On Saturday, the New York Times sent out, on its front page, what amounted to a dog-whistle suggesting that every drug addict in America should move to Portland and live out their final days using their favorite hard drugs in the open-air hospice that used to be our streets and parks.

But just in case the junkies missed it – they do nod out quite a bit – today the Times expands the suggestion to an all-out explicit invitation. In their Science section, they’re proudly displaying a grotesque photo layout of Portland’s druggies, which is is bad enough, with accompanying headlines and captions that – my word – shock the conscience.

“Portland is a homeless drug addict’s slice of paradise,” said Noah Nethers, who was living with his girlfriend in a bright orange tent on the sidewalk against a fence of a church, where they shoot and smoke both fentanyl and meth.

He ticked off the advantages: He can do drugs wherever he wants and the cops no longer harass him. There are more dealers, scouting for fresh customers moving to paradise. That means drugs are plentiful and cheap.

Saturday’s piece, despite its appalling journalistic laziness, drew more than 2,200 comments on the Times website. A few Portlanders scolded the paper for daring to point out the city’s profound problems. My reaction was, don’t shoot the messenger. But today the messenger is behaving like, not to put too fine a point on it, a glorified click whore. It’s certainly doing more harm than good. This is journalism? This is “Science”? And every 72 hours?

Ten to 15 years ago, the Times basically urged every hipster in America to move to Portland because of its potential to be a progressive utopia. A lot of hipsters took them up on it, biking their way to and from their perfectly-urban-planned apartment bunkers and voting for every quixotic left-wing candidate and ballot measure presented to them. Stick it to The Man! Although for more than a few of them, The Man was their grandfather who set up their trust fund.

Anyway, now that Portland is paying dearly for the hipsters’ foolish choices, the Times has apparently decided to bring all the addicts here next. Maybe they’re thinking that that will scare the hipsters back to New York, where Grandpa’s money is missed. Okay, they won’t be able to afford Brooklyn any more. But maybe Queens or Jersey City.

Shame on the Times. Shame, I say.