A few of us on the City Council, including Eric Zimmerman, are working to make behavioral health our #1 issue for the 2027 state legislative session. While Multnomah County is responsible for public and behavioral health, the City must advocate for solutions to this crisis on our streets.
The amount of clout that Mitch and Olivia have in Salem is arguable, at best. Anything that will emerge in the delicately-named "behavioral health" area will be crafted to move even more dollars into the black holes of nonprofits. Best of luck.
I assume this means you’re running for re-election, then? Forgive my ignorance but I am one of your constituents and I have only seen organizing activity from one D4 counselor, and it isn’t you or Counselor Zimmerman.
You must not live in the Pearl District then, because Clark and Zimmerman are the only ones who ever show their faces here. Mitch Green is entirely MIA - which is just as well since he’s not welcome at this point.
You are correct. I live Downtown. I have worked with the Pearl NH for the last five years on addressing behavioral health and safety and livability issues in the Central City, first through PSAC. I am in the Pearl daily. I envy the Pearl’s abundant residential population. I know Eric. I met with him when I was actively testifying before the County Board and he was JBE’s aide. I know Olivia but not well. I support both strongly. I’m not sure what you are accusing me of.
Yep, I’m in Sellwood and while I seem to remember a Q&A once at the Sellwood community house, that’s about it for attention from my counselors. Though I’ve seen Green canvassers recently.
Have you seen Eli Arnold in your area? It is my hope that he will replace Green. If you agree, rank him #1. We have 4 people on City Council who want to defund the police. Might be good to have one with community policing experience replacing one of those.
A couple of signs, but no organizing. It’s eerily quiet, in my opinion. I was an organizer for a while, though in different cities. I looked at the voter data from 2024 for D4 and it tells me that these precincts should be gunfights right now. Even counselor Clark here, despite *nearly* clinching her seat in the first round took a couple of rounds to close. And over 15% of voters in D4 didn’t vote for city counsel at all, despite a high overall turnout as well as high historic activity.
I guess I’m just used to a much more aggressive ground game in city elections.
Yes, we were so much better off when the Portland City Council was controlled by real estate and business interests. They didn't care so much about power because they already had it -- all they wanted was to bring their "folks" together to make deals and make more money. If we bring these guys back they could solve Portland's substance abuse problem by converting the Power & Light building into a big prison and putting all the drug users in it. Then maybe people would start going downtown again -- who knows why! Seriously, maybe its time to start rethinking about what "downtown" is for a society in decline.
One of the great unanswered questions about today's Portland is why the town's real estate and business interests have abandoned their historic role in city politics. We're great at hashing over all our other problems, but this one has yet to garner serious and informed commentary.
Any thoughts about why the grownups have ceded control to the progressive social-services / nonprofit / activist sector who are running Portland into the ground?
I had a moment of hope five years ago when it was reported that Jordan Schnitzer and other grandees took the leftist Mike Schmidt, then Multnomah County's DA, to the woodshed at the Arlington Club [1], but it did not change the balance of power in City Hall or the County.
Data would like a word with “nobody comes to downtown hotels anymore.”
We’re getting comfortably close to the booking numbers from 2019. And all during a year where convention bookings for Portland are being artificially suppressed by a temporary drop-off in 2022 due to civil unrest. 2027-2029 bookings are basically back to full capacity.
We need foot traffic at night and weekdays during the day. What are the stats there. I have lived downtown 20 years. There is some “lying with statistics” going on here. I see the City 24/7 and those statistics don’t tell the whole truth.
When I think of weekday downtown "foot traffic," I automatically think of the tortured ranters who wander the sidewalks and drift across the streets scaring the bejeezus out of the normies within hearing distance.
