A few weeks ago, I talked with a friend who was considering purchasing a new home. She was excited to show me the pictures, pondering whether or not she could afford it, and trying to decide if it was the right fit for her. We talked a bit about the neighborhood where the house was located, which was a big selling point for her. And then the inner planning nerd… Read More »Zoning: Visualizing what could be
With 2014 in the rearview mirror, it’s time to look ahead to what’s in store for 2015. Here are 6 key land use and transportation topics that I’ll be paying close attention to this new year. (1) The Apartment Building Boom: The past couple of years have seen a surge in the construction of multifamily buildings. This has been driven by a number of factors including historically low rental vacancy rates.… Read More »Land Use and Transportation: Issues Abound in 2015
In a few weeks, my grandmother will turn 95 years old. In a couple of days, my son will celebrate his first birthday. I often think about the changes the world has undergone in my grandmother’s lifetime. I can’t even imagine what my son’s world will look like 95 years from now. Among the many changes my grandmother has lived through is the advent of zoning. The New York City… Read More »Finding the Right Mix: The Mixed Use Zones Project
Train Horns and Quiet Zones Cities can be noisy. All you need to do to observe this is to go far away from a city. Spend a few quiet minutes in wilderness and you’ll certainly notice sounds, but you’ll also notice the absence of city sounds: garbage trucks, revelers at bars and restaurants, construction, barking dogs, airplanes and cars. Sometimes these are background noises to our lives. In other cases,… Read More »Train Horns and Quiet Zones
PRESERVING PORTLAND’S HISTORY The City of Portland turned 163 years old this year. It is young compared to cities on the east coast and a mere babe compared to cities in other parts of the world. Even with its relative youthfulness, Portland is a city with history. You can see it in our public spaces such as our Olmstead-designed parks and our pioneer cemeteries, the parts of our street grid… Read More »PRESERVING PORTLAND’S HISTORY
Portland’s Housing Affordability Challenge Mayor Charlie Hales recently made headlines with a proposal that the city allow small houses to be built on government owned land in an effort to increase affordable housing options. Hales’ outside-the-box idea reflects a couple of realities. The first is that housing affordability continues to erode in Portland. The second is that the city’s current set of tools to promote and develop affordable housing is… Read More »Portland’s Housing Affordability Challenge
SE Portland in 2035 The Bureau of Planning and Sustainability recently released a proposed draft of the Comprehensive Plan map. The Comprehensive Plan is the city’s effort to set the framework for the physical development of the city over the next 20 years. If this framework is achieved, what can we expect SE Portland to look like in 2035? Here is how I interpret the changes proposed in the map.… Read More »SE Portland in 2035
Issues related to the demolition of single family homes remain a concern for many in our coalition and in neighborhoods throughout Portland. In June, Southeast Uplift and three other neighborhood coalitions organized a forum to discuss infill, demolitions, and housing affordability. About 200 people from neighborhoods across Portland attended. You can watch a video of the forum here. In his presentation at the forum, Shawn Wood, a Construction Waste Specialist… Read More »The Whos and Whats of Home Demolitions
The current character of Portland’s neighborhoods is very much tied to our abundant trees. However, Portland hasn’t always been so tree friendly. In fact our nickname Stumptown originates from the 19th century when growth was so rapid that there were “more stumps than trees.” Since that time, Portland has grown a large urban tree canopy which provides us numerous benefits including cleaner water, healthier air, reduced erosion, and wildlife habitat.… Read More »Trees and Infill
As the weather turns the corner toward summer and neighbors dust off their bikes, skateboards, roller skates, or pogo sticks, it’s a good time to think about how we pay for the roads and sidewalks we use every day. Transportation funding is currently getting a lot of attention at the federal, state, and local level, mostly because there isn’t enough of it. Due to rising costs of construction, lack of… Read More »Money Makes The Wheels Go Round