Amarillo’s quest for a new downtown district remains at the top of my awareness whenever I am fortunate enough to travel to other communities that have succeeded in their own journey.

I have just returned from Portland, Ore., a city that is in the midst of constant transition. Its downtown district’s own evolution has been something of a marvel. For my money — and excuse my bias, given that I was born and reared there — every city in America ought to look at downtown Portland’s revival as a blueprint for their effort.

Amarillo has chosen to follow a couple of other closer-to-home examples: Fort Worth and Oklahoma City. Yes, those communities have transformed their own central districts into marvelous attractions.

But I was struck by an interesting dynamic that is driving the latest Portland push. A single developer has announced plans to build several new high-rise offices in the city’s busy, crowded and thriving downtown district.

But there’s a price to pay for it.

Portland has been home to a fairly unique marketing endeavor. It is populated by a number of food carts. Folks set these carts up on street corners and peddle items such as hot dogs, soft pretzels, gourmet coffee and soft drinks.

The downtown construction is going to remove roughly half of the locations for those food carts — and some folks are unhappy with that prospective result.

The food carts have become part of the downtown Portland scene since the 1970s, which is about the time that city’s downtown revival began to draw breath.

Amarillo, of course, is a long, long way from that kind of activity in its downtown district. The recent announcement in Portland brings to mind the interesting possibilities that could become part of Amarillo’s future if its own downtown redevelopment proceeds as many of us hope it does.