The more than 8,000 attendees at this year’s sold-out Portland Book Festival enjoyed a perfect fall day in the South Park Blocks. The sun filtered through vibrant shades of red, yellow, and orange, the fall foliage of the Park Blocks’ elm, oak, and maple trees at peak color.

It was warm enough not to wear a coat while walking from one presentation to another. As attendees sped from one event to the next Saturday, a woman sat on a bench, painting a watercolor. A street performer spun a black-and-white umbrella as people passed by.

It was far from the imagery of a war-ravaged, lawless, hellscape of a city painted by the federal administration in an effort to justify the deployment of the National Guard.

Portland often finds itself in the national spotlight for reasons both good and bad, from coverage of restaurants with James Beard-nominated chefs to the nightly Black Lives Matter protests in the summer of 2020.

In late September, Portland once again was in national news when President Donald Trump announced he would deploy the National Guard to protect the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in Southwest Portland, which has been the locus of protests this year.

To justify the deployment, the president used phrases like “war-ravaged” and “bombed out” to describe Portland, describing it as a city experiencing unparalleled urban blight, decline, and violence.

The book festival attendees Oregon ArtsWatch spoke with universally disagreed with such characterizations.  

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“I mean look, right?” Chris Boyer, 73, said, referencing the beautiful fall day and the festive atmosphere. She and her daughter, Emily Johnson, 40, sat on the concrete wall lining the steps between the Portland’5 Center for the Arts and the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, looking at the festival schedule and deciding which event they would attend next.

Both Boyer and Johnson laughed as Boyer spoke. “The last time we were here, we were making jokes,” Johnson said, about being in an “active war zone.” But, she said, “it’s just the complete opposite.”

“It’s my first time visiting and I don’t feel unsafe,” Randi Holtzclaw, 37, said.

Holtzclaw, along with friends Clinton Collins, 35, and Cassie Rayner, 37, took a road trip to attend the Portland Book Festival. Collins drove from his home in Reno to Susanville, Calif., where he picked up Holtzclaw and Rayner. The three made the 7.5-hour trip north to attend the Portland Book Festival and spend the weekend in Portland.

“Portland is a really warm place in my heart,” Collins said. “It’s always been a super inviting, warm town whenever I’ve been here.”

“The people are so unapologetically themselves that it unconsciously gives you permission to take up a little bit more space and be a little bit more of yourself,” Rayner said. “It’s nice to be in that environment.”

Other people traveled not quite as far as California and Nevada to attend the festival. Willow, 18, and her friend Kyla, 16, said they come to downtown Portland from their homes in White Salmon and Skamania, Wash., two or three times a month to attend author events, go to Powell’s Books, and hang out with their friends.

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“It’s special here,” Willow said. “It’s astonishing that some people who have never been here make opinions.”

Kyla said she has traveled a lot, and Portland “is one of the most welcoming cities I’ve been to,” she said. “I think homelessness is an issue. It’s a little concerning.” But, she said, “I’ve never felt unsafe.”

Johnson, who attended the festival with her mother, attended Portland State University in the early 2000s. “There’s been so much growth since the time I went to school in the early 2000s. Everywhere, there are these economic realities that are really hard for everybody … with not getting their needs met.”

But none of that is indicative of danger or anything rising to the level of insurrection or riot, two reasons that the president is legally allowed to deploy the National Guard to a domestic city.

“It feels very extreme, and nowhere is really that way,” Johnson said.

Her mother, Boyer, said people should be more discerning and critical of what they learn via national news and other avenues, and question that information’s veracity. “What have you seen?” Boyer said. “Is that true?”

Another festival attendee, Caitlyn Jamieson would agree. “I had a lot of people reach out especially in the past couple weeks [writing], ‘I hope you’re safe.’ Safe from what, you know?” she said, laughing.

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She, too, wants people, both in Portland and around the country, to engage in more critical thinking and empathy when evaluating the information they hear. “Rather than send me a text that says ‘I hope you’re okay,’ be like, ‘what’s really going on?’” she said.

The facts surrounding the protests at Portland’s ICE facility –– including the degree of violence that characterized them –– played a central role in the rulings issued by Judge Karin J. Immergut, a federal judge in the Oregon U.S. District Court who presided over the legal suit brought by the State of Oregon challenging the National Guard’s deployment.

On Nov. 7, she issued a permanent injunction to the deployment of the National Guard in Portland, finding that the president exceeded his authority in ordering the deployment. The permanent block follows temporary restraining orders Immergut issued, including one in early October, in which she wrote, “the President’s determination was simply untethered to the facts.”