paying respect to the virtues of federalism.And what's ube? It's just hair-colored yam, I mean, purple yam. I take it you just buy the yam extract — commission earned — and mix it into your milky — vegan milky — coffee.
99 comments:
I visited Portland before the leftwing thuggery/Dems allowed it to go to hell.
I've talked to people - Democrats - who live there and they told me without me even asking that - yes, downtown Portland is an unsafe shit hole now - and no one wants to go there. Long time businesses left... store fronts boarded up.
I loved Pearl Bakery. I think it is gone too.
Democrats in power are using the same language that got Charlie Kirk Killed - to get ICE agents killed.
Democrats have declared war. Screw Democrats. they are vile liars.
Read the ingredients on ube yam purple products: The coloring is often ADDED. It fits in perfectly with blue region feel good politics.
Can you plug in your own Tesla in Portland or does an attendant have to do it?
"the belief that Democrat-run cities are in need of forceful takeover.."
there is NOTHING Wrong with Democrat-run cities!
if You are a young white girl in one, there is a GOOD CHANCE;
that you will NOT be raped and murdered today..
maybe not even tomorrow!
for MANY young white girls, being in a democrat-run city is not necessarily a death sentence. MANY survive for weeks!
btw- Dominion Voting should be out of Business.
Just the name of it. Total corruption.
why do we put up with this?
It’s disturbing part of their platform is destroying their own cities, then blaming Trump for trying to stop it. It doesn’t look like a good policy- and midterms are only a year away 😉
that clip is too chopped up to see the truth.
these are on the whole vibrant and quite pleasant places to live.
For everyone?
'Real America' can mean things like biking to get a vegan ube latte from a purple-haired barista, and if you’d like a taste of what makes America truly great, you can find it in a coffee shop—in Portland, certainly, and probably a short ride from where you live.
Ok. 'Real America' can also mean the places where they ask you if you want ranch dressing to dip your pizza crust in. It can mean the places where, when you ask for tea, you get it sweet and iced. The presence of extreme-specialty ingredients does not define 'Real America' any more than the presence of chain restaurants does. (I can't remember the last time an extreme-specialty ingredients actually enhanced the flavor, texture, or any other characteristic of my food or beverage. Goldschlager, anyone?)
This August we were passing through Colby, KS, and had dinner at a roadside restaurant. Upon tasting my salad, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that they made their own - very good - Caesar dressing. The server beamed when I confirmed it with her and said they were trying to get to the point where they made everything in-house - bread products were their next project.
I am living temporarily in a farmhouse in (if there is an "in") New Ulm, TX, an unincorporated community of a few hundred souls; a short walk from our front door is a lovely wine bar that makes great wood-fired pizza, in "town" there's an Italian joint that knows its Italian, and in an old bank building there's a speakeasy we plan to visit as soon as I'm off the painkillers for my knee replacement. I doubt that I can get "ube" here, but the Italian place has its own espresso bar and there's a bakery and coffee shop in town where I'll bet I can get anything that a French or Italian person would recognize as coffee (I doubt that Uber qualifies).
Cities used to distinguish themselves a lot more from small towns.
So the writer complains that Trump is exaggerating about how chaotic and dangerous life is in Portland. But isn't this projection? I mean, is life in America under Trump's governance as horrible as the left has tried to portray it? If the writer thinks it's now time for people to take a step back and be honest in their assessment of what's really happening in the world, he should start by admitting that the election of DJT hasn't led to any of the scary things the left predicted would befall America if he were reelected.
Sounds like Grier's asking the commies not to riot, knowing that they will...
The intent will be to incite a spectacle of chaos, manufacturing a crisis to retroactively justify the belief that Democrat-run cities are in need of forceful takeover. The provocation will be the point. Don’t fall for it.
I shave my yams and donate the hair to an outfit in Portland that provides free wigs for baristas suffering with alopecia or chemo therapy side effects or who have just been pulling their hair out lately over Donald Trump.
The reality is that the problems facing Portland and other cities are nothing that can’t be addressed through normal governance,
Very true, but it's the normal governance that is lacking.
I spent a month in Portland in the late 90's. It was vibrant and a quite pleasant place to visit. It was "the City of Roses", had the massive Powell's book store and a 100 places to have a coffee and nice dessert.
