For the Portland Urban Design Panel’s October 17th meeting, we will be hosting a listening session to support the revitalization of downtown Portland and neighboring areas for Governor Kotek’s Portland Central City Task Force, facilitated by members of UDP’s Executive Committee.

As you may have heard in the news, this task force is a diverse group of people, including representatives from big and small businesses, members of Oregon’s federal congressional delegation, state lawmakers, city leaders, community leaders and many more people. The task force is meeting over the course of the next few months to develop a compelling vision for Portland’s central city, with a specific focus on public safety, housing & homelessness, tax fairness, and liveable neighborhoods. The Task Force will ultimately announce their plan and next steps at the December 11th Oregon Business Summit and carry out their work over the next year.

As part of the Task Force’s work, they are convening 15 listening sessions to solicit insights and recommendations from local community members and stakeholders and discuss actionable opportunities to revitalize Central City Portland in the near-term.

As engaged members of the Portland’s urban design community, we are inviting Portland Urban Design Panel attendees to take part in this 90-minute listening session on Zoom. A link to register is provided below. We also encourage participants to review the Background Information prior to the session.

Topics we will be discussing during the session:

• What should the Central City (or portions of the Central City) be known for?

• What will success look like?

• Are there actions your organization would consider supporting?

• What barriers would block your progress to action?

• What actions should the City and its partners take to support/remove barriers to community action?

We look forward to seeing you there and hearing your ideas!