I don’t believe the formula for reviving the downtown area is as complicated as many people seem to be making it. My wife and I bought a condo in 937 Condos in the Pearl District in 2009 when the streets were safe day and night. Heck, I walked through Old Town almost daily and never had any concern for my personal safety. The area was vibrant and bustling with young and old, heading to work, shopping at local retailers, dining at numerous cafes and restaurants. The Streetcar was always full taking residents all over the city, without drugged out folks slumped over or screaming while on meth. Then things changed in 2015, when more and more young punks with backpacks and scary dogs started camping out in the North Park Blocks, in front of the Ecotrust building and Pearl Safeway, followed by older folks sitting on sidewalks and doing drugs openly. Car break-ins became rampant. Year by year, it got worse, but the City did NOTHING AT ALL to arrest this decline. Meanwhile, retail shops and eating establishments began closing, property values declined, and people began leaving for greener pastures. We left in 2023, incurring a gigantic loss on our condo investment, and we don’t return much at all except to visit PAM or the Japanese Garden. My take, after living in Clackamas County for the past three years and seeing how clean and safe streets are fundamental to the vibrancy in our new home region, is that Portland must first and foremost focus on ridding its sidewalks and other public areas of all tents and graffiti, ensuring that repeat criminals are incarcerated rather than released to repeat their crimes, arresting open drug use as was evident at the recent Art in the Pearl event, enlarging the number of uniformed police by at least 50% and putting them on the street on foot rather than riding around in patrol cars, and taking lessons from cities such as Beaverton, Lake Oswego, Hillsboro in what is required to attract people in the first place. Just because Portland is a densely populated area is no excuse; there are many U.S. cities of even greater population with safe downtowns that are vibrant and filled with residents, where public safety is not a major issue. I don’t honestly think a scholar in urban planning is needed to address the fact that Portland’s downtown is simply not minding the basics.
It does seem rather simple and obvious, doesn’t it? Unfortunately due to ranked choice voting and the general “the more left the better because we hate Trump” Portland voters, at least half of the city council (and many more sitting in state representative seats) hate enforcement of law, believe ACAB, and think commerce is evil. Until these people are removed at all levels, this is by their design, they aren’t trying to fix it.
You bring up an important point: Portland’s homelessness, addiction and street-disorder problems did not begin with COVID. They had been worsening for years. I would trace part of the more recent deterioration to the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, rising housing costs and inadequate behavioral-health capacity, although Old Town has struggled with poverty, addiction and homelessness for much longer than that.
To me, that makes the criticism of government more serious, not less. The city, county and state have had years to address these problems and repeatedly failed to produce an adequate response.
I worked in Old Town in the 1980s and early 1990s. It always had rough areas, but it was still a functioning neighborhood with restaurants, businesses and residents. Today I sometimes think of Old Town as Portland’s broom closet—the place where we concentrate problems we would rather not have the rest of the city see.
There is an especially troubling irony in concentrating low-income housing, SROs and recovery services in Old Town while tolerating open drug dealing and street disorder immediately outside them. We place people who are trying to stabilize their lives in housing there, then allow an environment that can make recovery and ordinary daily life more difficult.
That is not an unavoidable condition of urban life. At least in part, it reflects policy choices about enforcement, treatment, shelter, housing and how public spaces are managed. Portland does not have to choose between compassion for vulnerable people and maintaining safe, functional neighborhoods.
My son grew up in Portland and recently moved to Boise. He was genuinely surprised by how clean and orderly a city could feel. I think longtime Portlanders can become so accustomed to tents, open drug use and the constant accommodation of street disorder that we begin treating it as an unavoidable feature of city life. It isn’t. Providing food, shelter and services to people in need is humane; allowing public disorder to become normalized is a poor policy choice.
Lots of all or none statements and opinions in the essay, some of which are true and some of which are not. I live in the central city, and do encounter plenty of visitors staying at the hotels, and this is increasing. But well worth reading.
Richard, your article is well founded. And I agree with it. It’s part of the growing sentiment the voter block in Dist 4 and 3 is angry about and will hopefully change this November.
As soon as we can start moving Portland/County politics to the center we can start moving the needle on enforcement/management/accountability for the livability issues our former great city faces (ie - homelessness/mental health/drug addiction). Once that begins to take shape then encouraging a more business friendly ownership of “said” buildings (historic or not - i.e. US Bank building) and offering them at lower rent rates for new businesses should be the momentum we obviously need.
