Portland State University President Stephen Percy’s valedictory message to Portlanders speaks to a sad but vital truth: When the city of Portland is ready to get serious about downtown redevelopment, then the city of Portland – not PSU, business, labor or any other part of society – will have to take the reins and convince others to participate, (“Opinion: Revitalize downtown Portland by first reimagining it,” June 25).
Until then, building a re-imagined downtown has all the trappings of an academic exercise. Given the uncertain status of local government, I find it hard to believe that any new Portland leaders will have the capacity to mobilize an effort of this complexity anytime soon. On the other hand, Gov. Josh Shapiro in Pennsylvania just showed us what the public sector can do.
Larry Kirsch, Portland
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