It's not exactly a secret what's going on there. While I doubt the place is on fire 24/7, the substantial damage sustained to local businesses cannot be denied. It would be difficult to convince someone who was thinking critically about moving their business there that all is well now and going forward.
It's not a secret that the majority of the country has been dragged down into believing political fiction of some sort or another as fact by the relentless partisan propaganda. I'm sure many more people on the right were whipped into anger by the supposed $23 million in protest related losses than will ever read this:
You’re an example of the boiling frog if you think it’s perfectly normal and acceptable to light the mayor’s condo lobby on fire and riot over 100 days in a row. This has nothing to do with propaganda.
Even the mayor of Portland (who originally praised the protests) is asking the public to help stop the folks doing violence. How is this a right talking point? Are you ignoring reality?
Any amount of violence is too much, and just deligitimizes the protests and gives fodder to political commentators who aim to do so. Of course you would ask your people to help keep the peace. It doesn't mean it was so out of control as depicted in right wing news, which it wasn't.
> the mayor of Portland (who originally praised the protests)
This is counterfactual. Wheeler's been against the protests, and actively the subject of protest pretty much the whole time. He did a single media stunt participating in the protests and that's pretty much it. It was not well-received:
> On July 22, Wheeler addressed nightly protesters, but was booed by them for his actions as Portland Police Commissioner and the Portland Police's own response to the protests. The crowd chanted "Fuck Ted Wheeler" and "Quit Your Job" as he spoke.
His nickname is "Tear Gas Teddy," and it's not for being on the receiving end of the gas.
A lot of progressives seem to share this delusion and I find it puzzling. I have no idea who started this meme that there are “right talking points” going around about Portland. If such a thing exists, I have no idea what it is or where it comes from. Rest assured, my talking points are completely original and synthesized by my own senses. I’m in Portland quite frequently and was there earlier this month. I have many good friends there as well. I’d offer you some video footage that I took personally, but there is no shortage of it online. Ted Wheeler has even (finally) acknowledged it. The city is an embarrassment, and has gone to shit in the last 5 years.
Frankly, unless you've been doing a somewhat systematic survey of "businesses that have been boarded up" and "businesses that continue to operate as normal" and are doing so across the city (and not the very small part of the city where the protests have been taking place), this seems like an ideal situation to point out that the plural of anecdote is not data.
I’m talking about the riots and antifa/anarchist attacks, not the protests. And it doesn’t matter that there are places that are not being attacked and vandalized. This is of little consolation to the business that are suffering from regular criminal behavior.