2020 was a trying, tumultuous and often tragic year.  Here are some of the top commentaries that marked the year. Like so many, we were preoccupied with global crisis of the Covid-19 pandemic.  Early on there was a ch... →

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... →

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 roadw... →

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 admit... →

What City Observatory this week 1. The Urban Institute gets inclusion backwards. The Urban Institute has released an updated set of estimates that purport to measure which US cities are the most inclusive.  The report i... →

What City Observatory this week Institutionalized housing discrimination. A recent study of housing discrimination in Detroit came to a seemingly surprising conclusion:  Fair housing complaints were less likely to be fil... →

What City Observatory this week 1. Why Portland's Rose Quarter Freeway widening will increase greenhouse gas emissions.  The Oregon Department of Transportation hashas falsely claimed its $800 million freeway widening pr... →

What City Observatory this week 1. Calculating induced travel. Widening freeways to reduce traffic congestion in dense urban areas inevitably fails because of the scientifically demonstrated problem of induced demand; som... →

What City Observatory this week 1.  How housing segregation reduces Black wealth.  Black-owned homes are valued at a discount to all housing, but the disparity is worst in highly segregated metro areas.  There's a st... →

What City Observatory this week 1. Covid migration:  Disproportionately young, economically stressed and people of color.  Data shows the moves prompted by Covid-19 are more reflective of economic distress for the vulne... →

What City Observatory this week 1. Revealed: Oregon Department of Transportation's secret plans for a ten-lane I-5 freeway at the Rose Quarter.  For years, ODOT has been claiming that its $800 million freeway widening pr... →

What City Observatory this week 1. How the Oregon Department of Transportation destroyed a Portland neighborhood, Part 2:  The Moses Meat Axe.  We continue our historical look at the role that freeway construction (and ... →

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... →

What City Observatory this week 1. Taking Tubman:  The Oregon Department of Transportation is planning to widen the Interstate 5 freeway in Portland into the backyard of Harriet Tubman Middle School.  The $800 million w... →

What City Observatory this week 1. Restorative justice without funding is a sham.  Portland's Albina neighborhood was decimated by the construction of three Oregon Department of Transportation highway projects in the 195... →

What City Observatory this week 1. Fighting climate change is inherently equitable. While there's a growing recognition of the existential threat posed by climate change, it's becoming increasingly frequent to pit equity ... →

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 faile... →

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 ... →

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 breaki... →

What City Observatory did this week An open letter to Secretary Pete Buttigieg on his visit to Oregon.  Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg came to Oregon this week to look at some local transportation innovations. ... →

What City Observatory did this week Oregon Department of Transportation's Climate Fig-Leaf.  Transportation is the largest source of greenhouse gases in Oregon, and the state's Department of Transportation is—yet again... →

What City Observatory did this week The cost of Oregon DOT's Rose Quarter project has nearly tripled to $1.25 billion.  Just four years ago, the Oregon Department of transportation sold its mile-and-a-half long I-5 freew... →

What City Observatory did this week Talkin' 'bout my gentrification.  Jerusalem Demsas of Vox has a thoughtful synthesis of what we know about gentrification.  If we're concerned about poverty and inequality, gentrifi... →

What City Observatory did this week The Cappuccino Congestion Index.  Media reports regularly regurgitate the largely phony claims about how traffic congestion costs travelers untold billions of dollars in wasted time. ... →

What City Observatory did this week A universal basic income . . . for cars.  One of the most widely discussed alternatives for tackling poverty and inequality head on is the idea of a "Universal Basic Income"--a payment... →

What City Observatory did this week How sprawl and tax evasion are driving demands for wider freeways.  The Oregon and Washington Departments of Transportation are proposing to spend roughly $5 billion to widen a 5 mile ... →

What City Observatory did this week The folly of the frog ferry.  One bane of transportation policy discussions is the tendency to believe that miracle technical fixes—self-driving cars, personal aircraft, the Segway, ... →

What City Observatory did this week Ten questions that deserve answers before making a multi-billion dollar decision. The Portland metro area is being asked by the Oregon and Washington Departments of Transportation to gi... →

What City Observatory did this week Just Say "No" to freeway widening zealots.  George Santayana meet David Bragdon:  Those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat the failures of the past.  A year ago, we pu... →

What City Observatory did this week Another exploding whale:  The cost of the I-205 bridge project doubles in four years. Famously in the 1960s, the Oregon State Highway Department tried to dispose of the carcass of a wh... →

What City Observatory did this week Oregon DOT's "reign of error"—chronic cost overruns on highway projects.  The Oregon Department of Transportation is moving forward with a multi-billion dollar freeway expansion plan... →

What City Observatory did this week There's nothing green about free parking, no matter how many solar panels you put on the garage.  The US Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory brags about its sus... →

What City Observatory did this week The economics of fruit, time, and place.  It's berry time in Portland, and that got us thinking about how special local products are in defining quality of life.  Recently, Paul Krugm... →

Must read The most gas guzzling states. The sting of higher gas prices depends on where you live, not so much because of the variation in prices, but because in some states, you just have drive a lot more.  The website Q... →

What City Observatory did this week A Bridge too low.  The Oregon DOT is fundamentally misrepresenting the process and legal standards for setting the height of a proposed new multi-billion dollar I-5 bridge across the C... →

What City Observatory did this week Failing to learn from the failure of the Columbia River Crossing.  Last week, Portland's Metro Council voted 6-1 to wave on the Oregon Department of Transportation's plan for a multi-b... →

What City Observatory did this week Fix it Last.  The Oregon Department of Transportation claims that it has a "Fix-it" first policy--prioritizing spending funds to preserve existing roads and bridges.  But their actual... →

