Another housing bubble brewing? Not really Another housing bubble? Strong Towns Chuck Marohn argues that we're in the midst of another housing bubble. He claims the housing market is full of fraud and is a bubble that's "ready to pop," just like in 2008. Is the... → By Joe Cortright 29.8.2024
City Observatory’s Joe Cortright on the Housing Bubble–2005 In an op-ed published in the Portland, Oregonian on July 17, 2005, City Observatory director Joe Cortright predicted that the US was in the throes of a housing bubble. The text of this op-ed follows: THE ECON... → By Joe Cortright 23.8.2024
How Metro’s RTP Illegally favors car travel and violates climate rules Oregon's planning rules require Portland area transportation plans to prioritize investments that reduce vehicle miles traveled Metro's adopted Regional Transportation Plan devotes most of its resources to providing add... → By Joe Cortright 22.8.2024
Hiding the growing cost of the Interstate Bridge Replacement The cost of the Interstate Bridge Replacement (IBR) is going up: But we won't tell you how much . . . And we're not going to tell you until a year from now, after the 2025 Legislature adjourns In January, 2024, IBR o... → By Joe Cortright 24.7.2024
Strawberries and economic prosperity Perishable, special, and local: The economics of unique and fleeting experiences I pity you, dear reader. You likely have no idea what a real strawberry tastes like. Unless you spend the three weeks around the Summe... → By Joe Cortright 24.6.2024
An 18 month delay for the IBR due to flawed traffic projections The $7.5 billion Interstate Bridge Replacement Project (IBR) is likely delayed up to 18 months because of flawed traffic modeling. The Oregon and Washington DOTs are in denial about the problem, but previously secret rec... → By Joe Cortright 14.6.2024
Grading the City Clean Energy Scorecard A new scorecard tries to measure how cities are promoting energy efficiency and reducing greenhouse gases—a laudable goal. But the scorecard has some serious limitations. This scorecard emphasizes policies and process... → By Joe Cortright 6.6.2024
Cargo Cult Comeback: Cost–$30 million a year Portland's $30 Million Container Shipping Folly Cargo cults are a well-documented sociological phenomenon: Cargo cults were religious movements that emerged among indigenous people in Melanesia during the early to mid-... → By Joe Cortright 20.5.2024
Oregon DOT can and should mitigate past damage from highways The Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) has proposed a $1.9 billion freeway widening project for Portland's Rose Quarter. The agency proposes to cover a portion of the freeway in what it calls "restorative justice... → By Joe Cortright 16.5.2024
The Interstate Bridge Replacement is Two Years Behind Schedule The $7.5 Billion Interstate Bridge Project is two years behind schedule IBR's Draft SEIS was supposed to be complete in December 2022—It now won't be done before December 2024. This two-year delay means the environ... → By Joe Cortright 6.5.2024
Bye Containers, Again Once again, Portland loses container service: the economic effects will be minimal. Economic development has long been obsessed with "cargo cult" thinking: the idea that economic prosperity is caused by ports and hi... → By Joe Cortright 17.4.2024
Another thing IBR doesn’t want you to know: 30 seconds over Portland The $7.5 Billion Interstate Bridge Replacement project will save the average commuter just 30 seconds in daily commute time IBR officially determined that "leaking" the project EIS would result in "negative public react... → By Joe Cortright 2.4.2024
What IBR 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 their Environmental Impact Statement IBR officially determined that "leaking" the project EIS would result in "n... → By Joe Cortright 26.3.2024
Monkey-wrenching road pricing R.I.P. Road Pricing in Oregon: Dead before its even tried More than just money, the demise of pricing monkey-wrenches state transportation policy It's no surprise: ODOT's attempts to implement pricing have been hal... → By Joe Cortright 14.3.2024
A yawning chasm: Patterns of neighborhood distress in US metros There's a yawning chasm of neighborhood level economic distress across US metro areas. While about 1 in 6 US neighborhoods is classed as distressed, some metro areas have large concentrations of distress, while others ha... → By Joe Cortright 6.3.2024
Freeway covers are an expensive way to create new urban land Wouldn't it be nice if we could create valuable new urban land by decking over freeways? Turns out, its massively uneconomical, and doesn't eliminate many of the most negative effects of urban freeways Its massively ... → By Joe Cortright 20.3.2024
Inventing a “commitment” to freeway cost overruns How ODOT is trying to re-write history to create a commitment to freeway cost overruns. The 2017 Legislature authorized zero funding for the I-205 Bridge project In 2024, ODOT now falsely claims that the I-205 projec... → By Joe Cortright 17.6.2024
States need honest reporting on transportation greenhouse gases You can't tell if you're winning or losing if you don't keep score, especially when it comes to transportation greenhouse gas emissions. But a close look at the data shows we're not making much progress, and not making ... → By Joe Cortright 1.4.2024
Three big flaws in ODOT’s Highway Cost Allocation Study There are good reasons to be dubious of claims that trucks are being over-charged for the use of Oregon roads. The imbalance between cars and trucks seems to stem largely from the Oregon Department of Transportation''s ... → By Joe Cortright 6.2.2024
Bad data: Not a decline in travel An imagined decline in trip-making is the result of bad data analysis USDOT counted fewer trips in 2022, because it used a different, and less reliable survey method USDOT's social media created a false perception th... → By Joe Cortright 21.12.2023
Down is not up: The truth about traffic, congestion and trucking A central message of the highway building sales pitch is that traffic is ever-growing and ever worsening, and that we have no choice but to throw more money at expanded capacity. The Oregon Department of Transportation ... → By Joe Cortright 4.12.2023
Diversion: IBR tolls will gridlock I-205 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. These tolls will cause tens of thousands of vehicles per day to stop crossing the I-5 br... → By Joe Cortright 6.12.2023
Why spend $200 million on consultants for “basically the same project”? Why does it take four years and $200 million 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" pr... → By Joe Cortright 17.1.2024
Lying about climate: A 5 million mile a day discrepancy Metro's Regional Transportation Plan (RTP) claims it will meet state and regional climate objectives by slashing vehicle travel more than 30 percent per person between now and 2045. Meanwhile, its transportation plan ac... → By Joe Cortright 16.11.2023
Rose Quarter’s Killer Ramps The proposed re-design of the I-5 Rose Quarter Project now includes two deadly hairpin freeway off-ramps. Just last week, Brandon Coleman was killed at a similar hairpin highway ramp in downtown Portland The Oregon... → By Joe Cortright 1.11.2023
Doubling down on climate fraud in Metro’s RTP Earlier, we branded Portland Metro's proposed Regional Transportation Plan (RTP) a climate fraud because in falsely claimed the region was reducing greenhouse gases, and falsely claimed its transportation investments were ... → By Joe Cortright 25.10.2023
ODOT Snow Job: Give us more money, or we’ll stop plowing your roads Oregon's Department of Transportation (ODOT) says it doesn't have enough money to maintain roads, fix potholes or even plow snow. This is a Big Lie: Mega-projects and their cost-overruns, not maintenance, are the cause ... → By Joe Cortright 8.11.2023
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 Project is a value-destroying proposition: it costs more to build than it provides in economic benefits Fede... → By Joe Cortright 14.12.2023
Britain’s Caste System of Transportation UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak proclaims the primacy of drivers "We are a nation of drivers" Those who don't own cars, or can't, or choose not to drive, are second class citizens The transportation culture war is f... → By Joe Cortright 9.10.2023
This is what victory looks like, Freeway Fighters Bad projects die with a whimper, not a bang Freeways are promoted with extravagant—and usually false—p.r. campaigns, but their death is just a bureaucratic footnote Freeway fights are often long, drawn-out affair... → By Joe Cortright 13.9.2023
Gentrification and Housing Supply New York lost more than 100,000 homes due to the combination of smaller, more affordable apartments into larger, more luxurious homes When rich people can't buy new luxury housing, they buy up, and combine small apartme... → By Joe Cortright 7.9.2023
The ten lane freeway hiding in Rose Quarter Plans Secret ODOT plans obtained by City Observatory show ODOT is planning a ten-lane freeway through the Rose Quarter Though the agency claims its "just adding one auxiliary lane" in each direction, the I-5 Rose Quarter proj... → By Joe Cortright 1.12.2023
Metro’s Climate-Denying Regional Transportation Plan Portland Metro's Regional Transportation Plan (RTP) does nothing to prioritize projects and expenditures that reduce greenhouse gases Metro falsely asserts that because its overall plan will be on a path to reduce GHGs ... → By Joe Cortright 23.8.2023
The climate fraud in Metro’s Regional Transportation Plan Metro's Regional Transportation Plan rationalizes spending billions on freeway expansion by publishing false estimates and projections of greenhouse gas emissions Transportation is the number one source of greenhouse ga... → By Joe Cortright 17.8.2023
Rose Quarter: So expensive because it’s too damn wide The cost of the $1.9 billion Rose Quarter freeway is driven by its excessive width ODOT is proposing to more than double the width of the I-5 Rose Quarter Freeway through the Albina neighborhood ODOT could easily str... → By Joe Cortright 12.7.2023
Rose Quarter: Death throes of a bloated 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 downtown Portland. The past few months show this project is in serious trouble. Here's a su... → By Joe Cortright 31.8.2023
Extend and Pretend: ODOT’s Zombie Rose Quarter project The Oregon Department of Transportation is playing "Extend and Pretend" with the $1.9 billion I-5 Rose Quarter Freeway widening project The cost of the 1.5 mile freeway widening has quadrupled from $450 million in 2017 ... → By Joe Cortright 9.7.2023
ODOT’s I-205 Bridge: 1/10th of 1 Percent for Black Contractors The Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) is falling short of its own goals of contracting with disadvantaged business enterprises One-tenth of one percent of I-205 contracts went to Black construction firms ODO... → By Joe Cortright 20.7.2023
Who sold out the HAAB? The members of ODOT's "Historic Albina Advisory Board" (HAAB) are hopping mad. As related by Jonathan Maus at Bike Portland, they feel board betrayed by a decision to postpone construction of the $1.6 billion I-5 Rose Qu... → By Joe Cortright 11.7.2023
Testimony to the Oregon Transportation Commission On June 28, 2023, City Observatory's Joe Cortright testified to the Oregon Transportation Commission about the agency's dire financial situation. Background: The Oregon Department of Transportation is pushing a multi-... → By Joe Cortright 1.7.2023
Scratch one flat top! Oregon freeway fighters chalk up a key victory—but the fight continues On June 26, the Oregon Department of Transportation finally bowed to reality that it simply lacks the funds to pay for a seven-mile long widening ... → By Joe Cortright 29.6.2023
Pens down! The price of ODOT's trouble plagued Rose Quarter project has quadrupled to $1.9 billion, and the agency has no way to pay for it, because it spent the money the Legislature provided in 2017 on another project. And agency... → By Joe Cortright 10.7.2023
Carmageddon does a no show, again (Baltimore edition) On Tuesday, March 26, the containership Dali slammed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, causing it to collapse into the Patapsco River. Tragically, six workers on the bridge were killed, but fortunately the ... → By Joe Cortright 27.3.2024
Carmageddon does a no show, again (Philadelphia edition) On Sunday June 11, a tanker truck caught fire on I-95 and the intense heat caused a section of the freeway to collapse. I-95 is one of the nation's principal north-south connections, and carries 160,000 vehicles per day.... → By Joe Cortright 12.6.2023
Getting prices right to improve urban transportation City Observatory is pleased to publish this guest commentary from Miriam Pinski. With the needed federal environmental approvals in hand, New York looks set to be the first American city to implement congestion pricin... → By Miriam Pinski 6.6.2023
What Cincinnati’s Brent Spence Bridge can tell Portland 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 funding and re-designing, especially shrink... → By Joe Cortright 9.5.2023
Bus on shoulder: Stalking horse for freeway widening 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 ... → By Joe Cortright 25.1.2024
Why can’t ODOT tell the truth? The Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) can't tell the truth about the width of proposed $7.5 billion Interstate Bridge Replacement Project ODOT is more than doubling the width of the bridge from its existing 77 ... → By Joe Cortright 1.5.2023
A blank check for the highway lobby: HB 2098-2 The HB 2098 "-2" amendments are perhaps the most fiscally irresponsible legislation ever to be considered by the Oregon Legislature. They constitute an open-ended promise by the Oregon Legislature to pay however much m... → By Joe Cortright 20.4.2023
IBR’s plan to sabotage the moveable span option IBR officials are planning to sabotage the analysis of a moveable span options as part of the Interstate Bridge Project The Coast Guard has said a replacement for the existing I-5 bridges would need a 178 foot navigatio... → By Joe Cortright 5.4.2023
The Color of Money: Bailing out highways with flexible federal funds ODOT grabs a billion dollars that could be used for bikes, pedestrians and transit, and allocates it to pay highway bills. Oregon highways are out of compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the cost of ... → By Joe Cortright 30.3.2023
Oregon’s transportation fiscal crisis 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 budget-writing committee about the fin... → By Joe Cortright 23.3.2023
Houston’s I-45: Civil rights or repeated wrongs? Editor's Note: For the past two year's the Federal Highway Administration has been investigating a civil rights complaint brought against the proposed I-45 freeway expansion project in Houston. This week, FHWA and TxDO... → By Kevin DeGood 10.3.2023
Housing affordability? Localism is the problem, not the solution Do we need a federal commission on housing affordability? Bruce Katz, author of "The New Localism" is calling for a national commission to come up with recommendations for dealing with the nation's housing crisis. &n... → By Joe Cortright 21.3.2023
Why does a $500 million bridge replacement cost $7.5 billion? The "bridge replacement" part of the Interstate Bridge Replacement only costs $500 million, according to new project documents So why is the overall project budget $7.5 billion? Short answer: This is really a massi... → By Joe Cortright 8.3.2023
More induced travel denial Highway advocates deny or minimize the science of induced travel Induced travel is a well established scientific fact: any increase in roadway capacity in a metropolitan area is likely to produce a proportional increa... → By Joe Cortright 27.2.2023
The Case Against the Interstate Bridge Replacement Here are our 16 top reasons Oregon and Washington need to re-think the proposed Interstate Bridge Replacement Project. The bloated size of the project and its $7.5 billion cost, and the availability of better alternative... → By Joe Cortright 10.4.2023
What new computer renderings really show about the IBR The Interstate Bridge Project has released—after years of delay—computer graphic renderings showing possible designs for a new I-5 bridge between Vancouver and Portland. But what they show is a project in real troubl... → By Joe Cortright 1.6.2023
IBR floats new bridge design, proving critics right For four years, the Oregon and Washington highway departments have been pushing a revival of the failed multi-billion dollar I-5 Columbia River Crossing. Their key sales pitch is that the size and design of the project c... → By Joe Cortright 18.2.2023
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 commuters, and two-thirds of all traffic on the bridge are Washington residents. On average, these commut... → By Joe Cortright 18.4.2023
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 cost of the I-5 Bridge Replacement Program (IBR) had ballooned 54 percent, to as much as $7.5 billion. To... → By Joe Cortright 7.2.2023
What the City of Portland said about the Rose Quarter City of Portland raises big questions about the I-5 Rose Quarter freeway widening project (translated). Last month was the deadline for comments on the supplemental environmental analysis for the proposed $1.45 billio... → By Joe Cortright 2.2.2023
I-205 tolls will cost you $600 per year ODOT's planned I-205 tolls will cost the average local household $600 annually. Regular commuters on I-205 will have to pay $2,200 per year in tolls under the ODOT plan The Oregon Department of Transportation is prop... → By Joe Cortright 22.2.2023
Another flawed Inrix Congestion Cost report Sigh. Here we are again, another year, and yet another uninformative, and actively misleading congestion cost report from Inrix. More myth and misdirection from highly numerate charlatans. Burying the lede: Traffic... → By Joe Cortright 10.1.2023
It looks like the Interstate Bridge Replacement could cost $9 billion 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 ... → By Joe Cortright 4.1.2024
Blame inflation now: Lying about the latest IBR Cost Overrun The price of the I-5 "bridge replacement" project just increased by more than 50 percent, from $4.8 billion to $7.5 billion ODOT and WSDOT are blaming "higher inflation" for IBR cost overruns As we've noted, the Oreg... → By Joe Cortright 14.12.2022
Why won’t ODOT tell us how wide their freeway is? After more than three years of public debate, ODOT still won't tell anyone how wide a freeway they're planning to build at the Rose Quarter ODOT's plans appear to provide for a 160-foot wide roadway, wide enough to acco... → By Joe Cortright 1.12.2022
ODOT doesn’t care about covers, again ODOT's Supplemental Environmental Analysis shows it has no plans for doing anything on its vaunted freeway covers It left the description of cover's post-construction use as "XXX facilities" in the final, official Suppl... → By Joe Cortright 8.12.2022
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-way, at the peak hour. Drive from Vancouver to a job in Wilsonville? Get ready to shell out as much as $30 per day. ... → By Joe Cortright 11.2.2023
ODOT’s I-5 Rose Quarter “Improvement”: A million more miles of local traffic ODOT's proposed relocation of the I-5 Southbound off-ramp at the Rose Quarter will add 1.3 million miles of vehicle travel to local streets each year. Moving the I-5 on ramp a thousand feet further south creates longer ... → By Joe Cortright 7.12.2022
ODOT: Our I-5 Rose Quarter safety project will increase crashes A newly revealed ODOT report shows the redesign of the I-5 Rose Quarter project will: creates a dangerous hairpin turn on the I-5 Southbound off-ramp increase crashes 13 percent violate the agency's own highw... → By Joe Cortright 19.11.2022
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 a Interstate 5 Is ODOT's supposed "safety" project really creating a new "Deadman's Curve" at the Moda Center? Bike riders wi... → By Joe Cortright 15.11.2022
ODOT reneges on Rose Quarter cover promises The soon-to-be released Rose Quarter I-5 Revised Environmental Assessment shows that ODOT is already reneging on its sales pitch of using a highway widening to heal Portland's Albina Neighborhood. It trumpeted "highway ... → By Joe Cortright 14.11.2022
A Toll Policy Primer for Oregon Oregon doesn't have tolls on any of its major roads or bridges. But faced with stagnant gas tax revenues, and with an appetite for huge freeway expansion projects, the Oregon Department of Transportation has committed it... → By Joe Cortright 27.10.2022
Flat Earth Sophistry The science of induced travel is well proven, but state DOTs are in utter denial Widening freeways not only fails to reduce congestion, it inevitably results in more vehicle travel and more pollution The Oregon Depar... → By Joe Cortright 30.12.2022
The IBR project: Too much money for too many interchanges The real expense of the $5 billion I-5 bridge replacement project isn't actually building a new bridge over the Columbia River: It's widening miles of freeway and rebuilding every intersection north and south of the rive... → By Joe Cortright 18.12.2022
ODOT’s safety lie is back, bigger than ever Oregon DOT is using phony claims about safety to sell a $1.45 billion freeway widening project People are regularly being killed on ODOT roadways and the agency claims that it lacks the resources to fix these problems ... → By Joe Cortright 18.10.2022
Pricing works better than spending $1.45 billion to fix I-5 traffic A recently disclosed ODOT memo shows that congestion pricing would do a better job of fixing I-5 congestion than spending $1.45 billion widening the I-5 freeway at the Rose Quarter Congestion pricing would would be more... → By Joe Cortright 9.12.2022
Two out of three candidates for Oregon Governor are climate denialists The Republican and Independent candidates for Oregon Governor are happy to spout a convenient myth that we can fight climate change by widening highways. That myth has been completely disproven: wider roads encourage ... → By Joe Cortright 10.10.2022
Highway officials misrepresent Coast Guard permit requirements The Interstate Bridge Project falsely claimed to a legislative committee that the USDOT/Coast Guard agreement on bridge permits doesn't apply to the IBR project. This is part of a repeated series of misrepresentations a... → By Joe Cortright 9.11.2022
ODOT’s “Fix-it first” fraud ODOT claims that its policy is "fix-it first" maintaining the highway system. But it is spending vastly less on maintenance and restoration than is needed to keep roads and bridges from deteriorating It blames the Le... → By Joe Cortright 28.7.2022
A bridge too low . . . again Ignoring the Coast Guard dooms the I-5 Bridge Project to yet another failure The Oregon and Washington DOTs have again designed a I-5 bridge that's too low for navigation In their rush to recycle the failed plans for... → By Joe Cortright 12.7.2022
Oregon and Washington DOTs plan too low a bridge–again. The Coast Guard has told Oregon and Washington that a new I-5 bridge must have a 178-foot vertical clearance for river navigation--vastly higher than the 116-foot clearance the state's have proposed A fixed span with th... → By Joe Cortright 5.7.2022
Risky Bridges: Deja vu all over again Needed: An independent review of technical mistakes that could cost billions The proposed multi-billion dollar Interstate Bridge Replacement is shaping up a repeat of the Columbia River Crossing (CRC) fiasco because t... → By Joe Cortright 28.10.2022
