but walking in downtown Portland
looks different these days.
Some of the streets seem desert.
Some have boarded up shops.
That was Louis Vuitton.
I'm not sure what that was.
This used to be a stationary store had
beautiful pane glass windows th.
Those got broken out more than .
I think Doorway used to be ther.
Looks like they're still
doing business online, but.
They're not downtown. There
are a few people in doorways. This is
the standard building,
which used to be full of
standard insurance employees.
Most of them now work from home,
so there's not nearly as many
people here as there used to be.
It's not empty, though.
There's still a lot of tenants
here in the building. This
used to be a 711 store.
There were often fights and
problems with homeless folks he.
The padlock sends a clear message now.
And the flowers?
They look as wilted as
this corner of our city,
but some areas do look better.
It's nice that the Apple Store is taking
down the big barriers on the outside.
Although I looked at it a little more
closely, it's actually an inner barrier,
so there's still a barrier.
It's just not nearly as ugly as it was.
On this walk, I stopped people t
random to talk about Portland.
So what do you think of
downtown Portland these days?
Stuff A little scary. I mean,
earlier we were walking by and e
guy was holding like, a Taser.
Oh, my gosh. Really scary. Yeah, this
guy's a bus driver on vacation m
Canada. You smell a lot of urin.
I asked how he'd describe our downtown.
When you get home,
what will you tell your friends?
It was like, how would you
describe our downtown? It's
dead. The Oregonian reported last week
that more than 20% of 5th of ofe
space in downtown Portland is vacant.
That's according to industry analyst Costar.
If you look across the street,
you see lease, lease, lease, le,
lot of empty storefronts. It's
part of a national trend for ci.
A lot of people are still working from home
and companies are moving to the suburbs.
But others I spoke with think downtown might
be bottoming out and ready to rise again.
Anthony Eddings is one of those
people. But the state can't
come back. I got hope.
I bumped into him and we talked
on a corner as a woman nearby
seemed to struggle with life.
Turns out he's a fan of our sho.
It's not. It's not too late. No.
So we've seen a lot of graffiti.
Not very much foot traffic.
Really. No. But I once again,
you know it'll come back with you and
people with you like people like you.
Thank you, Sir.
You know it'll come back,
I truly believe.
That it is on the up.
So it feels like downtown
is a real mix right now.
It's nothing like it was
before the pandemics and riots.
There are still plenty of disturbing scenes,
but there are other areas too,
other blocks that feel pretty
safe and normal.
I think the city's on the
verge of getting better.
I hope it continues.
Every now and then we get quests
from longtime viewers wanting to know.
Are you ever going back to your studio on
the square at Pioneer Courthouse Square?
We used to broadcast live from e
our studio at the square every ,
right up until the pandemic.
Well, tonight we're back.
I'm Pat Dorris. Welcome to the story.
Now, no, we're not back inside the studio,
But yes, we are on the bricks because
we thought this would be the pet
place to bring you an entire shw
about the state of downtown Portland.
You know, downtown is one of the hottest
topics that we get on this show.
Anytime we mention it,
you flood our emails and our voicemails
with your thoughts, your commen,
your concerns, And we love this.
Here's one example from Jason,
who writes downtown Portland
has become a cesspool of crime,
anger, tension, and foolishness.
I finally had enough of this th.
Portland has become and moved o.
Two years ago,
I lost faith in city leaders, the police,
and I lost hope in the city that I love.
Hey, Jason, I got to tell you,
you're not alone.
We hear from a lot of people who
love downtown but say they've er
moved out of the area because o,
or they're out in the suburbs ad
they're not coming downtown ever again.
I got to tell you, we love this city too,
but we realize that there are problems here.
There's violence, there's crime,
there's graffiti, there's drug ,
mental health problems.
The list goes on and on and on,
but we don't want to just focus
on the bad things,
because there's good things too.
At this square,
for example, this summer,
there's a whole slate of concers
that are planned for free,
just to entice people to come
down and have some fun.
We're also going to hear from a city leader,
Commissioner Dan Ryan,
to find out what's needed to brg
downtown back to what it once w.
You'll hear from him later in the show,
but first,
let's talk about something that used to
pull big crowds into downtown the arts.