Every local to seemed to think that everyone else in the country wanted to live there. It's not like that now. We have all seen the "spectacle of violence" videos.
Conservatives have joked about letting them have Portland, or California or some other liberal enclave. Trump isn't giving anything up. They are Americans, and he's ready to go in if that's what is required.
That is not ideal. It is authoritarian. We would all be better off if competent local authorities maintained order. If local government is corrupt, derelict or irresponsible, state authorities should step in. That isn't happening, so here we are.
Multicultural, my arse. Gemini AI Says:
Yes, Portland, Oregon has historically been referred to as the whitest large city in the U.S. due to its high percentage of white residents, which is a result of Oregon's history of racist laws and exclusionary practices designed to create a "white utopia". While the term was used frequently in the past, more recent data shows a demographic shift, but Portland still remains predominantly white compared to other large cities.
Multi-cultural cities my ass. Texas and Florida have cities with greater mixes of cultures than Portland, yet without the rampant crime, particularly the kind where the white kids are attacking the government with firebombs.
How much can you shoplift without getting arrested? Asking for a friend.
DJT should "Be Like Ike". Ike federalizerd the Arkansas National Guard in 57 to enforce integration when the D governor was fighting against integration. Ike also sent in the 101st Airborne.
Oh yes because State says so!
How is that UVA rape story from Rolling Stone that they bent over backwards to praise going??
Jinx
How did Portland become multicultural?
In 2000, it was 86.6% White. In 2010, it was 72.3% White.
Oregon is so beautiful, and the weather is actually fabulous, we call it 40 minute weather, and its true, "if you don't like the weather, wait 40 minutes". Portland skies feel like the beach is just over the hill, blue blue sky w clouds creating themseves above you and growing up as they stream on towards Canada.
But The political machine is tragic. The invisible vote counting process is a killer. I could go on but I'm meeting my friend at the gym. Great that Trump is coming!!!
"The reality is that the problems facing Portland and other cities are nothing that can’t be addressed through normal governance"
Well? Were waiting...
Jamie: "Cities used to distinguish themselves a lot more from small towns."
Yes, good point. You used to have to go to a city, or at least a college town, to get foreign films, out-of-town papers/magazines, or just to talk to someone who was like you. Technology has made it possible to subscribe to the Criterion Collection and watch the movies on a giant plasma at home, while scrolling through Le Monde or The Advocate on your tablet, and texting with a fellow whatever-fancier in Kuala Lumpur. And the delivery culture means you can get fancy-schmancy foreign food, or at least the ingredients to make it, wherever you are.
And of course Dem city governments have chased lots of the multi-culti people out into the hinterland where they can set up physical multi-culti outposts like the ones you describe.
Maybe the last remaining reason for the existence of cities - hipster/elite culture - is gone? CC, JSM
Trump’s brand of politics feeds on the lie that multicultural cities are frightening and chaotic.
This statement feeds on the lie that Trump - and his supporters - are small-town hicks who hate everything that's not a Cracker Barrel. Trump adores NYC. He always has.
OTOH, when a "multicultural city" IS "frightening and chaotic," why would you push the lie that it's "vibrant and quite pleasant," as long as you stick to the neighborhoods where you can get ube, instead of marshalling the authority of local government to freaking FIX IT?
Trump isn't giving anything up. They are Americans, and he's ready to go in if that's what is required.
That is not ideal. It is authoritarian.
It's my understanding, and I'll go looking for this sometime today as the nerve block from my knee operation has finally worn off completely and I NEED DISTRACTION, that the peace-loving hippies of Portland have wheeled out a guillotine in front of the ICE building, after covering the building with graffiti and rioting to the point of local law enforcement's needing to deploy tear gas and rubber bullets. Sounds to me as if bringing in the NG to protect this federal facility and those who work there is prudent and lawful, not authoritarian.
The problem is that the large cities have all become the only remaining engine of the Democrat Party.
The leadership of these cities serves the National Party, not the people in the cities.