ODOT’s Reign of Error: Chronic highway cost overruns Nearly every major project undertaken by the Oregon Department of Transportation has ended up costing at least double its initial estimate As ODOT proposes a multi-billion dollar series of highway expansions, its estima... → By Joe Cortright 9.6.2022
How ODOT & WSDOT are hiding real plans for a 10- or 12-lane I-5 Bridge Project Ignore the false claims that the Oregon and Washington highway departments are making about the number of lanes on their proposed I-5 project: its footprint will be 164 feet—easily enough for a 10- or 12-lane roadway. ... → By Joe Cortright 11.5.2022
Ten unanswered questions about the IBR Boondoggle In the next month or two, regional leaders in Portland are going to be asked to approve the "modified locally preferred alternative" for the I-5 Bridge Replacement (IBR) Project, an intentionally misnamed, $5 billion, 5 mi... → By Joe Cortright 5.5.2022
What are they hiding? Why highway builders won’t show their $7.5 billion freeway 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 and Washington highway departments are using an old Robert Moses tri... → By Joe Cortright 28.3.2023
Sprawl and Tax Evasion: Driving forces behind freeway widening Sprawl and tax evasion are the real forces fueling the demand for wider freeways Highway widening advocates offer up a a kind of manifest destiny storyline: population and traffic are ever-increasing, and unless we ac... → By Joe Cortright 18.4.2022
A Universal Basic income . . . for Cars California is the first in the nation to establish 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 Inco... → By Joe Cortright 14.4.2022
Flying blind: Why public leaders need an investment grade analysis Portland and Oregon leaders shouldn't commit to a $5 billion project without an investment grade analysis (IGA) of toll revenues Not preparing an IGA exposes the state to huge financial risk: It will have to make up tol... → By Joe Cortright 1.6.2022
Which metros are vulnerable to gas price hikes? Green cities will be less hurt by higher gas prices; Sprawling cities are much more vulnerable to gas price hikes. In sprawling metros like Atlanta, Dallas, Orlando, Nashville and Oklahoma City, higher gas prices will c... → By Joe Cortright 22.3.2022
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 the road, ODOT will use pricing to limit demand This shows Oregon can quickly implemen... → By Joe Cortright 3.3.2022
A reporter’s guide to congestion cost studies Reporters: read this before you write a "cost of congestion" story. Congestion cost studies are a classic example of pseudo-science: Big data and bad assumptions produce meaningless results Using this absurd meth... → By Joe Cortright 9.1.2023
More Congestion Pseudo Science A new study calculates that twenty percent of all time "lost" in travel is due to traffic lights Finally, proof for the Lachner Theorem: Traffic signals are a major cause of traffic delay Another classic example o... → By Joe Cortright 26.5.2022
Freeway widening for whomst? Widening freeways is no way to promote equity. The proposed $5 billion widening of I-5 between Portland and Vancouver is purportedly being undertaken with "an equity lens," but widening Portland's I-5 freeway serves high... → By Joe Cortright 23.2.2022
Biased statistics: Woke-washing the I-5 Boondoggle The Oregon and Washington transportation departments are using a biased, unscientific survey to market their $5 billion I-5 freeway widening project. The survey over-represents daily bridge users by a factor of 10 compa... → By Joe Cortright 7.3.2022
The I-5 bridge “replacement” con Oregon and Washington highway builders have re-branded the failed Columbia River Crossing as a "bridge replacement" project: It's not. Less than 30 percent of the cost of the nearly $5 billion project is actually for ... → By Joe Cortright 7.2.2022
Portland: Don’t move or close schools to widen freeways Adah Crandall is a sophomore at Grant High School. She is the co-lead of Portland Youth Climate Strike and an organizer with Sunrise PDX's Youth Vs ODOT campaign, a biweekly series of rallies fighting for the decarboniza... → By Adah Crandall 27.1.2022
Transportation trends and disparities If you aren't talking about our two-caste transportation system, you're not really addressing equity. Portland's regional government is looking forward at trends in the transportation system and their implications for e... → By Joe Cortright 13.1.2022
Metro’s “Don’t Look Up” Climate Policy Metro, Portland's regional government, says it has a plan to reduce transportation greenhouse gases But in the 8 years since adopting the plan, the agency hasn't bothered to look at data on GHGs—which have increased 2... → By Joe Cortright 20.1.2022
ODOT’s forecasting double standard 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 forecasts revenue, it says it will ignore a... → By Joe Cortright 17.2.2022
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, emi... → By Joe Cortright 30.12.2021
Why the proposed $5 billion I-5 bridge is a climate disaster The plan to spend $5 billion widening the I-5 Bridge Over the Columbia River would produce 100,000 additional metric tons of greenhouse gases per year, according to the induced travel calculator Metro's 2020 transporta... → By Joe Cortright 4.1.2022
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 ... → By Joe Cortright 7.12.2021
Oregon’s economic success: The triumph of the city 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... → By Joe Cortright 22.11.2021
Let’s stop whining about gas prices: Gasoline is cheap, too cheap. 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 gas. Even with a recent uptick, gas prices are still lower than they were a decade ago. Cheap ... → By Joe Cortright 15.11.2021
How to solve traffic congestion: A miracle in Louisville? Louisville charges a cheap $1 to $2 toll for people driving across the Ohio River on I-65. After doubling the size of the I-65 bridges from six lanes to 12, tolls slashed traffic by half, from about 130,000 cars per... → By Joe Cortright 10.11.2021
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 futu... → By Joe Cortright 15.12.2021
The opposite of planning: Why Metro should stop I-5 Bridge con Portland's Metro regional government would be committing planning malpractice and enabling lasting fiscal and environmental damage if it goes along with state highway department freeway widening plans The proposed $5 ... → By Joe Cortright 2.11.2021
Oregon, Washington advance I-5 bridge based on outdated traffic projections The Oregon and Washington Departments of Transportation are advancing their $5 billion freeway widening plan based on outdated 15-year-old traffic projections. No new projections have been prepared since the 2007 estimates... → By Joe Cortright 4.1.2022
Here’s what’s wrong with Oregon DOT’s Rose Quarter pollution claims 10 reasons not to believe phony DOT claims that widening highways reduces pollution We know that transportation is the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the US, and that our car dependent transportation syst... → By Joe Cortright 12.10.2021
Freeway-widening grifters: Woke-washing, fraud and incompetence The Oregon Department of Transportation's glossy mailer to sell its $1.25 billion I-5 Rose Quarter Freeway widening project is a cynical, error-ridden marketing ploy. ODOT doesn't show or tell about its wider freeway an... → By Joe Cortright 20.9.2021
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, gentrification is far from the biggest problem we face. Gentrification is ... → By Joe Cortright 9.9.2021
Climate efforts must be cost effective Portland's $60 million a year clean energy fund needs climate accountability Any grant writer can spin a yarn that creates the illusion that a given project will have some sort of climate benefits, but if you're actuall... → By Joe Cortright 2.9.2021
A net zero blind spot Stanford claims its campus will be 100 percent solar powered . . . provided you ignore cars. A flashy news release caught our eye this week. Stanford University is reporting that its campus will be 100 percent powered... → By Joe Cortright 25.8.2021
Insurance and the Cost of Living: Homeowners Insurance Yesterday, we explored the differences in car insurance premiums in the nation’s largest metropolitan areas. Today, we will take a look at homeowners insurance rates. Unlike car insurance, homeowners insurance is not... → By Eli Molloy 18.8.2021
Insurance and the Cost of Living: Auto Insurance Everyone loves to compare the affordability of different cities, and most of the attention gets focused on differences in housing prices and rents. Clearly, these are a major component of living costs, and they vary su... → By Eli Molloy 17.8.2021
BIB: The bad infrastructure bill Four lamentations about a bad infrastructure bill From the standpoint of the climate crisis, the infrastructure bill that passed the Senate is, at a minimum, a tremendous blown opportunity. Transportation, especially ... → By Joe Cortright 12.8.2021
To solve climate, we need electric cars—and a lot less driving Electric vehicles will help, but we need to do much more to reduce driving Editor's Note: City Observatory is pleased to offer this guest commentary by Matthew Lewis. Matthew is Director of Communications for Califor... → By Matthew Lewis 10.8.2021
America’s berry best cities Why Boston and Portland are the berry-best metros, and why it matters Summer is the height of berry season in most of the US, and nothing beats a fresh, locally grown blackberry, blueberry or raspberry. Today we're ra... → By Joe Cortright 5.8.2021
Selling Oregon into highway bondage Borrowing billions to widen roads endangers the climate and finances It's doubly wrong to burden future generations with the environmental costs of wider roads, and then also send them the bill Bond financing of new... → By Joe Cortright 22.7.2021
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... → By Joe Cortright 6.12.2021
Welcome to Portland Secretary Pete! Now about the Rose Quarter Freeway Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is visiting Oregon to learn more about local transportation issues. The local advocacy group No More Freeways has sent him an open letter to provide some background for his visit. ... → By Joe Cortright 14.7.2021
Burn, baby, burn: ODOT’s climate strategy The Oregon Department of Transportation is in complete denial about climate change Oregon DOT has drafted a so-called "Climate Action Plan" that is merely perfunctory and performative busywork. The devastation of cli... → By Joe Cortright 29.7.2021
Miami’s E-Scooters: Revisiting the Double Standard In Miami, e-scooters pay four to 50 times as much to use the public roads as cars If we want to encourage greener, safer travel, we should align the prices we charge with our values Florida is home to some of the... → By Eli Molloy 6.7.2021
It’s back, and it’s even dumber than ever: The Urban Mobility Report There was an unprecedented decline in traffic congestion in the US last year. According to the Urban Mobility Report, there's essentially nothing we can learn from this experience The Texas Transportation Institute ha... → By Joe Cortright 1.7.2021
Lower interest rates = More expensive homes The decline in interest rates in 2020 is a huge factor in explaining the recent surge in home prices. Population growth, a key driver of housing demand, actually slowed dramatically in the past year. The current surg... → By Joe Cortright 29.6.2021
The Bum’s Rush The $800 million project transitions from "nothing has been decided" to "nothing can be changed" There's a kind of calculated phase-shift in the way transportation department's talk about major projects. For a long, l... → By Joe Cortright 21.6.2021
More proof of ODOT’s Rose Quarter Freeway coverup Newly revealed documents show its roadway is vastly wider than needed for traffic, and also makes "buildable" freeway covers prohibitively expensive If you really want just two additional lanes, you can do so much more ... → By Joe Cortright 16.6.2021
How highways finally crushed Black Tulsa Tulsa's Greenwood neighborhood survived the 1921 race massacre, only to be ultimately destroyed by a more unrelenting foe: Interstate highways Black Tulsans quickly rebuilt Greenwood in the 1920s, and it flourished for ... → By Joe Cortright 2.6.2021
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 medi... → By Anthony Dedousis 24.5.2021
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 whit... → By Anthony Dedousis 27.5.2021
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 ... → By Joe Cortright 25.5.2021
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... → By Joe Cortright 17.5.2021
Just say no: How to deal with highway widening zealots The Oregon and Washington highway departments are at it again, pushing a 10- or 12-lane, five mile long freeway widening project that's likely to cost at least $5 billion. They're responding to objections with a combina... → By David Bragdon 12.5.2022
Failing to Learn from Failed CRC Metro Council voted on July 14th to wave on the proposed "Interstate Bridge Replacement" project which is really a bloated, 5 mile long, 12-lane wide freeway that will cost $5 billion and likely much more. It's a scene-for... → By David Bragdon 14.7.2022
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... → By David Bragdon 12.5.2021
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 vastl... → By Joe Cortright 3.5.2021
Getting real about restorative justice in Albina Drawings don't constitute restorative justice ODOT shows fancy drawings about what might be built, but isn't talking about actually paying to build anything Just building the housing shown in its diagrams would requi... → By Joe Cortright 26.4.2021
The NIMBYs made $6 trillion last year In 2021, US residential values increased by $6.9 trillion, almost entirely due to price appreciation Those gains went disproportionately to older, white, higher income households Capital gains on housing in 2021 were... → By Joe Cortright 6.4.2022
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 tota... → By Joe Cortright 5.5.2021
ODOT’s peer review panel admits it didn’t validate Rose Quarter travel forecasts ODOT has claimed a "peer review panel" vindicated its air pollution analysis Now the panel says they didn't look into the accuracy of ODOT's travel forecast Travel forecasts are critical, because they determine air a... → By Joe Cortright 14.4.2021
The freight fable: Moving trucks is not longer the key to economic prosperity It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it. Upton Sinclair It's even harder to get a trucking industry lobbyist or a highway department booster to un... → By Joe Cortright 22.4.2021
Driving stakes, selling bonds: ODOT’s freeway boondoggle plan The Oregon Department of Transportation is launching a series of boondoggle freeways, with no idea of their ultimate cost, and issuing bonds that will obligate the public to pay for expensive and un-needed highways. Fut... → By Joe Cortright 26.1.2023
Wholly Moses: Pave now, pay later Oregon legislation goes whole hog on highways HB 3065 would launch a whole new round of freeway boondoggles, and plunge the state into debt to pay for them The classic Robert Moses scam: Drive stakes, sell bonds ... → By Joe Cortright 6.4.2021
How ODOT destroyed Albina, part 3: The Fremont Bridge ramps ODOT's Fremont Bridge wiped out multiple blocks of the Albina neighborhood A freeway you've never heard of leveled dozens of blocks in North and Northeast Portland The stub of a proposed "Prescott Freeway" still scar... → By Joe Cortright 7.4.2021
Greenwashing auto infrastructure: Natick’s diverging diamond A proposed interchange in Natick, Mass. is a classic example of greenwashing The diverging diamond is an idea entirely given over to making things better for cars, and creates a disorienting, circuitous and dangerous wo... → By Joe Cortright 23.3.2021
An open letter to the Oregon Transportation Commission For years, the Oregon Department of Transportation has concealed its plans to build a ten lane freeway through Portland's Rose Quarter We're calling on the state to do a full environmental impact statement that assesses... → By Joe Cortright 18.3.2021
Is the pandemic driving rents down? Or up? Since Covid started, rents are down in some cities, but up in most "Superstar" cities have experienced the most notable declines; the demographics of renters in these cities are different than elsewhere. Rent decline... → By Alan Mallach 16.3.2021
Progress Zero: Lofty vision but increasing deaths and injuries Vision Zero is a popular and widely embraced safety campaign, but the latest data shows Portland is not only not on track, it's going in the wrong direction when it comes to road safety Multi-lane, car-dominated urban a... → By Joe Cortright 8.3.2021
Taking Tubman: ODOT’s plan to build a freeway on school grounds ODOT's proposed I-5 Rose Quarter project would turn a school yard into a freeway The widened I-5 freeway will make already unhealthy air even worse Pollution from high volume roads has been shown to lower student ac... → By Joe Cortright 13.4.2021
A new framework for equitable economic development Editor's Note: Darrene Hackler is a consultant and a senior advisor with Smart Incentives. Darrene brings economic development expertise in economic equity and inclusive growth, entrepreneurship and small business, and inn... → By Darrene Hackler 4.3.2021
Revealed: ODOT’s Secret Plans for a 10-Lane Rose Quarter Freeway For years, ODOT has been planning to build a 10 lane freeway at the Rose Quarter, not the 6 lanes it has advertised. Three previously undisclosed files show ODOT is planning for a 160 foot wide roadway at Broadway-Weidl... → By Joe Cortright 24.2.2021
Wile E. Coyote hits bottom: Portland’s inclusionary zoning Portland's inclusionary zoning requirement is a slow-motion train-wreck; apartment permits are down by sixty percent in the City of Portland, while apartment permitting has more than doubled in the rest of the region In... → By Joe Cortright 6.4.2023
Inclusionary Zoning: Portland’s Wile E. Coyote moment has arrived Portland's inclusionary zoning requirement is a slow-motion train-wreck; apartment completions are down by two-thirds, and the development pipeline is drying up This will lead to slower housing supply growth and increas... → By Joe Cortright 9.3.2021
The Fundamental, Global Law of Road Congestion Studies from around the world have validated the existence of induced demand: each improvement to freeway capacity in urban areas generates more traffic. The best available science worldwide—in Europe, Japan and Nor... → By Joe Cortright 1.3.2021
Oregon’s I-5 bridge costs just went up $150 million Buried in an Oregon Department of Transportation presentation earlier this month is an acknowledgement that the I-5 bridge replacement "contribution" from Oregon will be as much as $1 billion—up from a maximum of $850 mi... → By Joe Cortright 22.2.2021
Equitable Carbon Fee and Dividend An equitable carbon fee and dividend should be set to a price level necessary to achieve GHG reduction goals; kicker payment should be set so 70% of people receive a net income after paying carbon tax or at least break eve... → By Garlynn Woodsong 18.2.2021
How ODOT destroyed Albina: The I-5 Meat Axe Interstate 5 "Meat Axe" slashed through the Albina Neighborhood in 1962 This was the second of three acts by ODOT that destroyed housing and isolated Albina Building the I-5 freeway led to the demolition of housing ... → By Joe Cortright 30.3.2021
How ODOT destroyed Albina: The untold story I-5 wasn't the first highway that carved up Portland's historically black Albina Neighborhood. Seventy years ago, ODOT spent the equivalent of more than $80 million in today's dollars to cut the Albina neighborhood off ... → By Joe Cortright 22.3.2021
How freeways kill cities Freeways slash population in cities, and prompt growth in suburbs Within city centers, the closer your neighborhood was to the freeway, the more its population declined. In suburbs, the closer your neighborhood was t... → By Joe Cortright 15.2.2021
Covid Migration: Temporary, young, economically insecure There's relatively little migration in the wake of Covid-19 Most Covid-related migration is temporary, involves moving in with friends or relatives, and not leaving a metro area It's not professionals fleeing cities:... → By Joe Cortright 16.2.2021
Albina Then and Now Albina then and now Basically, Albina was wiped out by Interstate Ave 99E (ODOT) 1951 Memorial Coliseum (City) 1958 I-5 1962 Emmanuel Hospital (PDC) 1970s Blanchard Center (PPS) 1980 Convention Center 1990... → By Joe Cortright 1.2.2021
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 strong correlation between metropolitan segregation and black-white housing wealth dispari... → By Joe Cortright 9.2.2021
America’s K-shaped housing market Home prices are soaring, rents are falling The disparate impact of the recession on high income and low income households in driving the housing market in two directions at once. Job losses have been concentrated amo... → By Joe Cortright 3.2.2021
Calculating induced demand at the Rose Quarter Widening I-5 at the Rose Quarter in Portland will produce an addition 17.4 to 34.8 million miles of vehicle travel and 7.8 to 15.5 thousand tons of greenhouse gases per year. These estimates come from a customized cal... → By Joe Cortright 1.2.2021
Congestion Pricing: ODOT is disobeying an order from Governor Brown More than a year ago, Oregon Governor Kate Brown directed ODOT to "include a full review of congestion pricing" before deciding whether or not to do a full environmental impact statement for the proposed I-5 Rose Quarter... → By Joe Cortright 8.2.2021
Why parking should pay its way instead of getting a free ride Hartford Connecticut considers a pioneering move to make parking pay its way A higher parking tax works much like a "lite" version of land value taxation (LVT) Surface parking lots are highly subsidized polluters ... → By Joe Cortright 14.1.2021
A regional green new deal for Portland by Garlynn Woodsong Editor's note:City Observatory is pleased to publish this commentary by Garlynn Woodsong. Garlynn is the Managing Director of the planning consultancy Woodsong Associates, and has more than 20 years ... → By Garlynn Woodsong 6.1.2021
2021: Time to get serious about climate Our new year's resolution should be to take climate action seriously. Time is running out to actually do something that will reduce the steady growth of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere, which is triggering irreversible... → By Joe Cortright 4.1.2021
2020: The Year Observed 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... → By Joe Cortright 30.12.2020
Portland carbon tax should apply to all big polluters By all means, Portland should adopt its proposed healthy climate fee, a $25 ton carbon tax But make sure it applies to the biggest and fastest growing sources of greenhouse gases in the region The healthy climate fee... → By Joe Cortright 5.1.2021
City Observatory on housing supply and affordability Here's just some of what we've had to say about research on housing markets at City Observatory. Building more housing lowers rents for everyone December 14, 2020 A new study from Germany shows that added housing supp... → By Joe Cortright 23.12.2020
Housing discrimination is baked into zoning The real housing discrimination today is institutional, not personal The unfinished business of dismantling the institutional racism built into zoning Overt, personal discrimination in housing is just the tip of the ... → By Joe Cortright 18.1.2021
