Downtown Portland has only 60% of the foot traffic seen before the COVID-19 pandemic, a new report from the Portland Business Alliance found, as the Rose City trails other cities in the recovery process.
Despite that fact, Portland did see a more than 25% growth in foot traffic throughout 2022 as people started returning downtown for events, concerts, dinner, and entertainment.
The PBA said June was last year’s busiest month downtown with 2.26 million visits. The study found that there was an 8% bump in foot traffic year-over-year on Thanksgiving weekend, traditionally a busy holiday shopping weekend.
Their findings also found that Wednesday was the busiest day of the week downtown, which they say indicates workers are starting to return to the downtown offices.
The study was conducted within the Downtown Portland Clean & Safe District. You can see the full results here.
“We are seeing in this data that both the core of the city is becoming more active, as well as the evening hot spots and entertainment venues. While we have several challenges we need to resolve as a community, seeing these numbers increase gives me hope for the future,” said Sydney Mead, the director for Clean & Safe’s Downtown Programs.
MORE FINDINGS: