News stories & Opinions 
The Antiplanner 
Transit and planning blog from the American Dream Coalition
Great Opinions
Milwaukie  light rail News page click here 
TriMet releases cost, rider numbers $1.4 billion only $215 million dollars a mile to replance a bus line
Milwaukie  light rail  News and stories 
Why Light Rail Is Wrong for Clackamas County
Crime on and around Portland's (Max) Light rail line click here 
Portland Page  -Transportation and Smart growth Click here

1997 - 2007 Portland TSDCs (Transportation System Development Charges)
2008 - 2017 Portland TSDCs (Transportation System Development Charges)
TSDCs (Transportation System Development Charges) one-time fees assessed to new developments 

The Portland Office of Transportation's(PDOT)Capital Improvement Program(CIP)
Projects and Plans This is the list of Portland's transportation Projects which PDOT believe's are the most important .
CIP Projects and the cost of each project under construction!
 

Portland Stip Projects   The Statewide Transportation Improvement Program
Portland Bike page
Completed Bike Lane Projects
$800,000. Bike path opens near airport 12/14/07Portland Business Journal
Bikes and the STIP & PDX( Statewide Transportation Improvement Program) Click Here
5 Myths About Suburbia and Our Car-Happy Culture
1. Americans are addicted to driving.
2. Public transit can reduce traffic congestion.
3. We can cut air pollution only if we stop driving.
4. We're paving over America.
5. We can't deal with global warming unless we stop driving. 
 
Sprawl 
Just How Bad Is Sprawl?
Smart Growth in and around 
the Portland Metro area click here

Tax Breaks
Tax Breaks In and around the Portland Metro Area
click here

Purchase feeds hope to MLK   The (PDC) urban renewal agency bought the property for $1.75 million in 2000 and sold it  for 1.2 million!! 

Tax break rankles in tight times Portland Mayor Katz and city council gives tax breaks to a $840,000 Pearl District condo that pays only $146 a year in property taxes.

Developer seeks tax break in Gresham  10 year tax abatement to build the $5.2

A better Burnside could be ours --for $61 million    More pork projects for downtown Portland, paid for by the suburbs! Urban renewal takes money that would have gone to police fire and schools.
 

  Max-idents
Deaths around Max 

Summary of the 19 MAX Fatalities, in the news

Fire truck, MAX train collide      photos
MAX Trains Running Again After Collision
Fire truck changed signal to green, test determines

Great Rail Disasters Examines all rail transit lines that existed in America in 2002 and shows that they have reduced rather than enhanced urban livability
Condemnation
TriMet drops plan to buy house near PSU Oregonian 2/10/08 
Dispute - The owner resisted selling the property. Tri Met threated to condem it

Keizer Station property talks continue  Oregonian 
Cities should not condemn private Property for a developer!

PDC will condemn storage facility
 If successful, the Public Storage site would be the redevelopment agency's fifth condemnation action this year. 

Density = congestion noise
 Truck racket raises a stink 
Living in a dense urban center is noisy and it generates lots of noisy garbage trucks.
Notice -- More people and businesses and residents = more noise!
EPA chides Oregon's handling of polluter
June 07, 2004 State yanks Portland's storm water permit
Smart growth and high density policies, help create a water pollution problem for Portland
Big Box Stores
Home Depot, Lowe’s eye Burnside site 
Shoppers love big box stores  Planners don't

 Burnside builders back off big boxes

Audience makes its Burnside vote clear 
The analysis says the Opus project needs a $6 million public subsidy.
The Beam proposal requires a $20 million subsidy, while the Gerding/Edlen proposal 
needs $57 million in public support, according to the analysis. So much for Smart growth

Groups in Gresham gird for Wal-Mart 

Designing a district The possibility of a Home Depot in the Central East side raises larger questions Planners and social engineers try to keep Home Depot from opening a new store.

Congestion + Traffic
Sellwood Bridge plan missing pieces Multnomah County Chairman Ted Wheeler will table the project unless everybody signs on  Oregonian 2/16/08 
While we have plenty of  of money for the new 1.4 billion dollar light rail line to Milwaukie

Portland is is ranked among the worst for traffic congestion 
The Solution for Portland: More and More Highways


 
  Hawthorne looks down the road 
One of Portland favorite examples of Smart Growth is having a problem with crime and retaining business. Most of Hawthorne was built before Portland's Smart Growth Policies.
STREET CARS and Rail
Metro studies route for east side streetcar to OMSI
The cost of the original line before waterfront was added
          * Bonds backed by the City of Portland: $28.5 million 
          * one-time payment from property owners: $9.6 million 
          * Federal money reallocated to Tri-Met: $5 million 
          * City owned parking garages: $2 million 
          * South Park Blocks Urban Renewal tax: $7.5 million
          * US Housing and Urban Development: $500,000 
          * Portland Department of Transportation: $500,000 
          * City of Portland general fund (extra car): $1.9 million 
          * Tax breaks: $850,000 
          * Interest earned on project funds: $355,000 
          * For helping Sound Transit with their procurement: $160,000 
Two thirds of the streetcars $2.4 million  annual operating budget comes from TriMet,
with the rest coming from fares, advertising and the new parking meters in the River District. Portland paid $906,000 for 2004 this year. The streetcar is not sustainable!