Sustainability is about more than electrification Editor's Note: We're pleased to publish this guest commentary by Kevin DeGood, Director of Infrastructure Policy at the Center for American Progress. This commentary originally appeared as a tweetstorm, and is republish... → By Joe Cortright 16.12.2020
Building more housing lowers rents for everyone A new study from Germany shows that added housing supply lowers rents across the board A 1 percent increase in housing is associated with a 0.4 to 0.7 percent decrease in rents Housing policy debates are tortured by ... → By Joe Cortright 14.12.2020
The only reason some people drive is because we pay them to Here's an insight from tolling: A substantial portion of the people driving on our roadways are only there because we're subsidizing the cost of their trip. When we charge a toll to use a road, suddenly many of those ... → By Joe Cortright 7.12.2020
The real $3.4 billion hole in the I-5 bridge project The Oregon and Washington transportation departments understated the funding gap for a revived I-5 Columbia River Bridge by more than $1 billion Correcting for an arithmetic error increases the gap between identified re... → By Joe Cortright 30.11.2020
The truth about Oregon DOT’s Rose Quarter MegaFreeway The Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) desperately wants to build a mega-freeway through NE Portland, and is planning to double the freeway from 4 lanes to 8 or 10 lanes. But it has hidden its true objective, by ... → By Joe Cortright 19.12.2022
Put a bird on it: Highway Greenwashing There's no shortage of cynical greenwashing to sell climate-killing highway widening projects GeorgiaDOT and AASHTO have a new PR gimmick to promote the same old product In a famous season one sketch of Portlandia, F... → By Joe Cortright 12.4.2023
More cynical greenwashing from the highway industry There's no shortage of cynical greenwashing to sell climate-killing highway widening projects GeorgiaDOT and AASHTO have a new PR gimmick to promote the same old product AASHTO—the American Association of State Hig... → By Joe Cortright 16.11.2020
Phoenix: Climate Hypocrisy You can't be a climate mayor—and your city can't be a climate city — if you're widening freeways Phoenix says it's going to reduce greenhouse gases 90 percent by 2050, but the city's transportation greenhouse gases ... → By Joe Cortright 1.12.2020
Why—and where—Metro’s $5 billion transportation bond measure failed Portland voters resoundingly defeated a proposed multi-billion dollar payroll tax to pay for transportation projects The two areas slated for the biggest benefits voted against the measure: The Southwest Corridor and ... → By Joe Cortright 11.11.2020
Systemic racism and automobile insurance Does geographic rating of car insurance amount to 21st Century redlining? Car insurance rates vary more based on who your neighbors are than on your driving record The premium penalty for living in a Black neighborho... → By Joe Cortright 5.11.2020
Covid & Cities: Reasons for optimism There are several compelling reasons—the seven "C's"—to believe cities will thrive and prosper in a post-pandemic world: Competition: Zooming it in works when everyone has to do it, but if you work remotely whil... → By Joe Cortright 9.11.2020
Frog Ferry: The slow boat to nowhere A proposed Portland area ferry makes no economic or transportation sense. Why the Frog Ferry is a slow boat to nowhere A ferry between Vancouver and Portland would take 20 minutes longer than existing bus service ... → By Joe Cortright 27.4.2022
Equity and Metro’s $5 Billion Transportation Bond Advocates for a $5 billion transportation bond that Portland area voters will be deciding in November are making a specious argument about it being an equity measure. Its largest single project, a multi-billion dollar l... → By Joe Cortright 26.10.2020
The Great Disconnect: The perverse rhetoric of gentrification The Great Disconnect By Jason Segedy City Observatory is pleased to publish this guest commentary from Akron's Jason Segedy. It originally appeared on his blog. As this decade draws to a close, the story... → By Joe Cortright 29.9.2020
Parking and equity in cities The average price of a monthly parking permit in cities is $2.25, compared to $70.00 for a transit pass. Everything you need to know about equity and privilege in urban transportation is reflected in how much we charge ... → By Joe Cortright 22.9.2020
Red states are now the red zone for Covid-19 Covid-19 now disproportionately affects rural America, and is hitting red states harder than blue ones. Rural counties have 14 percent of US population and 21 percent of new Covid-19 cases. The nation's largest, densest... → By Joe Cortright 13.10.2020
Covid-19 is now a rural and red state pandemic Covid-19 now disproportionately affects rural America, and is hitting red states harder than blue ones. OK, reporters, we're waiting for the stories about rural Americans decamping to cities (or suburbs) and from red st... → By Joe Cortright 16.9.2020
How to make gentrification even worse Banning new construction is a great way to push up home values and accelerate gentrification Cities are conflicted and confused about how to protect affordability "Stop the world - I want to get off" was the title of... → By Joe Cortright 21.9.2020
City Beat: Another sketchy claim of Covid-driven urban flight Again: It's anecdotes, not data that are fueling claims of an urban exodus due to Covid-19 The virus is now deadlier in the nation's rural areas than it is in cities, undercutting the basis for the urban flight theo... → By Joe Cortright 8.12.2020
City Beat: No flight to Portland’s suburbs Another anecdote-fueled, data-starved article repeats the "suburban flight" meme, this time for Portland. Actual market data show the central city's market remains strong Janet Eastman, writing in the Portland, Orego... → By Joe Cortright 17.9.2020
Lived segregation in US cities We're much less segregated during the day, and when we're away from home Commercial and public spaces are important venues for interaction with people from other racial/ethnic groups Patterns of experienced segregati... → By Joe Cortright 15.9.2020
Why this Portland transit veteran is voting no on Metro’s bond Editor's Note: City Observatory is pleased to present this guest commentary from GB Arrington, longtime veteran of Portland's transit and land use planning systems, explaining why he's against a proposed $5 billion transpo... → By Joe Cortright 10.9.2020
More performative pedestrian infrastructure Houston's "Energy Corridor" gets a pedestrian makeover, but just one thing seems to be missing. Bollards and better landscaping can't offset the increased danger from wider, faster slip lanes. Most "pedestrian" infra... → By Joe Cortright 25.1.2021
The myth of pedestrian infrastructure in a world of cars Big money "pedestrian" projects are often remedial and performative; their real purpose is to serve faster car traffic. One of the biggest lies in transportation planning is calling something "multi-modal." When someb... → By Joe Cortright 3.9.2020
Is there anything “smart” about smart cities? Big data and new technology make bold promises about solving urban problems, but not only fall well short of solutions, but actually can end up making things worse. Why we're skeptical of the "smart city" movement. Y... → By Joe Cortright 7.9.2020
The case against Metro’s $5 billion transportation bond Metro's proposed $5 billion transportation measure makes no sense for the region, for transportation, for our economy, for our kids and for our planet. Portland's regional government, Metro, will be asking voters in Nov... → By Joe Cortright 25.8.2020
America’s least (and most) segregated metro areas: 2020 The latest Census data show that Black/White segregation is decreasing in large metro areas. Racial segregation still prevails in most American cities, but varies widely across the nation. Portland is one of America'... → By Joe Cortright 20.10.2021
America’s least (and most) segregated cities. Racial segregation still prevails in most American cities, but varies widely across the nation. Portland is the nation's least segregated large city. The murder of George Floyd by police has reignited national intere... → By Joe Cortright 17.8.2020
Is it random, or is it Zumper? Pay no attention to Zumper's claims about rent trends Zumper claims rents for one-bedroom and two-bedroom apartments are moving in opposite directions in about a fifth of all markets There's a lot of hyperventilation... → By Joe Cortright 3.8.2020
A world of fewer cars and less driving Auto industry consultants KPMG see fewer cars and less driving in our future That may be bad for the car business, but good for the environment and cities One clear implication: hold off building new road capacity ... → By Joe Cortright 29.7.2020
The amazing disappearing urban exodus The greatest urban myth of the Covid-19 pandemic is that fear of density has triggered an exodus from cities. US Post Office data show that the supposed urban exodus was just a trickle, and Americans moved even less in ... → By Joe Cortright 19.10.2020
The Exodus that never happened The greatest urban myth of the Covid-19 pandemic is that fear of density has triggered an exodus from cities. The latest data show an increase in interest in dense urban locations. At City Observatory, we've regularl... → By Joe Cortright 21.7.2020
The toxic flood of cars, not just the freeway, crushed Albina Restorative Justice & A Viable Neighborhood What destroyed the Albina community? What will it take to restore it? It wasn't just the freeway, it was the onslaught of cars, that transformed Albina into a bleak a... → By Joe Cortright 16.9.2020
“Let them drive Teslas” is not a climate or a justice plan Portland's climate emergency efforts are tarnished by an inability to plainly speak the facts about climate change But the tragic fact is that the city is utterly failing to meet even its own previous goals, and more al... → By Joe Cortright 11.8.2020
CityBeat: NPR’s suburban flight story Yet another entry in the trumped-up pandemic-fueled suburban flight narrative Anecdotes aside, there's no data that people are fleeing cities to avoid the Coronavirus The data show young, well-educated adults moving ... → By Joe Cortright 8.7.2020
Vancouver Columbian: Suburban drivers matter Who are the real beneficiaries of the $800 million I-5 Rose Quarter project? Vancouver, Washington commuters, who won't pay a dime for its construction. Wider freeways just double down on the damage done to city neigh... → By Joe Cortright 18.9.2020
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 rep... → By Joe Cortright 20.5.2021
Dominos falling on Rose Quarter freeway widening Last week, over the space of about 24 hours, the prospects for Portland's proposed the Rose Quarter freeway widening dimmed almost to extinction. Leaders of Portland's African-American community have concluded that the ... → By Joe Cortright 14.7.2020
Portland awards itself a participation trophy for climate Portland is utterly failing to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from transportation, but not to worry, its ticking lots of boxes in its bureaucratic check-list. The city walks away from its 2015 Climate Action Plan after... → By Joe Cortright 30.7.2020
Covid-19: Surging in Sunbelt cities The pandemic is exploding in Sunbelt Cities, from the Carolinas to California Covid-19 is subdued in the North and surging in the South Hotter southern temperatures and a move indoors, coupled with looser reopening r... → By Joe Cortright 30.6.2020
City Beat: When workers can live anywhere Another anecdote-fueled tale predicting of urban decline Writing in The Wall Street Journal, Rachel Feintzeig and Ben Eisen add another story, this one headlined "When workers can live anywhere" to the growing pile of c... → By Joe Cortright 18.6.2020
COVID Lessons for Portland (and others) COVID Lessons for Portland (and others) by Ethan Seltzer (. . . with profound thanks to anonymous reviewers) Editor's Note: We're pleased to publish this essay by City Observatory friend Ethan Seltzer, reflecting o... → By Joe Cortright 16.6.2020
Youth movement: A generational shift in preference for urbanism Well-educated young adults are increasingly moving to city centers Real estate search activity shows no decline in interest in city living due to the pandemic Our new report—Youth Movement: Accelerating America's U... → By Joe Cortright 15.6.2020
Youth Movement Dashboard See how your city's close-in neighborhoods did in attracting well-educated young adults Our CityReport, Youth Movement: Accelerating America's Urban Renaissance, charts the growing concentration of well-educated young a... → By Joe Cortright 15.6.2020
Covid-19 accelerating in five cities New Covid-19 cases are increasing in five metro areas: Phoenix, Tucson, San Antonio, Tampa and Raleigh These are the places to watch to see how well re-opening plans manage to avoid re-igniting the pandemic. Metro ar... → By Joe Cortright 10.6.2020
Covid-19 and segregation Segregated cities seem to be harder hit by the pandemic Covid-19 prevalence is more strongly correlated with metropolitan racial and economic segregation than with urban density The New York City metro area has been ... → By Joe Cortright 8.6.2020
Covid-19: A catalyst for more inclusive cities Will the Covid-19 pandemic be a catalyst for better, more inclusive cities? The media fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic has been a series of largely baseless stories predicting a panicky flight from cities to avoid the... → By Joe Cortright 11.6.2020
Whitewashing the freeway widening A so-called "peer review" panel was kept in the dark about critiques of the highway department's flawed projections This is a thinly veiled attempt These are the products of a hand-picked, spoon-fed group, asked by ODOT... → By Joe Cortright 4.6.2020
The convention business is cratering, and cities are getting stuck with the bill By Mike McGinn and Joe Cortright Editor's Note: We're pleased to publish this commentary jointly authored by former Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn and City Observatory's Joe Cortright. Mike McGinn served as Mayor of Sea... → By Joe Cortright 3.6.2020
Covid-19 and Cities: A very uneven pandemic The Covid-19 pandemic has played out very differently in different metro areas; some have been devastated, others only lightly touched and these patterns have shifted over time. Among US metro areas with a million or mo... → By Joe Cortright 1.6.2020
Memo to the Governor: Recovering from Covid-19 Some advice on economic policy for states looking to rebound from the pandemic City Observatory's Joe Cortright has served as Chair of the Oregon Governor's Council of Economic Advisers under three Governors. The Coun... → By Joe Cortright 2.6.2020
Coronavirus in L.A. County: Separating Fact from Fiction Are cities the latest victim of coronavirus? Editor's Note: City Observatory is pleased to publish this guest commentary by Anthony Dedousis of Abundant Housing LA. Some elected officials and journalists have draw... → By Joe Cortright 28.5.2020
City Beat: Why Portland is not like NYC when it comes to Covid Once again, there's a naive and unsubstantiated association between urbanism and the pandemic Portland and Multnomah County have some of the lowest rates of Covid-19 cases of any large metro area The big drivers of Cov... → By Joe Cortright 26.5.2020
Is the pandemic worse in cities or suburbs? Using county-level data, it depends on who's classification system you use Counties may not be the right basis for diagnosing the contributors to Covid. One of the oft-repeated claims in the pandemic is the notion th... → By Joe Cortright 21.5.2020
City Beat: No evidence that people are fleeing to the suburbs Today's misleading and incomplete take on cities: There isn't any evidence that people are fleeing cities for the suburbs; plus it wouldn't help them avoid the virus if they did. We've addressed the claim that t... → By Joe Cortright 13.5.2020
Don’t make “equity” the enemy of improving cities for people Invoking concerns about equity to block providing more street space for people is destructive A cautionary tale from Chicago, with some keen insight from Greg Shill. Let's begin by stipulating one thing: Ther... → By Joe Cortright 5.5.2020
Oregon DOT: The master of three-card monte The highway department's claims it doesn't have enough for maintenance are a long-running con You've all seen the classic street con three-card monte. All you have to do to double your money is follow one of three cards... → By Joe Cortright 7.5.2020
What is urban? Shape of the urban/suburban divide: Views differ There's a lot of debate about the relative merits and performance of cities and suburbs. You'll read that the migration to cities has come to a halt, that suburbs are g... → By Joe Cortright 19.5.2020
Postcards from the edges: Density is not Destiny There's a meme equating density with Covid-19 risk. Two polar cases shows that density (or lack thereof) has little to do with the spread of the pandemic. Many, including New York's Governor, have been quick t... → By Joe Cortright 21.5.2020
Density is not Destiny: Covid in Cascadia One of the densest cities in North America has recorded relatively few Covid-19 cases. There's a popular theory going around--unfortunately being propagated by the Governor of New York--that somehow density is to blame ... → By Joe Cortright 20.4.2020
The Covid Corridor: The pandemic is worst in the NE Corridor The incidence of reported Covid-19 cases, and their daily growth is higher in the metros of NE corridor than the rest of the country. The Northeast Corridor has all four of the cities with the highest rate of newly repo... → By Joe Cortright 19.4.2020
What Covid-19 teaches us about how to fix freeways Limiting demand actually makes freeways work better Portland's I-5 North freeway now carries more cars, faster at the peak hour than it did prior to the pandemic. Average speeds on I-5 between the Marquam and Intersta... → By Joe Cortright 22.4.2020
Why suburbs aren’t safer from the pandemic than cities Whether you live in a city its suburbs, your metro area is the biggest geographic factor in variations in Covid-19 rates Suburban incidence is lower, but there's about a six-day difference between the reported rate of C... → By Joe Cortright 21.4.2020
Regional Pandemic Hotspots: NE Corridor and Great Lakes Originally published April 12; Revised and Corrected April 14 The Covid-19 pandemic is hitting two regions in the US much harder than others: The NE Corridor and the Great Lakes Metro areas in these regions have th... → By Joe Cortright 12.4.2020
A Note on Covid-19 Case Data Reported case data correlate strongly with Covid-19 deaths, and provide a reasonable basis for assessing the geographic pattern of the pandemic across US metro areas. A critical question in judging the state of the Covi... → By Joe Cortright 13.4.2020
Who’s flattening the curve? Evidence from Seattle & San Jose Seattle and San Jose had the first outbreaks of Covid-19 but now have the slowest rates of growth of any large US metro area Their progress seems closely related to the fact that they've cut back on travel more than nea... → By Joe Cortright 8.4.2020
Staying at home: Estimates for large metro areas How well are "stay at home" and "shelter in place" policies working in different metro areas? "Big data" from smartphones gives us a picture of how we're dialing back on travel in response to "stay-at-home" orders to co... → By Joe Cortright 7.4.2020
What cities tell us about the trajectory of the pandemic Each metro area represents a different instance of the Covid-19 pandemic; we can use the varied experiences and timing of the virus in each metro area to better understand where we're headed. Seattle is 10 days to 2 wee... → By Joe Cortright 4.4.2020
Growth rates of Covid-19 in counties with many cases The key to flattening the curve is reducing the daily rate of growth in Covid-19 cases We've charted the daily average growth rate for the counties with the most cases. The results are mixed: Covid-19 growth is slo... → By Joe Cortright 24.3.2020
Understanding the geography of Covid-19 What maps and charts can--and can't--tell us about the spread of the pandemic National dashboards now have county data We need to shift our focus to changes in rates of growth at smaller geographies South Korea ... → By Joe Cortright 23.3.2020
How bad is the Covid-19 pandemic in my metro area? Our "how to" guide to interpreting metro level Covid-19 data Here''s our explainer for understanding where your metro area stands compared to others A word of caution: Reported case data can be noisy and pot... → By Joe Cortright 30.3.2020
The state of the pandemic by metro area Updated April 29 with data through April 28. In geographic terms, the Corona Virus has become the Northeast Corridor Virus: NE Corridor metros account for 6 of the 8 hardest hit large metros, and have 6 of the ... → By Joe Cortright 24.4.2020
Covid-19 Prevalence by Metro Area (April 17 data) REVISED April 18; Data through April 17, 2020 Among the 53 metro areas with a million or more population: New York, New Orleans, Detroit, Boston and Philadelphia have the highest incidence of pandemic among l... → By Joe Cortright 9.4.2020
Covid-19 Prevalence by Metro Area (April 8 data) SUPERSEDED: Please see latest data here. Original post below is for archival purposes. REVISED April 9; Data through April 8, 2020 Among the 53 metro areas with a million or more population: The situati... → By Joe Cortright 4.4.2020
Covid-19 Prevalence by Metro Area (April 2 data) UPDATED April 3, 2020 Among the 53 metro areas with a million or more population: New Orleans, New York, Detroit, Boston and Seattle have the highest incidence of pandemic among large metros. New Orleans rat... → By Joe Cortright 3.4.2020
Covid-19 Prevalence by Metro Area (April 1 data) NOTE: This post has been superseded with more recent data: click here. Among the 53 metro areas with a million or more population: New York, New Orleans, Detroit, Boston and Seattle have the highest incidence of ... → By Joe Cortright 2.4.2020
Covid-19 Prevalence by Metro Area (March 31 data) UPDATED April 1, 2020 Among the 53 metro areas with a million or more population: New York, New Orleans, Detroit, Seattle and Boston have the highest incidence of pandemic among large metros. Seattle's rate ... → By Joe Cortright 1.4.2020
Covid-19 Prevalence by Metro Area (March 30 data) UPDATED March 31, 2020 Note: More recent data is now available here. Among the 53 metro areas with a million or more population: New York, New Orleans, Detroit and Seattle have the highest incidence of pande... → By Joe Cortright 31.3.2020
Prevalence of Covid-19 in large US metro areas UPDATED, March 30, 2020 Among the 53 metro areas with a million or more population: New York, New Orleans, Detroit and Seattle have the highest incidence of pandemic among large metros. Detroit has now surpa... → By Joe Cortright 30.3.2020
Prevalence of Covid-19 in large US metro areas UPDATED, March 29, 2020 NOTE: More recent data is now available here. Among the 53 metro areas with a million or more population: New York, New Orleans, Detroit and Seattle have the highest incidence of pa... → By Joe Cortright 28.3.2020
Covid-19: Metro Incidence Estimates, 25 March [SUPERSEDED] A note to our readers: This post has been superseded by new analysis published on March 28. In addition, the original post contains an error: The original version of estimates for the New York Metropolitan area r... → By Joe Cortright 26.3.2020
