PORTLAND, Ore — Oregon's mask mandates are lifted and the state has entered the "recovery" phase of the pandemic, health officials say. But at midday on a weekday, downtown Portland is still empty, as most of the office workers who filled up the city's core during the week stay home.
The city of Portland isn't planning to bring its workers back to the office for at least another month — and a number of other businesses downtown aren't either.
A sign on the Portland Building, where many of those city employees work, still reads "closed to the public."
The city has 2,950 employees who work at a number of different offices around downtown Portland. A handful are working in the office, but the majority are working remotely from home. Managers aren't requiring them to come back into the office on a consistent basis until April 18, and even then they'll only be required to work at the office one day a week. Right now, it's unclear what happens after that — each bureau will make its own policy.
The city's chief administrative officer did not reply to KGW's requests for an interview.
Portland State University has double the employees of the city — about 6,000 at its downtown campus. A PSU spokesperson said workers returned last September and typically work two to three days a week in-person.
At the same time, many other companies have not returned at all, and it's unclear whether they will ever do so. The Standard Building remains nearly empty after once having 2,000 workers inside on a daily basis.
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At its height, downtown Portland had roughly 100,000 office workers each day. For many businesses downtown, those office workers were their key customer base.
"What it's like is the Twilight Zone," said David Margulis, owner of Margulis Jewelers, which just announced it will close. "We have a fraction of the people on the streets that used to be on the streets. Nobody's pouring out of the buildings so you are just in a very quiet, sleepy, dormant situation."
Margulis is closing the jewelry shop his father opened 90 years ago, blaming a lack of shoppers — and city leadership.
"Our city has done too little, too late to help downtown and the independent merchants."
Christine Azar owns a coffee shop downtown. She said foot traffic has picked back up from the early days of the pandemic, but it's not back to normal.
"City leadership is not even coming back to work. The city is open. City employees are not coming back to the office. Why is that?" Azar said. "They should be the first back in the office, because they're the ones that need to come down here and support us."
With few customers, many stores and restaurants have closed. It can be difficult to find lunch in the neighborhood.
"Unfortunately, everywhere we've been so far has shut down," two downtown visitors told KGW.
It has not gone unnoticed, as many call on the city of Portland to do more to clean up the streets and make downtown safer.
Carrie Saum works to attract businesses to Portland's Old Town district and sees the impact every day. She thinks bringing city workers back to the office would send a positive message to businesses in the neighborhood.
"Our downtown district, Old Town district, the northwest, it is really special. Nothing like this exists anywhere else and its slowly dying because folks are not coming back to work," Saum said. "They're not coming back to their offices. Our government officials, our city officials aren't coming back, and that has a massive impact on people who are trying to make ends meet."