From personal experience, and I think 120 downtown business owners there have signed a petition protesting the policies, but when Burlington, VT implemented its "defund the police" agenda, the town quickly became a place that few wanted to visit. I was shopping at a mens shop downtown and the streets seemed full, and we remarked to the salesperson how busy it was, and he said "It's all college students, and they will be gone in a week or two as their semesters get underway." But they are not the ones spending money, and they are the ones who voted in the "defund the police" policies. BTW, you don't have to be a US citizen to vote in Burlington elections, either.
Isn't Portland the city were an actual, weapons at hand, insurrection took place? Where "protesters" used green lasers to blind Federal agents, an act which is considered a war crime by the ICC and the UN. They also threw explosives into a Federal courthouse.
It's better to leave Portland to its own devices, to serve as a cultural Petri dish example, to illustrate useful political counterpoints. 'Why, yes, we do have an example of the natural social outcome of your political experimentation, it's right over there'. Here, put this mask on first.
”Trump’s brand of politics feeds on the lie that multicultural cities are frightening and chaotic.”
Not actually a lie, of course.
Having personally witnessed frequent frightening and chaotic lawlessness occurring in downtown Chicago in recent years, I find it hard to discredit Trump's viewpoint that criminal laws must be enforced, and if our Mayor Conehead (his official nickname) won't do so, then National Guard should be called in. Too many law-abiding residents are held captive to his progressive-socialist-marxist claptrap, while he rides around with his personal protection army of 240 Chicago cops. Read secondcitycop blog site. Chicago is unsafe whether you're in Gold Coast/downtown, or in Englewood. It sucks to be in Chicago.
News from war-ravaged Portland. It's not good.
Dearest Ann, war is hell. I have neither saunaed nor ice-bathed in a fortnight. The kombucha, I fear, does not have adequate probiotics for my gut biome. Things have grown so dire in Portland, Oregon that residents may soon face a shortage of artisanal baked goods, almond milk rose petal beetroot lattes, and cold brew mushroom tonic.
The Antifa forces have switched from kombucha to double-shot lattes and are peppering our forces with NPR quotes and organic raisins. Our lads at ICE have taken heavy casualties - some have even been seen hugging baristas and throwing their masks away. The President mourns for them and has informed their families.
Meanwhile, the sky is filled with enemy kites raining down Tibetan prayer flags. Our forces have had to retreat to Federal Plaza and have asked for reinforcement. Pray for them.
"Cities used to distinguish themselves a lot more from small towns."
True. I noticed when I went back to work in a smallish town and it had a Borders bookstore and the internet. Between the two most of my needs were covered. Borders went bankrupt, but Amazon has replaced it, and also provides items that I would previously have needed to visit a city to find. My smallish town is now part of the world.
’Trump’s brand of politics feeds on the lie that multicultural cities are frightening and chaotic.’
Third world shithole cities would be a far more accurate description.
sorry
kak(D) mocks his make-believe world. Loser.
Scott Adams sez
Downtown Portland is Mostly Peaceful. [Insert appropriate graphic]
’The kombucha, I fear, does not have adequate probiotics for my gut biome.’
Okay, Kak - that was funny… :)
Between 1985 and 2005 I traveled to Portland on business several times a year. Downtown Portland was a nice place--it felt a little provincial but still nice and clean. There were lots of small--and very good restaurants. Powell's bookstore was a lot of fun. Heck even Al Gore enjoyed Portland trying to find his "second chakra" with a hotel masseuse. I'd stayed at that hotel numerous times, but never found the need to use a hotel masseuse--but maybe that's just me. Portland was a little kinky--it had elected a mayor who, like Joe Biden, had a thing for his kid's babysitters. But in 2020 Portland went off the rails when the locals started firing trench mortars at the federal courthouse. I wouldn't visit downtown Portland today on a bet.
There's nothing in the article for the "normies" who may think that purple-haired vegan baristas and slate writers are fine with riots and urban chaos and could live in Mogadishu so long as they could get their ube latte. The normies might want to know things like whether it's a good place to raise kids, whether you have to have someone unlock the toothpaste at the drug store, and whether you can go downtown for an evening without people throwing bricks and starting fires.
@ Beasts of England: This summer I visited Portland in the run up to the war and attended a parade featuring a bagpiper on a unicycle. Clearly preparations were afoot for the war.