Covid-19: Metro Incidence Estimates, 22 March New York, New Orleans and Seattle have the highest incidence of pandemic among large metros. The typical metro is only about 1-2 weeks behind these cities in the progression of the virus. Editor's Note: As of 2... → By Joe Cortright 25.3.2020
Covid-19: County-level Incidence Estimates, 19 March 2020 We've estimated the incidence of Covid-19 by county in states with 200 or more cases as of March 19, 2020. Incidence is calculated as diagnosed cases per 100,000 population. Data are shown for counties with 100,000 popul... → By Joe Cortright 20.3.2020
Cities and coronavirus: Some thoughts The Coronavirus pandemic is already worse in several American states than anywhere in China outside Hubei Province The pandemic is all about geography, and we need to do more to pinpoint hotspots and contagion The ve... → By Joe Cortright 17.3.2020
Widening I-5 at the Rose Quarter will increase greenhouse gases Adding more freeway capacity at the Rose Quarter will thousands of tons to the region's greenhouse gas emissions If you say you believe in science, and you take climate change seriously, you can't support spending $800... → By Joe Cortright 26.1.2021
Anatomy of a rental marketplace A new report from the DC Policy Center shows the inner-workings of the shadow rental market that is a key to housing affordability Too often, our debates about housing policy are shaped by inaccurate pictures of how the... → By Joe Cortright 3.4.2020
Declining bus ridership is no mystery We know what's responsible for declining bus ridership: Cheap gas And now, its about to get worse, thanks to $30 a barrel oil Prices matter. Last Friday's New York Times has a nice data-driven article by the pap... → By Joe Cortright 15.3.2020
Cheaper gas: Bad for climate and safety Gasoline prices will drop 50 cents per gallon in the next week or so, and cheap gas will fuel more bad results: more air pollution, more greenhouse gases and more road deaths Now is the perfect time to put a carbon tax ... → By Joe Cortright 13.3.2020
Equity and Homelessness What's equitable about spending six times as much per homeless person in the suburbs as in the city? The "equity" standard that's guiding the division of revenue for Metro's housing initiative is based on politics, not ... → By Joe Cortright 21.2.2020
Why Atlanta’s anti-gentrification moratorium will backfire Blocking new development will only accelerate demand for existing homes The moratorium makes flipping houses even more lucrative Atlanta's making a major investment in Westside Park at Bellwood Quarry, not far from t... → By Joe Cortright 24.2.2020
Mapping Walkable Density Walkable density mapped for the nation's largest metropolitan areas by DW Rowlands Editor's Note: We're pleased to offer this guest commentary by DW Rowlands. DW Rowlands is a human geography grad student at the U... → By Joe Cortright 19.2.2020
Understanding Walkable Density A new way of measuring urban density that explicitly considers walkability by DW Rowlands Editor's Note: We're pleased to offer this guest commentary by DW Rowlands. DW Rowlands is a human geography grad student a... → By Joe Cortright 19.2.2020
Fighting Climate Change is Inherently Equitable Happy Earth Day, Everyone! If we care about equity, we need to make rapid progress on climate change Equity needs to be defined by substantive outcomes, not vacuous rhetoric and elaborate process. Ultimately equit... → By Joe Cortright 22.4.2021
Local flavor: Independent restaurants indicate city vitality Which US cities have the most independent restaurants? One of the chief advantages of cities is the range of consumption choices they afford to their residents. In general, larger cities offer more choices than smaller ... → By Joe Cortright 3.8.2023
Local flavor: Cities with the most independent restaurants Which US cities have the most independent restaurants? One of the chief advantages of cities is the range of consumption choices they afford to their residents. In general, larger cities offer more choices than smaller ... → By Joe Cortright 17.2.2020
How driving ruins local flavor Car-dependent metros have fewer independent restaurants Chain restaurants and cars go together Yesterday, we used data compiled by Yelp on chain and independent restaurants to compute the market share of chains in th... → By Joe Cortright 18.2.2020
Abernethy Bridge Cost Triples to $750 million Oregon DOT's I-205 Abernethy Bridge rebuild, advertised as costing $248 million, will really cost $750 million The project's estimated cost has tripled in just over five years, and still has further cost overrun risk ... → By Joe Cortright 5.5.2024
Yet another exploding whale: ODOT’s freeway widening cost doubles It now looks like Oregon DOT's I-205 Abernethy Bridge rebuild, advertised as costing $248 million, will really cost $500 million The project's estimated cost has doubled in just four years, and still has further cost ov... → By Joe Cortright 18.5.2022
Another exploding whale: ODOT’s freeway widening cost quadruples It now looks like Oregon DOT's I-5 Rose Quarter $450 million freeway widening project will cost more than $1.9 billion The project's estimated cost has nearly quadrupled in just six years, and still has further cost ov... → By Joe Cortright 3.7.2023
Another exploding whale: ODOT’s freeway widening cost triples It now looks like Oregon DOT's I-5 Rose Quarter $450 million freeway widening project will cost more than $1.25 billion The project's estimated cost has nearly tripled in just four years, and still has further cost over... → By Joe Cortright 16.9.2021
ODOT: Exploding whales and cost overruns It now looks like Oregon DOT's $450 million freeway widening project will cost over a billion dollars Whales aren't the only than blow up on ODOT One of the most viewed clips on YouTube depict the handiwork of Oregon... → By Joe Cortright 9.3.2020
Lying about safety to sell freeway widening ODOT's lies about safety at the Rose Quarter are so blatant they can be seen 400 miles away. Freeway widening isn't about deaths or injuries, but "motorist inconvenience" according to this safety expert, making this $80... → By Joe Cortright 10.2.2020
Manufacturing consent for highway widening ODOT doesn't want to hear the questions its Community Advisory Committee raises about the proposed $800 million Rose Quarter Freeway widening project--so it fires them. Agency staff misrepresent public testimony to publ... → By Joe Cortright 8.9.2020
Climate failure and denial at the Oregon Department of Transportation Oregon is utterly failing to reduce transportation greenhouse gas emissions Instead of being down 10 percent by 2020, transportation greenhouse gas emissions are up more than 20 percent Oregon will miss its 2020 GHG ... → By Joe Cortright 20.2.2020
Memo to the Oregon Transportation Commission: Don’t Dodge Climate change? Not our job. We're just following orders. The Oregon Transportation Commission is on the firing line for its plans to build a $800 million I-5 Rose Quarter freeway widening project in Northeast Portlan... → By Joe Cortright 6.2.2020
In the bag: Pricing works Denver's new bag fee is another object lesson on how to use economics to achieve environmental objectives. Now do it for greenhouse gases Starting this month, you'll have to pay 10 cents for each disposable paper o... → By Joe Cortright 7.7.2021
Bags, bottles and cans: Pricing works Oregon's new mandatory bag fee harnesses market forces to promote environmental objectives Now do it for greenhouse gases On January 1, a new law went into effect in Oregon, which mostly bans single use plastic groce... → By Joe Cortright 5.2.2020
Why we should enable more people to move to opportunity Enabling low income households to move to high opportunity neighborhoods is one way to promote equity and intergenerational mobility. But some people apparently don't want anyone to move. Last year, we profiled an exp... → By Joe Cortright 8.1.2020
Why TOPA isn’t the tops Turning renters into owners is not a simple solution to housing affordability Housing affordability is a tough, multi-faceted problem. Portland is wrestling with one approach to that, a new ordinance that would make it ... → By Joe Cortright 9.1.2020
Climate Fail: Metro’s 2020 Transportation Package Metro's multi-billion dollar transportation package does nothing to reduce greenhouse gas emissions Spending $5 billion reduces Portland's transportation greenhouse gases by .05 percent This package costs $50,000 p... → By Joe Cortright 4.8.2020
Climate Fail: Metro’s 2020 Transportation Package Metro's multi-billion dollar transportation package does nothing to reduce greenhouse gas emissions Spending $3 billion reduces Portland's transportation greenhouse gases by .05 percent This package costs nearly $40,... → By Joe Cortright 27.1.2020
Why cheap gas is our real climate and transportation policy Forget about lofty greenhouse gas reduction goals and vision zero, our real climate and transportation policy is cheap gas The fall in gas prices in 2014 led to more driving, more SUV purchases, less transit ridership, ... → By Joe Cortright 13.4.2021
Portland’s Phony, Failing Climate Strategy Portland has soaring climate rhetoric, but 1,000 pounds per person more in greenhouse gases from driving Portland has adopted bold climate goals, but when it comes to the single largest local source of greenhouse gas em... → By Joe Cortright 15.12.2019
Freeway deja vu all over again: The freeway builders ignore school kids The Oregon Department of Transportation has a decades long-tradition of ignoring Portland Public Schools when it comes to freeway projects So here's our story so far. The Oregon Department of Transportation, ODOT, is ... → By Joe Cortright 9.12.2019
ODOT’s Climate Lie: An idle theory of greenhouse gas emissions ODOT Director Kris Strickler makes a phony claim that we can fight climate change by reducing traffic idling in congestion Asked about how his agency will respond to the challenge of climate change, newly nominated Oreg... → By Joe Cortright 8.12.2019
Walkable places are growing in value almost everywhere Over the past decade, across the nation, the most walkable homes have appreciated the most In two-thirds of large metro areas, walkable neighborhoods have higher home values than car-dependent ones Walkable neighborh... → By Joe Cortright 16.1.2020
Transportation planners flunk Econ 101: Price elasticity of demand The most basic concept in economics is that higher prices lead to less consumption, yet this fact is routinely ignored in transportation planning and policy. If we got the prices right, many of our most pressing transpo... → By Joe Cortright 16.12.2019
Alexa: What is Cascadia Vision 2050? A tech-centered vision of the future of the Pacific Northwest envisions creating a series of new urban centers 40 to 100 miles away from the region’s current largest cities—Seattle, Vancouver and Portland. The answ... → By Ethan Seltzer 28.4.2021
Want more housing? Build a landlord. If we're going to have a lot more missing middle housing; we're also going to have a lot more landlords Accessory dwellings, duplexes, triplexes and fourplexes are suited to "mom-and-pop" landlords, but tough tenants ri... → By Joe Cortright 19.11.2019
The shaky argument for the Columbia River Crossing Despite claims from Oregon DOT officials, the only published seismic studies suggest the I-5 bridges will survive a Cascadia earthquake. It's far from clear that spending billions to replace this bridges is a good inves... → By Joe Cortright 26.11.2019
No deposit, no return: Another lie to sell the Columbia River Crossing State DOT's are using a false claim about financial liability to revive the Columbia River Crossing folly There's no requirement to repay $140 million in federal funds, if states choose the "No-Build" option The Oreg... → By Joe Cortright 18.11.2019
The city as labor saving device Great cities, especially ones with dense, walkable mixed use neighborhoods are an economic boon to households because they save the precious commodity of time [caption id="attachment_9013" align="aligncenter" width="700... → By Joe Cortright 14.11.2019
Climate crisis: Cities are the solution A new report shows how cities are central to any strategy to fight climate change Cities have the "3 C's: Clean, compact, connected National government policies need to support cities Let's describe a low carbon f... → By Joe Cortright 11.2.2020
Here’s what climate change denial looks like Pretending that climate change can be solved by widening roads to keep cars from idling in traffic is dishonest and reprehensible, yet that's exactly what Portland's regional government is doing. A new poll in Portland ... → By Joe Cortright 31.10.2019
Bartik: The verdict on business tax incentives Political rationalizations and exceptionalism will always be used to justify giveaway policies With the possible exception of Greg LeRoy (who tracks state and local incentives for Good Jobs Now) and Amazon's site locati... → By Joe Cortright 30.10.2019
Achieving equitable mobility: Reallocate road space, price driving Reallocating street space to buses is inherently equitable Charging a very high price to cars for using scarce road space promotes equity Just a year ago, New York took the bold step of of restricting traffic on 14th... → By Joe Cortright 2.11.2020
Revealed: the secret of a successful urban economy One factor trumps all others in determining economic success: Educational attainment Brookings researchers pile on more evidence of this key fact, and outline strategies for increasing skills. But remember: talente... → By Joe Cortright 29.10.2019
Does walkability promote economic mobility? A new study shows a tantalizing connection between more walkable places and intergenerational economic mobility City Observatory readers will be familiar with the findings of Raj Chetty and his colleagues in the Equalit... → By Joe Cortright 22.10.2019
How homeownership as wealth is rigged against people of color Timing is everything in real estate, and mortgage availability cycles mean that people of color buy high and sell low. The Urban Institute has an informative new report charting the swings of home prices across the nati... → By Joe Cortright 23.10.2019
Reduced demand: Tolling or restricting cars reduces traffic We have urban traffic congestion because we heavily subsidize people driving in cities. Reducing subsidies and lowering road capacity reduces traffic and congestion. Why are we building highway capacity for users wh... → By Joe Cortright 15.10.2019
No youth exodus from cities: WSJ is detecting noise, not signal There's no statistically significant news on young adults in cities in the latest Census release Pro-tip: Ignore changes smaller than the margin of error: they're noise, not signal It's hard to underestimate the ... → By Joe Cortright 4.10.2019
Won’t be fooled again: Transportation for America Too often, progressive transportation advocates have been rolled by the highway crowd; No more, says Transportation for America Three principles for reform: Fix it First, Safety before Speed, Accessibility, not Mobility... → By Joe Cortright 9.10.2019
What if we regulated cars like we do houses? What if we regulated new car ownership the same way we do new housing? A recent story about Singapore caught our eye: In Singapore, you can't even buy a car without a government issued "certificate"—and the number o... → By Joe Cortright 4.10.2023
A modest proposal: An EIS for the DMV Many states subject housing approval to environmental reporting requirements; what if we extended this same principle to car registrations. Back in the early days of the environmental movement--the late sixties and earl... → By Joe Cortright 1.10.2019
Why economic diversification is a poor guide to local strategy Too much economic development policy is based on a naive analogy to portfolio theory Cities looking to strengthen their economies should concentrate on building upon and extending current specializations One of the... → By Joe Cortright 24.9.2019
A lack of nearby jobs doesn’t cause urban poverty There's scarcely any evidence that proximity to jobs matters for escaping poverty. One of the most popular and persistent theories of urban poverty is that the poor are poor because they don't live particularly close to... → By Joe Cortright 24.9.2019
Portland’s Climate Fail: More Driving Carbon emissions from transportation in Portland increased 6 percent last year In the one are where city policy can make the most difference, greenhouse gas emissions are increasing Portland has long prided itself in... → By Joe Cortright 19.9.2019
Why its important for your city to be unequal If your city isn't unequal, it's either poor or exclusionary Measured income equality, which is sensible goal nationally, is a perversely misleading indicator of which cities are the most just and and inclusive Incom... → By Joe Cortright 21.10.2019
How Ecotopia is failing its biggest test West Coast political leaders talk a good greenhouse gas game, but actions speak louder Throughout Ecotopia, carbon emissions are rising due to more driving, yet the region's leaders are throwing even more money at subsi... → By Joe Cortright 13.9.2019
What supercommuting really means Super-commuting is a really a plea for more housing and better transit If long distance commutes are up, its probably because gas prices are so low If you're covering the transportation beat, the plight of the poor s... → By Joe Cortright 18.9.2019
Inclusive urbanism comes to the presidential race Beto O'Rourke brings a strong urbanist, inclusive message to the presidential campaign The 2020 Democratic presidential race has been remarkable for addressing both climate change and housing policy issues that have long ... → By Joe Cortright 9.9.2019
Seeing red We're killing more people because more people are ignoring traffic signals We've charted the ominous increase in road deaths in the past several years, and now there's a new bit of evidence of just how bad the problem h... → By Joe Cortright 3.9.2019
The Week Observed, September 27, 2019 What City Observatory did this week 1. Why diversification is a simplistic, often flawed economic strategy. When it comes to personal investment everyone understands (or certainly should understand) the concept of portfol... → By Joe Cortright 27.9.2019
The Week Observed, September 20, 2019 What City Observatory did this week 1. What super-commuters really mean. Media coverage of super-commuters--people who travel more than 90 minutes each way to and from work--is invariably sympathetic, treating these fol... → By Joe Cortright 20.9.2019
2019: The Year Observed What City Observatory did in 2019 We spent a lot of time this year addressing Portland's proposed half-billion dollar Rose Quarter freeway widening project. You may have thought Portland put its freeway fights behind it i... → By Joe Cortright 6.1.2020
The Week Observed, January 10, 2020 What City Observatory this week 1. 2019: The Year Observed. We take a look back at 2019 and review some of the most important City Observatory commentaries, interesting stories and valued research. Our most read pos... → By Joe Cortright 10.1.2020
The Week Observed, January 24, 2020 What City Observatory did this week 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 ca... → By Joe Cortright 24.1.2020
The Week Observed, January 12, 2024 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... → By Joe Cortright 12.1.2024
The Week Observed, January 26, 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 roadw... → By Joe Cortright 26.1.2024
The Week Observed, January 19, 2024 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... → By Joe Cortright 19.1.2024
The Week Observed, January 15, 2024 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... → By Joe Cortright 15.1.2021
The Week Observed, January 22, 2021 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... → By Joe Cortright 22.1.2021
The Week Observed, January 29, 2021 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... → By Joe Cortright 29.1.2021
The Week Observed, February 5, 2021 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... → By Joe Cortright 5.2.2021
The Week Observed, February 12, 2021 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... → By Joe Cortright 12.2.2021
The Week Observed, February 19, 2021 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... → By Joe Cortright 19.2.2021
The Week Observed, February 26, 2021 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... → By Joe Cortright 26.2.2021
The Week Observed, April 2, 2021 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 ... → By Joe Cortright 2.4.2021
The Week Observed, April 9, 2021 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... → By Joe Cortright 7.3.2021
The Week Observed, April 16, 2021 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... → By Joe Cortright 16.4.2021
The Week Observed, April 30, 2021 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... → By Joe Cortright 30.4.2021
The Week Observed, April 23, 2021 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 ... → By Joe Cortright 23.4.2021
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 faile... → By Joe Cortright 7.5.2021
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 ... → By Joe Cortright 14.5.2021
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 breaki... → By Joe Cortright 21.5.2021
The Week Observed, July 16, 2021 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. ... → By Joe Cortright 16.7.2021
The Week Observed, July 30, 2021 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... → By Joe Cortright 30.7.2021
The Week Observed, September 17, 2021 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... → By Eli Molloy 17.9.2021
The Week Observed, September 10, 2021 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... → By Joe Cortright 10.9.2021
The Week Observed, April 1, 2022 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. ... → By Joe Cortright 1.4.2022
The Week Observed, April 15, 2022 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... → By Joe Cortright 15.4.2022
The Week Observed, April 22, 2022 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 ... → By Joe Cortright 22.4.2022
The Week Observed, April 29, 2022 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, ... → By Joe Cortright 2.5.2022
The Week Observed, May 6, 2022 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... → By Joe Cortright 6.5.2022
The Week Observed, May 13, 2022 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... → By Joe Cortright 13.5.2022
The Week Observed, May 20, 2022 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... → By Joe Cortright 20.5.2022
The Week Observed, June 10, 2022 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... → By Joe Cortright 10.6.2022
The Week Observed, June 17, 2022 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... → By Joe Cortright 28.5.2022
The Week Observed, June 24, 2022 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... → By Joe Cortright 24.6.2022
The Week Observed, July 1, 2022 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... → By Joe Cortright 28.5.2022
The Week Observed, July 15, 2022 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... → By Joe Cortright 28.5.2022
The Week Observed, July 22, 2022 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... → By Joe Cortright 28.5.2022
