City Councilor Sameer Kanal's budget note requesting projections for a possible tax or fee on vacant residential and commercial spaces, joined by Council President Jamie Dunphy and Councilor Candace Avalos, drew little notice until reporting on it produced a wave of local coverage. Dunphy has said he is motivated by accounts of owners holding derelict properties for tax purposes or in hope of higher-paying tenants later, and by the public safety problems and vacancy-begets-vacancy dynamic that follow. The detail worth flagging for Portland merchants: the city's mandatory ground-floor storefront requirement is temporarily suspended and scheduled to restart at the end of 2028, which means Portland is simultaneously considering penalizing vacant storefronts and preparing to resume requiring their construction.

Watch: Whether the study produces a proposal, and whether it addresses the interaction with the mandatory storefront rule's 2028 restart. Those two policies pointed at each other is the story.

Source: Willamette Week, April 22, 2026; Plat Street Issue 1 platcard