What can Portland learn from Detroit? A lot

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — For decades, the national view of the City of Detroit was of a dying city, a city that went bankrupt, a city that lost about two-thirds of its population over the past half-century. While all of that is true, today’s truth is that Detroit is making a real comeback, a vibrant city that embraced what needed to be done to get to a spot where things are clean, bright and looking up.

Maurice Cox led the comeback in Detroit as the planning director. The professor in residence of Urban Planning and Design at Harvard led similar efforts in Chicago and New Orleans, helping to regenerate and transform cities.

And the decay he sees in downtown Portland is familiar to him. But it’s also an opening.

‘City of Opportunity’

Even though the open-air drug market at SW 4th and Washington in downtown Portland has largely dissipated, the ugliness and blight of the empty building covered in plywood and graffiti remains.

Cox said there is no excuse for Portland to tolerate it.

“There’s no reason for this building to look like this,” he told KOIN 6 News. “This is a canvas for artists to try and beautify the neighborhood. So why are we boarding it up with plywood? It just becomes a campus for graffiti.”

Cox said to look at how it’s been tagged, then bring in artists “and give them this space as a canvas when your downtown is not going to come back all at once. The interim strategy is almost as important as the long term goal. You need quick wins. You need things that are tactical. You need things that create moments of beauty.”

He has faith that Portland will figure out the right strategies to revitalize and transform downtown. But it will take years — and Portland needs a transitional and immediate plan.

“Why not allow, through your regulations, different kind of uses on that ground floor? Why not allow for pop-ups, a shared kind of entrepreneurial space? Why not allow for things that traditionally are not retail based and customer based to occupy your ground floor?” he said.

“I have seen cities that have built an entire district around just giving artists, early young artists, an opportunity to have a gallery space where they can also work in the back. So I assure you that if the City of Portland put out a call for artists to occupy the ground floor of buildings you would have them applying by the hundreds.”

That, in turn, creates foot traffic, creating traffic for other businesses and shops.

“You’ll start to see the foot traffic skyrocket because people are going from one location to the other,” Cox said. “It turns into what a good walk downtown fueled by things that are pop-ups, that are shared spaces that move towards a kind of reimagination of downtown.”

Cox wants to make one thing clear: He is a fan of Portland. But it will take bold and creative action to re-ignite and re-create a vibrant downtown once again.

“I see that potential here,” he told KOIN 6 News. “It can only happen here. So now the question is, how do you roll up your sleeves and make it happen? How do we get to work? I think the ‘City of Opportunity’ is a launching pad. It’s a whole new season for Portland.”