The silence at the Lloyd Center ice rink this morning marks more than the end of a 66-year-old Portland landmark. As the mall permanently shuttered its doors yesterday, Saturday, August 8, 2026, it left behind a 29-acre question mark in the heart of our city. This closure is the physical manifestation of the crisis described in Jonathan Bach's recent report in The Oregonian regarding Portland's stalled megaprojects.[1]

We are a city slating nearly 175 acres for redevelopment while the private investors required to build those visions walk right on by.

The Lloyd Center redevelopment represents a critical test of private funding in a market that has grown increasingly unconvinced to invest.[2]  While the owners successfully navigated a grueling approval process, the victory remains hollow if the capital required for construction refuses to follow. A flattened shopping mall that fails to attract new investment creates a physical and economic void that can persist for years.  We can just look around to see it.

The technical explanations for this stagnation include known facts such as high interest rates and construction costs. However, the deeper issue is a profound trust deficit fueled by the city's mismanagement of its public assets. As a member of the Northwest District Association Planning Committee, I see a government culture that pursues the new shining project while utterly failing to maintain the iconic buildings it already owns.

The Moda Center and the Keller Auditorium are city-owned assets that currently face volatile debates over hundreds of millions of dollars in deferred maintenance. [3]  In the professional real estate market, the condition of a city's own portfolio serves as a definitive scorecard. When a municipality cannot manage the bedrock of its own infrastructure, it cannot expect private developers to risk billions on a 20-year vision.

This lack of professional forethought is nowhere more evident than in the recent debacle of the Northwest Northrup Shelter at 15th Avenue. Driven by a grandiose mayoral vision to secure beds at any cost, the city rushed the opening of the facility without the necessary legal or operational rigor. Having attended the community town hall prior to its opening, I saw a process that was little more than administrative theater. The predictable result was a lawsuit by the neighboring ORO Apartments and closure of the site, prompted by mounting legal and political pressure.[4]  This is a monument to wasted taxpayer funds and a total failure of implementation.

I witnessed the transformation of Manhattan in the 1990s, when city leadership restored the rule of law and treated maintaining order as the first duty of government, not an optional program. By ending the era of squeegee men who held motorists hostage and enforcing laws against aggressive panhandling, the city reclaimed public space as a core municipal obligation.[5, 6]  Pedestrians ventured back onto the streets with a sense of security, businesses reopened, and public life returned. Order provided the stability required for investment. Portland is now desperate to reclaim that same sense of safety and desirability.

This decay is not for lack of legislative vision; it is a failure of execution. Governor Kotek has moved to add 1,600 licensed residential treatment beds, representing a 45% capacity increase. While over 1,000 of these beds are currently serving patients, the system remains stalled by bureaucratic gridlock. This failure is driven by three specific issues: 

1. professional licensing reciprocity delays; 

2. redundant state and county reporting; and 

3. inflexible staffing ratio mandates.[7] 

Despite state investments in recruitment, the reality remains that a bed without a staff member is merely a room without supervision. Portland will not get a new skyline without taking a strong hold to clean up the streets and the bureaucracy.

This safety crisis is compounded by a police department that remains chronically underfunded. Recently, the City Council has jumped through procedural hoops attempting to navigate a record $170 million budget deficit while promising to restore public order.[8]  We are asking for the capital of the future while failing to fund the security of the present.

Portland can be an amazing place to live; however, we need a fundamental shift in our government culture. A city that cannot fund the police officers who patrol its streets, or maintain the arenas and auditoriums it already owns, has no business breaking ground on new plazas and parks. We must stop the pursuit of shining new building projects and redirect our focus toward the bedrock of a functional city: our infrastructure, our police, and our caregivers. A strong hand is needed to restore order and ensure that taxpayer dollars are spent on results rather than rhetoric. Until we address the governance gap and the administrative bloat that currently haunt our public institutions, Portland's megaprojects will remain audacious plans for a city that has forgotten how to manage its own house.

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SOURCES FOR VERIFICATION (ENDNOTES)

[1] Jonathan Bach, "Portland's megaprojects are supposed to reshape the city. What's taking so long?" THE OREGONIAN (Aug. 7, 2026).

[2] "Lloyd Center mall and historic ice rink close permanently," KPTV NEWS (Aug. 8, 2026).

[3] Jim Redden, "Downtown Portland arts centers need $336 million in deferred maintenance," OREGON ARTSWATCH (March 3, 2026).

[4] Pearl District Apartments LLC v. City of Portland, filed March 2026, Multnomah County Circuit Court.

[5] "Giuliani takes on the squeegee men," THE NEW YORK TIMES (March 4, 1994).

[6] "Agreement on Housing for Mentally Ill Homeless," THE NEW YORK TIMES (April 1, 1999).

[7] "Behavioral Health Capacity Progress Report," OREGON HEALTH AUTHORITY (May 2024).

[8] "Portland City Council adopts budget with record shortfall," PORTLAND TRIBUNE (June 18, 2026).