The city, plagued by homelessness and addiction, has transformed into a dystopian wasteland. Residents find Mellencamp's portrayal of the crisis to be remarkably authentic, capturing the true essence of the situation.
From BizPacReview:
Portland is currently facing a deeply disheartening situation, leading us to ponder whether both Mellencamp and its residents recognize that the prolonged rule by the Democratic party could potentially contribute to the issues at hand.
Three residents gave their take on the situation to Fox News following the release of Mellencamp’s song which delves into the hopeless plight and massive uptick of the homeless population in Portland.
“It is pretty bad, isn’t it? The city of Portland and the state of Oregon are really in crisis at this time. And John Mellencamp has nailed it with a couple of these lines in the song. I think my favorite is one of the ones you just said, ‘The land of the plenty where nothing gets done,’” Bridget Barton, a resident of Portland, told “Fox & Friends First” on Tuesday.
“In Oregon, we only have 4 million plus people. In the last six or seven years, we’ve committed $4 billion to this crisis. And yet Portland’s mayor freely admits that the problem is 50% worse, not better. It’s 50% worse. That’s a sad commentary on his leadership and on the state’s leadership,” she noted.
“As I saw through the eyes of Portland one day, there were so many homeless. They’d all gone astray. They slept on the corners during the day. All of these homeless, where do they come from? This land of plenty where nothing gets done,” Mellencamp says in the song.