Portland residents should leave trash bags, shovels, and rakes out for the visiting troops to put to good use.
The lie is that Diversity (e.g. racism, sexism, classicism, etc) are human strengths and that a hive mind can be a functional good for people, not predatory blocs in an urbane feudal regime.
Perhaps an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. An Antifa crazy already shot up an ICE facility in Texas. Even if you don’t feel any sympathy for the ICE officers, remember that it was detainees who were shot.
’…a parade featuring a bagpiper on a unicycle.
I’ve visited, as well, but can’t believe I missed that!!
I live in Chicago. The problems facing Chicago were created by normal governance.
"The Portland of right-wing imagination is a city engulfed by flames and violence..."
Sorry, but we've all seen the videos now. You can't get away with these bs "this is fine" claims nowadays.
"The reality is that the problems facing Portland and other cities are nothing that can’t be addressed through normal governance"
Normal governance... in Portland? LOL
"'Real America' can mean things like biking to get a vegan ube latte from a purple-haired barista, and if you’d like a taste of what makes America truly great, you can find it in a coffee shop—in Portland..."
Umm... I don't think that Trump is sending in federal troops because he doesn't like purple hair or the taste of your coffee. He's sending in troops to address the attacks y'all are perpetrating against US government facilities in Portland; you know, the ones "engulfed by flames and violence".
One aspect of Potland's predicament is also found in Los Angeles. I'm referring to the exodus of sensible people once things start going bad. Downtown LA was on the verge of a rebirth until homelessness shittified the place. The high end suburban neighborhoods within the city are now living on the interface between order and chaos. People just walk away, if not to Texas or Florida, to Ventura County or the tony parts of Orange County. This has fortified the electoral advantages of socialists, public employee unions, ethnic voters, and college educated fools. It's like a world run by dishonest C students.
The guy on the bicycle looks like a GEICO caveman.
I went to school with 2 progressive friends who moved there in 1993 and they are very bitter over what the city has become. Its become a quality of life issue when you have to constantly step around human scat, needles and filth when trying to go to the park or just go about your day. The city is slowly combating that but downtown Portland has become a casualty of the break down of law enforcement and they are very angry about that. I'm not thinking all of Portland will be upset to see the Feds show up to provide law and order.
The Dems always redefine words to camouflage their agenda or “redefine” problems.
Crime in cities is just fine in areas with affluent people. Crime disproportionately impacts low-income and struggling minorities.
Trump is not talking to the affluent people in cities.
Jinx Howard
I visited Portland in '18 on business, there for five days, staying at the Embassy Suites downtown. It wasn't bad then, but it was clearly on the decline. Homeless everywhere, camped in any open space (including the hedge row that separated the main street gas station from its neighbors. Rampant drug use. Walking the streets took you through multiple marijuana clouds.
There were good things too, the Sunday riverfront market (a few steps from the hotel, VooDoo donuts, great food and Powell's Books. I wonder if any of that survives (I understand Powell's has to let the mob determine what books can be sold, under threat of violence).
Was it Brian Stelter who explained that only parts of Portland were on fire and others weren't? Accepting that parts of your city are burning down and being fine with that is taking a big step towards decivilization.
My son is a long time resident of Portland and reports that the city is in bad shape mostly because of the infestation of homeless people. Soros DA Schmidt is gone and crime has slowed. City officials are progressives who can’t govern. However, he doesn’t want the Nat’l. Guard there. I think sending guardsmen to protect federal property is one thing. Beyond that, it’s a bad idea.
what garbage media
Affluent people can avoid crime. That is for sure. I have probably been to Paris at least as often as I have been to downtown Burlington, over the past few years. If I go to LA, it's a very nice city, nothing like this: LA rioting went on in Beverly Hills. The worst thing I saw was a parking valet complimenting Ben Stein on his role in "Star Wars," and he seemed to get his nose out of joint, but he still tipped $40, so it wasn't that bad.
Just like immigration. Cheap domestic labor and across the lower half of the board lower wages, easily replaceable housekeepers and gardeners, etc, etc, are all things that benefit the affluent, the very affluent, and harm the vast majority. This is why the Republicans have shifted populist, because the Democrats abandoned a huge tranche of voters, and are abandoning them still. Trump just picked up these voters that nobody wanted, dusted them off, and said, "join me and I will try to make things better for you, not for those rich Democrats or snooty rich Republicans, but for you."
