I understand that you support an increase in minimum wage, but I don't understand why. I may not be following your reasoning, but I don't see you presenting any evidence or argument that anyone will be better off after an increase. (I am perplexed by your prediction that you will "win" somehow by raising your prices to cover increased costs. If crop failure raises the cost of non-labor inputs for you and your competitors, will you also win? Are your customers not price-sensitive?)

Young people in this town are on the verge of starvation

If young people can't find work paying $9.25 an hour, I don't see how they will be any better off when they must seek work paying $14.75 an hour. Among those who earn $9.25 an hour now, some may find that their wages are increased, but this change won't happen in a vacuum: managers are likely to respond to increases in costs of their inputs like anyone else does, by buying less, and also reducing non-salary compensation, or turning to substitutes such as automation.

When there is a price floor for labor, there will be a surplus of applicants, and the most "desirable" (experienced, connected, educated or otherwise advantaged) will be hired first. The rest will be prohibited from selling what may be their only valuable assets: time and energy.

Portland's unemployment rate is about average at 4.2%, but if it follows typical demographic patterns, young people are far more likely to be unemployed than adults. Nationally, BLS reports rates for young men (12.7 percent), women (11.7 percent), whites (10.3 percent), blacks (20.7 percent), and Hispanics (12.7 percent). "Unemployment among young adults in Oregon is more than double the state average."

You give vivid descriptions of problems, and your perspective seems to be "it is what it is" or "that's the way we do things" or "it's good to try a variety of approaches to see what works." I agree with those sentiments, but I don't think they speak to whether any alternative approach might give superior results. We have seen one extreme, how do you propose we evaluate the other? Go to Somalia, maybe?