Downtown Portland is a complex place. In some ways, it’s struggling mightily. There’s the weight of the pandemic, the boarded up businesses and widespread trash there. In others, its excelling. See the lines for the new Gucci store for example. But how downtown is perceived is in some ways more important than its actual reality, especially for its economic future. And Portland area residents don’t have good things to say about downtown right now, even if they haven’t gone down there to check it out.

On this episode, business reporters Jamie Goldberg and Mike Rogoway talk about the state of downtown today, what a recent poll commissioned by our newspaper revealed about that perception issue, and what it may take to bring people back to the city center.

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