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Portland was once held up as a model of urban America: a walkable, vibrant city known for parks, restaurants, breweries, and a thriving downtown. Today, record office vacancies, rampant homelessness, drug use, and shuttered businesses have turned the City of Roses into a warning for other American cities.
So what happened?
On this episode of Heritage Explains, we’re joined by Heritage Senior Fellow Mike Gonzalez, author of Next Gen Marxism, to examine the ideological forces reshaping Portland and cities like it. We discuss how political activism can displace basic governance, why failing local leaders so often escape accountability, how modern Marxism differs from its predecessors, whether the Left is really moving away from “woke” politics, and why schools, museums, universities, and other civic institutions have become central battlegrounds in America’s political divide.
Can cities like Portland pull themselves back from the brink, or is their decline a preview of what’s coming elsewhere?
Follow Mike on X: https://x.com/Gundisalvus
Get the book here: https://www.amazon.com/NextGen-Marxism-What-How-Combat/dp/1641773537
Michelle Cordero
Tim Doescher