For 100 consecutive nights in the middle of 2020, protesters rioted and looted in downtown Portland, Oregon, following the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Some referred to it as Groundhog Night. Three kilometres away, in the well-fertilised and mulched garden beds of Washington Park, thousands of roses slumbered. As Portland’s inner city woke to broken glass and ashes, the buds unfurled and the flowers bloomed. At the time the Trump administration declared Portland a jurisdiction in anarchy, the roses were putting on their last summer flush.
Portland is the largest city in the state of Oregon, with a population of 645,000. In recent years, it has gained a
