May 2021

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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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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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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