The Week Observed, July 29, 2022 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... → By Joe Cortright 29.7.2022
The Week Observed, November 18, 2022 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 ... → By Joe Cortright 21.11.2022
The Week Observed, November 11, 2022 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... → By Joe Cortright 11.11.2022
The Week Observed, February 3, 2023 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... → By Joe Cortright 3.2.2023
The Week Observed, January 27, 2023 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... → By Joe Cortright 27.1.2023
The Week Observed, March 10, 2023 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... → By Joe Cortright 10.3.2023
The Week Observed, March 17, 2023 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... → By Joe Cortright 17.3.2023
The Week Observed, March 23, 2023 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... → By Joe Cortright 24.3.2023
The Week Observed, March 31, 2023 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 ... → By Joe Cortright 31.3.2023
The Week Observed, April 7, 2023 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... → By Joe Cortright 7.4.2023
The Week Observed, April 14, 2023 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... → By Joe Cortright 14.4.2023
The Week Observed, June 30, 2023 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... → By Joe Cortright 30.6.2023
The Week Observed, September 15, 2023 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... → By Joe Cortright 15.9.2023
The Week Observed, October 6, 2023 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... → By Joe Cortright 8.9.2023
The Week Observed, October 20, 2023 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... → By Joe Cortright 8.9.2023
The Week Observed, October 13, 2023 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... → By Joe Cortright 8.9.2023
The Week Observed, April 12, 2024 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-... → By Joe Cortright 22.4.2024
The Week Observed, May 3, 2024 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 ... → By Joe Cortright 3.5.2024
The Week Observed, July 19, 2024 Must Read Denser cities = Less expensive infrastructure. A new study from New Zealand confirms one of the fundamental intuitions about cities: Places with higher levels of residential density have lower per capita and... → By Joe Cortright 18.7.2024
The Week Observed, August 30, 2024 What City Observatory Did This Week There's no evidence of a housing bubble. Strong Towns Chuck Marohn has a recent blog post proclaiming that the US housing market is the midst of another bubble, similar to 2008. But... → By Joe Cortright 30.8.2024
The Week Observed, August 23, 2024 What City Observatory Did This Week How Metro's RTP illegally favors driving and violates state climate rules. Oregon's planning rules require Portland area transportation plans to prioritize investments that reduce ve... → By Joe Cortright 23.8.2024
The Week Observed, August 16, 2024 Must Read Portland advocates sue to block Rose Quarter Freeway widening. There's a new chapter in the long-running battle to block the Oregon Department of Transportation's I-5 Rose Quarter Freeway widening project, a 1... → By Joe Cortright 7.8.2024
The Week Observed, August 2, 2024 Must Read Induced Demand and Climate Denial. As we've long said, the favorite folk tale of state DOTs and highway boosters is the idea that the primary solution to reducing greenhouse gas emissions is lowering the amoun... → By Joe Cortright 29.7.2024
The Week Observed, July 26, 2024 What City Observatory Did This Week The cost of the Interstate Bridge Replacement (IBR) is going up: But we won't tell you how much . . . And we're not going to tell you until a year from now, after the 2025 Legislatur... → By Joe Cortright 28.7.2024
The Week Observed, July 12, 2024 Must Read The problem with elevators in America. Market Urbanism's Stephen Smith has an op-ed in the New York Times opening up a new front in the YIMBY effort to expand housing supply in the US. Smith argues that th... → By Joe Cortright 8.7.2024
The Week Observed, June 28, 2024 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... → By Joe Cortright 28.6.2024
The Week Observed, June 21, 2024 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... → By Joe Cortright 21.6.2024
The Week Observed, June 14, 2024 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... → By Joe Cortright 12.6.2024
The Week Observed, June 7, 2024 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... → By Joe Cortright 7.6.2024
The Week Observed, May 24, 2024 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... → By Joe Cortright 24.5.2024
The Week Observed, May 17, 2024 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... → By Joe Cortright 17.5.2024
The Week Observed, May 10, 2024 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 ... → By Joe Cortright 10.5.2024
The Week Observed, April 26, 2024 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 ... → By Joe Cortright 26.4.2024
The Week Observed, April 19, 2024 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... → By Joe Cortright 19.4.2024
The Week Observed, April 5, 2024 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... → By Joe Cortright 5.4.2024
The Week Observed, March 29, 2024 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 ... → By Joe Cortright 29.3.2024
The Week Observed, March 22, 2024 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... → By Joe Cortright 22.3.2024
The Week Observed, March 15, 2024 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 ... → By Joe Cortright 15.3.2024
The Week Observed, March 8, 2024 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 ... → By Joe Cortright 8.3.2024
The Week Observed, March 1, 2024 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... → By Joe Cortright 1.3.2024
The Week Observed, February 16, 2024 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 ... → By Joe Cortright 14.2.2024
The Week Observed, February 9, 2024 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... → By Joe Cortright 9.2.2024
The Week Observed, February 2, 2024 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... → By Joe Cortright 2.2.2024
The Week Observed, January 5, 2024 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... → By Joe Cortright 4.1.2024
The Week Observed, December 22, 2023 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... → By Joe Cortright 22.12.2023
The Week Observed, December 15, 2023 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... → By Joe Cortright 15.12.2023
The Week Observed, December 8, 2023 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... → By Joe Cortright 8.12.2023
The Week Observed, December 1, 2023 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... → By Joe Cortright 1.12.2023
The Week Observed, November 17, 2023 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... → By Joe Cortright 16.11.2023
The Week Observed, November 10, 2023 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... → By Joe Cortright 10.11.2023
The Week Observed, November 3, 2023 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... → By Joe Cortright 3.11.2023
The Week Observed, October 27, 2023 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... → By Joe Cortright 8.9.2023
The Week Observed, September 8, 2023 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 ... → By Joe Cortright 8.9.2023
The Week Observed, September 1, 2023 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... → By Joe Cortright 28.8.2023
The Week Observed, August 25, 2023 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... → By Joe Cortright 24.8.2023
The Week Observed, August 18, 2023 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... → By Joe Cortright 18.8.2023
The Week Observed, August 11, 2023 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... → By Joe Cortright 11.8.2023
The Week Observed, August 4, 2023 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... → By Joe Cortright 4.8.2023
The Week Observed, July 28, 2023 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... → By Joe Cortright 28.7.2023
The Week Observed, July 21, 2023 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... → By Joe Cortright 23.7.2023
The Week Observed, July 14, 2023 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... → By Joe Cortright 14.7.2023
The Week Observed, July 7, 2023 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 ... → By Joe Cortright 7.7.2023
The Week Observed, June 23, 2023 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... → By Joe Cortright 21.6.2023
The Week Observed, June 16, 2023 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... → By Joe Cortright 16.6.2023
The Week Observed, June 9, 2023 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... → By Joe Cortright 9.6.2023
The Week Observed, June 2, 2023 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... → By Joe Cortright 5.6.2023
The Week Observed, May 26, 2023 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... → By Joe Cortright 26.5.2023
The Week Observed, May 19, 2023 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... → By Joe Cortright 19.5.2023
The Week Observed, May 12, 2023 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... → By Joe Cortright 12.5.2023
The Week Observed, May 5, 2023 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... → By Joe Cortright 5.5.2023
The Week Observed, April 21, 2023 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... → By Joe Cortright 24.4.2023
The Week Observed, April 28, 2023 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... → By Joe Cortright 17.3.2023
The Week Observed, March 3, 2023 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... → By Joe Cortright 7.3.2023
The Week Observed, February 24, 2023 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... → By Joe Cortright 24.2.2023
The Week Observed, February 17, 2023 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... → By Joe Cortright 17.2.2023
The Week Observed, February 10, 2023 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... → By Joe Cortright 10.2.2023
The Week Observed, January 20, 2023 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... → By Joe Cortright 18.1.2023
The Week Observed, January 13, 2023 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... → By Joe Cortright 13.1.2023
The Week Observed, January 6, 2023 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... → By Joe Cortright 6.1.2023
The Week Observed, December 16, 2022 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. ... → By Joe Cortright 15.12.2022
The Week Observed, December 2, 2022 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... → By Joe Cortright 2.12.2022
The Week Observed, November 4, 2022 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... → By Joe Cortright 4.11.2022
The Week Observed, October 28, 2022 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... → By Joe Cortright 29.10.2022
The Week Observed, October 21, 2022 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... → By Joe Cortright 21.10.2022
The Week Observed, October 14, 2022 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... → By Joe Cortright 14.10.2022
The Week Observed, July 8, 2022 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... → By Joe Cortright 28.5.2022
The Week Observed, May 27, 2022 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... → By Joe Cortright 27.5.2022
The Week Observed, March 4, 2022 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... → By Joe Cortright 4.3.2022
The Week Observed, March 25, 2022 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... → By Joe Cortright 25.3.2022
The Week Observed, March 18, 2022 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... → By Joe Cortright 17.3.2022
The Week Observed, March 11, 2022 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... → By Joe Cortright 11.3.2022
The Week Observed, February 25, 2022 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... → By Joe Cortright 28.2.2022
The Week Observed, January 7, 2022 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... → By Joe Cortright 7.1.2022
The Week Observed, January 14, 2022 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... → By Joe Cortright 14.1.2022
The Week Observed, January 21, 2022 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... → By Joe Cortright 21.1.2022
The Week Observed, January 28, 2022 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... → By Joe Cortright 5.1.2022
The Week Observed, February 4, 2022 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... → By Joe Cortright 4.2.2022
The Week Observed, February 11, 2022 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... → By Joe Cortright 11.2.2022
The Week Observed, February 18, 2022 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... → By Joe Cortright 18.2.2022
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... → By Joe Cortright 17.12.2021
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 i... → By Joe Cortright 10.12.2021
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: I... → By Joe Cortright 3.12.2021
The Week Observed, November 19, 2021 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... → By Joe Cortright 19.11.2021
The Week Observed, November 12, 2021 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... → By Joe Cortright 15.11.2021
The Week Observed, November 5, 2021 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... → By Joe Cortright 5.11.2021
The Week Observed, October 22, 2021 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... → By Joe Cortright 22.10.2021
The Week Observed, October 15, 2021 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... → By Joe Cortright 15.10.2021
The Week Observed, September 24, 2021 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 ... → By Joe Cortright 24.9.2021
The Week Observed, September 3, 2021 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... → By Joe Cortright 3.9.2021
The Week Observed, August 27, 2021 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... → By Joe Cortright 27.8.2021
The Week Observed, August 20, 2021 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... → By Joe Cortright 20.8.2021
The Week Observed, August 13, 2021 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... → By Joe Cortright 9.8.2021
The Week Observed, August 6, 2021 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... → By Joe Cortright 2.8.2021
The Week Observed, July 23, 2021 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... → By Joe Cortright 23.7.2021
The Week Observed, July 9, 2021 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... → By Joe Cortright 9.7.2021
The Week Observed, July 2, 2021 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... → By Joe Cortright 3.7.2021
The Week Observed, June 25, 2021 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... → By Eli Molloy 25.6.2021
The Week Observed, June 18, 2021 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... → By Joe Cortright 17.6.2021
The Week Observed, June 4, 2021 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... → By Joe Cortright 4.6.2021
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 project... → By Joe Cortright 28.5.2021
The Week Observed, March 26, 2021 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 ... → By Joe Cortright 26.3.2021
The Week Observed, March 19, 2021 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... → By Joe Cortright 19.3.2021
The Week Observed, March 12, 2021 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... → By Joe Cortright 7.3.2021
The Week Observed, March 5, 2021 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... → By Joe Cortright 5.3.2021
The Week Observed, January 8, 2021 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... → By Joe Cortright 8.1.2021
The Week Observed, March 6, 2020 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... → By Joe Cortright 6.3.2020
The Week Observed, March 13, 2020 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... → By Joe Cortright 13.3.2020
The Week Observed, April 3, 2020 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... → By Joe Cortright 3.4.2020
The Week Observed, April 17, 2020 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... → By Joe Cortright 17.4.2020
The Week Observed, April 24, 2020 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 ... → By Joe Cortright 24.4.2020
The Week Observed, June 12, 2020 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... → By Joe Cortright 12.6.2020
The Week Observed, June 19, 2020 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... → By Joe Cortright 19.6.2020
The Week Observed, September 25, 2020 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... → By Joe Cortright 25.9.2020
The Week Observed, October 2, 2020 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... → By Joe Cortright 2.10.2020
The Week Observed, October 9, 2020 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... → By Joe Cortright 9.10.2020
The Week Observed, October 16, 2020 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... → By Joe Cortright 16.10.2020
The Week Observed, December 18, 2020 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... → By Joe Cortright 18.12.2020
The Week Observed, December 11, 2020 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... → By Joe Cortright 11.12.2020
The Week Observed, November 6, 2020 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 ... → By Joe Cortright 6.11.2020
The Week Observed, November 13, 2020 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... → By Joe Cortright 13.11.2020
The Week Observed, November 30, 2020 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 "... → By Joe Cortright 20.11.2020
The Week Observed, October 23, 2020 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 ... → By Joe Cortright 23.10.2020
The Week Observed, October 30, 2020 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.... → By Joe Cortright 25.9.2020
The Week Observed, September 18, 2020 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... → By Joe Cortright 18.9.2020
The Week Observed, September 11, 2020 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... → By Joe Cortright 4.9.2020
The Week Observed, September 4, 2020 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... → By Joe Cortright 4.9.2020
The Week Observed, August 28, 2020 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... → By Joe Cortright 28.8.2020
The Week Observed, August 21, 2020 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... → By Joe Cortright 21.8.2020
The Week Observed, August 7, 2020 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,... → By Joe Cortright 7.8.2020
The Week Observed, July 31 2020 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... → By Joe Cortright 31.7.2020
The Week Observed, July 24 2020 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... → By Joe Cortright 21.7.2020
The Week Observed, July 17, 2020 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... → By Joe Cortright 18.7.2020
The Week Observed, July 10, 2020 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... → By Joe Cortright 10.7.2020
The Week Observed, June 26, 2020 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... → By Joe Cortright 26.6.2020
The Week Observed, June 5, 2020 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 ... → By Joe Cortright 5.6.2020
The Week Observed, May 29, 2020 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.... → By Joe Cortright 29.5.2020
The Week Observed, May 22, 2020 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... → By Joe Cortright 22.5.2020
The Week Observed, May 15, 2020 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... → By Joe Cortright 15.5.2020
The Week Observed, May 1, 2020 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 ... → By Joe Cortright 1.5.2020
The Week Observed, April 10, 2020 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... → By Joe Cortright 10.4.2020
The Week Observed, March 20, 2020 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... → By Joe Cortright 20.3.2020
The Week Observed, March 27, 2020 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... → By Joe Cortright 27.3.2020
The Week Observed, February 28, 2020 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... → By Joe Cortright 28.2.2020
The Week Observed, February 21, 2020 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... → By Joe Cortright 21.2.2020
The Week Observed, February 7, 2020 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... → By Joe Cortright 7.2.2020
The Week Observed, January 31, 2020 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... → By Joe Cortright 31.1.2020
The Week Observed, December 13, 2019 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... → By Joe Cortright 10.12.2019
The Week Observed, December 20, 2019 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 ... → By Joe Cortright 20.12.2019
The Week Observed, December 6, 2019 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 ... → By Joe Cortright 6.12.2019
The Week Observed, November 22, 2019 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... → By Joe Cortright 22.11.2019
The Week Observed, November 15, 2019 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 ... → By Joe Cortright 15.11.2019
The Week Observed, November 8, 2019 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... → By Joe Cortright 8.11.2019
The Week Observed, November 1, 2019 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... → By Joe Cortright 1.11.2019
The Week Observed, October 18, 2019 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... → By Joe Cortright 18.10.2019
The Week Observed, October 11, 2019 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... → By Joe Cortright 11.10.2019
The Week Observed, October 4, 2019 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... → By Joe Cortright 4.10.2019
The Week Observed, August 30, 2019 What City Observatory did this week 1. 20 Reasons to ignore the Texas Transportation Institute's Urban Mobility Report. It's back. After a four-year hiatus Texas A&M University's transportation institute trotted out... → By Joe Cortright 30.8.2019
The Week Observed, September 13, 2019 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... → By Joe Cortright 13.9.2019
Highway to Hell: Climate denial at the TRB The Transportation Research Board, nominally an arm of the National Academy of Sciences, is engaged in technocratic climate arson with its call for further highway expansion and more car travel. The planet is in immin... → By Joe Cortright 15.12.2020
Highway to Hell: Climate denial at the TRB The Transportation Research Board, nominally an arm of the National Academy of Sciences, is engaged in technocratic climate arson with its call for further highway expansion and more car travel. The planet is in immin... → By Joe Cortright 4.9.2019
Its back, and its still wrong: the Urban Mobility Report After a four year hiatus, the Texas Transportation Institute has once again generated its misleading Urban Mobility Report--and its still wrong. The UMR has been comprehensively debunked--it has never been peer-reviewed... → By Joe Cortright 22.8.2019
Portland’s freeway fight: Round 1 goes to the scrappy upstarts Community opposition forces Oregon Department of Transportation to do a full Environmental Impact Statement on its half-billion dollar Rose Quarter freeway widening project. For the past two years, we've been deeply eng... → By Joe Cortright 29.8.2019
