Month: May 2021
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The Week Observed, May 28, 2021
What City Observatory this week 1. Why highway departments can and should build housing to mitigate road damage. For decades, American cities have been scarred and neighborhoods destroyed by highway construction projects. Many places are contemplating measures to fix these problems, from freeway removals to pledges of “restorative justice.” Given that highways directly and indirectly…
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Single-Family Zoning and Exclusion in L.A. County: Part 2
Single-family zoning, a policy that bans apartments, is widespread in Los Angeles County. The median city bans apartments on 80% of its land for housing. Cities with more widespread single-family zoning have higher white and Asian population shares, and lower Black and Latino population shares. Cities with more widespread single-family zoning are more segregated relative…
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State DOTs can and should build housing to mitigate highway impacts
If OregonDOT is serious about “restorative justice” it should mitigate highway damage by building housing Around the country, states are subsidizing affordable housing to mitigate the damage done by highway projects Mitigation is part of NEPA requirements and complying with federal Environmental Justice policy The construction of urban highways has devastating effects on nearby neighborhoods. …
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Single-Family Zoning and Exclusion in L.A. County: Part 1
Single-family zoning, a policy that bans apartments, is widespread in Los Angeles County. The median city bans apartments on 80% of its land for housing. Cities with more widespread single-family zoning have higher median incomes, more expensive housing, and higher rates of homeownership. Single-family zoning blocks renter households and low- and moderate-income households from accessing…
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The Week Observed, May 21, 2021
What City Observatory this week 1. Needed: A bolder, better building back. In response to an invitation from its authors, we take a look at a “grand bargain” proposed by Patrick Doherty and Chris Leinberger for breaking the political log jam around infrastructure. If there is something to be gleaned from Eisenhower and Lincoln (in…
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What about reparations for people?
ODOT proudly spends road funds on mitigating the impact of its highways: if you’re an invertebrate. The highway department mitigates noise pollution, rebuilds jails, and even compensates neighborhoods But if we repeatedly pushed highways through your neighborhood, all you’ll get is condolences, wider overpasses, and a pictures of housing for which there’s no money The…
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For a grand bargain, think bigger and bolder
Right diagnosis, weak medicine, wrong metaphor In a far ranging thought piece for James Fallows’ Our Towns Civic Foundation—”Learning from Eisenhower and Lincoln: A Grand Bargain for Transportation,” Patrick Doherty and Chris Leinberger invoke Abe Lincoln and Dwight Eisenhower as role models for a Biden Administration infrastructure policy. There’s a lot to like in this…
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The Week Observed, May 14, 2021
What City Observatory this week Don’t be fooled again. The Oregon and Washington state highway departments are up to their old tricks in trying to push a multi-billion dollar highway building boondoggle in the POrtland area. A guest editorial from David Bragdon, formerly President of Portland’s regional government, recounts the lies and deceptive tactics the…
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Don’t Repeat the Hard Earned Lessons of the Failed CRC
ODOT has repeatedly lied and misled Portland’s leaders about major highway projects No one should take at face value its assurances or representations A warning from one of Portland’s past leaders about the deceptive high pressure sales tactics used to sell a bloated freeway boondoggle Editor’s Note: David Bragdon was the President of the Metro…
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The Week Observed, May 7, 2021
What City Observatory this week 1. It’s not a bridge replacement, it’s a 5 mile long, 12 lane wide freeway that just happens to cross a river. The Oregon and Washington highway departments are trying to revive the failed Columbia River Crossing project, peddling it as the “I-5 bridge replacement” project. That’s incredibly misleading moniker. …
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Who got trillions? We found the real speculators profiting from higher housing costs
In 2020, US residential values increased by $2.2 trillion Those gains went disproportionately to older, white, higher income households Capital gains on housing in 2020 were more than three times larger than the total income of the bottom 20 percent of the population. Little of this income will be taxed due to the exemption on…
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The real “I-5” project: $5 billion, 5 miles, $5 tolls
The intentionally misleading re-brand of the failed Columbia River Crossing conceals the key fact that it is a 12-lane wide, 5 mile long freeway that just happens to cross a river, not a “bridge replacement.” It’s vastly oversized and over-priced, with current cost estimate ranging as high as nearly $5 billion (before cost-overruns), which will necessitate…