Portland

**Portland** is the easternmost borough in Liberty City. Portland consists of mostly industrial areas in the south and north and residential areas in the central part.

### History

Portland started to get heavily innhabitated after Staunton Island had no space left. Apart from a few boathouses and a town of circa 200 where Chinatown is today, there were nothing on Portland until the 1890's, when settlers and investors came from Staunton Island and started claiming land on the island. The city started laying out streets during the spring of 1895. Wide avenues that were planned to deal with heavy loads of traffic were established as main corridors between the industrial areas and the residential areas. There was a building boom on Portland in the last years of the 1800's.

Several hundred tenement buildings in poor conditions, were raised on the streets as industry came to town. As of 1905, Portland had became a dense urban working-class district full of people and buildings. The borough was connected to Staunton Island by the old Callahan Bridge, built in 1899, which was a steel bascule bridge, with only two lanes in total. This bridge lasted all up till 1998, when the new Callahan Bridge was opened. A subway link  between Portland and Staunton was established in 1910 to lighten up the bridge congestion.

Travelling conditions became horrible in the 1910's, most people couldn't afford a car, yet wide avenues were laid out, showing no need whatsoever. The city council approved a plan for a elevated line system in 1912, that were to encircle the residential areas of Portland above wide avenues, and then stop at a massive station just north of Trenton. This system was slowly constructed over a period from 1914 to 1920, and when it opened it was greatly appreciated, however many criticized the path of the el, because it cleared out a lot of daylight for the residents on streets it went on, which made the land value decline drastically.

The living conditions in Portland during the 1930's was reported as among one of the nation's worst. As of the late 1930's and through the 1940's, the life expectancy in the neighbourhood was 45 years old for men and 50 for women. The air quality in the borough was extremely bad, and those living right next to the Portland Power Plant, had a even lower life expectancy. After the war and end of most production, the city council started improving these conditions slightly. The Portland Power Plant was demolished, and heavy industry was banned. Slums of the poorest working class was also demolished and rebuilt as public parks.

During the 1950's, a lot of the at the time dominant white population, moved out of the borough in search of better living conditions in the suburbs and on Staunton Island. The borough was then innhabitated by poor chinese, italian immigrants and poor African Americans. This white flight caused the economy to drop, and many industrial buildings had to close because of shortage with skilled workers. The situation became even worse in the 1960's, when drugs started flourishing the streets. As of 1968, most of the population knew someone close or were themselfes addicted to marijuana. As of 1969, the unemployment rate was at 43%, with the unemployed people either abusing welfare systems or doing illegal activities. A poor decision was done by the government in 1970, and prostitution was legallized and taxed. The entire neighbourhood of Hepburn was renamed into Red Light District and the neighbourhood became dedicated to prostitution. The prostitution declined the unemployment among women and even considerably among men. During the 1970's, the drug problem became even worse. As cocaine, meth and heroin went out on the market, more Portland

users went to abusing them. As of 1976, 60% of the population had used either of the drugs in their lifetime. The crime level rised along with the drug levels. Portland became the most violent place in North America during 1977, a position it held until 2006. Police did little to no effort in stopping the drugs and violent crimes. Most of the time, the police would accept bribes for both murder and massive drug offences. The police as of 1980, was rated as the most corrupt in the US. Little was done and the high crime rates and low life expectancy levels became the same or worsened all up till today.

In 1996, construction on the Porter Tunnel started. The tunnel would connect the three boroughs more efficiently and would create a generous income for the government as a toll fee of $20 was projected for the tunnel. The tunnel didn't connect to Portland until 2001 when it was finished entirely. The tunnel took away a lot of traffic from the already congested new Callahan Bridge, which had been finished two years earlier.

As of 2001, little had been done in terms of better conditions for the residents. Some 30% of the population was homeless, crowding the streets. 40% of the population were addicted to drugs, and more than 58% of the population were gang affiliated.

A few things were done by the government during the late 2000's. The Red Light District, reclaimed it's previous name of Hepburn, and prostitution was banned. A zero tolerance program was attempted by the government, but was shown to do little effect. Police structure was reformed and bribes became harder to accept as officers were obliged to go with a unknown partner for every shift that were to inform the police chief if a fellow officer accepted bribes or illegal activity.

## Problems

#### Homeless problems

About 30% of the population was homeless as of 2001. The problem is due to people being thrown out of their apartments by landlords because they cannot pay their rents, landlords often raise prices on rent due to very high demand on the island. Another common reason is that people get thrown out of their apartments by street gangs or organized crime mobs for not paying protection money and they get their home smashed. The homeless people usually sleep during the day, and comes out at night to find new places to stay. A large portion of the homeless population is also psycothicly unstable.

#### Street crime

The crime rate in Portland as of 2001 is very high. There is a very high chance of getting mugged, robbed or raped by walking in any of the residential neighbourhoods. There are plenty of street gangs that control neighbourhoods and usually have a higher presence than police officers do. Local gangs do sometimes take the role as law and order where police presence is low. The industrial district of Trenton is the only neighbourhood in the borough where the crime rate is considerably low.

#### Drug abuse

A high portion of the population is addicted to drugs, most noteably cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine. Little is done or has been done to lower the drug abuse. The area with the highest presence of drug users are in Hepburn Heights and the blocks west of the Harwood district.

#### Prostitution

Taxed prostitution was legallized in 1970, which made a lot of the women in the borough prostituted. The government realised it had caused more bad than good, and banned prostitution in 2003. The police did little to nothing in order to prevent prostitution afterwards, as many take a round with arrested prostitutes as bribes. The neighbourhood name of Red Light District changed back to Hepburn in 2004.

## Fire department

The LCFD has had presence on the island since 1934. The fire station is located on the north side of the Harwood district.

## Hospitals

Originally, in 1847 there was established a hospital named Sweeney General Hospital. It started out as a private hospital. During the 1940's, the doors closed at the hospital and it was renovated into a apartment building. After that there were no hospitals in Portland. There were usually privatized doctors that went around and aided people for extremely high costs. A new hospital with the same name Sweeney General Hospital was finally rebuilt in 1984 after heavy protests from the local residents, altough this time it was a public hospital.

## Police department

The LCPD has little presence in Portland. Mostly because the police has given up on serious patrols in the neighbourhood. Most of the local police officers are corrupt and easily take bribes either from money, or through sexual services. The police does not take any sides in the gang wars, and rather manipulate all the gangs involved.

## Industry

The neighbourhoods of Trenton and Harwood were constructed during the early 1900's, and were primarily heavy industry until the 1940's. Today Trenton has mostly medium-sized industrial buildings and Harwood has mostly converted to commercial businesses. Most of Harwood's industrial buildings were demolished and rebuilt into a waste management site.
More than ten years later in 1957, the Shoreside Vale district of Pike Creek started allowing heavy industry to accomodate for the demand.