What City Observatory did this week The Rose Quarter’s Big U-Turn: Deadman’s Curve?  The redesign of the I-5 Rose Quarter project creates a hazardous new hairpin off-ramp from Interstate 5.  This  supposed ... →

What City Observatory did this week Risky bridges.  The Oregon and Washington highway departments are blundering ahead with a $5 billion plan to widen I-5 between Portland and Vancouver, and are making many of the same m... →

What City Observatory did this week Groundhog's Day for Climate.  So you think you're not Bill Murray in the classic "Groundhog's Day?"  Oregonians, ask yourself:  are we anywhere closer to seriously addressi... →

What City Observatory did this week Driving stakes, selling bonds, overdosing on debt.  The Oregon Department of Transportation is following a well trodden path to push the state toward a massive highway expans... →

What City Observatory did this week Why does a $500 million bridge replacement cost $7.5 billion?  For the past several years, the Oregon and Washington highway departments have been pushing for construction of somet... →

What City Observatory did this week Why does a $500 million bridge cost $7.5 billion?  For almost two decades the Oregon and Washington highway departments have been saying they want to replace the I-5 bridges over t... →

What City Observatory did this week Oregon's transportation finance in crisis:  Testimony to the Joint Ways and Means Committee.  On March 16, City Observatory's Joe Cortright testified to the Oregon Legislature's b... →

What City Observatory did this week What are they hiding?  Oregon and Washington are being asked to spend $7.5 billion on a giant bridge:  Why won’t anyone show pictures of what it would look like?  The Oregon ... →

What City Observatory did this week IBR's plan to sabotage the "moveable span" alternative.  The proposed $7.5 billion Portland area freeway widening project is supposedly looking at a moveable span option to avoid i... →

What City Observatory did this week The case against the Interstate Bridge Project.  We offer 16 reasons why Oregon and Washington lawmakers should question the current plans for the proposed $7.5 billion I-5 freeway... →

What City Observatory did this week Scratch one flat top!  That was the famous cry of US Naval aviators, when, early in World War II they chalked up their first victory, sinking the Japanese aircraft carrier Shoho.  Por... →

What City Observatory did this week This is what victory looks like.  Freeway fighting is hard, drawn-out work.  StateDOTs and their allies have vast funding for public relations campaigns to sell giant projects; citize... →

What City Observatory did this week What if we regulated new car ownership the same way we do new housing?  Getting a building permit for a new house is difficult, expensive, and in some places, simply impossible.  In c... →

Must Read Portland:  Four Floors and Corner Stores--Upzoning for urban development and housing affordability.  A coalition of community, enviornmental and social justice groups is advocating for a YIMBY strategy for mor... →

What City Observatory did this week Britain's Caste system of transportation.  In a cynical ploy to revive the Conservative Party's flagging electoral hopes, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has engaged in some blatant pro-mot... →

Must Read The high, high cost of "affordable housing."  The Voice of San Diego takes a look at the pricetag of several affordable housing projects in California and finds they're pushing and breaking through the million-... →

What City Observatory Did This Week Beware of phony claims that highway projects are "On-time and Under-Budget." For highway departments, the key to being on-time and under-budget is Orwellian double-speak. Oregon ... →

What City Observatory Did This Week Unique Local Experiences: The Hidden Value in Urban Economies. An often-overlooked aspect of urban economics: the value of unique, local, and seasonal experiences. We take as an example... →

What City Observatory Did This Week Inventing a "commitment" to megaproject cost-overruns.  Oregon's Department of Transportation is is trying to re-write history to create a commitment to unapproved freeway s and massi... →

What City Observatory Did This Week The Oregon Department of Transportation's (ODOT) Interstate Bridge Replacement (IBR) project is facing significant delays of up to 18 months. The culprit? Flawed traffic model... →

What City Observatory Did This Week We grade the city clean energy scorecard.  A new scorecard tires to measure how cities are promoting energy efficiency and reducing greenhouse gases—a laudable goal. But the scorecar... →

What City Observatory Did This Week A costly cargo cult in Portland:  A proposal to spend $30 million per year subsidizing the revival of container shipping operations at the Port of Portland is misguided effort based on... →

What City Observatory Did This Week The Oregon Department of Transportation can and should mitigate the negative impacts of its highway construction projects, including social and economic impacts.  ODOT's massive $1.9 b... →

What City Observatory Did This Week Another Oregon Department of Transportation exploding whale.*  The cost of one of OregonDOT's megaprojects, the expansion of the I-205 Abernethy Bridge over the Willamette River south ... →

What City Observatory Did This Week Earth Day: Oregon is spending billions to widen freeways in a move that will only worsen the increase in greenhouse gases from transportation.  Transportation is the leading source of ... →

What City Observatory Did This Week A teachable moment: Free Ice Cream Day.  Traffic was lined up around the block last Tuesday at your local Ben and Jerry's, for the same reason roadways are clogged most weekday afterno... →

What City Observatory did this week Thirty seconds over Portland:  Spending $7.5 billion on a freeway widening project will save the typical affected commuter about 30 seconds a day, according to the Interstate Bridge Re... →

What City Observatory did this week What the Interstate Bridge Replacement Project doesn't want you to know.  The $7.5 Billion Interstate Bridge Replacement project is afraid of what you’ll find out when they release ... →

What City Observatory did this week The high cost of covering freeways.  The latest fashion in highway urbanism is "capping" freeways.  In theory, highway builders claim that capping freeways will repair past damage and... →

What City Observatory did this week Abandoning road pricing monkey-wrenches state transportation, traffic reduction and climate plans.  This week, Oregon Governor Tina Kotek terminated Oregon's Regional Mobility Pricing ... →

What City Observatory did this week A yawning chasm in neighborhood distress among metro areas. Almost every metropolitan area has some neighborhoods that face serious economic distress, but the patterns of distress vary ... →

