I agree with the recent letter about the difficulties of parking downtown (“Readers respond: Paying for parking shouldn’t be hard,” Sept. 7) A friend and I carpooled to Art in the Pearl earlier this month. We hadn’t visited downtown since the pandemic began.
We crept along, dodging road closures, Timbers fans headed to the game and dining sheds that used to be parking spaces. We spied an open spot in a surface lot that wasn’t filled with trash from the adjacent dumpster. The spaces were so narrow that a woman in the next car said she was unable to get out even though I was well within the lines. I backed into a space behind us.
Leaving the car, we saw the tents lining the sidewalk. After failed attempts to use a credit card at the pay station, I downloaded the parking app, which asked for personal information. I quickly uninstalled it, and we got back in the car and left.
No time spent at the event. Nothing purchased. We had a delightful lunch – not in downtown – and don’t have plans to return anytime soon. There are wonderful restaurants elsewhere. Beaverton has opened a new arts center. Smaller theater companies in the suburbs put on great shows.
Portland was a delightful, quirky, exciting place to live. Now downtown seems to cater to either to the unhoused or to downtown residents who walk or bike. I rode Tri-Met to work for 11 years but it is now more unreliable and less frequent. I’m sad for Portland. But it is hard to support downtown’s revival under these conditions.
Kate Wood, Portland
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September 19, 2022 at 08:00PM
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Readers respond: Portland makes supporting downtown difficult - OregonLive
"difficult" - Google News
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