Sam Amico
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The LPGA’s Cambia Classic in Portland will no longer be played at the same course in Portland. At least, not this year.
That’s because a large homeless encampment surrounding the parking lot at Columbia Edgewater Country Club is forcing the mid-September event to move to the Oregon Golf Club in West Linn, Ore.
How bad have things gotten in the homeless area in the Columbia Edgewater parking lot? Well, the Oregonian described it as “dotted with run-down RVs, trailers, tents, makeshift housing structures and mounds of rubble and garbage.” Oh, and there have also been gunshots nearly every night.
The LPGA informed players of the change in a memo earlier this week, per GolfWeek. The Classic is celebrating its 50th year in Portland.
“It was a really tough decision,” said Tom Maletis, president of Tournament Golf Foundation, the Portland-based nonprofit organization that runs the event, via the Oregonian. “We are frustrated and disappointed about the move. But it’s just something that we feel is best for the tournament and everyone involved.”
Portland was once considered a beautiful place that was well worth a visit. But times have changed over the past year or so.
“The exodus delivers another hit to the Portland sports landscape, which, over the last year, has lost much of its cachet as a growing sporting destination,” the Oregonian wrote. “In October, the NCAA denied Portland’s bid to host the Women’s Final Four, reportedly because of concerns about the state of downtown and the city’s declining national image. Also, sources say, the city’s pursuit of a Major League Baseball team has been damaged by the escalating homeless crisis.”
The Classic has also raised more than $18 million for Portland charities since 1972, per the Oregonian, “helping the Boys & Girls Club, Easterseals of Oregon, the Oregon Food Bank and others along the way.”
Maletis said organizers tried to make it work. They wanted to keep the Cambia Classic at Columbia Edgewater, but city officials, true to form, offered little support.
“We couldn’t get any guarantees that the situation would be cleaned up,” Maletis said. “… As much as we wanted to kind of hang tight and hope everything would be all right, we just didn’t really know.”
Ted Wheeler, Portland’s limp wristed leftist mayor has destroyed that city
With the help of the moronic citizens who voted for him. They vote blindly and then complain of the Mayor’s policies put into place. They deserve to suffer.
So they’re now admitting the city is a shithole but blaming it on homelessness instead of leftist political riots.
Right out of Obama’s playbook. Set policy that creates a problem. Then get mad at the results of the problem and blame the problem due to the results.
I last visited Portland in 2016 and remember staying near a big tent encampment and being surprised at the number of homeless but relatively healthy young people. Who knew how out of control things would get within 5 years! That city will never get my tourist dollars again.
Move the tourney to a nicer place, like Bartertown. Or Hell
You get what you vote for hard to believe Portland elected this trash but there you go
I live in Houston which is all controlled by Democrats from the Mayor, city council, police and fire chief, the sheriff, DA, county and district judges, etc.
Violent crimes especially homicides is through the roof. Encampments are literally everywhere, homeless people have been aggressive to drivers who don’t give them money.
All of the local news outlets are ultra-progressive and bias in their reporting. I’m not sure what’s more challenging to watch, our local networks or CNN or MSNBC.