What City Observatory Did this Week Is it time to address the problem of "Missing Massive" housing?  This past week marked the latest convening of YIMBYTown, this year, held in Austin, Texas.  One of the perennial topic... →

Must Read The freeway cap mirage.  Don't like freeways?  Let's just cover up the problem.  It's increasingly popular to try to repair the damage done to urban neighborhoods by "capping" freeways:  building a cover so ... →

What City Observatory did this week Three big flaws in ODOT’s Highway Cost Allocation Study.  Some of the most important policy decisions are buried deep in seemingly technocratic documents.  Case-in-point:  Oregon's... →

Must Read How CalTrans cheated on its environmental reporting.  Some months back, former Deputy Director of CalTrans,Jeanie Ward-Waller blew the whistle on the agency's effort to evade environmental laws and illegally us... →

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 W... →

What City Observatory did this week Bad data.  What appears, at first glance, to be a big decline in trip-making is really an object lesson in failing to read the footnotes.  Every five years or so, the US Department of... →

What City Observatory did this week Exaggerated Benefits, Omitted Costs: The Interstate Bridge Boondoggle.  A $7.5 billion highway boondoggle doesn’t meet the basic test of cost-effectiveness.  The Interstate Bridge... →

What City Observatory did this week Tolling i-5 will produce massive traffic diversion.  The proposed I-5 Interstate Bridge Replacement (IBR) Project will be paid for in part by $2.80 to $4.30 tolls charged to travelers... →

What City Observatory did this week Secret plans show ODOT is planning a 10-lane freeway in the Rose Quarter.  City Observatory has obtained previously un-released plans showing that the $1.9 billion I-5 Rose Quarter pro... →

What City Observatory did this week 5 million miles wide of the mark.Portland's regional government Metro, has proposed a regional transportation plan (RTP) that purports to achieve state and regional policies to reduce g... →

What City Observatory did this week Snow-Job:  Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) threatens to slash snow-plowing and other safety maintenance unless it is given more money, while spending billions on a handful o... →

What City Observatory did this week Killer off-ramps.  The Oregon Department of Transportation's $1.9 billion I-5 Rose Quarter widening has been repeatedly (and falsely) portrayed as a "safety" project, but the latest re... →

What City Observatory did this week More climate fraud in Portland Metro's proposed regional transportation plan.  We branded Metro's proposed Regional Transportation Plan (RTP) a climate fraud because in falsely claimed... →

What City Observatory did this week What apartment consolidation in New York tells us about housing markets and gentrification.  A new study shows that over the past several decades, New York City lost more than 100,000 ... →

What City Observatory did this week Rose Quarter:  Death throes of a bungled boondoggle.  For years, we've been following the tortured Oregon Department of Transportation Plans to widen a 1.5 mile stretch of I-5 near do... →

What City Observatory did this week Metro's Climate-Denial Regional Transportation Plan.  Portland's regional governtment, Metro, has published a draft Regional Transportation Plan, outlining priorities for transportatio... →

What City Observatory did this week Climate fraud in the Portland Metro RTP.  Metro’s Regional Transportation Plan rationalizes spending billions on freeway expansion by publishing false estimates and projections of gr... →

Must Read Some Texas-sized greenwashing for highway widening in Austin.  TXDOT is aiming to spend close to $5 billion to widen I-35 through downtown Austin, and to sweeten the deal, they're producing project renderings s... →

What City Observatory did this week Eating local:  Why independent, local restaurants are a key indicator of city vitality.  Jane Jacobs noted decades ago that“The greatest asset a city can have is something that is d... →

What City Observatory did this week Myth-busting:  Idling and greenhouse gas emissions.  Highway boosters are fond of claiming that they can help fight climate change by widening highways so that cars don't have to spen... →

What City Observatory did this week Few highway construction dollars for Black-owned firms in Oregon.  The Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) is falling short of its own goals of contracting with disadvantaged bu... →

What City Observatory did this week We have an in-depth series of reports on the Oregon Department of Transportation's imploding I-5 Rose Quarter freeway widening project. The cost of the I-5 Rose Quarter project has n... →

What City Observatory did this week Yet another exploding whale:  One of the Internet's most popular videos shows employees of the Oregon Department of Transportation blowing up a dead whale carcass stranded on an Ocean ... →

What City Observatory did this week We took the week off to celebrate the Summer Solstice and gorge on Hood strawberries! We'll be back next week. Must Read The amazing non-appearance of Carmageddon.  Echoing th... →

What City Observatory did this week Carmageddon does a no-show in Philly.  A tanker truck caught fire and the ensuing blaze caused a section of I-95 in Philadelphia to collapse.  This key roadway may be out of commissio... →

What City Observatory did this week Guest contributor Miriam Pinski observes that getting the prices right could produce dramatic improvements in how US transportation systems perform.  New York is on the verge of implem... →

What City Observatory did this week What computer renderings really show about the Interstate Bridge Replacement Project:  It's in trouble. The Interstate Bridge Project has released—after years of delay—computer gra... →

What City Observatory did this week Pricing is a better, cheaper fix for congestion at the I-5 Rose Quarter.  The Oregon Department of Transportation is proposing to squander $1.45 billion to widen about a mile and a hal... →

What City Observatory did this week Rose Quarter tolls:  Available, but not foreseeable?  There's a glaring--and illegal--contradiction in the planning for the Oregon Department of Transportation's $1.45 billion Rose Qu... →

What City Observatory did this week There’s plenty of time to fix the Interstate Bridge Project. Contrary to claims made by OregonDOT and WSDOT officials, the federal government allows considerable flexibility in fundin... →

What City Observatory did this week Why can't Oregon DOT tell the truth?  Oregon legislators asked the state transportation department a simple question:  How wide is the proposed $7.5 billion Interstate Bridge Replacem... →