But it’s a three prong approach that needs better support from all areas - city, state, county. Public health, public safety, and the public/private investment. It will be $$$ but worth it.
Mental, Behavior, Health ! All could be controlled in a hospital setting, may take a few years, but who would not support diagnosing individuals living on the street.
Richard, I couldn't agree more. Thank you for putting all the facts on the table so eloquently. It is so frustrating that the current mayor, the city council DSA folks, and the governor simply do not understand the absolutely critical safety and livability issues, and don't see the doom loop that we need to urgently get out of. Let's hope the right candidates are elected in November - the slates you described. I am backing specifically: Sharon Meieran, Eli Arnold, Olivia Clark and Eric Zimmerman.
My problem with this piece is not that Portland lacks serious economic and governance problems. It is that the article never really tells us who the author is, what expertise he brings to commercial real estate or public policy, or why we should accept the causal chain he presents.
It starts with a legitimate story about a distressed downtown office building, then moves rapidly through remote work, homelessness, housing, taxes, DSA, county government and individual candidates without carefully establishing how much each factor actually contributes.
There is also another way to look at these distressed sales. Buildings selling at much lower valuations may be painful for current owners and lenders, but that is also how a market eventually resets. A lower purchase price gives the next owner a lower cost basis and can make lower rents, reinvestment or even conversion more economically feasible. The problem may be less that the building has no viable use than that its old valuation and debt structure no longer make sense.
I also think “doom loop” is too strong. A true doom loop implies a self-reinforcing deterioration: rising vacancies feeding continuing declines in visitors, residents and economic activity. Portland certainly has a severe office problem, but the Downtown Portland Vibrancy Tracker tells a more complicated story. Downtown recorded about 32 million pedestrian visits in 2025, up 5.5% from 2024, with year-over-year increases in 11 of 12 months. Saturdays reached nearly 89% of 2019 activity, and some exceeded pre-pandemic levels. The major weakness remains weekday office-worker traffic, largely reflecting hybrid work. I continue to support the city bringing more workers back to the office, although the broader economic benefit is probably more modest than it first appears because much of that spending would simply shift from neighborhood businesses back to downtown.
That looks less like an accelerating doom loop and more like a downtown going through a structural transition. In the long run, one plausible outcome is a downtown that looks less like a traditional FIRE district—finance, insurance and real estate—and more like an extension of the Pearl District, with greater emphasis on residential use, restaurants, entertainment and neighborhood activity.
By the time the author is telling voters whom to fire and hire, this is clearly political advocacy. That is fine, but it should be presented as such. As written, it reads more like a rant built around a real-estate story than a structured analysis of Portland’s problems. The more plausible outcome may be that Portland gradually recovers at a lower set point than its pre-pandemic peak.
I do agree that an essential ingredient in Portland’s recovery is doing more to reduce disruptive and antisocial behavior in public spaces. I was at the downtown library yesterday, and at times it felt more like a day shelter than a library. That is not a sustainable outcome for either library users or the people who clearly need better services elsewhere.
Another yowp from someone who will be disappointed by Portland politics for the foreseeable future. I may have skimmed the piece, but there was no indictment of the city charter, a document that cunningly froze the machine into place for at least a decade.
Another beef caught me eye: "That means shops and restaurants have too few visitors to stay profitable after paying the higher insurance and security costs required to ensure safety for workers and guests and to deal with the inevitable vandalism and theft..." Might be worth observing that the government-supported Beard Restaurant will probably push a few neighboring establishments out of business. Our government, when not trying to take over the low-end rental business (and take property off the tax rolls), is in competition with private enterprise. Guess who wins that?