You know, concerts,
theater, live performances,
that sort of thing.
But many of those arts organizas
are struggling right now,
and they say it's in part becauf
the perception that downtown is so dangerous.
Our producer Ashley Koch has our story
as musicians at the Oregon
Symphony rehearse on stage at te
Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall.
They're laser focused, making
sure they hit the right notes,
but backstage. CEO Scott
Showalter is worried.
It's going to be a difficult
business moving forward without
support from our local communit.
There's something magical about
Southwest Maine and Broadway
in downtown Portland. When
the arts district is up and vibrant and
going, there's nothing like it.k
Mauser is the artistic
director of Stumptown Stages,
A nonprofit musical theater com.
Right now, they're getting readr
their production of The Full Mo,
and you can see the car right behind me.
We're in the process of. Gettint
theater ready. It opens next month in
the Portland 5 Center for the A.
A few weeks ago, we asked viewe,
are you willing to come downtown
to see a show or catch a concer?
Many of you had no problem. Like Deborah.
I go down there all the time.
I feel safe.
I obviously pay attention,
but I go to the Symphony.
I go to the Keller.
I see shows at the Newmark
I actually usher.
Down there also some,
but I feel fine,
but others of you weren't so su.
My wife and I used to love to go to the
opera we would make the trip in and go to
dinner at one of the restaurants downtown.
Most of those are closed now.
We would love to go back,
but our kids, who are now adult,
have all told us, don't.
Mom and dad, it's not safe.
Don't go down there.
It's that perception that the downtown
arts organizations are battling.
The greatest threat to the Oregn
Symphony today is, in fact,
the perception that downtown is unsafe.
It's the number one reason by f,
if people are holding back from
coming to live performances.
Showalter isn't just saying tha,
he's got data to back it up.
From extensive surveys with their patrons,
they asked people why they weret
renewing subscriptions this yea.
Most of the top 8 responses had to do
with the state of downtown Port.
Lack of police presence, Homelessness.
Drug use, you name it. These iss
are very familiar to to all of ,
but they're impacting the Oregon Symphony,
whose business is predicated onn
person experiences especially. e
are other issues at play.
No one gets into the arts to get rich,
but across the board,
it's getting harder to even sure
and more expensive to do a show.
Materials and supplies of.
Just building a set and putting a show up.
We see the cost of wood, lumber.
Increasing significantly,
local grants have dropped and Mo
is raising the rent at both vens
our rates.
Our total bill to use this faci,
named for the Oregon Symphony,
have doubled since 2016.
Local government,
the city and metro have created
a chasm of $1.5 million more
than was the case back in 2016.
Now it's time to have some conversations.
When you're losing money and yet
expenses are increasing, you can
kind of see the writing on the .
At some point you jump ship
or you just no longer exist.
Has there been any thought to
jumping ship, Moving out of
Portland to somewhere else? Oh ,
yes, there has been. And
for us to be able to survive and
thrive in the future, we're goio
need significant help. And soon. What
happens if nothing changes?
God forbid we will become a shaw
of our former selves
if the lights went dark in downtown Portland.
When you think about most major American
cities, there is a Symphony at the heart
of the culture.
Without the arts, we would just
be this vacuum, this whole.
Both the Oregon Symphony and Stumptown
stages have hope and a request
come back downtown. I mean,
that is the number one thing tht
we all need to do in droves.
Is come to live performances ate
Schnitz and around the region. t
if you want to that Portland
that you dream about,
that you love, then be part of .
Come downtown, see for yourself.
You can sure feel the earnestness there.
Hey, And then fairness to those
of you who are concerned,
it's not just your perception that downtown
is more dangerous than it used to be.
It actually is. That's a fact.
For example, in April of 2019,
just before the pandemic,
there were 64 assaults downtown.
I just checked this today.
This past April, there were 77.
So yeah, the number has gone up.
The concern though, is that youe
worried that it's much higher than that,
when in fact, if you compare the
April's from 2019 to this year,
that's only an increase of 17.
Percent I know it's not nothing,
but it's not really huge.
Here's a message from Cheryl,
who wrote We are 73 and 83 and
regularly go downtown to the Symphony,
the ballet, the library,
and the arts and lecture series.