What City Observatory did this week Why should Oregonians subsidize suburban commuters from another state? Oregon is being asked to pay for half of the cost of widening the I-5 Interstate Bridge. Eighty percent of daily c... →

What City Observatory did this week Testifying on the Oregon Transportation Finance.  City Observatory director Joe Cortright testified to the Oregon Legislature on HB 2098, a bill being proposed to fund bloated free... →

What City Observatory did this week More induced travel denial.  Highway advocates deny or minimize the science of induced travel. We offer our rebuttal to a reason column posted at Planetizen, attempting to minimize... →

What City Observatory did this week IBR admits its bridge is too steep.  After 15 years of telling the region that the only feasible alternative for crossing the Columbia River was a pair of side-by-side double-decker br... →

What City Observatory did this week Driving between Vancouver and Wilsonville at 5PM? ODOT plans to charge you $15.  Under ODOT’s toll plans, A driving from Wilsonville to Vancouver will cost you as much as $15, each-w... →

What City Observatory did this week CEVP: Non-existent cost controls for the $7.5 billion IBR project.  Oregon DOT has a history of enormous cost overruns, and just told the Oregon and Washington Legislatures that the co... →

What City Observatory did this week Dr. King: Socialism for the rich and rugged free enterprise capitalism for the poor.  We're reminded this year of Dr. Martin Luther King's observation that our cities, and the public p... →

What City Observatory did this week A reporter's guide to congestion cost studies.  For more than a decade, we and others have been taking a close, hard and critical look at congestion cost reports genera... →

What City Observatory did this week The case against the I-5 Rose Quarter freeway widening.  This week marked the end of public comment on the Supplemental Environmental Assessment for the Oregon Department of Tr... →

Editor's Note:  Public Comment on the I-5 Rose Quarter Freeway Project Between now and January 4, 2023, the public will be asked to weigh in with its comments on the proposed I-5 Rose Quarter Freeway Widening project.  ... →

Editor's Note:  Public Comment on the I-5 Rose Quarter Freeway Project In the next month, the public will be asked to weigh in with its comments on the proposed I-5 Rose Quarter Freeway Widening project.  If you're inte... →

What City Observatory did this week Risky bridges: If you're going to spend several billion dollars, you might want to get some independent expert advice.  Oregon and Washington are on the verge of committing 5 billion d... →

What City Observatory did this week A toll policy primer for Oregon.  The Oregon Department of Transportation is proposing to finance billions in future road expansions with tolling.  While we're enamored of road pricin... →

What City Observatory did this week Using phony safety claims to sell a billion dollar freeway widening.  This past week, Sarah Pliner, a promising young Portland chef was killed when she and her bike were crushed by a t... →

What City Observatory did this week Two of the three candidates for Oregon Governor are Climate Deniers. Oregon will elect a new Governor next month, and two of the three candidates for the job insist on repeating the dis... →

What City Observatory did this week Building a bridge too low--again.  In their effort to try to revive the failed Columbia River Crossing (a $5 billion freeway widening project between Portland and Vancouver) the Oregon... →

What City Observatory did this week Our apologies to City Observatory readers for our website outage on 19-22 May.  More meaningless congestion pseudo science.  A new study from the University of Maryland claims that... →

What City Observatory did this week Oregon crosses the road-pricing Rubicon. Starting this spring, motorists will pay a $2 toll to drive Oregon's historical Columbia River Gorge Highway.  Instead of widening t... →

What City Observatory did this week Who's most vulnerable to high gas prices? Rising gas prices are a pain, but they hurt most if you live in a sprawling metro where you have to drive long distances to work, sho... →

Must read The problem with the "reckless driver" narrative.  Strong Towns Chuck Marohn eloquently points out the deflection and denial inherent in the emerging "reckless driver" explanation for increasing car crashes and... →

What City Observatory did this week Freeway widening for whomst:  Woke-washing the survey data.  Highway builders are eager to cloak their road expansion projects in the rhetoric of equity and have become adep... →

What City Observatory did this week Freeway widening for whomst?  Woke-washing is all the rage among those pushing highway projects these days, and there's no better example that Portland's I-5 "bridge replacem... →

What City Observatory did this week 1. Metro's failing climate strategy. Portland Metro’s Climate Smart Strategy, adopted in 2014, has been an abject failure. Portland area transportation greenhouse gasses a... →

What City Observatory did this week What does equity mean when we have a caste-based transportation system? Transportation and planning debates around the country increasingly ponder how we rectify long-standin... →

What City Observatory did this week Metro's "Don't look up" climate strategy.  In the new film, Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence play scientists who find that the nation's leaders simply refuse to take s... →

What City Observatory did this week Why Portland shouldn't be moving elementary and middle schools to widen freeways.  We're pleased to publish a guest commentary from Adah Crandall, a high school sophomore and... →

What City Observatory did this week Climate and our Groundhog Day Doom Loop.  It's Groundhog  Day—again—and we're stuck in exactly the same place when it comes to climate policy.  Scientists are regularly... →

What City Observatory did this week The "replacement" bridge con.  It's telling that perhaps the largest single consulting expense for Oregon and Washington transportation departments' efforts to revive the fai... →

What City Observatory did this week Oregon's highway agency rigs its projections to maximize revenue and downplay its culpability for climate challenge.  ODOT has two different standards for forecasting:  When it... →

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... →

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 i... →

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:  I... →

What City Observatory did this week Why we shouldn't be whining about higher gas prices. Gas prices are going up, and it’s annoying to have to pay more, but let’s take a closer look at how much we’re paying for... →

What City Observatory did this week Has this city discovered how to solve traffic congestion?  Why aren't they telling everyone else how this works?  A miracle in Louisville. [caption id="attachment_12554" al... →

