This morning, Thursday, Aug. 27, 2020, Mayor Ted Wheeler met with a broad range of business owners to hear first-hand about the challenges employers are facing, and to help draft his road map for ensuring full recovery and resilience, and improving the health of our downtown.
The meeting follows Mayor Wheeler’s intent to meet with Portland’s business community which he announced in a press conference a day earlier.
Local business owners shared deep concern about the long-term impact of the pandemic on Portland’s economy, about fewer visitors downtown as a result of ongoing demonstration activity, and about challenges they face ensuring employees feel safe coming to work and being downtown while public safety resources have been diverted to management of nightly demonstrations.
Addressing those concerns, Mayor Wheeler shared his work to date and plans for business revitalization going forward on several fronts. They include:
- The Mayor’s office working through Prosper Portland to partner with businesses on repair work so that they can re-open and recover safely and sustainably. The Mayor has also committed additional resources to graffiti clean-up to deal with increased vandalism in this area.
- His commitment to daily park clean-up so that Portlanders and visitors can enjoy clean, safe spaces when they visit our parks.
- The City Deputy Chief Administrator’s options for increasing litter pickup so those working or visiting downtown are comfortable.
The City’s work around economic relief for businesses has been abundant since the onset of COVID-19. Portland was among the first cities to stand up a response to the economic impacts of the pandemic, and our 80+-person task force continues to prioritize Portland small business community, especially our BIPOC-owned businesses.
The City’s emergency response to the pandemic has prioritized Portland’s homeless community – the very vulnerable neighbors who are struggling to stay safe at a time of enormous risk.
“We are committed to providing more safe spaces for these Portlanders to sleep,” Mayor Wheeler said. “We are working with urgency to add hundreds of new indoor and outdoor shelter beds. I will be seeking funding for this work in the Fall Budget Process.”
Today’s meeting was the latest in a series of ongoing conversations that will continue weekly as the City of Portland works with the Portland Business Alliance and other agencies and businesses to follow through on the implementation of the commitments and concepts that were shared today.
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