Month: December 2021
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Metro’s failing climate strategy
Metro’s Climate Smart Strategy, adopted in 2014, has been an abject failure Portland area transportation greenhouse gasses are up 22 percent since the plan was adopted: instead of falling by 1 million tons per year, emissions have increased by 1 million tons annually, to more than 7 million tons, putting us even further from our…
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The Week Observed, December 17, 2021
What City Observatory did this week The financial fallout from Louisville’s I-65 boondoggle. As we showed earlier, Kentucky and Indiana both wasted a billion dollars on doubling the capacity of I-65 across the Ohio River, and also showed how to eliminate traffic congestion. The $1 to $2 tolls it charges I-65 users slashed traffic in…
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Louisville’s financial disaster: Deep in debt for road capacity that will never be used
Louisville’s I-65 bridges: A huge under-used roadway and hundreds of millions in debt for their kids—who will also have to cope with a climate crisis. Their financial plan kicked the can down the road, saddling future generations with the cost of paying for unneeded roads. The two states mortgaged future federal grant money and borrowed…
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The Week Observed, December 10, 2021
What City Observatory did this week 1. ODOT’s real climate strategy: Pollution as usual. Oregon’s highway builders are keeping two sets of books, one claiming that it cares about climate issues, the other shows that its financial plans depend on never reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The Oregon Department of Transportation has a glossy, highly promoted…
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Drive-thrus are ruining cities and helping kill the planet
Your 12 ounce latte comes with a pound of carbon emissions, just from the drive-thru. How convenience for cars makes cities less livable for everyone, and contributes to climate change. Last week, twitter user Maris Zivarts posted this telling image of 20 car queue wrapping around the block of a Starbucks, all lined up to…
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Oregon DOT’s Real Climate Plan: Keep on polluting
The Oregon DOT’s “Climate Action Plan” claims that the agency wants to decrease greenhouse gases, but its financial plans show otherwise The agency’s revenue projections show it is planning for gasoline consumption not to decline at all, meaning that carbon emissions don’t decline ODOT’s fuel tax projections imply that cars and trucks will continue to produce…
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The Week Observed, December 3, 2021
What City Observatory did this week How Portland powered Oregon’s economic success. After decades of lagging the nation, Oregon’s income now exceeds the national average. While some seem to think its a mystery: It’s not. It all about a flourishing Portland economy, especially in the central city of the region. This success has been powered by an…