County and City governing folks need to keep track of what happens when they spend 4 billion per year in the county and 8 billion a year in the city. Instead, money is sprinkled around and results are not a part of the contracts. Meieran, a past county commissioner, is prepared with a degree in economics, law (and she practiced and knows how to be preceise and read contracts that hold folks to account) and medicine. ER medicine. She has bothered to volunteer in the streets with Portland Street Medicine. She has aquitted herself well at a recent "meet the candidates" talk in which Singleton, a DSA far leftie, Brim-Edwards, outed by whistle blowers as inept and "not fit" to serve as county chair both spoke. Meieran's talk was a college course in county governance, Brim Edwards was a word salad and Singleton was just shocking in its lack of content. Elect adequate leaders as a start. Stop the churn. Stop financing failure. Follow the money.
Street medicine associated with Portland Peoples Outreach Project who were distributing needles and drug paraphernalia near schools. Why would they associate with such a destructive force in the city? Medical care needs to take place in clinics or hospitals. If people are unable to meet their basic needs because of severe mental illness they need to be transported to a hospital or clinic, either voluntarily, or by force if they can't be otherwise convinced. If they are violating public laws, a jail cell will get them out of the rain and also a medical check by jail physicians.
The James Beard Public Market will have an extremely positive effect on neighboring businesses, hotels, the culinary community, and downtown residents who will have a good place to shop. Public Markets historically serve the community. Just visit other cities and see the economic development they create. And it is a public-private market, not supported solely by public money. Do your research. Do better.
Scott, I appreciate your remarks. Boise is one of many medium-size cities that have dealt effectively with open-air drug dealing and use, homelessness involving drug addicts, tent camping on streets and sidewalks, car break-ins, and so on. The different is policies favoring law and order that are enforced. Good government is neither conservative or liberal, Republican or Democratic; it is simply ensuring that public safety is arguably the most important community priority.
Firm supporter of Julia Brim Edwards who was not party to the decriminalization of narcotics era. Not a fan of street medicine either who work hand in glove with PPOP which distributes needles and drug paraphernalia. This is not just a Portland problem. It is a national problem. The West Coast Cities, Seattle, LA, SF are afflicted as bad as Portland. All have incentivized the drug culture and are firm believers in harm reduction and distributing needles and drug paraphernalia. These national public health policies will go down as one of the worst efforts leading to decaying cities, death from overdose, and an expanding drug culture. Since when did medicine decide to treat people on the street instead of in hospitals or clinics? And since when should someone who is yelling incomprehensively in the middle of a busy traffic filled street, not get transported by police voluntarily or involuntarily to the hospital? And why would someone who overdoses and almost died but for Narcan, not be transported to the hospital and confined for a period to be detoxed and stabilized for six weeks without drugs? And why are people who are injecting or inhaling narcotics not arrested and spend some time in jail? Portland has rationalized its under response. I am outraged and I am not alone. But I am not a politician, and we don't need more outraged politicians in the city where opinions are divided and often for legitimate reasons. Brim Edwards is not that person. She was successful at the School Board level, in private business, and as a commissioner who started the wheel turning by getting a Safe School ordinance through the county unanimously. She works well with others and boy do we need that in Portland.
Portland really needs the legal and medical professions to work at the state level to address the laws that are ineffective surrounding civil commitment. They are procedurally burdensome and impractical. The city and state need to work together to incentivize short term max 6 week psychiatric units in general hospitals that balance the liberty interests of severely mentally ill people with community interests for safety, civility, and beauty. If you get good laws in place that allow for appropriate modern psychiatric care and have legal oversight of care, professionals will come here to work. The current statutes on civil commitment are grossly inadequate and of very limited help.
And finally, no more Housing First, no more homelessness to housing continuum poppycock, until we get an enhanced criminal justice and mental health system in place to offer good comprehensive treatment consistent in degree with the public emergency in Portland.
Thanks for your post. There is no such thing as a doom loop. Either things get better or they get worse.
A few of us on the City Council, including Eric Zimmerman, are working to make behavioral health our #1 issue for the 2027 state legislative session. While Multnomah County is responsible for public and behavioral health, the City must advocate for solutions to this crisis on our streets.
The amount of clout that Mitch and Olivia have in Salem is arguable, at best. Anything that will emerge in the delicately-named "behavioral health" area will be crafted to move even more dollars into the black holes of nonprofits. Best of luck.
