From the Portland Business Alliance [5]:
Portland Business Alliance pedestrian counts show increased traffic
Biannual pedestrian counts conducted in mid-June reveal a bustling downtown, despite the delayed summer sunshine. The year-over-year increase in pedestrians downtown is encouraging for summer sales as well as the commercial real estate industry, which uses the research for development and investment purposes.
“We are very encouraged to see the high level of business activity in the downtown core, as demonstrated by the June pedestrian counts,” said Michelle Martin, Senior Property Manager at Ashforth Pacific, and PDSI chair. “While we continue to see indicators of the national economic recession in our downtown core, Portlanders clearly have remained committed to downtown.”
In a program funded by downtown property owners in the 213-block Business Improvement District, the counts are conducted twice a year by the Portland Business Alliance on behalf of Portland Downtown Services Inc. (PDSI).
“As a downtown landlord with retail space to lease, it’s valuable to have up-to-date pedestrian counts at the major downtown intersections,” said Thomas Kilbane, Director of the Urban Renaissance Group, a commercial real-estate company.
On June 17, 18 and 19, counts were conducted at 15 intersections downtown. The full report can be viewed on the Alliance website [6]. The Alliance also conducts the pedestrian counts in December. All previous reports can be found on the Alliance website.
Overall, most corners showed a significant increase in numbers compared to June 2009 and 2008. The corners with the greatest increase were:
- SW 3rd and Clay – 92 percent increase over June 2009
- SW 5th and Morrison – 59 percent increase over June 2009
- SW 5th and Couch – 57 percent increase over June 2009
- SW 6th and Taylor – 66 percent increase over June 2009
The increase can be attributed to a number of factors such as the completion of the new Transit Mall to include the Green Line MAX and the relocation of other transit stops, new retailers and a number of events happening downtown during the dates the counts were conducted.
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Business Improvement District
Downtown’s Business Improvement District (BID) was created 20 years ago to support additional cleaning and security in the Central City. The BID, funded by downtown property owners, includes 213 blocks in the Central City, and also supports market research and retail recruitment and retention efforts. The BID is managed by the Portland Business Alliance. The BID is managed by the Portland Business Alliance under the direction of the PDSI board of directors.