What City Observatory did this week The Opposite of Planning:  Why Portland's Metro government needs to turn down the highway department request for more money to plan future freeway widenings.  On paper, and to admirer... →

What City Observatory did this week America's least and most segregated metro areas:  Evidence from Census 2020.  Racial segregation remains a chronic problem in US metropolitan areas.  Data from Census 2020 provides a... →

What City Observatory did this week Ten reasons you can't trust DOT claims that widening highways reduces pollution.  Highway departments are fond of ginning up traffic projections and air quality analyses claiming... →

What City Observatory did this week Freeway-widening grifters: Woke-washing, fraud and incompetence.  The Oregon Department of Transportation has been trying to sell its $1.25 billion freeway widening project as a ... →

What City Observatory did this week Portland's Clean Energy Fund needs accountability.  Portland voters approved a ballot measure creating a $60 million annual fund to invest in community-based clean energy projects, par... →

What City Observatory did this week Is the campus 100 percent clean energy?  (Only if you don't count the cars and parking lots).  Stanford University announced that its near to realizing a goal to move all of its campu... →

What City Observatory did this week Cost of Living and Auto Insurance. We often compare the affordability of different cities with a clear focus on housing prices and rents. This week at City Observatory we are interest... →

What City Observatory did this week 1. Tackling climate change will require electric cars, and a lot less driving.  We're pleased to publish a guest commentary from CalYimby's Matthew Lewis looking at the challenge of ad... →

What City Observatory did this week America's berry best cities.  It's the height of the summer fruit season and berries are ripening across the country.  Nothing beats a fresh local berry in season. We've ranked the na... →

What City Observatory did this week Selling Oregon into highway bondage.  Oregon is moving ahead with plans to issue hundreds of millions—and ultimately billions of dollars of debt to widen Portland-area freeways.  An... →

What City Observatory did this week 1. Miami's double standard for charging road users.  The City of Miami is hoping to make their streets a safer place for bikes and scooters by building protected lanes along three mile... →

What City Observatory did this week 1. The Texas Transportation Institute is back, and it's still wrong about traffic congestion.  Every year or so, a group of researchers at Texas A&M University produce report purpo... →

What City Observatory did this week 1. Cars kill city neighborhoods.  Across the nation, America's cities have been remade to accomodate the automobile.  Freeways have been widened through city neighborhoods, demolishin... →

What City Observatory this week 1.  Race and economic polarization.  In the past several decades, racial segregation in the US has attenuated, but economic segregation has increased.  This is nowhere more apparent than... →

What City Observatory this week What ultimately destroyed Tulsa's Greenwood neighborhood:  Highways.  This past week marked the centennial of the Tulsa Race Massacre.  In 1921, a racist mob attacked and destroyed the B... →

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 project... →

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 ... →

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... →

What City Observatory this week 1. The failure of Vision Zero.  Like many regions, the Portland metropolitan area has embraced the idea of Vision Zero; a strategy of planning to take concrete steps over time to reduce th... →

What City Observatory this week 1. The fundamental global law of traffic congestion.  For years, urbanists have stressed the concept of induced demand, based on the nearly universal observation that widening urban roadwa... →

What City Observatory this week 1. 2021 is when we have to get real about tackling climate change.  We've boiled our analysis of the climate challenge down to four key points: Pledges alone won't accomplish anything... →

What City Observatory this week 1. The thickness of the blue line. Robert Putnam popularized the notion of social capital in his book "Bowling Alone," which he illustrated with a number of indicators of social interconnec... →

What City Observatory this week Exploding whales and cost overruns. For years, the Oregon Department of Transportation has been pushing a mile-and-a-half long freeway widening project at Portland's Rose Quarter, telling t... →

What City Observatory this week 1.  Counting Covid- Cases in US Metro Areas.  We've been updating our metro area tabulations of the number of reported Covid-19 cases on a daily basis. You can find our latest tabulations... →

What City Observatory this week 1. Regional Patterns of Covid-19 Incidence.  The pandemic has struck every corner of the nation, but has clearly hit some areas harder than others. We've focused on those metro areas, like... →

What City Observatory this week 1. What the Covid-19 Shutdown teaches us about freeways. Everyone knows that speeds are up on urban roadways around the nation because of the stay-at-home orders to fight the pandemic. But ... →

What City Observatory did this week 1. Covid-19 rates are spiking in five cities. Stay-at-home policies and social distancing have dramatically slowed the spread of the pandemic in the US, but as many state's begin re-op... →

What City Observatory did this week 1. Youth Movement: Our latest CityReport. America's urban revival is being powered by the widespread and accelerating movement of well-educated young adults to the densest, most central... →

What City Observatory did this week 1. Why free parking is one of the most inequitable aspect of our transportation system. There's a lot of well-founded anger over the inequitable aspects of transportation:  the burdens... →

What City Observatory did this week 1. Carmaggedon never comes, Portland edition. It's a favored myth that any reduction in road capacity will automatically trigger gridlock, and highway engineers regularly inveigh agains... →

What City Observatory did this week Let's fight congestion with a PR campaign.  For decades, when pressed to do something to improve road safety, city and state transportation officials have responded with . . . marketin... →

What City Observatory did this week 1. Covid-19 is now worst in rural areas and red states. Early on in the pandemic, it seemed like everyone attributed the spread of the Coronavirus to big cities and density. It turns ou... →

What City Observatory did this week 1. Want lower rents?  Build more housing!  A new study from Germany provides more evidence that the fundamentals of economics are alive and well in the housing market. The study looks... →

What City Observatory did this week 1. The only reason many people drive is because we pay them to. There's an important insight from recent applications of tolling to urban highways. When asked to pay even a modest amoun... →

What City Observatory did this week 1. Achieving equitable transportation: Reallocate road space and price car travel. New York has recorded a kind of "Miracle on 14th Street." By largely banning through car traffic, its ... →

