The Save Lloyd Campaign Wants Some Say in What Happens to Lloyd Center Mall

"Urban Renaissance, the real estate development group that partly owns the mall, has a vision for what comes after demolition. The group's Lloyd Center Central City Master Plan wipes the venerable mall from the map in favor of development that will be familiar to most Portlanders: an intersecting street grid with green space and mixed-used architecture."

"One of the plan's central points is that Lloyd Center is "inward facing" and "auto-oriented." The current structure interrupts the street grid and continuity of the neighborhood, and shows the outside world massive concrete walls instead of human-scaled shops and apartments."

"The Save Lloyd movement is a coalition of business owners and fans of the mall who've turned the retail space into a kind of community center, one that hosts events like Beyblade tournaments, mall walking, and bug-themed drag shows. According to Daylynn Lambi, the director of ILYouth2, a youth arts program, resistance to demolition grew out of an initiative for businesses to all be open at the same time at least one day of the week."

Urban Renaissance, a real estate development group that partly owns Lloyd Center, proposes demolishing the Portland mall and replacing it with mixed-use development featuring a street grid, green space, and human-scaled architecture. The current mall structure is criticized as inward-facing and auto-oriented, interrupting neighborhood continuity with massive concrete walls. However, businesses and community members who have transformed Lloyd Center into a cultural gathering space oppose the plan. The Save Lloyd movement, a coalition that emerged from grassroots organizing around coordinated business hours, has mobilized through signature collection, advocacy to elected officials, and public testimony at planning commission meetings to resist demolition.

Read at Portland Mercury