It didn't take a genius, and somebody was going to do it.
“… multicultural cities …”? Can lefties tell the truth about anything. The cities are shitholes because Democrats run them, not because they are multicultural. Trump expresses that daily.
post millenial has the right account
"The reality is that the problems facing Portland and other cities are nothing that can’t be addressed through normal governance"
I do agree with this part, but that normal governance isn't happening.
And so the wonderful Powell's Books now has SWAT Team-like security guards.
I recall scoring free lunch in local cafe by answering question about naked lady riding horse = Coventry
Powell bookstore neighborhood
president franco true to form. Cmon please ,someone start rioting so I can quell it and call martial law(and cancel mid terms) More look over here as Johnson tries to stall the 218 vote for EPSTEIN FILE RELEASE, Just follow the bouncing ball. and yes even on the Lords day you have the foul mouthed comments Jesus says"( like Rodney Dangerfield) I GET NO RESPECT :(
Humans have a powerful ability to mentally acclimate to conditions, even stressful ones. The big divide in the country is really between those of us who are urban and those that are rural. You can live in a city and still have a rural mindset, experience, and worldview. I live right in the middle of a city, but on a 1.2 acre lot with no neighbors within earshot, and I spend a lot of time outside in the desert with few or no people in sight. I spent yesterday hiking, and most of the time saw no one, no sign of human activity, and was in complete silence, except for my tinnitus. It's hard to be the same as a person who lives in an apartment surrounded by others 24/7, who does everything with hundreds of strangers. around. These daily experiences change your personality and I think have a powerful influence on political ideology, as is indicated by the county level voting charts. It's dependency versus independence, even if only imaginary.
"...only parts of Portland were on fire and others weren't?"
That is a standard. The entire city was not burning down, so yea, things are fine. I'm sure there were a few places in Dresden that were "fine" in 1945.
My small town 25 miles south of Portland has the only 3 5-star restaurants that Forbes lists in Oregon. We are surrounded (more than 250 wineries within 20 miles; one next door) by the best of Oregon Wine Country. I hate Portland.
he would be perfect for the raccoon city gazette
Probably a coffee shop that won’t serve you if you’re wearing a Trump hat.
Portlands answer to the suggestion that lawlessness might be a problem is to insure that lawlessness becomes more of a problem.
I have friends with family living in a town just outside of Portland. Their family pointedly avoids the city.
First law of Demthink: You must resist Trump at all times, every time.
(theoretical postulate: The more Trump is resisted, the stronger he grows)
Trump’s brand of politics feeds on the lie that multicultural cities are frightening and chaotic.
Just replace "multicultural" with "crime-ridden".
In fact, whenever you see the word "multicultural" know that the real meaning is being hidden and should be flushed out.
Probably a coffee shop that won’t serve you if you’re wearing a Trump hat.
Probably? As you're heckled out, you will pass a sign that informs customers the establishment welcomes diversity and will not tolerate actions by customers and employees which inhibit the creation of safe spaces and an inclusive environment.
"...only parts of Portland were on fire and others weren't?"
Portland is a city that is mostly not ablaze.
Downtown LA was on the verge of a rebirth until homelessness shittified the place.
Things going well = can't cow people into voting for a specific party.
“Normal governance” would first require some normal people in their government, rather than the motley collection of deviants, weirdos, grifters and loons that make up the government in blue states and cities.
I corrected assumed that the Governor of Oregon probably had a wife as soon as I saw her picture.
They are anti-diversity and Pro-Choice (i.e. Diversity), Equivocation, and Intransigence.
“Portland is a city that is mostly not ablaze.”
The NYT factchecking Charlie Kirk : “Studies by the federal government and nonprofit groups show that slightly less than half of Black children live without a father at home as of 2023, and historically that number has not risen above about 65 percent. It also does not account for fathers who do not live with their children — after a divorce, for instance — but may otherwise be a regular presence in their lives.”
The multicultural world is great when you’re a wealthy white person living far from all that culture.