What City Observatory did this week 1. Seven reasons you should be optimistic about cities in a post-pandemic world. There's widespread pessimism about the future of cities. With the pandemic-induced advent of work-at-hom... →

What City Observatory did this week Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Gridlock Tuesday?  The day after a nation celebrates its socially distanced "Zoom Thanksgiving" we'll look to see how the pandemic affects the traditional "... →

What City Observatory did this week 1. Now we are six. We marked City Observatory's sixth birthday this week, and took a few moments to reflect back on the journey, and to thank all those who helped us on our way, and to ... →

What City Observatory did this week Equity and Metro's $5 billion transportation bond. This week, Portland residents are voting on a proposed $5 billion payroll tax/bond measure to fund a range of transportation projects.... →

What City Observatory did this week 1. Lived segregation in US cities. Our standard measure of urban segregation, whether people reside in different neighborhoods, doesn't really capture the way people from different raci... →

What City Observatory did this week 1.  Manufacturing consent for highway widening. In the early days of freeway battles, state highway departments were power blind and tone-deaf, and citizen activists often triumphed in... →

What City Observatory did this week Why most pedestrian infrastructure is really car infrastructure. One of the most misleading terms you'll hear in transportation is "multi-modal" which in practice means a highway for ca... →

What City Observatory did this week The case against Metro's $5 billion transportation bond. Portland's regional government, Metro, is asking voters to approve a $5 billion package of transportation improvements, to be fu... →

What City Observatory did this week America's most and least segregated cities. Residential racial segregation is a fundamental and persistent aspect of system racism in the United States. Segregation cuts of disfavored g... →

What City Observatory did this week 1. Is it random, or is it Zumper? Are rents going up or down in your city?  Listicles showing which places have the biggest jumps (or declines) in rents are a perennial media favorite,... →

What City Observatory did this week 1. The abject failure of Portland's Climate Action Plan. Last month, Portland issued the final report on its 2015 Climate Action Plan. It emphasizes that the city took action on three-q... →

What City Observatory did this week The exodus that never happened. You've probably seen stories bouncing around the media for the past few months claiming that fears that density makes people more susceptible to the pand... →

What City Observatory did this week Dominos falling on Portland's Rose Quarter freeway widening project. In the space of just a few hours two weeks ago, local political support for an $800 million freeway widening project... →

What City Observatory did this week CityBeat: NPR urban flight story. The pack animals of the media have settled on a single, oft-repeated narrative about cities and Covid-19; that fear of the virus will lead people to mo... →

What City Observatory did this week When NIMBYs win, everyone loses. Two land use cases from different sides of the country are in the news this week. In both cases, local opponents of new housing development have succeed... →

What City Observatory did this week 1. Covid-19 and Cities:  An uneven pandemic. We've been following the progress of the Covid-19 virus in the nation's metropolitan areas for the past three months, and with the benefit ... →

What City Observatory did this week 1. LA Covid correlates with overcrowding and poverty, not density. City Observatory is pleased to publish a guest analysis and commentary from Abundant Housing LA's Anthony Dedousis.Â... →

What City Observatory this week 1. Postcards from the Edges:  Looking at the relationship between density and the pandemic. There's a widely circulating meme associating urban density with the spread of the Covid-19 viru... →

What City Observatory did this week 1.  City Beat:  We push back on a New York Times story claiming that people are decamping New York City on account of pandemic fears. You can always find an anecdote about someone lea... →

What City Observatory this week Our updated analysis of the prevalence of Covid-19 in US metro areas.  It continues to be the case that the pandemic is most severe in the Northeast Corridor.  The New York Metro area is ... →

What City Observatory this week 1. What cities are showing us about the progression of the Covid-19 pandemic.  In an important sense, each large US metro area is a separate test case of the path of the Covid-19 virus. By... →

What City Observatory this week 1. Cheap gas means more pollution and more road deaths. Russia and Saudi Arabia have engineered a big decline in oil prices in the past few weeks, and as a result, US gas prices are now exp... →

What City Observatory this week 1. The Geography of Covid-19.  A week ago, we issued a call to get much more granular with our statistical analysis of the pandemic's spread.  In just the past few days, a number of new l... →

What City Observatory this week 1. The inequity built into Metro's proposed homeless strategy. Portland's Metro is rushing forward with a plan asking voters to approve $250 million per year in income taxes to fight homele... →

What City Observatory this week 1. Local flavor:  Which cities have the most independent restaurants.  Local eateries are one of the most visibly distinctive elements of any city. As Jane Jacobs said, the most important... →

What City Observatory this week 1. Talent drives economic development. We know the single most important factor determining metropolitan economic success:  It's determined by the education level of your population. The l... →

What City Observatory this week 1. A massive regional transportation spending plan that does nothing for climate change.  Portland's leaders are in the process of crafting a $3 billion plus regional transportation packag... →

What City Observatory this week 1. Oregon DOT repeats its idle lie about emissions. It's every highway builder's go-to response to climate change:  we could reduce greenhouse gas emissions if we could just keep cars from... →

What City Observatory this week 1. Portland's progress (or lack thereof) on climate. Portland likes to present itself as a climate leader, but the latest data on transportation-related greenhouse gas emissions shows that ... →

What City Observatory did the past couple of weeks 1. Using seismic scare stories to sell freeways. The Pacific Northwest is living on the edge; sometime (possibly tomorrow, possible several hundred years from now) we'll ... →

What City Observatory did this week 1. No Deposit, No Return: Another lie to try and sell the $3 billion Columbia River Crossing. The state's of Oregon and Washington spent nearly $200 million planning the failed Columbia... →

What City Observatory did this week 1.  Copenhagen's cycling success hinges on tax policy and pricing, not just bike lanes.  The New York Times offers up yet another postcard view of cycling in Copenhagen, where riding ... →

