Pearl Garage

Just a terrible, terrible parking attendant. She seems to think that literally screaming at people is in someway helpful and that a tiny note on the glass booth to tell you they’re full should somehow stop you from what she apparently considers to be the capital crime of pulling into her parking garage. This place needs some sort of sign that you can see BEFORE pulling in since, if you have the nerve to try and turn around because you can’t back out with people behind you, she loses her mind. Just a wildly unpleasant experience all around.

I’m a monthly parker there.
Car has been broken into twice in the past 6 months.
This time, the window was broken out. This apparently happened five days ago. Their response: «Well, we tried to e-​mail you.»

Sometimes you just have to shell out $ 5 to park for the evening instead of driving around in circles in the Pearl, worried that you’re going to miss the start of a theatrical performance or lose your dinner reservations. If this is the case, the Pearl Garage is here for you. They’ve always had spots available when I’ve needed them.
The customer service isn’t the friendliest. If they smiled and put some effort into things they could probably make more money.
Also, there’s so much wood on the inside that the building creaks horrendously when cars are driving around above you. This parallels my current living arrangements where anytime my upstairs neighbor rolls over in bed it sounds like a tree is splitting. I’m so numb to the sound now that it doesn’t bother me, but I see how it could annoy some people.

I park in this garage several days a week. I find the female attendant there to be helpful and trust worthy. The spaces are way too small for many vehicle and types of drivers but they will park your car if you find that you cannot fit. I feel safe leaving my car there all day. The manager lady is hard working.

TLDR: Don’t park here unless you want to deal with a bitchy attendant & tiny spaces.
I’m being very nice with 2 stars. Simply because there are a few good employees (Though they don’t work as often as the crappy one I’ll explain later in my review), and because they are cheaper than the brewery blocks parking under the streets.
I’ve been parking here off & on since 2010, and it’s gotten progressively worse over the years.
The garage is dirty, like full on dusty dirty. Parking spaces are TINY, seriously if you have anything besides a small car or compact SUV, don’t even try. Trucks & suburbans, HA, fat chance.
Now when you pull up and you’re making your payment, you expect a friendly smile, asking how long you expect to park, swiping your card, getting your pass & you’re on your merry way. Not here. You pull up & the manager (Yes, the MANAGER of the location) grumbles over to you (If you’re lucky… if you’re not lucky she yells at you like a dog from her booth) asking as depressing & monotone as possible «How long?» not even a simple «Hi, how is your day going? Do you know how long you might be here today?».
Once you’ve done that she sometimes lets you go on your way… sometimes… but other times when YOU try to initiate the polite small talk & ask «Hey how’s your day?» (Don’t do it… I’m telling you don’t!) she does now one of two things:
1) She solemnly tells you that her day is bad and life sucks.
or
2) She jumps into a full on rant about the terrible people she deals with, the world is out to get her, and her boss is a dick.
I work in customer service, and yes, I have bad days. But that does not effect how I treat customers. I could have a massive headache, be worried about paying a bill, and might even be hungry because I haven’t had my lunch yet, but the moment a customer comes in the door (And my boss has commended me on this, I’m not just making it up) I HAPPILY greet them, asking about their day, and in response to the question «how are you?» I always reply with something like «Doing wonderful, thanks for asking!».
Getting a little bit picky here now: If they are full for regular spots they do offer «valet», where you have to leave your key & they park your car, then move it to let someone else’s car out here & there through the day as needed. I expect when they do this to have my car treated like it’s a Mercedes… in the sense that they don’t fuck with shit and it is returned in the exact same condition I left it in. But no! Today (Like many other days this happens) my door wasn’t locked, the seat was pushed WAY back, and they left it in an odd gear so that when I started my car & let out the clutch to get situated before driving off it jumped a few feet and died! If I give it to you in neutral, I expect it back in neutral.
So to sum it up: Don’t park here unless you want to deal with a bitchy attendant & tiny spaces.

Sometimes parking in the Pearl can be a nightmare. You can circle and circle for 30 minutes before you start cussing and regret driving to the area, wishing you’d just have taken the damn bus. BUT… this garage is usually the easiest option if you need to pay for parking. The spots are teeny but there are always spots.
I generally default to this lot more than any other in the area as it is quick and easy to get in and out of. This does NOT make up for my general Pearl driving transgressions, but it helps a little bit.

o how i hate this place! ok here goes:
i needed a covered lot to park my scooter and was referred to them with a discounted price. the manager refused to give me the discount and quoted me an insane price of over $ 100 to park a lil itty bitty bike. i called the main office and they said the discount was valid, and i told them their manager refused to honor it. did that make a difference? NO!
next:
we purchased a day pass to park up until midnight. she told us we could come and go as long as we got the vehicle before midnight. we parked the car, picked it up a couple hours later and returned at 5pm only to have our ticket denied. they refused to let us park again and wanted to charge us another $ 5 despite the ticket we held out. she ignored us and said the ticket didnt matter. are they kidding! NO!
we left.

Don’t you just hate the holidays?
Wait, that’s just me?
DON’T CALL ME A SCROOGE!
Ahem, ahem! Okay, it might be overkill to say that I hate the holidays, but the thought of going anywhere near a retail store during the month of December gives me a headache. The crowds! The noise! The PARKING! Even Clackamas Town Center is packed to the gills on a TUESDAY night. Yikes!
But the Pearl? Keep me… away! Even on a normal day, driving over to Powell’s is like a nightmare. So anyplace that will help alleviate that stress (i.e., not parking on the street OR in the Powell’s lot) has got two big thumbs up from me.
The life saver last time? Most definitely the Pearl Garage. This underground parking structure has lots of spacious parking (+++!) and is very reasonably priced ($ 2 per hour for the first two hours!). They have several entrances (you can go in on Davis between 11^th and 12^th, but I found this one via 12^th between Davis and Couch), and several exits, one which spits you out on Couch between 11^th and 12^th right next door to Anthropologie and right across the street from… you guessed it… Powell’s. Yippee!
My holidays have just gotten a little brighter. Just don’t tell too many people, now, k?