Quote (proccy @ 21 Mar 2021 23:26)
that makes sense but even still seems very very low for 3 months. i live in a much smaller city we average 1-2 per month
Portland's not that large. That stat is from the City of Portland, not Portland Metro. The city of Portland itself is incredibly low on homicides, and part of it is how it's zoned. 2020 marked a 26 year high, with 55. But the Portland area had far more. How many more? Dunno. There are 24 cities, 3 counties, and dozens, if not hundreds of small towns that make up the "Portland Metro Area". And most of the homicides in 2020 in the actual city of Portland started after the George Floyd riots. I expect that 55 number to quadruple, minimum. It's not exactly safe, and it is indeed spreading throughout the metro. But for more complete data, you'd have to do far more work than I care to do.
At any rate, Portland is indeed large with some 600K population, and a staggering amount of land. But it's far smaller in both land and people than the "Metro Area" viewpoint would indicate. And so much of it is high rise and business, many of the "urban" stats you might find regarding "Portland" are really coming from downtown Hillsboro, Gresham, and other "urban" areas.
Portland's a strange place. And neither Fox nor any other outlet covers it with sincerity. I'd take nearly everything you see with a grain of salt.