What City Observatory did this week A two cent solution to climate change?  Around the world, plastic bags are an environmental scourge, both in the form a litter (a nuisance) and as a threat to wildlife. In response, ma... →

What City Observatory did this week 1. Tim Bartik explains business incentives. States and cities spend about $50 billion a year on tax breaks and other incentives to try to influence business location decisions.  The na... →

What City Observatory did this week 1. Our 5th Anniversary.  October 17 marked 5 years since we started publishing our research and commentary at City Observatory. We reflect back on five years of work, and thank all tho... →

What City Observatory did this week 1. Transportation for America won't be fooled again..  After years of getting rolled by the freeway lobby, it appears that T4America has finally said "Enough."  Transit and active tra... →

What City Observatory did this week 1. We debunk the Wall Street Journal's claim of an exodus of young adults from cities.  Last week, the Wall Street Journal trumpeted an "exodus" of 25 to 39 year old adults from cities... →

What City Observatory did this week 1. Beto O'Rourke brings a strong inclusive urbanist message to the Presidential contest.  While its been great to see housing affordability and climate change grow in prominence on the... →

What City Observatory did this week 1. Portland rents are going down. There are those who are skeptical that we can "build our way to affordability." But the economic evidence suggests that's exactly what's happening in P... →

What City Observatory did this week 1. The limits of localism. A number of urban luminaries, including Bruce Katz and Richard Florida have been urging that we pin our hopes for social and policy change on local government... →

What City Observatory did this week This week, we published five posts taking a critical look at how a recent Urban Institute report, Measuring Inclusiveness, illustrates the problems and pitfalls of defining and measurin... →

What City Observatory did this week Peaks, Valleys and Donuts: Visualizing cities in cross-section. The University of Virginia's Demographics Research Group at the Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service has produced a po... →

What City Observatory did for the past two weeks Alert followers will know the City Observatory has been preoccupied for the past two weeks; we're filling in with a "Two-Weeks Observed" edition this week, and will be back... →

What City Observatory did this week 1. Highway to Hell. There's a new report out on the the future of the Interstate Highway System, and its a shocker. It's a shock because it shows that the National Academies of Engineer... →

What City Observatory did this week 1. You're going to need a bigger boat. We're excited that Minneapolis has pushed forward with the legalization of duplexes and triplexes in formerly single-family only zones, and that o... →

What City Observatory did this week 1. Scooters are a success in Portland, but there's an insidious double standard. A new report from Portland's Bureau of Transportation details the success of the city's 120-day long exp... →

What City Observatory did this week 1. Remembering Dr. King. We were reminded of Dr. Martin Luther King's speech about the pronounced tendency in public policy to prescribe socialism for the rich and rugged, free market c... →

What City Observatory did this week 1. The limits of our current approaches to providing affordable housing. We present a summary of some remarks offered by Rob Stewart, a principal with JBG Smith Real Estate, reflecting ... →

What City Observatory did this week 1.  Measuring Anti-Social Capital.  Thanks to the scholarship of Harvard's Robert Putnam, the idea of social capital has become firmly entrenched in the policy lexicon. Putnam and oth... →

What City Observatory did this week 1. The idea of cities and the city of ideas. What cities do is bring people together, and the heightened interaction among people invariably generates friction, but also new ideas. City... →

What City Observatory did this week 1. The economics of fruit, time, and place. Last week, Paul Krugman, fresh off his European vacation, waxed poetic about the fleeting joy of summer fruit, and true to form, may an econo... →

What City Observatory did this week 1. Myth-busting:  Building new market rate housing doesn't drive up nearby rents. A favorite assertion of some housing supply-side skeptics is the theory that building new market rate ... →

What City Observatory did this week 1. It's official: The Rose Quarter Freeway Widening is a Boondoggle. Frontier Group and USPIRG released the latest version of their annual Highway Boondoggle report, and the Oregon Depa... →

What City Observatory did this week 1. Why is the US killing so many pedestrians? The grim data from 2018 are now available:  More than 6,200 US pedestrians were killed by automobiles last year, an increase of more than ... →

What City Observatory did this week 1. What Oregon's "single family zoning ban" signals for housing policy. Just before adjourning, the 2019 Oregon Legislature adopted the nation's first statewide ban on exclusive, single... →

What City Observatory did this week About those swelling suburbs.  Much was made last week of a Wall Street Journal story noting that 14 of the 15 fastest growing cities with populations greater than 50,000 were suburbs.... →

What City Observatory did this week Homeownership is frequently a bad bet. Although homeownership gets treated as the best way to built wealth, it's actually a highly risky financial strategy for many households, especial... →

What City Observatory did this week Portland's food cart pods are dead; long live Portland's food cart pods. Portland is famous as a foodie town, and one of the city's claims to fame is having more than 500 food carts, mo... →

What City Observatory did this week   Must read 1. Why Detroit (and other cities) need more gentrification and congestion. Michigan Future's Lou Glazer has a provocative essay arguing that Detroit and other struggl... →

What City Observatory did this week Copenhagen's success:  More than just bike lanes.  Copenhagen is one of the world's great cycling cities, and its accomplishments are a a beacon to those looking to build more bike fr... →

What City Observatory did this week How helping families move to better neighborhoods reduces segregation and promotes opportunity. The work of the Opportunity Insights project, led by Harvard's Raj Chetty, has shown co... →

What City Observatory did this week 1. CityLab: Everything you think you know about gentrification is wrong. We take a look at a recent CityLab article reporting (faithfully) the findings of some recent research on gent... →

What City Observatory did this week 1. Why gentrification is good for long time residents of low income neighborhoods. We take a close look at a new study from the Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank that challenges much of... →

