Month: January 2021
-
The Week Observed, January 29, 2021
What City Observatory this week 1. Why Portland’s Rose Quarter Freeway widening will increase greenhouse gas emissions. The Oregon Department of Transportation hashas falsely claimed its $800 million freeway widening project has no impact on greenhouse gas emissions. We examine traffic data produced by ODOT which shows that the widening will increase average daily traffic…
-
Widening I-5 at the Rose Quarter will increase greenhouse gases
Adding more freeway capacity at the Rose Quarter will thousands of tons to the region’s greenhouse gas emissions If you say you believe in science, and you take climate change seriously, you can’t support spending $800 million or more to widen a freeway. SYNOPSIS: Wider freeways—including additional ramps and “auxiliary lanes”—induce additional car travel which increases…
-
More performative pedestrian infrastructure
Houston’s “Energy Corridor” gets a pedestrian makeover, but just one thing seems to be missing. Bollards and better landscaping can’t offset the increased danger from wider, faster slip lanes. Most “pedestrian” infrastructure projects are often remedial and performative; their real purpose is to serve faster car traffic. Houston’s “Energy Corridor” is a commercial district west…
-
The Week Observed, January 22, 2021
What City Observatory this week Institutionalized housing discrimination. A recent study of housing discrimination in Detroit came to a seemingly surprising conclusion: Fair housing complaints were less likely to be filed in higher income, higher priced predominantly white neighborhoods than in lower income neighborhoods that were predominantly Black. The study’s authors were puzzled by the…
-
Housing discrimination is baked into zoning
The real housing discrimination today is institutional, not personal The unfinished business of dismantling the institutional racism built into zoning Overt, personal discrimination in housing is just the tip of the iceberg, the great and devastating mass of discrimination is below the surface, in the form of apartment bans and minimum lot sizes. Is there…
-
The Week Observed, January 15, 2024
What City Observatory this week 1. The Urban Institute gets inclusion backwards. The Urban Institute has released an updated set of estimates that purport to measure which US cities are the most inclusive. The report is conceptually flawed, and actually gets its conclusions backwards, classifying some of the nation’s most exclusive places as “inclusive.” Highly equal cities…
-
Why parking should pay its way instead of getting a free ride
Hartford Connecticut considers a pioneering move to make parking pay its way A higher parking tax works much like a “lite” version of land value taxation (LVT) Surface parking lots are highly subsidized polluters As Donald Shoup lays out in exhaustive detail in his 733-page masterpiece, The High Cost of Free Parking, the subsidies we…
-
The Urban Institute gets inclusion backwards, again
The Urban Institute has released an updated set of estimates that purport to measure which US cities are the most inclusive. The report is conceptually flawed, and actually gets its conclusions backwards, classifying some of the nation’s most exclusive places as “inclusive.” We all want our cities to be more inclusive. While it’s an agreed…
-
The Week Observed, January 8, 2021
What City Observatory this week 1. 2021 is when we have to get real about tackling climate change. We’ve boiled our analysis of the climate challenge down to four key points: Pledges alone won’t accomplish anything. Saying you support the Paris Accords and plan to emit much less greenhouse gas a two or three decades…
-
A regional green new deal for Portland
by Garlynn Woodsong Editor’s note:City Observatory is pleased to publish this commentary by Garlynn Woodsong. Garlynn is the Managing Director of the planning consultancy Woodsong Associates, and has more than 20 years of experience in regional planning, urban analytics and real estate development. Instrumental in the development and deployment of the RapidFire and UrbanFootprint urban/regional scenario…
-
Portland carbon tax should apply to all big polluters
By all means, Portland should adopt its proposed healthy climate fee, a $25 ton carbon tax But make sure it applies to the biggest and fastest growing sources of greenhouse gases in the region The healthy climate fee should apply to freeways and air travel, not just 30 firms who produce 5 percent of regional…
-
2021: Time to get serious about climate
Our new year’s resolution should be to take climate action seriously. Time is running out to actually do something that will reduce the steady growth of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere, which is triggering irreversible damage to ecosystems around the planet. There are four big takeaways you should know about climate: 1. We’re falling further…