I assume this means you’re running for re-election, then? Forgive my ignorance but I am one of your constituents and I have only seen organizing activity from one D4 counselor, and it isn’t you or Counselor Zimmerman.
You must not live in the Pearl District then, because Clark and Zimmerman are the only ones who ever show their faces here. Mitch Green is entirely MIA - which is just as well since he’s not welcome at this point.
You are correct. I live Downtown. I have worked with the Pearl NH for the last five years on addressing behavioral health and safety and livability issues in the Central City, first through PSAC. I am in the Pearl daily. I envy the Pearl’s abundant residential population. I know Eric. I met with him when I was actively testifying before the County Board and he was JBE’s aide. I know Olivia but not well. I support both strongly. I’m not sure what you are accusing me of.
Yep, I’m in Sellwood and while I seem to remember a Q&A once at the Sellwood community house, that’s about it for attention from my counselors. Though I’ve seen Green canvassers recently.
Have you seen Eli Arnold in your area? It is my hope that he will replace Green. If you agree, rank him #1. We have 4 people on City Council who want to defund the police. Might be good to have one with community policing experience replacing one of those.
A couple of signs, but no organizing. It’s eerily quiet, in my opinion. I was an organizer for a while, though in different cities. I looked at the voter data from 2024 for D4 and it tells me that these precincts should be gunfights right now. Even counselor Clark here, despite *nearly* clinching her seat in the first round took a couple of rounds to close. And over 15% of voters in D4 didn’t vote for city counsel at all, despite a high overall turnout as well as high historic activity.
I guess I’m just used to a much more aggressive ground game in city elections.
Richard, I read your essay and share your sadness.
Yes, we were so much better off when the Portland City Council was controlled by real estate and business interests. They didn't care so much about power because they already had it -- all they wanted was to bring their "folks" together to make deals and make more money. If we bring these guys back they could solve Portland's substance abuse problem by converting the Power & Light building into a big prison and putting all the drug users in it. Then maybe people would start going downtown again -- who knows why! Seriously, maybe its time to start rethinking about what "downtown" is for a society in decline.
One of the great unanswered questions about today's Portland is why the town's real estate and business interests have abandoned their historic role in city politics. We're great at hashing over all our other problems, but this one has yet to garner serious and informed commentary.
Any thoughts about why the grownups have ceded control to the progressive social-services / nonprofit / activist sector who are running Portland into the ground?
I had a moment of hope five years ago when it was reported that Jordan Schnitzer and other grandees took the leftist Mike Schmidt, then Multnomah County's DA, to the woodshed at the Arlington Club [1], but it did not change the balance of power in City Hall or the County.
[1] Kavanaugh, Shane Dixon. "Portland power brokers pressured DA Mike Schmidt during private club lunch." The Oregonian. 22 July 2021. https://www.oregonlive.com/news/2021/07/portland-power-brokers-pressured-da-mike-schmidt-during-private-club-lunch.html
Data would like a word with “nobody comes to downtown hotels anymore.”
We’re getting comfortably close to the booking numbers from 2019. And all during a year where convention bookings for Portland are being artificially suppressed by a temporary drop-off in 2022 due to civil unrest. 2027-2029 bookings are basically back to full capacity.
https://downtownportland.org/research-reports/downtown-recovery-tracker/
With that said, I agree with your city council and county chair recommendations.
At an average daily room rate sustainable for the owner?
We need foot traffic at night and weekdays during the day. What are the stats there. I have lived downtown 20 years. There is some “lying with statistics” going on here. I see the City 24/7 and those statistics don’t tell the whole truth.
When I think of weekday downtown "foot traffic," I automatically think of the tortured ranters who wander the sidewalks and drift across the streets scaring the bejeezus out of the normies within hearing distance.
At an average daily room rate that is sustainable for an owner? Why are most hotels being run by lender’s Recievers?