What City Observatory did this week Exit, hope and loyalty:  What's behind neighborhood change? America's neighborhoods are always changing, and it's often a question of whether change is driven more by hope or despair. ... →

What City Observatory did this week 1. Who bikes? Discussions of investing in bike infrastructure are often fraught with arguments about who benefits, with oft-expressed fears that bike lanes chiefly benefit a spandex-wea... →

What City Observatory did this week 1. Will upzoning help housing affordability?  Housing supply denialism--claims that the laws of supply and demand don't apply to housing markets--have a ready audience in the NIMBY com... →

What City Observatory did this week 1. The limits of design thinking. Really good design can frequently improve the utility and performance of everyday objects, and there's little question that the attentiveness to softwa... →

What City Observatory did this week 1. The high cost of low house prices. We generally take low house prices as a sign that housing is affordable, but the reality isn't that simple. In the case of cities and urban neighbo... →

What City Observatory did this week 1. Kevin Bacon and Musical Chairs teach us housing economics. It's an article of faith among economists that more housing, even higher end housing, will help ease rising rents. But to l... →

What City Observatory did this week 1. More Orwell from the Oregon Department of Transportation. When it comes to any public policy decision, but especially one that involves spending $500 million (and likely a good deal ... →

What City Observatory did this week 1. The annual Ben and Jerry's advanced seminar in transportation economics. If you love ice cream--who doesn't?--Tuesday was your chance to get a free cone at Ben and Jerry's and while ... →

What City Observatory did this week Widening freeways doesn't reduce crashes or crash related delay.  The Oregon Department of Transportation is proposing to spend half a billion dollars to widen a mile-long stretch of I... →

What City Observatory did this week A note to City Observatory readers:  Bear with us, folks:  We're in the last week of our month-long deep dive into  Portland's debate about whether to spend a half billion dollars to... →

What City Observatory did this week A note to City Observatory readers:  We're deep in the thick of Portland's debate about whether to spend a half billion dollars to widen a mile-long stretch of freeway near the city's ... →

What City Observatory did this week A note to City Observatory readers:  We're deep in the thick of Portland's debate about whether to spend a half billion dollars to widen a mile-long stretch of freeway near the city's ... →

What City Observatory did this week 1. The high price of cheap gas. The most fundamental point in economics is that people respond to incentives. Make something cheaper to buy, and people will buy more of it. Make someth... →

What City Observatory did this week 1. Widening freeways increases car travel and carbon emissions. Induced demand from additional freeway capacity is now so well proven that it's referred to "The Fundamental Law of Road ... →

What City Observatory did this week It's time to get serious about climate change.  We published a guest commentary from City Observatory friend Ethan Seltzer, who takes a critical look at the largely rhetorical approach... →

What City Observatory did this week 1. Cities, Ideas and Us:  Paul Romer's Nobel Address.  Romer, who won this year's Nobel Prize in the Economic Sciences had some interesting things to say about cities in his address t... →

What City Observatory did this week 1. The limits of Nieman Marcus environmentalism. It's fashionable to demonstrate one's green credibility by conspicuous acts of non-consumption, but framing our environmental problems a... →

What City Observatory did this week 1. If your corporate campus has 10,000 parking spaces, it isn't really "walkable." With great fanfare, American Airlines has announced its building a new corporate campus in Fort Worth.... →

What City Observatory did this week 1. Displacement by decline.  Akron Planning Director Jason Segedy offers a guest post on our misplaced obsession with gentrification. He argues that pundits and urban policy people are... →

What City Observatory did this week 1. The neighborhood you grow up shapes your life chances, especially for black kids. New research from the Equality of Opportunity Project shows the profound effect that neighborhoods h... →

What City Observatory did this week 1. There will be two HQ2, just as we predicted. Back in January, we took a close look at the Amazon HQ2 location contest. We said that the decision to build a second headquarters wasn't... →

Editors Note: We're offering an abbreviated Thanksgiving Week version of the Week Observed. Our regular features--must read, new knowledge, and in the news--will return next Friday. What City Observatory did this week 1.... →

What City Observatory did this week 1. Carol Coletta on why cities need to embrace change. We publish Carol Coletta's remarks to the Congress for the New Urbanism, outlining the case for thinking about cities in a more dy... →

What City Observatory did this week 1.  Now we are four. October 17 marked City Observatory's fourth birthday. We celebrated with a shout-out to our founders, funders and partners, and reflected on what we think the most... →

What City Observatory did this week 1. Cities talent and prosperity. The latest report from the Economic Innovation Group has some interesting zip code data on the relative economic performance of the nation's neighborhoo... →

What City Observatory did this week 1. An affogato theory of transportation. The combination of gelato and espresso is a special treat, and it also neatly captures two of our favorite parables about how transportation rea... →

What City Observatory did this week 1. If you want less displacement, build more housing. A common refrain at planning commission meetings around the country is that cities ought to block new housing as a way of insulatin... →

What City Observatory did this week 1. Philadelphia's urban policy harmonic convergence. The proposal to build a multi-billion dollar expansion of University City adjacent to Drexel University and Philadelphia's Center Ci... →

What City Observatory did this week 1. We disagree with the Washington Post on housing economics. Two weeks ago, the Washington Post published an article claiming that rents were going down for higher income renters but i... →

What City Observatory did this week 1. Jason Segedy on gentrification. This week we feature a guest column from Akron planning director Jason Segedy. You can't build new housing in any existing neighborhood, it seems, wit... →

What City Observatory did this week 1.  Nattering nabobs of NIMBYism at the New York Times. Columnist Tim Egan called plans for a limited upzoning to enable more people to live in Seattle an unholy conspiracy of develope... →

What City Observatory did this week 1.  Your summertime must read: Alan Mallach's Divided City. We have a review of this newly released book, which we think every urbanist ought to read. Although written primarily from t... →