Academics just made public a study into the post-pandemic recovery of Portland using the newer research methods. The study found that in downtown Portland, the pandemic recovery remains weak. Researchers with the Institute of Governmental Studies at the University of California, Berkeley, conducted the latest study. It used GPS location data from 18 million smartphones to track how often they visited various locales around North America, then compared that activity to 2019.
The academics also looked at how activity is faring across cities, beyond their downtowns, and Portland fared somewhat better by that metric – ranking 44 out of 62 large metros. The researchers found that the city’s economy is generally strong, with incomes up, unemployment near record lows and housing prices soaring.
Portland’s downtown is less than half as active as it was in 2019, according to a new study that uses cellphone data to measure people moving around urban centers. The study finds that activity has actually diminished since last fall and that Portland ranks near the bottom of 62 downtowns across the country. Only San Francisco and Cleveland fared worse.
City officials pledged a concerted effort to revive the city’s core, addressing public safety and scheduling outdoor festivals and events to bring people back. Downtown Portland’s 42% recovery index is little changed from the spring of 2021 – and modestly below where the city was at last fall. Homelessness has overwhelmed the Old Town neighborhood and spilled across the city’s core. Portland’s ongoing spike in homicides is especially acute in and around downtown.
The report stated that the biggest recoveries were in small and modestly sized cities, led by Salt Lake City, Bakersfield, Fresno and in Columbus, Ohio. The study notes that every downtown in North America struggled during the pandemic, as public health measures shut down restaurants and theaters and people switched to remote work.
Months of downtown protests following the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, attracting scorn from former President Donald Trump and confrontations between Portland protestors and federal officers. Homelessness soared and homicides spiked and sporadic vandalism plagued downtown businesses for months.
