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Today . The announcement is a reversal of Adams’ earlier willingness to ignore city ordinances regarding after-hours camping in public parks. Other issues aside, one thing that could have driven the mayor’s decision is that Occupy Portland has had a very real economic cost, one that could potentially increase.

As I’ve mentioned before, Parks Commissioner Nick Fish has already issued an open letter to the camp addressing an estimated $19,000 in damages to the historic park blocks. Come spring, the city will have a lot of grass to replace.

Also, police overtime by the Portland Police Department has already totaled over $18,000.  While this pales in comparison to figures in other cities such as New York’s $3.4 million, it’s not insignificant for a city that’s been struggling to keep public services funded. And those are just the already-totaled costs to public entities.

But Occupy Portland has another potential cost to downtown businesses. Even with Thanksgiving two weeks out, the holiday shopping season is under way. This is the biggest time of year for downtown retailers, with potential shoppers coming in from Portland’s other quadrants and various suburbs to do shopping in the city’s core.

If downtown’s image is compromised by conflict or , that could keep shoppers away (whether those concerns are justified is another matter). While completely informal and unscientific, a presently reads that a whopping 60 percent of respondents would stay away from downtown if Occupy Portland stays. In an already slow economy, a lack of consumer spending in the city’s retail core could be disastrous for local businesses.

Whether Occupy Portland will have any effect on retail performance remains to be seen. The camps have until midnight on Saturday to leave.