Get Out!: Moving to a new neighborhood to escape poverty For many families, the way out of poverty is to move to a better neighborhood A new study shows modest investments in information combined with supportive services can help them make that move. We need to rethink... → By Joe Cortright 6.8.2019
CityLab: Everything you think you know about gentrification is wrong Facts are stubborn things: And they don't support the folk wisdom equating gentrification with displacement. There's a palpable and growing amount of cognitive dissonance between the accepted conventional wisdom about t... → By Joe Cortright 1.8.2019
Triumph of the NIMBY’s: Less affordable, more displacement When NIMBYs win, everybody loses Constricting housing supply drives up the price of housing further, and accelerates displacement, in rich neighborhoods and in poor ones. Two recent cases from different sides of the ... → By Joe Cortright 25.6.2020
Gentrification: the case of the missing counter-factual Why are there so few studies charting displacement and cultural decline in non-gentrifying neighborhoods? The implicit assumption in most gentrification research is that if a neighborhood doesn't change, that it stays t... → By Joe Cortright 24.2.2020
Devaluation of housing in black neighborhoods, Part 2: Appreciation Are home prices appreciating more or less in black neighborhoods? Is that a good thing? Today, in part 2 of our analysis of the home price gap between majority black and predominantly white neighborhoods we look at the ... → By Joe Cortright 24.7.2019
Portland’s food cart pod is dead, long live Portland’s food cart pods! How food carts illustrate the importance of dynamic change in cities. There's a tension in the city between the permanent (or seemingly permanent) and the fleeting, between the immutability of the built environment and ... → By Joe Cortright 19.8.2019
How gentrification benefits long-time residents of low income neighborhoods The new Philadelphia Fed study of gentrification is the best evidence yet that gentrification creates opportunity and promotes integration To many "gentrification" is intrinsically negative. When wealthier, whiter peopl... → By Joe Cortright 19.7.2019
Why homeownership is frequently a bad bet Home buying is a risky bet: There's a 30% chance your house will be worth less in five years It's a widely agreed that promoting homeownership is a key means to help American households build wealth. But as we and oth... → By Joe Cortright 15.7.2019
Is Covid-19 the end of cities? (Spoiler: No.) The New York Times tells us that cities were "losing their allure" before the Covid-19 pandemic, and that now people are preparing to flee urban areas. Sure, cities had a bit of a resurgence after 2000, But by the mid-2... → By Joe Cortright 20.4.2020
About those swelling suburbs Faster suburban population growth doesn't signal a preference for suburbs: Here's why Last week, the Wall Street Journal reported suburbs growing faster than cities. The article, "American suburbs swell again as a n... → By Joe Cortright 10.7.2019
In Oregon: The middle isn’t missing any more Oregon moves decisively to legalize missing middle housing Oregon became the first state in the nation to comprehensively bar local governments from imposing exclusive single-family residential zoning, and to effectivel... → By Joe Cortright 2.7.2019
Why are US drivers killing so many pedestrians? US drivers are killing 50 percent more pedestrians, European drivers are killing a third fewer If anything else--a disease, terrorists, gun-wielding crazies--killed as many Americans as cars do, we'd regard it as a nati... → By Joe Cortright 27.6.2019
Has Falling Crime Invited Gentrification? – NYU Furman Center http://furmancenter.org/research/publication/has-falling-crime-invited-gentrification → By Joe Cortright 1.7.2019
The devaluation of black neighborhoods: Part 1. Lingering racism holds down property values in majority black neighborhoods For most American households, their home is their largest financial asset; how valuable that asset is, and whether it appreciates has a profoun... → By Joe Cortright 23.7.2019
Buses, Bike Lanes, Crosswalks: Reclaiming public space Renegotiating the right of way in public space They erased the lines on 24th Avenue. Just a few blocks from my house is NE 24th Avenue in Portland, a principal North-South route through the Irvington neighborhood. F... → By Joe Cortright 14.10.2019
Valuing Walkability A new report confirms the growing market for walkable places George Washington University and Smart Growth America have a new report on the economic value of and growing market for walkable places. Called "Foot Traffic ... → By Joe Cortright 24.6.2019
It’s official: I-5 Rose Quarter freeway widening is a boondoggle Frontier Group and USPIRG's annual report on highway boondoggles calls out the Oregon DOT's wasteful, ineffective I-5 Rose Quarter freeway widening project as a national level boondoggle. Portland is famous for making t... → By Joe Cortright 18.6.2019
Job Density: A new metric for urban economies Employment is increasingly concentrating, and a few cities lead the way The Brookings Institution's Metropolitan Policy Program has a new report out, Where jobs are concentrating and why it matters to cities and regions... → By Joe Cortright 18.6.2019
Fruit and economics: Local goods Perishable, special, and local: The economics of unique and fleeting experiences I pity you, dear reader. You likely have no idea what a real strawberry tastes like. Unless you spend the three weeks around ... → By Joe Cortright 23.6.2022
Fruit and economics: Riffing on Krugman Perishable, special, and local: The economics of unique and fleeting experiences Friday night on Twitter, Paul Krugman waxed poetic about fruit and economic theory. Krugman is back from Europe, and thirsting for summe... → By Joe Cortright 10.6.2019
Portland is winning the fight against congestion! New data from TomTom shows Portland number one nationally in reducing traffic congestion: Where's the celebration? Portland chalked up the biggest reduction in traffic congestion of any city in the US over the past ... → By Joe Cortright 6.6.2019
A solution for displacement: TIF for affordable housing The case for using tax increment financing for affordable housing in gentrifying neighborhoods The problem with gentrification is that rising property values may make it expensive or impossible for lower and moderate in... → By Joe Cortright 11.6.2019
Electric vehicle subsidies: Inefficient & Inequitable Subsidizing electric vehicle purchases is an expensive way to reduce carbon emissions, and mostly subsidizes rich households who would have bought electric vehicles anyhow There's a new study from the National Bureau of... → By Joe Cortright 5.6.2019
Another housing myth debunked: Neighborhood price effects of new apartments New research shows new apartments drive down rents in their immediate neighborhood, disproving the myth of "induced demand" for housing If you're a housing supply skeptic, there's one pet theory that you've been able to... → By Joe Cortright 4.6.2019
Who bikes? Workers in low income households rely more on bikes for commuting, but the data show people of all income levels cycle to work There's a lot of hand-wringing and harrumphing about the demographics of cycling. Some worry... → By Joe Cortright 28.5.2019
Will upzoning ease housing affordability problems? More housing supply denialism--debunked It appears that we have been a bit premature in calling the housing supply debate over. Last week's urbanist Internet was all a flutter with the latest claim of an academic study ... → By Joe Cortright 15.5.2019
The Young and Restless in Black and White A sharp divide by race in urban residence for young adults Well-educated young whites are increasingly living in central cities, while well-educated young African-Americans are shifting increasingly to the suburbs Fo... → By Joe Cortright 14.5.2019
Let’s have an honest discussion about the Rose Quarter freeway widening project Good decisions result only if state officials are transparent and honest City Observatory has been closely following the proposal to spend $500 million widening the I-5 freeway at the Rose Quarter in Portland. In the pr... → By Joe Cortright 23.4.2019
Our updated list from A to Z of everything that causes gentrification Gentrification: Here's your all-purpose list, from artists to zoning, of who and what's to blame We first published this list in 2019, but the search for scapegoats has expanded, and now includes little libraries and ... → By Joe Cortright 14.1.2020
Everything that causes gentrification, from A to Z Gentrification: Here's your all-purpose list, from artists to zoning, of who and what's to blame When bad things happen, we look around for someone to blame. And when it comes to gentrification, which is loosely def... → By Joe Cortright 16.4.2019
Measuring the civic commons Using a data driven approach to understanding the health of the public realm We know that the civic commons, everything from parks and libraries, to city centers, the streetscape and other public spaces, play vital role... → By Joe Cortright 11.4.2019
The case against the I-5 Rose Quarter Freeway widening Portland is weighing whether to spend as much as $1.45 billion dollars widening a mile-long stretch of the I-5 freeway at the Rose Quarter near downtown. We've dug deeply into this idea at City Observatory, and we've publi... → By Joe Cortright 2.1.2023
25 reasons not to widen Portland freeways Portland is weighing whether to spend half a billion dollars widening a mile-long stretch of the I-5 freeway at the Rose Quarter near downtown. We've dug deeply into this idea at City Observatory, and we've published 25 co... → By Joe Cortright 3.4.2019
More Orwell from the Oregon Department of Transportation We have always been at war with Eastasia. Concealing and lying about key facts regarding the proposed Rose Quarter Freeway widening process is a violation of the National Environmental Policy Act and a betrayal of publi... → By Joe Cortright 2.4.2019
ODOT consultant: Pricing is a better fix for the Rose Quarter Oregon DOT's own consultants say congestion pricing would be a better way to fix congestion at the I-5 Rose Quarter than spending $800 million. Pricing would improve traffic flow and add capacity equal to another full l... → By Joe Cortright 27.4.2021
Congestion pricing is a better solution for the Rose Quarter Congestion pricing is a quicker, more effective and greener way to reduce congestion at the Rose Quarter than spending $500 million on freeway widening. Failing to advance pricing as an alternative in the environmental ... → By Joe Cortright 26.3.2019
National transportation experts: Portland, you’re doing it wrong Long regarded as a national leader in transportation policy, Portland is being called out by some of the best and brightest for a wrong-headed decision to spend half a billion dollars widening freeways. The damage done is ... → By Joe Cortright 25.3.2019
Safety last: What we’ve learned from “improving” the I-5 freeway. Expanding freeway capacity on I-5 hasn’t reduced crashes in Woodburn, but did triple in cost Today, we’re pleased to offer a guest commentary from Naomi Fast. Naomi currently lives in Beaverton, Oregon. Previously, ... → By Joe Cortright 21.3.2019
The Lemming Model of Traffic Highway planners use a deeply flawed "lemming" model of traffic that rationalizes highway widenings The traffic projections made as part of the Environmental Assessment for the $500 million Rose Quarter I-5 widening pro... → By Joe Cortright 28.3.2019
Distorted images: Freeway widening is bad for pedestrians The proposed I-5 Rose Quarter freeway widening project creates a bike- and pedestrian-hostile environment The Oregon Department of Transportation has crafted distorted images that exaggerate pedestrian use by a factor o... → By Joe Cortright 14.3.2019
The Rose Quarter: ODOT’s Phony safety claims There's no evidence that widening the I-5 freeway at the Rose Quarter will reduce crashes. ODOT used a model that doesn't work for freeways with ramp-meters When ODOT widened I-5 lanes and shoulders near Victory Boul... → By Joe Cortright 11.3.2019
The Hidden Rose Quarter MegaFreeway ODOT is really building an 8-lane mega-freeway at the Rose Quarter You can tell from the tortured rhetoric about "auxiliary" lanes that the Oregon Department of Transportation is falling all over itself to make the free... → By Joe Cortright 13.3.2019
Traffic is declining at the Rose Quarter: ODOT growth projections are fiction ODOT's own traffic data shows that daily traffic (ADT) has been declining for 25 years, by -0.55 percent per year The ODOT modeling inexplicably predicts that traffic will suddenly start growing through 2045, growing by... → By Joe Cortright 22.12.2022
The black box: Hiding the facts about freeway widening State DOT officials have crafted an Supplemental Environmental Assessment that conceals more than it reveals The Rose Quarter traffic report contains no data on "average daily traffic" the most common measure of vehicle... → By Joe Cortright 28.11.2022
The black box: Hiding the facts about freeway widening `State DOT officials have crafted an Environmental Assessment that conceals more than it reveals In theory, the National Environmental Policy Act is all about disclosing facts. But in practice, that isn't always how it ... → By Joe Cortright 12.3.2019
Why do poor school kids have to clean up rich commuter’s pollution? The fundamental injustice of pollution from urban freeways Item: In the past two years, Portland Public Schools has spent nearly $12.5 million of its scarce funds to clean up the air at Harriet Tubman Middle School. ... → By Joe Cortright 6.3.2019
Wider freeways don’t reduce congestion Portland's $500 million Rose Quarter Freeway Widening Project is being sold as a way to reduce congestion: But it won't work In three recent commentaries at City Observatory, we've explored whether a wider freeway at ... → By Joe Cortright 4.3.2019
Orwellian freeway-widening What pretends to be an environmental assessment is actually a thinly-veiled marketing brochure In theory, an environmental impact statement is supposed to be a disclosure document. The idea behind the National Environme... → By Joe Cortright 5.3.2019
How a freeway destroyed a neighborhood, and may again Portland's Albina neighborhood was devastated by the I-5 freeway; Widening it repeats that mistake Freeways and the traffic they generate are toxic to vibrant urban spaces. The great lesson of the urban freeway building... → By Joe Cortright 18.3.2019
There’s a $3 billion bridge hidden in the Rose Quarter Project EA ODOT hid its plans to build a $3 billion Columbia River Crossing in the Rose Quarter Freeway Widening Environmental Assessment The carefully crafted marketing campaign for the I-5 Rose Quarter Freeway widening project i... → By Joe Cortright 27.3.2019
Why Portland shouldn’t be widening freeways Why Portland's freeway fight is so important to the future of cities everywhere The plan to widen the I-5 Rose Quarter Freeway in Portland, at a cost of $500 million, is a tragic error for one city, and an object lesson... → By Joe Cortright 11.3.2019
Widening the I-5 Freeway will add millions of miles of vehicle travel We can calculate how much added freeway lanes will induce additional car travel The takeaway: the I-5 freeway widening project in Portland lead to 10 to 17 million more miles of vehicle travel annually, which will in ... → By Joe Cortright 4.3.2019
Freeway widening for whomst? There's a huge demographic divide between those who use freeways and neighbors who bear their costs When it comes time to evaluate the equity of freeway widening investments, it's important to understand that there are ... → By Joe Cortright 6.3.2019
How Portland thrives without a port The myth of a freight dependent economy: debunked by a thriving reality Imagine a port city, whose port went away. It's economy would surely wither and die, right? That's what you might expect if you believed decades ... → By Joe Cortright 8.4.2019
Angie’s List: The problem isn’t ride hailing, it’s the lack of road pricing Streetsblogger extraordinaire Angie Schmidt is not happy with Uber and Lyft. They're not really the ones to blame. Are Uber and Lyft to blame for growing urban transportation problems? Streetsblog's Angie Schmit makes a... → By Joe Cortright 7.2.2019
Backfire: How widening freeways can make traffic congestion worse Widening I-5 in Portland apparently made traffic congestion worse Oregon's Department of Transportation (ODOT) is proposing to spend half a billion dollars to add two lanes to Interstate 5 at the Rose Quarter in Portl... → By Joe Cortright 26.2.2019
Rose Quarter freeway widening won’t reduce congestion Spending half a billion dollars to widen a mile of I-5 will have exactly zero effect on daily congestion. The biggest transportation project moving forward in downtown Portland isn't something related to transit, or cyc... → By Joe Cortright 6.2.2019
More driving, more dying: Dangerous by Design, 2019 More driving and our car-oriented transportation system killed 50,000 pedestrians in the past decade Each year, Smart Growth America produces its annual report Dangerous by Design looking at pedestrian deaths and injuri... → By Joe Cortright 30.1.2019
Economists & Scientists agree: To save the planet, we have to price carbon One thing economists agree about: pricing carbon is essential to saving the planet; but if you don't believe economists, you ought to believe Bill Nye, the Science Guy. Economists are famous for disagreeing with one ano... → By Joe Cortright 30.7.2019
The high cost of low house prices Low house prices signify problems, not affordability There's a presumption that low housing prices are a sign of affordability, and a related belief that if housing prices rise, that its "a bad thing" because it must me... → By Joe Cortright 22.4.2019
A third-way for approaching affordable housing Here's a provocative proposal for getting more affordable housing, especially in rapidly changing, opportunity neighborhoods In part I of this series we laid out a key challenge to housing affordability described by Was... → By Joe Cortright 29.1.2019
The outlook for the Portland housing market Coping with the nation's shortage of cities is a key factor in the Portland housing market in 2019 On January 9, I was invited to talk to the annual housing outlook seminar convened by HFO Oregon. A video of my remark... → By Joe Cortright 23.1.2019
A third way for more affordable housing? Part I. The problem How can affordable housing help minimize, rather than perpetuate, income segregation? At City Observatory, we've long focused on the challenge of concentrated poverty, starting with our first report Lost in Place, in 20... → By Joe Cortright 28.1.2019
Measuring the Civic Commons A New DIY toolkit helps neighborhoods and cities measure the state of their civic commons At City Observatory, we're all about metrics, and especially keen on metrics that help us better understand the function of citie... → By Joe Cortright 22.1.2019
Dr. King: Socialism for the rich and rugged free enterprise capitalism for the poor It's a long road to redressing inequality A half-century ago, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. addressed the stilted rhetoric used use to talk about public spending to promote the social good: Whenever the government provid... → By Joe Cortright 20.1.2020
Dr. King: Socialism for the rich and rugged free enterprise capitalism for the poor It's a long road to redressing inequality Fifty-five years ago, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. addressed the stilted rhetoric used use to talk about public spending to promote the social good: Whenever the government prov... → By Joe Cortright 16.1.2023
Dr. King: Socialism for the rich and rugged free enterprise capitalism for the poor It's a long road to redressing inequality A half-century ago, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. addressed the stilted rhetoric used use to talk about public spending to promote the social good: Whenever the government provid... → By Joe Cortright 21.1.2019
Scooter Lessons: Success, but a stark double standard Data shows Portland's scooter experiment worked. Maybe it's time to critically appraise the failed 110 year experiment with cars. Starting in July, Portland, Oregon began allowing fleets of e-scooters, as an experiment,... → By Joe Cortright 17.1.2019
Housing: Missing Middle or Missing Massive? Gradually, more people and elected leaders are admitting that more housing density is needed if we're to tackle housing affordability, and provide equitable opportunities to live in great cities and neighborhoods. But l... → By Joe Cortright 27.2.2024
You’re going to need a bigger boat Eliminating exclusively single-family zones won't provide enough density: Recognizing the limits of "missing middle" as a solution to urban affordability At City Observatory, we're excited as anyone that there seems t... → By Joe Cortright 7.1.2019
No deal: Why a CRC revival is going nowhere Reviving the Columbia River Crossing will never happen: the two sides have incompatible aims There are continued rumblings in the Portland-Vancouver metropolitan area about reviving the abandoned plan to spend $3 bill... → By Joe Cortright 15.1.2019
Ten things more inequitable than road pricing Don't decry congestion pricing as inequitable until after you fix, or at least acknowledge, these ten other things that are even more inequitable about the way we pay for transportation. There's a growing interest in us... → By Joe Cortright 8.1.2019
Displacement by decline An obsession with gentrification obscures the urban problem: concentrated poverty Editor's Note: We're again pleased to offer a guest commentary from Akron Planning Director Jason Segedy, who has some keen insights... → By Joe Cortright 2.1.2019
Is Oregon’s road tax limit a paper tiger? The Oregon Constitution exempts refunds and debt repayment from the limits on how revenue from taxing cars and fuel is spent Note: What follows is a hypothesis and a question. What's presented here is not a legal opinio... → By Joe Cortright 3.1.2019
How tax evasion fuels traffic congestion in Portland Tax free shopping in Oregon saves the typical Southwest Washington household $1,000 per year Cross border shopping accounts for 10-20 percent of all trips across the I-5 and I-205 bridges Tax avoidance means we're ... → By Joe Cortright 15.3.2019
A tool kit for value capture policies Harnessing the value of public assets to support the civic commons It's widely recognized that public assets, like parks, libraries and community centers, generate important and tangible benefits for their neighborhoods... → By Joe Cortright 12.12.2018
Cities, Ideas and Us: Paul Romer’s Nobel Address Cities are critical to expanding the circle of "us" and generating the new ideas that propel progress In October, Paul Romer was awarded the Nobel Prize in the Economic Sciences for his work on technology and economic g... → By Joe Cortright 10.12.2018
Oregon DOT admits it lied about I-5 safety Oregon's Department of Transportation concedes it was lying about crashes on I-5 at the Rose Quarter For more than a year, we and others have been calling out the Oregon Department of Transportation for its false claims... → By Joe Cortright 17.3.2020
Safety: Using the big lie to sell wider freeways Oregon's Department of Transportation is lying about safety to sell a half billion dollar freeway project Fear-mongering is the one of the lowest, if unfortunately most effective, means of selling anything. Threaten a... → By Joe Cortright 19.3.2019
