January 2024

What City Observatory this week Robert Moses strikes again:  One of the most infamous decisions of “The Power Broker” was to build the overpasses on the Long Island Expressway too low to allow city buses to use the roadway, cementing auto-dependency and blocking easy and economical transit access to many suburbs.  And eight decades later, […]

ODOT isn’t giving buses the shoulder, it’s giving transit the finger. IBR is planning a transitway for the new $7.5 billion interstate bridge that can’t be used by buses. It’s sketching in a “bus on shoulder” option as an excuse to justify building an even wider highway crossing. Meanwhile it plans to place light rail

What City Observatory this week Why does it take four years and $200 million for consultants to serve up a warmed-over version of the Columbia River Crossing?  The Interstate Bridge Replacement Project’s director admitted that he’s just pushing “basically the same” project that failed a decade ago, but in the process, he’s spent $192 million

What City Observatory did this week The pernicious myth of “Naturally Occurring” Affordable Housing.  One of the most dangerous and misleading concepts in housing reared its ugly head in the form a a new publication from, of all places, the American Planning Association.  The publication “Zoning Practice:  Preserving Naturally Occurring Affordable Housing” purports to offer

Housing doesn’t “occur naturally” Using zoning to preserve older, smaller homes doesn’t protect affordability There’s no such thing as “Naturally Occurring Affordable Housing”–older, smaller homes become affordable only if supply and demand are in balance, usually because it’s relatively easy to build more housing. The parable of the ranch home shows that old, small homes

What City Observatory did this week A $9 billion Interstate Bridge Replacement Project?  Just 13 months after raising the price of the Interstate Bridge Replacement (IBR) project by more than 50 percent, the Oregon and Washington DOTs say it will cost even more.  We estimate project costs are likely to increase 20 percent or more,

Just 13 months after raising the price of the Interstate Bridge Replacement (IBR) project by more than 50 percent, the state DOTs ay it will cost even more We estimate project costs are likely to increase 20 percent or more, which would drive the price tag to as much as $9 billion, almost double the