I don’t believe the formula for reviving the downtown area is as complicated as many people seem to be making it. My wife and I bought a condo in 937 Condos in the Pearl District in 2009 when the streets were safe day and night. Heck, I walked through Old Town almost daily and never had any concern for my personal safety. The area was vibrant and bustling with young and old, heading to work, shopping at local retailers, dining at numerous cafes and restaurants. The Streetcar was always full taking residents all over the city, without drugged out folks slumped over or screaming while on meth. Then things changed in 2015, when more and more young punks with backpacks and scary dogs started camping out in the North Park Blocks, in front of the Ecotrust building and Pearl Safeway, followed by older folks sitting on sidewalks and doing drugs openly. Car break-ins became rampant. Year by year, it got worse, but the City did NOTHING AT ALL to arrest this decline. Meanwhile, retail shops and eating establishments began closing, property values declined, and people began leaving for greener pastures. We left in 2023, incurring a gigantic loss on our condo investment, and we don’t return much at all except to visit PAM or the Japanese Garden. My take, after living in Clackamas County for the past three years and seeing how clean and safe streets are fundamental to the vibrancy in our new home region, is that Portland must first and foremost focus on ridding its sidewalks and other public areas of all tents and graffiti, ensuring that repeat criminals are incarcerated rather than released to repeat their crimes, arresting open drug use as was evident at the recent Art in the Pearl event, enlarging the number of uniformed police by at least 50% and putting them on the street on foot rather than riding around in patrol cars, and taking lessons from cities such as Beaverton, Lake Oswego, Hillsboro in what is required to attract people in the first place. Just because Portland is a densely populated area is no excuse; there are many U.S. cities of even greater population with safe downtowns that are vibrant and filled with residents, where public safety is not a major issue. I don’t honestly think a scholar in urban planning is needed to address the fact that Portland’s downtown is simply not minding the basics.
It does seem rather simple and obvious, doesn’t it? Unfortunately due to ranked choice voting and the general “the more left the better because we hate Trump” Portland voters, at least half of the city council (and many more sitting in state representative seats) hate enforcement of law, believe ACAB, and think commerce is evil. Until these people are removed at all levels, this is by their design, they aren’t trying to fix it.
You bring up an important point: Portland’s homelessness, addiction and street-disorder problems did not begin with COVID. They had been worsening for years. I would trace part of the more recent deterioration to the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, rising housing costs and inadequate behavioral-health capacity, although Old Town has struggled with poverty, addiction and homelessness for much longer than that.
To me, that makes the criticism of government more serious, not less. The city, county and state have had years to address these problems and repeatedly failed to produce an adequate response.
I worked in Old Town in the 1980s and early 1990s. It always had rough areas, but it was still a functioning neighborhood with restaurants, businesses and residents. Today I sometimes think of Old Town as Portland’s broom closet—the place where we concentrate problems we would rather not have the rest of the city see.
There is an especially troubling irony in concentrating low-income housing, SROs and recovery services in Old Town while tolerating open drug dealing and street disorder immediately outside them. We place people who are trying to stabilize their lives in housing there, then allow an environment that can make recovery and ordinary daily life more difficult.
That is not an unavoidable condition of urban life. At least in part, it reflects policy choices about enforcement, treatment, shelter, housing and how public spaces are managed. Portland does not have to choose between compassion for vulnerable people and maintaining safe, functional neighborhoods.
My son grew up in Portland and recently moved to Boise. He was genuinely surprised by how clean and orderly a city could feel. I think longtime Portlanders can become so accustomed to tents, open drug use and the constant accommodation of street disorder that we begin treating it as an unavoidable feature of city life. It isn’t. Providing food, shelter and services to people in need is humane; allowing public disorder to become normalized is a poor policy choice.
Lots of all or none statements and opinions in the essay, some of which are true and some of which are not. I live in the central city, and do encounter plenty of visitors staying at the hotels, and this is increasing. But well worth reading.
https://downtownportland.org/research-reports/downtown-recovery-tracker/
Richard, your article is well founded. And I agree with it. It’s part of the growing sentiment the voter block in Dist 4 and 3 is angry about and will hopefully change this November.