Why road pricing is inherently equitable: Faster buses Road pricing is inherently fairer to the poor because it speeds up buses As economists, we're keen on the idea of road pricing. The reason we have congestion and delay is because we charge a price for peak hour road use... → By Joe Cortright 7.5.2019
Why road pricing is inherently equitable: Faster buses Road pricing is inherently fairer to the poor because it speeds up buses As economists, we're keen on the idea of road pricing. The reason we have congestion and delay is because we charge a price for peak hour road use... → By Joe Cortright 7.11.2018
You can’t feel ’em, if you can’t see ’em We can't have empathy for those we can't encounter due to the way our cities are built Editor's Note: Last month, our friend Carol Coletta spoke to the Kinder Institute in Houston about the critical role that place play... → By Joe Cortright 14.11.2018
Why suburban office campuses aren’t really walkable A suburban campus with 10,000 parking spaces and virtually no transit isn't walkable A recent news item caught our eye: The Fort Worth Star Telegram reported that American Airlines was putting a premium on promoting w... → By Joe Cortright 12.11.2018
The long tail of the housing bust Adjusted for inflation, US home prices are still lower than in 2006 For most US households, the home they own is their biggest financial asset. After the housing bust of 2007, when collectively about $7 trillion in home... → By Joe Cortright 19.11.2018
Real home prices: A regional view Wide variations in regional home price patterns tell us a lot about housing markets and cities Yesterday, we looked at the path of inflation-adjusted home prices in the US. While much attention has been paid to the fa... → By Joe Cortright 20.11.2018
Local neighborhoods matter even more for black kids The Equality of Opportunity Project shows local factors matter, but even more for black kids We now have a rich understanding of how where you grow up influences your life prospects. As we reported last week, the new Op... → By Joe Cortright 29.10.2018
Is Uber Unsafe? Is Lyft Lethal? Let’s dig into the data to find out We have the data: Let's do a real test of whether Uber and Lyft lead to more crashes Last year, we asked some hard questions about a study from the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business that made the provocat... → By Joe Cortright 16.4.2019
Unsafe Uber? Lethal Lyft? We’re still skeptical We're still skeptical about an updated study claiming ride-hailing increases crashes and deaths In the Fall of 2018, we took a close look at a draft study from the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business whic... → By Joe Cortright 4.3.2020
Unsafe Uber? Lethal Lyft? We’re still skeptical We're still skeptical about an updated study claiming ride-hailing increases crashes and deaths In the Fall of 2018, we took a close look at a draft study from the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business whic... → By Joe Cortright 3.3.2020
Unsafe Uber? Lethal Lyft? We’re skeptical A new study claiming ride-hailing increases crashes and deaths leaves some questions unanswered. A new study from the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business makes the provocative claim that the advent of ride-... → By Joe Cortright 23.10.2018
Cities, talent and prosperity America's economy is increasingly driven by the concentration of talent in cities The Economic Innovation Group (aka EIG, a DC-based think tank) has been compiling some interesting data on the relative economic performa... → By Joe Cortright 22.10.2018
Get out! Why economic mobility might mean leaving home Part of the disparity in intergenerational economic mobility may stem from a willingness to leave home Raj Chetty, Nate Hendren and their colleagues at the Equality of Opportunity Project have crafted a rich picture of ... → By Joe Cortright 31.10.2018
The limits of job creation Whether at the neighborhood or metropolitan level, more job growth doesn't seem to improve economic mobility There's a seemingly un-questioned (and unquestionable) truth among economic development practitioners that mor... → By Joe Cortright 18.10.2018
Fresh evidence for Portland’s green dividend Building a city so its residents don't have to drive so much powers economic growth A decade ago, we coined the term "green dividend." We noted that among large US metropolitan areas, Portland residents drove signific... → By Joe Cortright 16.10.2018
Now we are six. We're six! On October 17, 2014, we launched City Observatory, with the aim of providing solid, data-driven research on cities, and offering a timely and informed voice on urban policy issues. Six years—and more than a... → By Joe Cortright 17.10.2020
City Observatory turns five We observe our fifth birthday On October 17, 2014, we launched City Observatory, with the aim of providing solid, data-driven research on cities, and offering a timely and informed voice on urban policy issues. Five yea... → By Joe Cortright 17.10.2019
City Observatory’s Fourth Birthday Today marks the fourth year since we launched City Observatory On October 17, 2014, we started up City Observatory. [caption id="attachment_7137" align="aligncenter" width="640"] (Flickr: Till Westermayer)[/caption] ... → By Joe Cortright 17.10.2018
Exit, Hope and Loyalty: The fate of neighborhoods How neighborhood stability hinges on expectations: If people don't believe things are going to get better, many will leave One of the most perplexing urban problems is neighborhood decline. Once healthy, middle-class ... → By Joe Cortright 20.5.2019
The limits of Nieman Marcus environmentalism Conspicuous non-consumption is really faux environmentalism; climate change is a social problem, not a personal one We're in the midst of the holiday shopping season, a potent reminder of how consumerism dominates so mu... → By Joe Cortright 17.12.2018
Does your neighborhood help kids succeed? The Opportunity Atlas: Stunning neighborhood maps of economic opportunity Some of the most important research findings of the past decade have come from the work of Raj Chetty and his colleagues at the Equality of Oppor... → By Joe Cortright 4.10.2018
Does new construction lead to displacement? A careful study of evictions in San Francisco says "No." There's a widespread belief among some neighborhood activists that building new housing triggers displacement. We-and most economists are highly skeptical of that... → By Joe Cortright 11.9.2018
Why inclusive is so elusive, Part 5: Exclusive suburbs Part 5. Are the nation's richest suburbs really its most economically inclusive cities? A statistical methodology that repeatedly flags high income suburbs as "inclusive" probably isn't actually measuring inclusiveness.... → By Joe Cortright 21.9.2018
Why inclusive is so elusive, Part 4: Metropolitan context Part 4. Are racially and economically homogeneous cities and suburbs in a segregated metro "inclusive?" Looking only at disparities within cities misses the often far larger disparities across cities within in single m... → By Joe Cortright 20.9.2018
Why inclusive is so elusive, Part 3: Annexing growth Part 3. Do annexations and mergers constitute economic growth? Not adjusting city job growth estimates for changes in city boundaries produces misleading estimates, especially when used for comparing and ranking cities.... → By Joe Cortright 19.9.2018
Why inclusive is so elusive, Part 2: The limits of city limits Part 2. Are city boundaries the right way to measure inclusion? Municipal boundaries produce a myopic and distorted view of inclusion; the boundaries themselves were often drawn to create exclusion (Editor's note: Th... → By Joe Cortright 18.9.2018
The Urban Institute gets inclusion backwards, again The Urban Institute has released an updated set of estimates that purport to measure which US cities are the most inclusive. The report is conceptually flawed, and actually gets its conclusions backwards, classifying som... → By Joe Cortright 11.1.2021
Why inclusive is so elusive, Part I Inclusiveness is a worthy policy goal, but in practice turns out to be devilishly hard to measure. A recent report from the Urban Institute shows some of the pitfalls: looking just within city boundaries ignores metropoli... → By Joe Cortright 17.9.2018
Let’s stop with the absurd surveys masquerading as serious research No: Eighty percent of today's 8 to 23 year-olds won't be buying houses in the next five years At City Observatory, we get a regular stream of press releases and media advisories about the results of surveys and other ... → By Joe Cortright 4.9.2018
Does increased housing supply improve affordability? Why a recent Fed study tells us very little about supply and affordability The takeaway: A recent Federal Reserve study which seems to show that building more housing won't improve affordability has little rel... → By Joe Cortright 29.8.2018
If you want less displacement, build more housing The more you limit housing, the more you increase displacement In city after city, we see the same refrain: a neighborhood is starting to attract new residents and new investment, current residents are starting to worry... → By Joe Cortright 27.8.2018
Is St. Louis Gentrifying? Gentrification Debates Without Gentrification? By Todd Swanstrom Editor's note: We're pleased to offer a guest commentary from Todd Swanstrom. Todd is the Des Lee Professor of Community Collaboration and Public Pol... → By Joe Cortright 14.8.2018
Going the wrong way: NYC’s new ride-hailing cap Capping or taxing ride-hailing services isn't going to solve NYC's congestion problem New York's City Council is moving ahead with a package of measures designed to cap the number of ride-hailed vehicles, like Uber and ... → By Joe Cortright 9.8.2018
Whither small towns? Wither small towns? Rural and small town America faces some tough odds In an article entitled: "How to save the Troubled American Heartland," Bloomberg's very smart Noah Smith shares his thoughts on how to revive the smaller towns of rural... → By Joe Cortright 15.8.2018
Don’t decry new urban housing as “gentrification” Whenever a distressed neighborhood gets new market rate housing, someone's bound to cry "Gentrification". Here's why that's wrong. This is a guest post from Jason Segedy, Director of Akron's Planning Department. Thi... → By Joe Cortright 6.8.2018
The limited allure of small towns A few knowledge workers decamp to rural America as they age, but cities are the key It's an oft-told tale: talented professionals grow weary of the stress and high cost of city-living, and decamp with their spouses, chi... → By Joe Cortright 25.7.2018
E-Scooters and Paying for Roads If charging scooters to use city streets makes sense, let's charge cars proportionately A little bit late to the party, but today the first electric scooters appeared on the streets of Portland. Bird announced that, wit... → By Joe Cortright 31.7.2018
Race and economic polarization The growth of concentrated poverty has been fueled by the secession of successful African Americans David Rusk has summarized his research on race and economic polarization in a series of three commentaries on "The Grea... → By Joe Cortright 14.6.2021
More evidence of declining rents in Portland Zillows data shows Portland rents have dropped 3.5 percent in the past year A couple of weeks ago, we published the latest data from ApartmentList.com on the decline in rents in the Portland metropolitan area. Their b... → By Joe Cortright 7.8.2018
We disagree with the Washington Post about housing economics Contrary to what you think you may have read in last week's Washington Post, rental housing markets at all levels still conform to the laws of supply and demand Monday's Washington Post ran a provocative headline: "In e... → By Joe Cortright 13.8.2018
Portland rents are going down More supply is driving down rents in the Rose City According to Apartment List.com, rents for one bedroom apartments in Portland have declined 3 percent in the past year. It's a solid vindication of the standard predict... → By Joe Cortright 23.7.2018
Your summertime, urbanist “must read” Allan Mallach’s Divided City A review of The Divided City Alan Mallach, The Divided City: Poverty and Prosperity in Urban America (Island Books, 2018, 326 pages). Before you head out to the beach or mountains or wherever your summertime plans ta... → By Joe Cortright 30.7.2018
The clear case for congestion pricing in Portland Why congestion pricing makes sense for Portland by Chris Hagerbaumer Today, City Observatory is pleased to offer a guest commentary from Chris Hagerbaumer on value pricing. Chris is the deputy director of the Oregon ... → By Joe Cortright 24.7.2018
Philadelphia’s urban policy harmonic convergence Philly's University City: The urban challenge in a nutshell The knowledge economy . . . tax breaks . . . NIMBYism . . . gentrification . . . Amazon's HQ2 . . . high speed rail . . . university economic development? Al... → By Joe Cortright 20.8.2018
Where we embrace socialism in the US: Parking Lots How we embrace socialism for car storage in the public right of way Florida Senator Marco Rubio has denounced President Biden's $3.5 trillion spending program as un-American socialism. Rubio claims: In the end, Ameri... → By Joe Cortright 30.9.2021
Parking: Where we embrace socialism in the US How we embrace socialism for car storage in the public right of way Comrades, rejoice: In the face of the counter-revolutionary neo-liberal onslaught, there's at least one arena where the people's inalienable rights r... → By Joe Cortright 17.7.2018
IoT: The Irrelevance of Thingies People and social interaction, not technology, is the key to the future of cities Smart city afficianado's are agog at the prospects that the Internet of Things will create vast new markets for technology that will disr... → By Joe Cortright 21.8.2018
Envisioning more cohesive communities What aspects of the built environment give rise to greater social trust? We're pleased to offer a guest commentary today from Em Friedenberg. Em is a recent graduate of the University of Oregon, who's studied urban desi... → By Joe Cortright 10.7.2018
Detroit’s Corktown: Portrait of a diverse neighborhood One of the places where socioeconomic mixing is highest Despite deep concerns that America is increasingly divided along racial, ethnic and economic lines, there are some neighborhoods that have a diverse array of resid... → By Joe Cortright 5.11.2018
Profiles of Diverse, Mixed Income Neighborhoods Our new CityReport dives deep in data; but what does a diverse, mixed income neighborhood look like? As we explained in our new report–America's Most Diverse, Mixed Income Neighborhoods–nearly seven million American... → By Joe Cortright 19.6.2018
Portland votes to increase housing supply Portland's City Council reversed its denial of one tall apartment building; we commend them Back in March, we were critical of a decision by the Portland City Council to deny approval of a 17-story apartment building in... → By Joe Cortright 26.6.2018
Handicapping the City-Suburb Horserace The simple-minded comparison on city and suburb population growth rates is misleading and incomplete Every year, in the late Spring, the Census Bureau releases its latest population estimates for the nation's municipali... → By Joe Cortright 11.6.2018
The increasing centralization of urban economies: New York Prime working age adults are increasingly clustering in the center of the nation's largest metro area City Observatory has long been following the movement of people and jobs back to cities. Our inaugural study on the... → By Joe Cortright 4.6.2018
The persistence of residential segregation How slow growth and industrial decline perpetuate racial segregation As regular readers of City Observatory know, we think that the continuing racial and economic segregation of the nation's metropolitan areas is at the... → By Joe Cortright 5.6.2018
State government as an anchor industry Eds and Meds . . . and Capitol Domes? I recently participated as a part of an expert panel reviewed Sacramento’s economic development strategy. You can learn more about the city’s “Project Prosper” here. It ... → By Joe Cortright 21.5.2018
Fishy business: the promise and perils of city aquariums To ballparks, convention centers and starchitect museums, add urban aquariums. To some boosters, your city is only one world-class visitor attraction away from economic prosperity. That pitch has been used to sell and e... → By Joe Cortright 22.5.2018
California’s next bold step on climate should be building near transit While the impetus for State Senator Scott Wiener’s proposed SB 827, which would allow apartment construction near transit lines was addressing housing affordability, the measure should also be a cornerstone of our effort... → By Joe Cortright 15.5.2018
Cities as selection environments Being cheaper may not be an advantage at all in a dynamic, knowledge based economy It's axiomatic in the world of local economic development that the sure-fire way to stimulate growth is to make it as cheap and easy as ... → By Joe Cortright 7.5.2018
No exit from housing hell Distrust and empowering everyone to equally be a NIMBY is a recipe for perpetual housing problems The recent defeat of SB 827--California State Senator Scott Wiener's bill that would have legalized apartment constructio... → By Joe Cortright 3.5.2018
Why doesn’t the federal government protect access to affordable housing the way it does access to TV? A powerful federal agency can override local laws limiting access to TV. But housing? Nope. Local control. It's the bedrock principle of land use planning. Cities and neighborhoods should have absolute control over the ... → By Joe Cortright 1.5.2018
The Mortgage Interest Deduction: Smaller, but even more unfair Tax changes cut the Mortgage Interest Deduction sharply–but not for the rich The 1.2 percent of households with incomes over $500,000 get 20 times as much tax relief from the mortgage interest deduction as the half of... → By Joe Cortright 24.4.2018
Dow of Cities: Big data on the urban price premium Zillow's data tracking prices of tens of millions of US homes adds further confirmation to the Dow of Cities For some time, we've been talking about the Dow of Cities: the notion that the price premium that urban home... → By Joe Cortright 24.4.2018
City as theme park There's no critique more cutting than saying that development is turning an urban neighborhood into a theme park. The irony of course, is that cities like Dubrovnik and Venice represent a profoundly obsolete, ... → By Joe Cortright 22.4.2018
Video: Portland’s Housing Market Earlier this month, City Observatory's Joe Cortright was interviewed for HFO TV. The interview focused on recent developments in Portland's housing market, and explored the reasons behind the growth in rents in the middl... → By Joe Cortright 19.4.2018
A critical look at suburban triumphalism The "body count" view of suburban population misses the value people attach to cities Lately, we've seen a barrage of comments suggesting that the era of the city is over, and that Americans, including young adults, are... → By Joe Cortright 12.4.2018
Housing: A shortage of cities City Observatory's Joe Cortright is one of the panelists at Chapman University's April 5 conference "Will California Ever Figure Out How to House Itself". Here's a summary of his remarks. The housing crisis in Califor... → By Joe Cortright 5.4.2018
Gerontopoly: Homeownership, wealth, and age Is the "dream" of homeownership really just a massive, intergenerational wealth transfer? Recently, that's just how it has worked out. The takeaways: Homeownership is a gerontopoly. Most housing wealth is held by... → By Joe Cortright 23.4.2018
Is Fruitvale gentrifying? Did it prevent displacement? What does Fruitvale tell us about gentrification and displacement? Gentrification solved, or at least prevented. That was the celebratory headline announcing a recent study from UCLA's Latino Politics and Policy Init... → By Joe Cortright 8.5.2018
Vision Zero: Moving from slogan to reality Editor's Note: Vision Zero is an impressive sounding slogan, but whether it will amount to more than that is in the hands of city leaders. The choices they make about how to prioritize public space for those who walk and... → By Alex Baca 2.10.2018
Diverse, Mixed Income Neighborhoods Maps This page contains maps showing the nation's most racially and ethnically diverse neighborhoods, and those with the highest levels of income mixing. for City Observatory's Diverse, Inclusive Neighborhood report. These we... → By Joe Cortright 23.3.2018
Gentrification isn’t ending. We must rise to meet that challenge. We're pleased to publish another contribution from City Observatory friend and colleague Alex Baca. Alex has written about cities while living in Washington, D.C., San Francisco, and Cleveland, OH, and earlier this year au... → By Alex Baca 29.3.2018
Nattering Nabobs of NIMBYism at the NYT Denouncing developers and density is no way to solve a housing crisis Editor's Note: Today we're publishing a guest commentary from Ethan Seltzer responding to New York Times columnist Tim Egan's recent column on housin... → By Joe Cortright 16.7.2018
Time to get real about climate change To change the world, we need to change the world… Editor's Note: Ethan Seltzer is an Emeritus Professor in the Toulan School of Urban Studies and Planning at Portland State University. He previously served as the P... → By Joe Cortright 19.2.2019
An Open Letter on Housing Affordability to Portland City Commissioner Nick Fish Our planning processes and land use decisions have a huge impact on housing affordability. Editor's Note: Today we're publishing an open letter from Ethan Seltzer to Portland City Commissioner Nick Fish. Portland is the... → By Joe Cortright 22.3.2018
Portland’s brouhaha over housing market economics 101 Understanding how housing markets really work is essential to crafting solutions to our affordability problems Regular followers of City Observatory will know two things about us: We're keenly focused on the problem o... → By Joe Cortright 19.3.2018
Inclusionary Zoning’s Wile E. Coyote moment You won't know that your inclusionary zoning program is wrecking the housing market until it's too late to fix. How lags and game theory monkey wrench inclusionary zoning. One of the toughest problems in economics an... → By Joe Cortright 13.5.2019
Moving the goalposts The key to being on-time and under-budget: Orwellian double-speak Oregon DOT projects are always on-time and under budget--because the agency simply disappears its original schedules and budgets. Delayed, half-fini... → By Joe Cortright 30.4.2024
Portland doesn’t really want to make housing affordable Actions speak louder than words; blocking new housing will drive up rents Nominally, at least, the Portland City Council is all about housing affordability. They've declared a housing emergency. In the last general el... → By Joe Cortright 12.3.2018
Housing reparations for Northeast Portland Attention freeway builders! Want to make up for dividing the community and destroying neighborhoods? How about replacing the homes you demolished? One of the carefully crafted talking points in the sales pitch for the $... → By Joe Cortright 16.4.2018
Barack Obama on Gentrification . . . we want more economic activity in this community, because that’s what creates opportunity and with more economic opportunity it does mean that there’s going to be more demand for all kinds of amenities in the com... → By Joe Cortright 6.3.2018
