Month: August 2020
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The Week Observed, August 28, 2020
What City Observatory did this week The case against Metro’s $5 billion transportation bond. Portland’s regional government, Metro, is asking voters to approve a $5 billion package of transportation improvements, to be funded by borrowing against an increase in payroll taxes. We take a close look at the proposal, and conclude that its a bad…
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The case against Metro’s $5 billion transportation bond
Metro’s proposed $5 billion transportation measure makes no sense for the region, for transportation, for our economy, for our kids and for our planet. Portland’s regional government, Metro, will be asking voters in November to approve a $5 billion transportation bond measure. There’s a strong case to be made that this is a badly flawed…
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The Week Observed, August 21, 2020
What City Observatory did this week America’s most and least segregated cities. Residential racial segregation is a fundamental and persistent aspect of system racism in the United States. Segregation cuts of disfavored groups from economic and social opportunity, and cities with higher levels of segregation tend to have lower levels of intergenerational economic mobility. In…
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America’s least (and most) segregated cities.
Racial segregation still prevails in most American cities, but varies widely across the nation. Portland is the nation’s least segregated large city. The murder of George Floyd by police has reignited national interest in making more progress toward racial justice. It’s prompted a new round of introspection about the racism that’s deeply embedded in many…
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“Let them drive Teslas” is not a climate or a justice plan
Portland’s climate emergency efforts are tarnished by an inability to plainly speak the facts about climate change But the tragic fact is that the city is utterly failing to meet even its own previous goals, and more alarmingly, isn’t owning up to the failure of its 2015 plan to reduce emissions. Instead, the Bureau of…
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The Week Observed, August 7, 2020
What City Observatory did this week 1. Is it random, or is it Zumper? Are rents going up or down in your city? Listicles showing which places have the biggest jumps (or declines) in rents are a perennial media favorite, but as we’ve warned before, when it comes to data on rent changes, caveat rentor. …
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Climate Fail: Metro’s 2020 Transportation Package
Metro’s multi-billion dollar transportation package does nothing to reduce greenhouse gas emissions Spending $5 billion reduces Portland’s transportation greenhouse gases by .05 percent This package costs $50,000 per ton in reduced GHG emissions Metro Portland knows that climate change is one of the most serious problems we face. We know that transportation, particularly automobiles are…
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Is it random, or is it Zumper?
Pay no attention to Zumper’s claims about rent trends Zumper claims rents for one-bedroom and two-bedroom apartments are moving in opposite directions in about a fifth of all markets There’s a lot of hyperventilation in the media about falling rents in different places in the US. It’s certainly likely that in the midst of the…