As soon as we can start moving Portland/County politics to the center we can start moving the needle on enforcement/management/accountability for the livability issues our former great city faces (ie - homelessness/mental health/drug addiction). Once that begins to take shape then encouraging a more business friendly ownership of “said” buildings (historic or not - i.e. US Bank building) and offering them at lower rent rates for new businesses should be the momentum we obviously need.
But it’s a three prong approach that needs better support from all areas - city, state, county. Public health, public safety, and the public/private investment. It will be $$$ but worth it.
Mental, Behavior, Health ! All could be controlled in a hospital setting, may take a few years, but who would not support diagnosing individuals living on the street.
Criminals need prison.
Richard, I couldn't agree more. Thank you for putting all the facts on the table so eloquently. It is so frustrating that the current mayor, the city council DSA folks, and the governor simply do not understand the absolutely critical safety and livability issues, and don't see the doom loop that we need to urgently get out of. Let's hope the right candidates are elected in November - the slates you described. I am backing specifically: Sharon Meieran, Eli Arnold, Olivia Clark and Eric Zimmerman.
My problem with this piece is not that Portland lacks serious economic and governance problems. It is that the article never really tells us who the author is, what expertise he brings to commercial real estate or public policy, or why we should accept the causal chain he presents.
It starts with a legitimate story about a distressed downtown office building, then moves rapidly through remote work, homelessness, housing, taxes, DSA, county government and individual candidates without carefully establishing how much each factor actually contributes.
There is also another way to look at these distressed sales. Buildings selling at much lower valuations may be painful for current owners and lenders, but that is also how a market eventually resets. A lower purchase price gives the next owner a lower cost basis and can make lower rents, reinvestment or even conversion more economically feasible. The problem may be less that the building has no viable use than that its old valuation and debt structure no longer make sense.
I also think “doom loop” is too strong. A true doom loop implies a self-reinforcing deterioration: rising vacancies feeding continuing declines in visitors, residents and economic activity. Portland certainly has a severe office problem, but the Downtown Portland Vibrancy Tracker tells a more complicated story. Downtown recorded about 32 million pedestrian visits in 2025, up 5.5% from 2024, with year-over-year increases in 11 of 12 months. Saturdays reached nearly 89% of 2019 activity, and some exceeded pre-pandemic levels. The major weakness remains weekday office-worker traffic, largely reflecting hybrid work. I continue to support the city bringing more workers back to the office, although the broader economic benefit is probably more modest than it first appears because much of that spending would simply shift from neighborhood businesses back to downtown.
That looks less like an accelerating doom loop and more like a downtown going through a structural transition. In the long run, one plausible outcome is a downtown that looks less like a traditional FIRE district—finance, insurance and real estate—and more like an extension of the Pearl District, with greater emphasis on residential use, restaurants, entertainment and neighborhood activity.
By the time the author is telling voters whom to fire and hire, this is clearly political advocacy. That is fine, but it should be presented as such. As written, it reads more like a rant built around a real-estate story than a structured analysis of Portland’s problems. The more plausible outcome may be that Portland gradually recovers at a lower set point than its pre-pandemic peak.
I do agree that an essential ingredient in Portland’s recovery is doing more to reduce disruptive and antisocial behavior in public spaces. I was at the downtown library yesterday, and at times it felt more like a day shelter than a library. That is not a sustainable outcome for either library users or the people who clearly need better services elsewhere.
Very thoughtful and well written comment. Better data and much less of a rant than the original piece. But both provide useful food for thought.
Another yowp from someone who will be disappointed by Portland politics for the foreseeable future. I may have skimmed the piece, but there was no indictment of the city charter, a document that cunningly froze the machine into place for at least a decade.
Another beef caught me eye: "That means shops and restaurants have too few visitors to stay profitable after paying the higher insurance and security costs required to ensure safety for workers and guests and to deal with the inevitable vandalism and theft..." Might be worth observing that the government-supported Beard Restaurant will probably push a few neighboring establishments out of business. Our government, when not trying to take over the low-end rental business (and take property off the tax rolls), is in competition with private enterprise. Guess who wins that?