We do worry about our safety everywhere.
In Portland, the mayor does not,
so it is up to us to save our c.
Well, when it comes to saving the city,
we know it's an uphill battle.
We've seen the problems around
us and you've probably seen the
attempts by city leaders to fix them.
One of the ideas was to have city workers
come back to their offices down.
Last month,
some employees with the city of
Portland were required to return
to the office at least halftime.
But as we take a wider look
of downtown Portland,
there are still a lot of empty
office buildings trying to get
downtown back to what it was be.
The pandemic filled with office workers
is not happening, at least not .
A lot of people have discovered
they don't have to be at the of.
They can work from somewhere el.
Some experts suggest that saving
downtown now requires rethinking
how we deal with downtown's Last
year, a study from UC Berkeley,
looking at the ways downtown's e
recovered or not recovered from the pandemic,
found that Portland was just
about dead last for Recovery #60
out of 62 cities across America.
One of the researchers on the sy
told us it's because Portland ws
too reliant on office workers.
Karen Chappell said that the
cities that recovered faster are
the ones who got away from that.
What they could do if they wanted to,
do better, if they wanted to
look like San Diego for instanc,
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.
No surprise people in
the arts industry agree.
We talked to JS May,
the president of the Cultural
Advocacy Coalition of Oregon,
who says we don't always realize
economic impact of the arts. Iff
you look at the impact of the a,
I mean, people think about this being.
A small sector,
but we're across the state of Oregon.
We're $9.5 billion worth of
business on an annual basis.
The timber industry is 7 billio,
so we're larger than than
what you would think
about as one of
Oregon's core industries,
May says. The average person coming to
see a show will spend about $45 each on
things outside the theater or concert hall,
things like dinner or drinks before the show.
There's one more arts organization we
want to tell you about that's actually
betting big on downtown Portlan.
A theater group just moved into downtown.
They plan to stay for decades.
Here again is our producer,
Ashley Koch. Opening weekend
is completely sold out.
Our field trips are full.
We're filling up the following
weekends as well. The
staff at the Northwest Childrens
Theater is thrilled about moving
into their new space downtown.
We've always wanted to be downtown and
specifically this neighborhood you know on
Broadway in the Arts District across from
the Schnitzer and Newmark Winningstad.
You know this is pretty much the ideal
location for a theater company.y
renovated an old movie theater t
Southwest Broadway and Main and signed
a 30 year lease for the space. e
are absolutely in it for the long haul.
We are taking the Longview on this and I
have absolute 100% confidence that in a.
Very short order here, you know,
downtown is going to be the place to be.
They're ready to give families a reason
to come back downtown with show,
movies, classes and camps that
are all filling up quickly and t
more planned for the future. Ths
is where Cinderella is going
to open in a couple weeks,
which is an original big band
tap musical version of the
story taking place here in the
round in our black box space,
Fenster says.
They haven't had any concerns
about safety in downtown Portla.
They've got confidence in
their building security.
And they know there's potential here.
I, you know, see it come to life when
there's a performance across the street,
you know, with the Symphony,
or I see it come to life when
there's a play at the Newmark.
Part of just the magic of comino
work every day is when I leave r
the night and the Schnitzer is t
coming to life and it's all litp
and there's a big crowd coming t
of our parking lot and headed o.
It's just feels like we're we're kind
of at the epicenter of things he
and they want to be a part of
the future of downtown Portland.
You know, we have a lot of
vacancy rates downtown and
offices downtown right now.
I would say fill them up
with arts organizations like
Northwest Children's Theater,
Ashley Koch, KGW News,
This is SW 3rd and Main.
It's where the Thompson Elk
statue and the fountain stood
for decades here in Portland.
But that all changed
during the riots of 2020.
It was burned and damaged
and eventually taken down.
As you look around,
you see there's still steel feng
up around the federal building .
The boarded windows of the Juste
Center There, for more than 100 nights,
there were protests.
Here, people camped out night and day,
sometimes rioting,
getting in battles with
police and the feds.
A lot
of you point to the protest as
the beginning of the decline
for the city of Portland.
And as we've seen,
there are still lots of problem.
But in the park here it
is peaceful and quiet,
people enjoying a nice spring d.
So there is some progress.