I want to start with a question.
When was the last time you came into
downtown Portland and why did you come?
Was it maybe to see a festival
or catch a show? If so,
you probably saw a lot of people downtown.
This summer's festivals and events have,
for the most part,
had a pretty good attendance.
Or are you one of the people
still working downtown?
If you worked here before the pandemic,
you know how different it is now.
Public transit parking,
coffee shops and lunch spots all used
to be a lot more crowded than they are.
Now the issues facing downtown Portland.
Homelessness, crime, trash,
they all existed before the pandemic,
but the pandemic really amplified
them and it's not just Portland's
downtown that struggled downtown
areas and lots of big cities around
the country have had the same types
of problems over the last few years.
We feel like we hear the same stories
and the same complaints coming
from cities like Seattle or Denver,
but some of them are recovering
better than others,
and a new study shows that
almost every city is recovering.
Better than Portland.
Researchers at the University of California,
Berkeley looked at cell phone data,
how many phones were pinging,
in what areas,
and how they were moving around to
see how many people are visiting
downtown this year compared with 2019.
And Portland came in get this
60th place out of 62 cities.
The only cities that scored worse
were Cleveland, OH, and San Francisco.
Now, according to the data,
Portland has only reached about 41%.
Recovery the top cities by the way,
were Salt Lake City, Bakersfield,
CA and Columbus, OH.
All of their downtowns are actually doing
better than they were before the pandemic.
We talked with one of the
researchers on this study.
It's super interesting to see which ones
bounced back and which ones did not.
So Portland, sadly, is near the bottom.
San Francisco is actually at the very bottom,
and so there's a number of cities
that haven't even recovered.
That's half as much of the activity
as they had three years ago.
So what's going on in these places?
Well, we did some models to kind of
figure out using regression models
and statistical correlations to
figure out what factors matter most,
and it turns out the number one factor
that I think it's hurting places like
Portland and San Francisco is the economy.
I like to say it's the economy stupid,
the famous saying because.
Both Portland and San Francisco have
gotten overly concentrated and just a
couple of sectors and the most vulnerable
sector to have in your downtown
economy is professional services,
yes, so did you catch that?
The researchers say the biggest reason,
downtown Portland isn't recovering is
because we've lost so much of the big
crowds of people who used to work there.
Offices of professionals are the ones
that have chosen to work from home.
Many of the bigger offices
companies have cracked down,
said you have to come in
two or three times a week,
but lawyers working by themselves
or accountants or people working in
office with just three or four people,
they've really chosen to work from
home now perhaps permanently so that's
really hurt hurting these economies.
Well, we've heard a lot from businesses
over the past two years who say they
are done with downtown Portland.
They are packing up and
literally leaving just last week,
The Oregonian reported that Unitus
Community Credit Union is moving
its headquarters from SW 6th Ave
downtown out to Tigard and nearly
180 employees are going with.
They say they're moving to a hybrid
model of work and they just don't need
as much space as their downtown location
offered and moving to the suburbs
will be an easier commute for their
workers who are coming into the office.
The Portland Business Journal reported
last week that downtown Portland
offices now have a 26% vacancy rate.
We've heard from many businesses who
say they're leaving because of crime or
issues with the homeless population,
or simply because the suburbs
gave them a better deal.
And lots of businesses are closing
down their offices altogether because
their workers are remote and they just
don't need the physical space anymore.
Even Portland's city employees,
thousands of people who used to
commute to downtown every day.
We're only back in their offices.
Maybe one or two days a week.
So where does downtown Portland go from here?
Well,
some companies are trying to get
workers to come back to the office,
but it's not likely to get back to the
way it was before for a lot of people.
Remote work just makes more sense
for a lot of reasons.
Some surveys suggest that the shift to
remote work will be permanent for up to
half of the workforce in major cities,
especially large congested areas
that also have a lot of tech jobs.
The researchers say it's time to start.
Thinking about a new downtown or
using downtown areas differently.
What they could do if they wanted
to do better if they wanted to
look like San Diego for instance,
or New York even, which is back
at 78% of pre pandemic levels.
Beef up your arts and entertainment sectors.
Tourism is bringing back a number
of different cities and then having
more residential downtown, of course,
is another way to get more people back.
Now, like I mentioned,
we're already seeing this in Portland.
People are still willing to come
downtown for a show or a festival.
Lots of them are.
So what do you think?
How would you like to see downtown
Portland transform in the coming years?
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