March 2021

Interstate 5 “Meat Axe” slashed through the Albina Neighborhood in 1962 This was the second of three acts by ODOT that destroyed housing and isolated Albina Building the I-5 freeway led to the demolition of housing well-outside the freeway right of way, and flooded the neighborhood with car traffic, ending its residential character and turning into […]

What City Observatory this week 1. How ODOT destroyed Albina.  Urban freeways have been lethal to neighborhoods, especially neighborhoods of color, in cities throughout the nation.  While the construction of Interstate freeways gets much of the attention (as it should), the weaponization of highway construction in minority neighborhoods actually predates the Interstate system.  In Portland,

I-5 wasn’t the first highway that carved up Portland’s historically black Albina Neighborhood. Seventy years ago, ODOT spent the equivalent of more than $80 million in today’s dollars to cut the Albina neighborhood off from the Willamette River. ODOT’s highways destroyed housing and isolated Albina, lead to a two-thirds reduction in population between 1950 and

What City Observatory this week 1. An open letter to the Oregon Transportation Commission.  For more than two years, City Observatory and others have been shining a bright light on the Oregon Department of Transportation’s proposed $800 million I-5 Rose Quarter Freeway widening project in Portland.  All that time, ODOT has maintained its planning a

For years, the Oregon Department of Transportation has concealed its plans to build a ten lane freeway through Portland’s Rose Quarter We’re calling on the state to do a full environmental impact statement that assesses the impact of the project they actually intend to build. An open letter to the Oregon Transportation Commission. Regular readers

Since Covid started, rents are down in some cities, but up in most “Superstar” cities have experienced the most notable declines; the demographics of renters in these cities are different than elsewhere. Rent declines are also much more common in larger cities, with higher levels of rents. City Observatory is pleased to publish this guest

Portland’s inclusionary zoning requirement is a slow-motion train-wreck; apartment completions are down by two-thirds, and the development pipeline is drying up This will lead to slower housing supply growth and increasing rents for everyone over the next two to three years Inclusionary Zoning (IZ) creates perverse incentives to under-utilize available land In December 2016, Portland’s

What City Observatory this week 1. How ODOT destroyed Albina:  Part 3 the Phantom Freeway.  Even a freeway that never got built played a key role in demolishing part of Portland’s Albina neighborhood.  In parts 1 and 2 of this series, we showed how construction of state highway 99W in 1951 and Interstate 5 in