'Love, PORTLAND': After 150 Nights of Antifa-Infested Riots, Leftist City Tries to Woo Tourists with Full-Page NYT Ad

It appears the City of Portland, Oregon is trying to change its image or at least do damage control after the nation's eyes have been on it for the past year due to 150 nights of rioting. 

Portland, or the City of Roses as it is sometimes called, purchased a full-page advertisement in The New York Times in an apparent attempt to repair the city's image and attract visitors this summer. 

Below is the copy from the full-page ad. 

"You've heard a lot about us lately. It's been a while since you've heard from us," the ad, which just contained black typeset words and no images, reads. "Some of what you've heard about Portland is true. Some is not. What matters most is that we're true to ourselves."

"There's a river that cuts through the middle of our town. It divides the east and west. But it's bridged -- over and over again. Twelve times, to be specific. And that's kind of a great metaphor for this city." 

"We're a place of dualities that are never polarities. Two sides to the same coin that keeps landing on its edge. Anything can happen. We like it this way." 

"This is the kind of place where new ideas are welcome -- whether they're creative, cutting-edge or curious at first glance. You can speak up here. You can be yourself here."

"We have some of the loudest voices on the West Coast. And yes, passion pushed the volume all the way up. We've always been like this. We wouldn't have it any other way." 

"We have faith in the future. We're building it every day the only way we know how, by being Portland. Come see for yourself."

And the ad is signed at the bottom of the page, "Love, PORTLAND." 

Social media users were quick to respond to the ad and its message. 

One user wrote, "I think the people in Portland behind this ad in the @nytimes forgot to mention the 120 consecutive nights of rioting. Maybe that's why people dont want to go. Just a hunch...

Another user responded, "Just spoke with a guy who visited Portland with some friends a few weeks back. Said it was a ghost town and during their walk, they hit some blocks that they purposely avoided due to the homeless issue and not feeling safe. Said they wont be going back again."

Another user commented, "I would say it's one of many reasons I'll never go." 

And one user also made this observation: "I loved Portland, a second to Seattle. Great restaurants, bars, food trucks, cool art, and music. But that has all changed for both cities. Probably worse than Seattle now, that's not saying much. Thank the mayor and council for that. Won't be seeing you Portland anytime soon."

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It turns out that 91 percent of Portland's protest arrests are not even being prosecuted, according to the Portland Tribune.

And the ad follows the mass resignation of Portland's entire police riot squad also known as the Rapid Response Team.  Some 50 members of the team resigned after the indictment of Officer Corey Budworth for allegedly assaulting a photographer during a riot in August 2020 which officers call a witch hunt, according to The Post Millennial. 

Daryl Turner, executive director of the Portland Police Association told Fox News Sunday that elected officials "encouraged and enabled some of the violence" that was taking place over the more than 150 nights of riots in Portland and that was part of the reason the officers had resigned from the team. 

"The residents and the business owners of the city of Portland have a hopeless feeling right now with what's gone on," he said, noting that the police department is "understaffed" and has been "defunded." 

"Our district attorney's continuing not to prosecute cases of crimes being committed during those riots," Turner continued. "And the big thing is our city council refuses to allow us to have body cameras, which would show the whole event. The total event." 

He told the network that "it's not a budgetary issue," but rather that "they're afraid that the body cams will show the false narrative being neutralized and the fact that we don't have a brutal police force."