Central Portland has seen more modest economic and job growth than the larger metropolitan area over the past several years, but the region’s health and long-term success depends on the economic strength that flows from an economically vital Central Portland. Given that the Central City is the focal point for transportation routes and concentrated land-use patterns that can reduce sprawl, it is the logical place to locate more jobs, industry and intensive economic growth. 

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Economic Development

Portland Development Commission

Central Portland has earned a reputation over the past 25 years for its innovative transportation investments and policies emphasizing multiple types of transit and reduced reliance on the car. These policies and investments have included extensive support for light rail, streetcar, bus and bicycle and pedestrian routes as well as pioneering land-use strategies. Complex transportation challenges now confront Central Portland, however, such as growing congestion, aging infrastructure, a prolonged maintenance backlog, sustained funding cuts and job sprawl.

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Bureau of Transportation

The number of people living in Central Portland has grown nearly 47 percent since 1990, from about 21,000 to more than 31,000 in 2005. Public policies provided the push to add housing in Central Portland, and that effort has been matched by market demand over the past several years. Former warehouses and contaminated industrial sites have been transformed into new neighborhoods that continue to evolve. However, lower income households and families with children need more housing options in Central Portland.

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Bureau of Housing and Community Development

Office of Human Relations and Human Rights Commission

Portland’s “green” legacy and leadership on recycling, public transportation, green building and other sustainable practices, natural resource conservation and stewardship, and its emphasis on public access to the river, parks and other natural areas, both connect people to and protect the environment. Still, providing enough park and open space in Central Portland while the number of residents will potentially double or triple in coming decades will be a challenge.

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River Plan

River Renaissance

Citywide Tree Project

Office of Sustainable Development

Urban Design

A large variety of government and nonprofit social service agencies that provide safety and welfare to diverse Portlanders are located in Central Portland. In fact, social service providers tend to be grouped in Old Town/Chinatown, while shelters and residential hotels are clustered there and in the West End. Such concentrations may be considered both a challenge as well as an opportunity by providing people with the convenience of having a broad choice of facilities within a small area.

Central Portland continues to be the region’s arts and culture center with its offerings of art, programs and facilities that include the offbeat and unusual, the traditional and the classic. These cultural and historic resources are major contributors to the region’s outstanding “livability” because they give Portland its character and appealing uniqueness. Multiple efforts are currently in place to support the role of the arts, culture and history in Portland; however, arts funding by private and corporate funders lags behind that of other western cities.

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Historic Resources

Regional Arts & Culture Council

Parks, Recreation, Arts & Culture

Central Portland has generated funding for its programs and services in the past few decades through: appropriations in the city’s annual budget; passing bond measures to carry out specific projects (i.e., protect natural areas by purchasing sites from willing sellers); and tax increment financing (TIF), which leverages public tax investments to encourage private investment in urban renewal areas.

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Economic Development

Portland Development Commission

The city is a physical place, and urban design refers to how we build that place. The impact of urban design in Central Portland is far reaching and comprehensive. Urban design concepts, goals and actions are embedded throughout our current guiding document, the 1988 Central City Plan, but its initial clarity has been eroded by changes in context, inconsistent revisions to the plan’s subdistricts and new priorities. Many trends and issues are currently affecting Central Portland’s urban design, including new interest in development; sufficient capacity to accommodate denser development; developers maximizing entitlements by transferring FAR; need for open space; green city infrastructure that seeks to maximize nature; and the need for more community-building amenities such as grocery stores, libraries, schools and places of worship.

Related Links:

Central Portland Plan Urban Design Assessment