Margot Cleveland
@ProfMJCleveland
·
16m
In retrospect, it was the assassination of Brian Thompson and the response that should have told us the Rubicon had been crossed.
Multiple People Shot at Michigan Mormon Church
The shooter is down, but the church is still on fire.
https://legalinsurrection.com/2025/09/multiple-people-shot-at-michigan-mormon-church/
Portland is perfectly safe and has no crime problems that require Federal intervention.
Also, Ice Cube's tour bus was torched in Portland a couple of days. They are still investigating, but there are good odds someone saw a bus with "ICE" on the side of it and set it on fire.
One beef I have with the term "multiculturism" is that often we're not talking about multicluturism, but people who only want one culture and it's not American. How many stories have we seen about people who have been in the country for years or decades and still don't speak any English. I took my car to get smogged the other day and none of the three other customers in the shop could speak or understand any English.
I actually come from a multicultural family. Most of the people in my family speak both English and Spanish. I would never dream about living in another country and refusing to learn the language and culture there.
As far as big cities being dangerous, that's a product of the economics of the area and the motives of the local elected government; not multiculturism. But it's easy for some people to overlook that and refer to the people who worry about the high crime in cities as bigots.
Perhaps if people stopped setting fire to buildings in Portland people could be convinced that there wasn't a problem.
I have tried to stay west of the Hwy 26 tunnel and out of Portland proper as much as possible ever since the city had over one hundred straight nights of riots in 2020.
that would be helpful it could clear out any confusion
Portland is one of the least multicultural cities in America — whiter than an aspirin in a bathtub.
https://x.com/DataRepublican/status/1972328734108835850
"Even if you don’t feel any sympathy for the ICE officers, remember that it was detainees who were shot."
If you're talking to the left here, remember that these are same people who celebrate the mutilation of their own children's genitals.
It's an odd claim to make. Trump lived in one of the world's most multicultural cities for almost all of his life. He's clearly rich enough to avoid the unpleasant aspects, but his love for the city that ultimately betrayed him despite all he did for it suggests he's fine with multicultural cities.
"The reality is that the problems facing Portland and other cities are nothing that can’t be addressed through normal governance ..."
The reality is that the problems facing Portland and other cities are the direct result of the "normal governance" taught in the university's schools of "Public Administration", and practiced by a predatory guild of "public servants" and their butt-buddies in the NGOs, feeding on the taxable assets of their victims.
Although it has been suggested that the parlous state of the modern large, American city has been brought about intentionally by certain malefactors of great wealth, in order to drastically lower the price of urban real estate. When they have bought all they want, they will shitcan their bogus woke DAs, and the cities will be restored. Kind of like the fires in Maui and Malibu.
It's kind of amusing that this pissant Grier refers to "multicultural cities. Portland Oregon is a thoroughly white city in a thoroughly white state in the thoroughly white Pacific Northwest. There is a sizeable parasitical colony of feral Negroes that subsist there, preying upon each other and the white citizenry, but they are not actually incorporated into its social fabric, except for the legal system.
My particular neighborhood in my suburb was a “majority minority” area when we moved in. But that doesn’t seem to count as “multicultural” enough to my lefty friends/family. I guess it’s because most of the families are those boring middle class professional families.
This resident of Oregon concurs with others: casting Portland as "multicultural" is laughable. We moved to Oregon from a military area south of Tacoma. THAT was a multicultural city, but it isn't on anyone's cultural radar.
the lie that multicultural cities are frightening and chaotic
San Francisco is doing somewhat better. We were all the way down market street, to Civic Center (Asian Art Museum, Public Library, City Hall) on market day, and there were few hobos, and none of the obvious fentanyl victims I saw last year (that was bizarre). The street life is very much as it was in 2019, though there is much less of it. Downtown is still way down, obviously the big office buildings are still mostly empty and the stores are decimated, but not quite as bad as I thought, Macy's and Nieman Marcus are still open on Union Square.
The big art supplies store, Trader Joes and Target seem to be doing well, which is good as I had requests for "only in America" things.
Blick art supplies is a good reason to go to downtown SF. Think of a supermarket of oil paints and canvases (and etc ad infinitum). 2021-23 it was guarded like a fortress, but now it's normal.
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