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The country bumpkins do like to complain about the 'slums' of the city. I guess it's all what you want. The city has much more to do in terms of entertainment. Food and drink is better and more diverse. Things are open later. The high paying jobs and business are there. There are also all of the problems mentioned. Parking, bums, noise, traffic, etc. The final arbiter of this is property values. It cost more to live in the city because more people want to live there. If you don't like it, stay home. You may not want downtown, but it doesn't want you either. That will help with some of the traffic
Your cavalier attitude is very "Portland."
I was in a position where I had to go to downtown Portland regularly for about ten years. I watched the city get easier for pedestrians and harder for visitors like me. I had to do business there, but hated it. The message sent to me by the city and the businesses I worked with was that they were just fine taking my money and making it difficult, since it worked well for them.
I also spent nearly ten years in the 1980's in a similar situation in Seattle. It was horrible then, and must be much worse now.
I am just fine in letting the big city folks do their thing, as long as they consider that visitors/customers from outside the city need to be considered in their planning. They don't do that, and concentrate on their "local" viewpoints.
Worst is that they impose their "local" viewpoints on the rest of the state.