County and City governing folks need to keep track of what happens when they spend 4 billion per year in the county and 8 billion a year in the city. Instead, money is sprinkled around and results are not a part of the contracts. Meieran, a past county commissioner, is prepared with a degree in economics, law (and she practiced and knows how to be preceise and read contracts that hold folks to account) and medicine. ER medicine. She has bothered to volunteer in the streets with Portland Street Medicine. She has aquitted herself well at a recent "meet the candidates" talk in which Singleton, a DSA far leftie, Brim-Edwards, outed by whistle blowers as inept and "not fit" to serve as county chair both spoke. Meieran's talk was a college course in county governance, Brim Edwards was a word salad and Singleton was just shocking in its lack of content. Elect adequate leaders as a start. Stop the churn. Stop financing failure. Follow the money.
Chris Bugas
NW Portland resident
Street medicine associated with Portland Peoples Outreach Project who were distributing needles and drug paraphernalia near schools. Why would they associate with such a destructive force in the city? Medical care needs to take place in clinics or hospitals. If people are unable to meet their basic needs because of severe mental illness they need to be transported to a hospital or clinic, either voluntarily, or by force if they can't be otherwise convinced. If they are violating public laws, a jail cell will get them out of the rain and also a medical check by jail physicians.
The James Beard Public Market will have an extremely positive effect on neighboring businesses, hotels, the culinary community, and downtown residents who will have a good place to shop. Public Markets historically serve the community. Just visit other cities and see the economic development they create. And it is a public-private market, not supported solely by public money. Do your research. Do better.
Scott, I appreciate your remarks. Boise is one of many medium-size cities that have dealt effectively with open-air drug dealing and use, homelessness involving drug addicts, tent camping on streets and sidewalks, car break-ins, and so on. The different is policies favoring law and order that are enforced. Good government is neither conservative or liberal, Republican or Democratic; it is simply ensuring that public safety is arguably the most important community priority.
Firm supporter of Julia Brim Edwards who was not party to the decriminalization of narcotics era. Not a fan of street medicine either who work hand in glove with PPOP which distributes needles and drug paraphernalia. This is not just a Portland problem. It is a national problem. The West Coast Cities, Seattle, LA, SF are afflicted as bad as Portland. All have incentivized the drug culture and are firm believers in harm reduction and distributing needles and drug paraphernalia. These national public health policies will go down as one of the worst efforts leading to decaying cities, death from overdose, and an expanding drug culture. Since when did medicine decide to treat people on the street instead of in hospitals or clinics? And since when should someone who is yelling incomprehensively in the middle of a busy traffic filled street, not get transported by police voluntarily or involuntarily to the hospital? And why would someone who overdoses and almost died but for Narcan, not be transported to the hospital and confined for a period to be detoxed and stabilized for six weeks without drugs? And why are people who are injecting or inhaling narcotics not arrested and spend some time in jail? Portland has rationalized its under response. I am outraged and I am not alone. But I am not a politician, and we don't need more outraged politicians in the city where opinions are divided and often for legitimate reasons. Brim Edwards is not that person. She was successful at the School Board level, in private business, and as a commissioner who started the wheel turning by getting a Safe School ordinance through the county unanimously. She works well with others and boy do we need that in Portland.
Portland really needs the legal and medical professions to work at the state level to address the laws that are ineffective surrounding civil commitment. They are procedurally burdensome and impractical. The city and state need to work together to incentivize short term max 6 week psychiatric units in general hospitals that balance the liberty interests of severely mentally ill people with community interests for safety, civility, and beauty. If you get good laws in place that allow for appropriate modern psychiatric care and have legal oversight of care, professionals will come here to work. The current statutes on civil commitment are grossly inadequate and of very limited help.
And finally, no more Housing First, no more homelessness to housing continuum poppycock, until we get an enhanced criminal justice and mental health system in place to offer good comprehensive treatment consistent in degree with the public emergency in Portland.
Thanks for your post. There is no such thing as a doom loop. Either things get better or they get worse.