My Experienced Urbanite reaction is to inquire about the downtown/suburban dynamic. Prof. Wikipedia says Portland’s population (2020 census) is 650,000 with 2.5 million in the Portland Metropolitan Area.
I live in DC. Back in the day, Marion Barry was mayor, the 2020 census pegged DC proper at 690,000 (and growing again, post Marion Barry), with 6.3 million in the DC Metropolitan Area and 9.8 million in the Washington-Baltimore Combined Statistical Area, which is the appropriate planning framework for a lot of regional planning.
When a city goes the idiocracy route, the downtown can be gutted but the suburbs often boom. In DC, this was always a limiting factor on the Barry Follies, as the District of Columbia is constitutionally fixed, cannot annex anything, and is very small by modern urban standards. No one has to move more than a couple of miles to escape to a very nice suburb. The DC pols hate this, but there’s nothing they can do about it and it ties their hands. On the other hand, as the metro areas sprawls, traffic congestion only gets worse and those older, close-in neighborhoods look better and better all the time. This drives gentrification, which the local pols also hate because gimmedat concentrations are their voter base, and they are getting priced out of town.
How about Portland?
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Same in Portland. The suburbs (especially in the west, like Beaverton, and also Vancouver in the state of Washington across from the Columbia river) are thriving and expanding. Most people escape the city and move away to the suburbs. It is a beautiful state and a beautiful city though. Too bad.
bttt