This meme reveals that three of Oregon’s largest homegrown businesses have already escaped this Blue State, along with many others such as Alpenrose, taking their jobs and their taxes with them.
DIANE’S UPSCALE SUBURB IS EMPTYING
West Linn’s Dean Suhr is considering moving to a warmer, more politically moderate state. “I’ve raised my kids here,” said Suhr, 68, a semi-retired entrepreneur. “I’ve had a good life up here. But as we’re getting older and our income becomes more fixed, we need to look at how we can make what we’ve got stashed away last.”
The main reason Suhr might move: high taxes. [Oregon has had an 9.9% income tax since 1930.] “I just feel like taxes and spending seem to be the standard solution to everything,” said Suhr, a Republican, and chief petitioner for Vote Before Tolls, an initiative that would require a public vote before Oregon places tolls on bridges, highways and roads.
West Linn was an upscale burb 14 miles southeast of Portland with many amenities until Democrats invited in domestic terrorists, AKA BLM & Antifa, the homeless and various criminal types. It is not only losing it’s retirees, it is losing young families, causing the closing of a number of West Linn’s public schools. Yours truly, who resided in West Linn for 32 years and had planned to live there the rest of my life, escaped during the Democrat-funded riots of 2020.
TAXES, HOUSING COSTS, CRIMES CHASING AWAY TRI-COUNTY RESIDENTS
A new survey shows that sentiment is widespread. Suhr, who lives in Clackamas County, was one of 600 registered voters in the three-county metro area who participated in a poll conducted April 23 to April 30 by Portland-based DHM Research and commissioned by The Oregonian/OregonLive. Among the questions Suhr and other participants were asked: “Are you considering moving out of Clackamas, Multnomah or Washington County in the next five years?” Thirty-six percent of the 600 respondents in the Portland Metro Area said “yes.”
In Portland, which makes up most of Multnomah County, 41% of 300 respondents said “yes.”
Another sobering finding: Most of the respondents considering moving said they’re likely to leave Oregon, with 58% of respondents in the metro area and 49% in Portland saying they’d move to a different state. “It’s not a small number of people who at least toy with the idea (of moving),” said Michelle Neiss, president of DHM Research.
Taxes were the No. 1 reason: The top reason, cited by 62% of metro area respondents and 55% of Portland-specific respondents was the high taxes, including property and 9.9% income taxes.
Housing Costs were the No. 2 reason: The second most prominent reason, listed by 36% of metro area residents and 40% of Portlanders was housing costs.
Public safety was the No. 3 reason: Respondents gave the lack of safety as the third most important reason why they are considering moving. Domestic terrorists have owned the streets of Portland for over a decade now. Crime overall has chased businesses and jobs out of Portland. Portland politicians & bureaucrats have placed the comforts of the homeless ahead of homeowners in certain districts of Portland.
Survey respondents were reached by telephone or text. The demographics of respondents were tailored to be representative by age, gender, race, education, income and political party. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points, with higher margins of error for subsets of respondents.
Neiss said the high numbers of people considering moving likely reflects a “sense of frustration,” with local government, but she cautioned against “reading too much” into the data. There’s a big difference, after all, between considering moving and actually moving. But she said the poll also reflects more than “just being fed up with Portland” given how many people are considering leaving the state. “That’s a more sobering thing for Oregon to grapple with,” she said.
The percentage of metro area residents who cited “taxes” as their most pressing concern also increased more than threefold, from 3% in March 2025 to 11% in the new poll. The nonprofit, anti-tax think tank the Tax Foundation ranks Portland second behind New York City for income taxes.
OREGON HATES SMALL BUSINESS
Peggy Fisher, who resides in the Washington County town of Tualatin and is a lifelong Oregonian, said she’s considering moving because of high taxes. “It would be a really tough decision because my kids and grandkids live here,” said Fisher, a vice president for a manufacturing company, who also has a small business offering nutrition therapy. “But it’s difficult to watch the state that I love completely fall apart.”
Fisher, who isn’t affiliated with a political party, said the state’s high taxes haven’t paid off in better schools or lower crime. “It’s so extremely frustrating,” she said. Taxes aren’t the only reason people are considering moving.
“I don’t necessarily want to move because I love it here, especially the access to outdoor recreation,” said Jenn Brucksch, 32, a Democrat who lives in Northeast Portland and works in sales. But Brucksch said rising costs, including utilities, have been “really tough.” Thirty-six percent of respondents in the metro area, and 40% in Portland, listed lower housing costs among the top two reasons they’re considering moving. Brucksch said she’s been considering moving for about a year, possibly across the Columbia River to Washington, but she’s also considered Denver, Chicago, Michigan and moving outside the United States.
Keith Moore, 42, also has considered moving to Washington State, but he gets “a sense Washington has very similar political philosophies to Oregon.” [Moore is correct! Washington State’s Democrats just passed a 9.9% income tax. AND, they are working overtime to wipe out Americans’ First Amendment Rights, while labeling Conservatives as “white supremacists” and hunting them down.] He’s also considering Idaho and Utah. Moore, a Republican, said Oregon “has not been a particularly business-friendly state.”
“There is not as much future for me in Oregon,” said Moore, who works as a drafter making the blueprints and diagrams for electrical systems. “It has never been particularly easy to get work,” he said. Moore, who lives in Sherwood (Washington County), also said he’s concerned about public safety, which ranked No. 3 on the list of reasons respondents gave for considering moving.
“I have pretty distinct memories of what Portland used to be like,” Moore said. “I remember in my elementary class being able to go up and down the streets of Portland and it was this bright, clean, pretty, nice city. And now it’s just not.”
THAT sums up Portland: From the City of Roses to the City of Filth.
Follow me on X Diane L. Gruber
How Much More ‘Progress’ Can Portland Endure?
Subscribers: I lived first in Portland & then in a suburb, West Linn, the majority of my adult life, before being chased out by the Democrat mob in 2020. It hurt to give up our dream home; but, in hindsight, it was a great decision as both our burb & Portland have gone way downhill since then. The articl…
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In early 2022 our next door neighbor was in the process of moving from Blue Washington to Red Montana.^ As he was preparing the house for sale, he was also assisting an elderly friend move from Oregon to Arizona, and they could not get a one-way U-Haul truck. His friend wound up flying to his new home and hiring a moving van to move his furniture. My ne…
The author, Diane L. Gruber, is a First Amendment advocate who writes for Substack. She calls her Substack newsletter America First Re-Ignited. Follow me on X @DianeLGruber.
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