New York City’s next mayor, Zohran Mamdani, is promising to shake up the establishment by establishing a number of initiatives that lean on socialist agendas, such as a rent freeze, free transit, and universal healthcare. That’s rattling a lot of New Yorkers and prompting promises of action from President Trump. For those encouraged or concerned by the new mayor’s proposals, there’s already one American city leaning hard to the left. We sent Scott Thuman to Portland to investigate.

The following is a transcript of a report from “Full Measure with Sharyl Attkisson.”
Watch the video by clicking the link at the end of the page.

Ask almost anyone in America’s 26th largest city, Portland, Oregon, about their city and they go into a virtual sales pitch about the Willamette River, the abundant nature, food scene, and friendly residents – all of which checks out.

But they also can’t ignore the very real challenges they face, that have, of late, altered the feel of that laidback lifestyle.

Crime, a high homeless population afflicted with drug addiction and mental illness, and taxes in Multnomah County, that rank second, only to New York.

For Pamela Pelett, who’s owned her store, City Liquidators, for four-plus decades, the system has been failing for too long.

Pam Pelett: People don’t feel safe. The homeless need, we need to be safe, and they need to be safe. And what I see, and what I’ve experienced in these last 18 months, is that it’s a different demographic: they’re younger, they’re on drugs, and they’re violent.

But it’s not just about what she sees on the streets that worries her. It’s also city hall.

Scott: There are what, a handful of council members now who describe themselves as socialists?

Pam Pelett: Correct. Yes. Scary.

Scott: Why do you say scary?

Pam Pelett: Well, because I know what a socialist is. They’re not representing me or a lot of my customers,

And that, some critics claim, could be a preview for other major cities, like New York, about to go through another notable change.

Zohran Mamdani: I can see the dawn of a better day for humanity.

34-year-old self-described socialist, Zohran Mamdani, promised to raise taxes, freeze rent prices, and had advocated for defunding the police, only backing off on that stance late this summer when his political future began to shine.

Which mirrors some of the elements of the progressive push here in Portland, which now has four socialist democrats on the 12-person city council. They call themselves ‘The ‘Peacocks’, short for progressive caucus.

They recently doubled down on Portland’s sanctuary status, making it a legally binding city ordinance. Other plans include increasing protections for renters and redirecting two million dollars from the police to city parks. They also want to raise taxes on the rich.

Army veteran Mitch Green is among them and says that the label “socialist” is often misinterpreted.

Scott: Would you describe Portland as a socialist city?

Mitch Green: It’s mostly a progressive city, and a lot of those people identify in the modern period as democratic socialists. Which is sort of just worrying about universal access to goods, things like housing, healthcare, childcare, taxing with the progressive tax structure, so that way the wealthy pay a larger share than the poor.

Scott: And what do you say to critics who look at a lot of socialist programs and ideas and say, well, that’s just more free stuff for more people that other people have to pay for?

Mitch Green: I would just say that everyone is currently paying for the costs of underinvesting in those resources, and so we can pay upfront and provide a meaningful life for everyone, or we can pay on the backend, where people have suffered, and it’s probably more expensive.

Though some business owners say with high taxes, a 35% vacancy rate downtown, and one of the lowest police-to-population ratios in large cities in the country, at 1.26 officers per thousand people, they simply can’t afford more expensive social programs.

On the streets of Portland, debate over the socialist movement.

Kimberly: I am all for socialism, as you said, they’re new, there’s a huge learning curve on that council, cos they are a bunch of newbs and they are all learning how to work together.

Cora: Am I a Democrat? Yes. Do I believe in what they’re doing? Absolutely not.

Dan Mason is one of Oregon’s representatives to the Republican National Committee.

Dan Mason: I think a lot of the big government Democrats have been running Portland for a lot of years, and we have gone backwards. We’ve lost employers. The quality of life has continued to deteriorate.

Scott: What do you think of the idea of having four people who say they’re socialists on the city council?

Dan Mason: No, it’s terrifying, because I think it’s an anti-capitalist enterprise, and that’s not going to attract the small business, the small restaurant, all the different things that made Portland great.

Scott: A councilman we spoke to talked about a kind of coast-to-coast movement or revolution for socialism, whether it’s here in Portland or whether it’s in New York City with Mamdani?

Dan Mason: I think the Portlandia experience coming to a city near you should be the most terrifying thing out there because, especially if you live on the East Coast, or if you live in the South. You can look at all of the experiments that the city government has tried to pull off and see that it hasn’t worked.

Scott: You’re saying if you are in a city anywhere else in the country and it starts to feel like Portland, they should be concerned.

Dan Mason: Absolutely.

Scott: So, just how far and wide could concerns be over socialist cities? If members of the Democratic Socialists of America on city councils, including in Portland and New York City, are the beginning, there are at least 8 other cities with socialist or so-called progressive representatives on their councils.

For Full Measure, I’m Scott Thuman, Portland, Oregon.

Watch video here.