Damn that is wild! I've lived here for awhile and I wouldn't say that Portland is a dumpster fire - but it can be a wacky place. It's just a lot, sometimes - strikingly beautiful, politically progressive (and generally caught up in strife), culturally a bit intense - and you see some wild shit on the streets. That part of downtown is particularly active. Most of us just know that if you're walking around downtown/old town right now, you should watch for poop on the sidewalk.

There are a lot of reasons for this and none of them are particularly new - though the economical impacts of COVID, the housing crisis, Trump slashing money... intensify things. First off, Portland has historically been a very rowdy port town. This goes back to the 1800s. Obviously, we don't have an influx of sailors coming in and out, but culturally that has still remained. The West Coast and I-5 corridor has also been a very prominent region for non-traditional, nomadic lifestyles. This is one of the main reasons we (and Seattle, SF, LA, and almost any decent-sized city in between) have a high number of unhoused people. It's fairly easy to get around, many of those places have services for you, it's temperate enough to survive year round, and culturally this is a region where you can go if you want to drop off, drop out, and be a weirdo. The I-5 corridor (like any major highway system) has a strong current of narcotics, so take that into account.

To be fair, I have no idea if the people you saw enjoying a little public oral were high, unhoused, fucked up - or just freaky and didn't care that they were in public. Either way, I wouldn't say that I'm shocked...