[BubberMiley]

I don't think the glory days of the Portage Village Inn happened until well after Portage Place was built. I believe there was still an Advance Electronics in that building in the 1980s.
North Portage was not in any way post-apocalyptic in the 80s. There were a few moderately sketchy video arcades like Long John Silvers and Dr Qs and the Downtown theatre, as well as Solar News, which was like Dominion News in every way. But otherwise it was restaurants and record and clothing stores. It never really got bad until the sidewalks were abandoned after Portage Place opened.