Downtown Portland Clean & Safe is tracking visitor counts within our district on a monthly basis. We use Placer.ai data that is geofenced around the 213-blocks that make up the Clean & Safe Enhanced Service District.
Through the use of this data, we are able to distinguish between an ‘employee’ and a ‘visitor’. Think of these two categories as someone working downtown versus coming to shop in downtown. Together, we call these two data points ‘Foot Traffic’ and are updated monthly.
Downtown Portland is the commercial and retail center of the state. Using data from CoStar, provided by local real estate brokerages, we track quarterly vacancy data for both office and retail spaces in the Central Business District as defined by CoStar.
Additionally, we monitor hotel rooms sold in the Central City. This data comes from our partners at Travel Portland. The definition of ‘Central City’ is broader than the 213-blocks of the enhanced service district and the definition can be found here.
Downtown Portland Clean & Safe Services
Downtown Portland Clean & Safe provides essential services to the people, places and businesses located within a core 213-block of Downtown Portland. As part of the work, our team is committed to transparency. Below is the program data collected every month.
NOTES ON SOURCES
Pedestrian traffic is gathered using Placer.ai data to monitor traffic and visit trends 24-hours a day. Downtown Portland Clean & Safe has expanded its pedestrian count research to look at foot traffic in the entire 213-block district. We now compare results from past years and even compare data to other cities, as well as look at times of day people are downtown, which days are busier, and the spaces/venues people are frequenting. Individuals are counted each time they cross into our district or, when looking at particular intersections, each time they cross that intersection.
Details about Place.ai data in the charts are as follows:
- Office worker presence is estimated based on visits by workers who were present between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. on weekdays in the enhance service district.
- Total visitors includes those who do not live or work downtown.
- Retail/office vacancy data is from CoStar. This is reported quarterly.
- Total foot traffic includes all visits to downtown by visitors, residents and workers.
- Counts are not unique visitors, but cumulative totals.
Other data sources provided by community partners noted above and in charts for clarity.