What happened to Streetcars and the Myth of a conspiracy

TRANSIT
Opposition group tries to derail transit mall plan

Interstate Max counts 
A slide show including Interstate Max counts before and after the train is built.

Bend voters defeat plan for city's first transit district

From 1970 to the present, real (inflation adjusted) Transit funding has increased at 15 
times the increase in passenger usage

Housing costs $$$

Real estate inflates to ‘bubblette’
Portland's housing market is overpriced and may be unstable 
Bicycling
 Alliance workshop teaches the rules of the cyclist's road
Bikes in Portland rarely receive a ticket for breaking the  rules of the road

Bikes and the STIP Click Here where does my transportation taxes go?
 

Planning
Possible city could be model of urban growth NOT!

Parking contract down to the wire
Portland's history of losing money on  baseball, the water district, sewers and performing arts, the street car line etc. should end the discussion of running parking.

Portland Uses Water Fees to Pay for Smart Growth 

Neighbors roll out the red carpet for PDC 
The PDC spent $12 million on renovations and $1.7 million for a seismic refit. The PDC was losing about $120,000 a month. This project is one of many examples of how Portland diverts property tax revenues  from schools, police, fire and social services to the PDC. The PDC uses the money to add density and support what they call smart growth project. As we all know it is easier to gamble and fail with taxpayers money.

Mixed land use; mixed opinions Who should decide how property should be zoned?   The property owners or government planners?

Is M&F ready to bolt from downtown?
This longtime Portland Landmark is not drawing customers like the popular M&F Mall stores. Shoppers seem to be attracted by Parking and shopping closer to where they work and live. The mayor and city council have been talking about giving tax breaks to keep the department store at it's present location. This store is located next to light rail. 

American dream proves elusive This is an example of  planners and Smart growth supporters driving up home prices up, then giving  tax breaks to some buyers .

PDC chief takes the offense Elected and government officials claim it's a urban myth that Portland is unfriendly to business. Many Business  think the statement is a  joke and not  accurate. 

The masterful Mazziotti
Parkrose activist Craig Flynn's views are reflective of those concerns. The Portland development agency, he says, is "the fastest growing government in the city, and it's a government we don't elect, and it's appointed by the mayor, but she doesn't have total control," he complains.        "They're letting this government agency run wild."

Court Zaps Urban Renewal

Idea sets scene for riverside rivalry---- Port Development Commission
I thought the city was broke ! $188,400 for planning for a  restaurant?

Measure 37
Central Oregon spawns Measure 37 cases
 

Lines drawn on land use put victory within reach        Measure 37
Oregon's land use planners and government agencies are in a panic. They have been treating citizens like Dorothy English as if they had no right to the property they bought under the rules of the county, city and state. Planners rezoned properties without permission of the owners and expected them to go along for the ride. Even if it made it impossible to build a home or use the property the way it was zoned when they bought it.

Planners were not concerned if they took value or rights from property owners in the past. That has all changed thanks to voters passing Measure 37.

Victory gives Oregon pause on land goals  Land use planners don't like measure 37 because it gives property owners the right to use their property the way they were promised when they bought it
 

Hurdles face Mill Creek project    $30 million of state and city taxes to subsidize this project! 
Parking
Lack of parking plan leaves a lot on Salem's plate

Lack of Parking, hurts business and churches in Portland
Churches look to the heavens Downtown parishes plan to build higher to include parking

 Katz plans way out of mural mire  Is this really about collecting a $1,400 mural tax!
Environment
 Portland Harbor is a Super fund site 

The high price of clean water

Slightly cleaner river costs a lot

DEQ reconsidering plan to drop winter fuel rule

How green is your city leader    Vera Katz uses a Portland police officer as a chauffeur

Patrick J. Michaels Senior Fellow in Environmental Studies

Calling all hotels to 'fork it over'  Metro to recycle food for the hungry! 
 Planning 
 
Problems with Traffic Calming Projects
The Greatest Invention, How Automobiles Made America 
A fine line for merchants
L-P’s exit prompts more tax wrangling
High taxes are driving old established businesses away, while new business get tax incentives to move to Portland . 
Activist leads effort to foil Salem Futures

Salem Futures timeline

Kruse Way cruises through downturn    Parking & less taxes beat downtown      Portland
 Updates to The Vanishing Automobile and Other Urban Myths
 Obesity and Life Styles: Is it the Hamburger or your House? by Ronald D. Utt, Ph.D.

Sprawl and Obesity: A Flawed Connection by Wendell Cox and Ronald D. Utt, Ph.D.

 Portland's Metro Shows How Much It Cares about Commuters
Metro council voted to spend $54.2 million in federal funds.
These projects will not reduce congestion
THE SOLUTION FOR PORTLAND: MORE AND MORE HIGHWAYS
Wendell Cox Responds to Planetizen Critics
 A respond to the comments on my recent Planetizen op-ed 
"Trouble in Smart Growth's Nirvana"
 

Small                                    Bigger                          Best
Click on the above maps for a  a closer look
The maps show the neighborhoods that are not protected from density
by Metros competing measure  26 -29
The Light yellow areas are the only areas protected in Metros measure 26 29
the measure does not change the density mandate, it just moves it. 
 

 
ortem.org