One day after President Donald Trump infamously blurted out that living in Portland is, “like living in hell,” we got yet another sign living here is anything but.
Calling it “downtown’s strongest year since the pandemic,” Downtown Clean & Safe reports that there have been six straight months of foot traffic increases. “From bustling Saturday crowds to record-breaking events, 2025 shows what happens when Portland’s cultural energy meets sustained community investment,” reads their latest report on the state of walking in the 213-block Clean & Safe district.
The district, which runs roughly from SW Harrison to the Broadway Bridge and from Naito Parkway to SW 11th, saw a growth in the number of people walking for the six months between March and August of this year. That’s an accomplishment that never happened last year. According to their annual counts, there were 21.45 million total pedestrians in the district between January and August of 2025 — an increase of 5.6% over the same period last year.
Clean & Safe is a nonprofit “enhanced service district” and offshoot of the Portland Metro Chamber that’s funded by annual fees from downtown business and property owners. They use Placer.ai data to monitor downtown foot traffic 24-hours a day across the entire 213-block area. That data found that the three intersections below has the highest volume of foot traffic in the month of June:
- SW 10th & Burnside (Powell’s Books / Pearl District / West End gateway). June 2025: 1.2 M crossings (steady compared to 2024)
- SW Park & Burnside (Cart Blocks food pod & North Park Blocks gateway). June 2025: 805,0000 crossings (down from 864K June 2024 but consistent with long-term averages).
- SW 4th & Yamhill (Pioneer Place retail hub). June 2025: 1.1 M crossings (30% increase over last year)
Clean & Safe says “cultural and retail anchors” are the reason for the positive foot traffic numbers. They also point to high-profile events and programming that’s drawing more people downtown. Even Old Town is showing signs of growth. Foot traffic at NW Couch and 5th for the month of June were up 39% over last year.
Relative to pre-COVID numbers, the Clean & Safe district is at about 70% of visitor volumes. One ominous cloud that looms over this report is employee visits to downtown, which remain at just 50% of 2019 levels — well below the national average of around 73%. “The gap in office worker return remains a critical challenge, keeping weekday activity below that of peer cities,” reads the report.
To keep the momentum going, the City of Portland has recently nabbed a tourism grant to invest in a pedestrian signage and wayfinding pilot project.
These numbers mirror transit ridership in the Portland region. The latest numbers summarized by Metro show that in July there were 6.5 million transit rides in the region — over 4% more than last year at this time and about 70% of the ridership we had before Covid.