Dallas: Diverse mobility, complete neighborhoods & placemaking Carol Coletta’s Remarks to Downtown Dallas, Inc. (Our friend and colleague Carol Coletta delivered the keynote address to the annual meeting of Downtown Dallas, Inc. on March 5. While her remarks are focused on Dallas... → By Joe Cortright 13.3.2018
City Women Jane Jacobs was just one of the first of many It’s International Women’s Day, and today, we’d like to acknowledge just a few of the really sharp women urbanists we rely on, every day, at City Observatory, to under... → By Joe Cortright 8.3.2018
Cloaking a weak argument in big—but phony—numbers Journalists: Stop repeating phony congestion cost estimates. They're just weak arguments disguised with big numbers. This month The Economist has an excellent special report exploring the prospects for autonomous vehic... → By Joe Cortright 14.3.2018
Junk food America elected its president The states with the worst diets voted disproportionately for Donald Trump A powerful new study from uses big data to shine a powerful light on our eating habits. Using data from grocery store scanner records, Hunt All... → By Joe Cortright 5.3.2018
Road pricing for all vehicles, not just ride-hailed ones The problem isn't the ride-hailed vehicles, it's the under-priced street It really looks like we're on the cusp of a major change in transportation finance. Cities around the country are actively studying real time road... → By Joe Cortright 1.3.2018
Gentrification & integration in DC Gentrification is producing more diverse schools and growing enrollment In Washington DC, gentrification is producing higher levels of integration and increasing the total number of kids–black and white–attending sc... → By Joe Cortright 25.3.2018
What drives ride-hailing: Parking, Drinking, Flying, Peaking, Pricing Ride-hailing is growing: We distill a new report into 5 key factors that explain its growth A good reporter is always supposed to ask five questions: "who, what, when, where and why?" A new report on ride-hailing provid... → By Joe Cortright 19.2.2018
Do rich neighbors make low income people unhappy? Lower income households are happier in higher income neighborhoods How does your neighbor's income affect your happiness? Do you feel worse off if you have less income than most of your neighbors? The "Keeping up with t... → By Joe Cortright 28.8.2018
Big Bad Data: The Uninformative Inrix Scorecard Big data should be used for problem solving, not propaganda and promotion Cue the extreme telephoto shots of freeways! Wallow in the pity of commuters stuck in traffic because of all those other people! Wail that co... → By Joe Cortright 7.2.2018
The emperor’s new infrastructure plan Politics and the President's wheeler-dealer background suggest the infrastructure plan is a mirage If there's been one shred of hope for bi-partisan progress in this politically polarized time, its been the idea that so... → By Joe Cortright 20.2.2018
The limits of localism Overselling localism is becoming an excuse to shed and shred federal responsibility Our friend, and director of the Brookings Institution's Metropolitan Policy Program, Amy Liu, weighs in with a timely commentary on the... → By Joe Cortright 10.9.2018
Qualms about the new localism: Cities need the national government to do its job well We like cities, but localism can only flourish with a competent, generous, fair federal government As our name City Observatory suggests, we're keen on cities. We believe they're the right frame for tackling many of o... → By Joe Cortright 5.2.2018
Challenging the Cappuccino City: Part 2: The limits of ethnography City Observatory has long challenged the popular narrative about the nature and effects of gentrification. This is the second installment of a three-part commentary by our friend and colleague Alex Baca. You can read parts... → By Alex Baca 13.2.2018
Challenging the Cappuccino City: Part 1: A New Premise? City Observatory has long challenged the popular narrative about the nature and effects of gentrification. This is the first installment of a three-part commentary by our friend and colleague Alex Baca. Parts two and three... → By Alex Baca 12.2.2018
Challenging the Cappuccino City: Part 3: Cultural Displacement City Observatory has long challenged the popular narrative about the nature and effects of gentrification. Today, we are pleased to offer the final installment of a three-part commentary by our friend and colleague Alex Ba... → By Alex Baca 14.2.2018
Sprawl, stagnation, and NIMBYism: Animated maps of metro change A picture of metropolitan growth: Sprawl then, stagnation now. We're in awe of Issi Romem's prodigious data skills. Romem is the economist and big data guru BuildZoom, the web-based marketplace for construction profes... → By Joe Cortright 1.2.2018
2HQ2? Amazon doubles down, just as we predicted As City Observatory predicted in January, Amazon will select multiple locations for HQ2 The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Amazon's much ballyhooed headquarters contest will choose not one winner, but two. Ama... → By Joe Cortright 5.11.2018
Two things everyone’s missed about Amazon’s HQ2 decision What kind of company is Amazon, and how many locations does it want? We're now into round 2 of the great Amazon HQ2 extravaganza, and as with the initial announcement much digital ink has been spilled to analyze the mea... → By Joe Cortright 22.1.2018
More evidence of rent declines in Portland Growing supply is producing growing vacancies and easing rents There's been a lot of skepticism expressed as to whether supply and demand are actually at work in the housing market. We've been strong believers that the ... → By Joe Cortright 25.1.2018
2017 Year-in-review: More driving, more dying We're driving more, and more of us are dying on the roads. Four days before Christmas, on a Wednesday morning just after dawn, Elizabeth Meyers was crossing Sandy Boulevard in Portland, near 78th Avenue, just about a bl... → By Joe Cortright 16.1.2018
A modest proposal: Extend the Americans with Disabilities Act to highways Let's require that highways really be accessible to those who can't drive: State highway departments should provide bus service on state roads for the disabled The Americans with Disabilities Act was landmark legislat... → By Joe Cortright 29.7.2019
The high price of cheap gasoline When gas prices stopped diving, Americans again began to drive less 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 somet... → By Joe Cortright 25.2.2019
Cities continue to attract smart young adults The young and restless are continuing to move to the nation's large cities One trend that highlights the growing demand for city living is the increasing tendency of well-educated young adults to live in the close-in ur... → By Joe Cortright 2.1.2018
Our seven most popular posts of 2017 Affordable housing and sensible transportation were our most-read features #7 - Urban myth busting: How building more high income housing helps affordability. One of the predictable lamentations about the housing mark... → By Joe Cortright 29.12.2017
Diverging diamond blues A key design element of the supposedly pedestrian friendly Rose Quarter freeway cover is a pedestrian hostile diverging diamond interchange One of the main selling points of the plan to spend nearly half a billion dolla... → By Joe Cortright 19.12.2017
How the g-word poisons public discourse on making cities better We're pleased to publish this guest post from Akron's Jason Segedy. It originally appeared on his blog Notes from the Underground. Drawing on his practical experience in a rust-belt city, he offers a compelling new insig... → By Joe Cortright 21.12.2017
Are the young leaving cities? The so-called "peak millennial" conjecture. Is it right? What does it mean? Should I care? Time has published an article, based largely on the research of UCLA demographer Dowell Myers, proclaiming that US cities are ... → By Joe Cortright 18.12.2017
Is inequality over? After a long, slow recovery, wages are finally rising for the lowest-paid workers, but we're no where close to rectifying our inequality problem; in fact, it's going to get worse. The very smart Jed Kolko, who now write... → By Joe Cortright 8.12.2017
The great freeway cover-up Concrete covers are just a thinly-veiled gimmick for selling wider freeways As you've read at City Observatory, and elsewhere (CityLab, Portland Mercury, Willamette Week), Portland is in the midst of a great freeway war... → By Joe Cortright 13.12.2017
A wider freeway won’t reduce traffic Widening I-5 actually increased crashes, instead of reducing them, and an even wider freeway won't be less congested if crashes don't decline. We're going to dig deep into Portland's proposed freeway-widening controvers... → By Joe Cortright 11.2.2019
The death of Flint Street A proposed freeway widening project will tear out one of Portland's most used bike routes At City Observatory, were putting a local Portland-area proposed freeway widening project under a microscope, in part because we ... → By Joe Cortright 5.12.2017
A constant state of change: turnover in business establishments Churn means that lots of businesses, even large ones, aren't around forever Many of our discussions of the economy are based on simple, and often largely static mental models of the economy. In a good year, a local econ... → By Joe Cortright 6.12.2017
Remember: There’s no such thing as a “Free” way Congestion pricing is a win-win strategy and the only way to truly reduce traffic congestion The urban transportation problem is a hardy perennial: no matter how many lanes we add to urban freeways, traffic congestion i... → By Joe Cortright 30.11.2017
Renters move up-market What to make of the high credit scores of new renters in some markets: alarm bell or success signal? RentCafe–one arm of Yardi Matrix, a real estate data and services firm–has a very interesting new data series on t... → By Joe Cortright 13.11.2017
Uber and Lyft: A dynamic duo(poly)? Will two firms produce enough effective competition to benefit consumers? The use ride-hailing services continues to grow in the US, and while there are a range competitors in some markets, like New York, in most places... → By Joe Cortright 20.11.2017
Kevin Bacon & musical chairs: How market rate housing increases affordability Building more market rate housing sets off a chain reaction supply increase that reaches low income neighborhoods Households moving into new market rate units move out of other, lower cost housing, making it available t... → By Joe Cortright 15.4.2019
The end of the housing supply debate (maybe) Slowly, the rhetorical battle is being won, as affordable housing advocates acknowledge more supply matters There's been a war of words about what kind of housing policies are needed to address the nation's affordabilit... → By Joe Cortright 8.11.2017
More evidence of the Dow of cities The premium that households pay to live in cities relative to suburbs and rural areas continues to increase Three years ago, we introduced the term "Dow of cities." It's a riff on the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA)... → By Joe Cortright 6.11.2017
Using Yelp to track economic growth We review Yelp's new index for rating local economies: It's a good start For a long time, the only comprehensive and reliable means we've had of tracking and comparing economic activity across state and regional econo... → By Joe Cortright 15.11.2017
Winners and losers from rent control A new study of San Francisco's rent control shows it raises rents for some Rent control is a perennially contentious issue. Many housing activists see it as a logical and direct way to make housing more affordable. Econ... → By Joe Cortright 30.10.2017
Autonomous Vehicles: Does federal preemption shut down the laboratories of democracy? There are a lot of details to be worked out to integrate autonomous vehicles into cities. Federal preemption could foreclose the opportunity of states and cities to help figure out the best ways forward. It's a touchsto... → By Joe Cortright 28.10.2017
Signs of the times "For Rent" signs are popping up all over Portland, signaling an easing of the housing crunch and foretelling falling rents A year ago, in the height of the political season in deep blue Portland (in a county which voted... → By Joe Cortright 26.10.2017
Metro economies pulling away nationally Unemployment rates are down in cities, especially for those with less education One of the trends we've been following at City Observatory has been the increasing shift of the driving forces of the nation's economy to l... → By Joe Cortright 5.10.2017
Portland’s Inclusionary Zoning Law: Waiting for the other shoe to drop Developers stampeded to get grandfathered before new requirements took hold, will the pipeline run dry? In December, Portland's City Council adopted one of the nation's most sweeping inclusionary zoning requirements. ... → By Joe Cortright 25.9.2017
Transportation equity, part 2: the Subaru and the Suburban Flat per vehicle registration fees charge lower rates to wealthier households with more road damaging vehicles The prospect of shifting from using a combination of vehicle registration fees, fuel taxes and general reven... → By Joe Cortright 3.10.2017
Transportation equity: Why peak period road pricing is fair Peak hour car commuters have incomes almost double those who travel by transit, bike and foot The Oregon Legislature has directed the state's department of transportation to come up with a value pricing system for inter... → By Joe Cortright 27.9.2017
Racial wealth disparities: How housing widens the gap The wealth of black families lags far behind whites, and housing markets play a key role There's a great article from The New York Times' Emily Badger about a new study that shows just how much Americans (especially wh... → By Joe Cortright 20.9.2017
Cities lead national income growth, again Average household income in cities is increasing twice as fast as in their suburbs Earlier this week, the Census Bureau released its latest estimates of national income based on the annual Current Population Survey. The... → By Joe Cortright 13.9.2017
Jealous billionaires: The story behind Amazon’s HQ2 Cash prizes for bad corporate citizenship: When we incentivize anti-social behavior by big corporations, we get more of it Bloomberg Business has a behind-the-scenes post-mortem of the Great Amazon HQ2 sweepstakes, "... → By Joe Cortright 4.2.2020
Cash prizes for bad corporate citizenship, Amazon edition When we strongly incentivize anti-social behavior by big corporations, we get more of it Everyone in the urban space is busy handicapping the Amazon horserace, to see which city will land Amazon's HQ2, which promises to... → By Joe Cortright 11.9.2017
Cognitive dissonance on the Potomac How can a city be named the first "LEED Platinum" city and be building freeways in its suburbs? Submitted for your approval: Two recent news items from our nation's capital. In the first, Washington DC proudly announc... → By Joe Cortright 7.9.2017
An affogato theory of transportation Coffee and ice cream and jam (or traffic jams) Just once, we are going to sugar-coat our commentary. [caption id="attachment_5029" align="aligncenter" width="700"] Affogato (1912Pike.com)[/caption] At City Observa... → By Joe Cortright 6.9.2018
Oh, no! Is the urban revival really over? Reports of the demise of the city rebound have been greatly exaggerated Richard Florida's op-ed piece in The New York Times last week had an eye-catching headline: "The Urban Revival is Over." Here was the apostle of ... → By Joe Cortright 5.9.2017
Inequality in three charts: Piketty, the picket fence and Branko’s elephant Rising inequality in the US isn't new; Declining inequality globally is. Scratch just beneath the surface of many daily problems, and you'll find income inequality is a contributing factor, if not the chief culprit. W... → By Joe Cortright 28.8.2017
Why we’re talking about Portland’s freeway widening proposal Portland is a bellwether for transportation policy; is it going to take a giant step backward? Last month, the Oregon Legislature passed a $5.3 billion transportation funding bill. A central piece of this legislation is... → By Joe Cortright 15.8.2017
What Dallas, Houston, Louisville & Rochester can teach us about widening freeways: Don’t! Portland is thinking about widening freeways; other cities show that doesn't work Once upon a time, Portland held itself out as a national example of how to build cities that didn't revolve (so much) around the private ... → By Joe Cortright 23.8.2017
Uber’s Movement: A peek at ride-hailing data Uber's lifting the veil--just a little--to provide data on urban transportation performance Uber's new Movement tool provides valuable new source of data about travel times in urban environments. We've gotten an early l... → By Joe Cortright 30.8.2017
Is it a net zero home if it has a three-car garage? Another model energy-saving project ignores density and location The National Institute of Standards and Technology has built what it calls a model "net-zero" energy home on its Gaithersburg, Maryland campus. The hous... → By Joe Cortright 7.8.2017
Hundred dollar bills on the municipal sidewalk The public wealth of cities is substantial, but under-pricing public assets is rampant There's an old saw among economists. Two economists are walking along, and one of them says, "Look, there's a hundred dollar bill ... → By Joe Cortright 14.8.2017
What a congestion report doesn’t tell us about congestion Congestion is increasing in Portland: But not, apparently, because traffic volumes are increasing Traffic congestion reports are just as formulaic as bodice-ripping romance novels. They have a predictable narrative form... → By Joe Cortright 8.8.2017
How luxury housing becomes affordable Build expensive new "luxury" apartments, and wait a few decades One of the most common refrains the the affordable housing discussion is "developers are targeting the high end of the market" and new apartments are just ... → By Joe Cortright 11.7.2018
How luxury housing becomes affordable Build expensive new "luxury" apartments, and wait a few decades One of the most common refrains the the affordable housing discussion is "developers are targeting the high end of the market" and new apartments are just ... → By Joe Cortright 31.7.2017
Dying to widen highways Oregon's DOT seems to be more concerned with making cars go faster than saving lives Yesterday, we took a look at a recent Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) "performance report" on Portland area freeways. One... → By Joe Cortright 9.8.2017
Housing policy lessons from Vienna: Part I Is Stadt Wien the model for US urban housing policy? We’re pleased to welcome a guest commentary from Mike Eliason of Seattle. Mike is a passivhaus designer with Patano Studio who is interested in baugruppen, mass tim... → By Joe Cortright 20.7.2017
Such a deal How tax policy subsidizes homeownership, mostly for the wealthiest Americans OK. Imagine that someone offers you this investment deal. We want you to buy some stock; in fact, we want you to buy about $150,000 or $20... → By Joe Cortright 22.8.2017
Housing Policy Lessons from Vienna, Part II Allowing multi-family housing in all residential zones, and aggressively promoting private bidding lowers housing costs We’re pleased to welcome a guest commentary from Mike Eliason of Seattle. Mike is a passivhaus de... → By Joe Cortright 24.7.2017
“Free parking” isn’t green No matter how many solar panels it has, your parking garage isn't green, and especially if you don't charge parking (This commentary is cross-published at the Parking Reform Network) Almost five years ago, we called ... → By Joe Cortright 15.6.2022
How green is my free parking structure? Not very. Why does the National Renewable Energy Lab give its employees free parking? The researchers at the National Renewable Energy Lab are hard at work on a lot of cool ideas for reducing pollution and promoting greater energ... → By Joe Cortright 18.7.2017
Reality check: Poverty rates are much lower in suburbs Despite what you may have heard, poverty rates in suburbs are on average half what they are in urban centers There's a growing chorus about the so-called suburbanization of poverty. A couple of years ago, Alan Ehrenhalt... → By Joe Cortright 12.7.2017
What’s the biggest threat facing cities? Politico's survey of experts leaves out the most important challenges, in our humble opinion. A couple of weeks back, Politco, the wonky-insider beltway news source queried a dozen of the nation's urban thought leaders ... → By Joe Cortright 11.7.2017
A Nobel Prize with a solution for climate change Let's put a price on using the atmosphere as a garbage dump for carbon Earlier this week, Yale economist William Nordhaus was announced as this year's co-recipient of the Nobel Prize in Economics (along with Paul Romer,... → By Joe Cortright 10.10.2018
Climate Change: A 2-cent solution Let's put a price on using the atmosphere as a garbage dump for carbon It works for plastic bags; let's use the same idea for carbon Consider the plastic bag: It's a highly visible environmental problem, one that w... → By Joe Cortright 7.11.2019
Climate Change: A 2-cent solution Let's put a price on using the atmosphere as a garbage dump for carbon For almost six months, Chicago has been charging shoppers a 7 cent fee for using disposable plastic grocery bags. Rather than banning the bags outri... → By Joe Cortright 10.7.2017
Pity the poor Super Commuter About 2 percent of all car commuters travel 90 minutes to work, same as a decade ago. We've always been clear about our views on mega commuters, those traveling an hour and a half or more to work daily. As we said last ... → By Joe Cortright 28.6.2017
Prices Matter: Parking and Ride Hailing Pricing parking drives demand for ride hailing services Ride-hailing companies like Uber and Lyft have been highly reluctant to share data about their services with cities. In California, the state Public Utilities Comm... → By Joe Cortright 27.6.2017
Sisyphus meets Bob the Builder Why traffic engineers really aren't interested in reducing traffic congestion We now know with a certainty that investments in additional highway capacity in dense urban environments simply trigger additional travel, wh... → By Joe Cortright 13.6.2018
You can’t judge housing affordability without knowing transportation costs The "commonly accepted" 30 percent standard for judging housing affordability leaves out transportation and location At City Observatory, we've long been dissatisfied with commonly used measures of describing housing af... → By Joe Cortright 24.4.2019
You can’t judge housing affordability without knowing transportation costs The "commonly accepted" 30 percent standard for judging housing affordability leaves out transportation and location At City Observatory, we've long been dissatisfied with commonly used measures of describing housing af... → By Joe Cortright 22.6.2017
Rent inflation is abating Over the past year, rent inflation has declined in 48 of the top 50 markets For the past several years, rising rents have been at the center of the nation's housing affordability debate. A combination of former homeowne... → By Joe Cortright 21.6.2017
More evidence of the growth of concentrated poverty Since 2000, the number of people living in extremely poor neighborhoods has doubled; neighborhoods of concentrated poverty are still disproportionately in the densest urban places. Last week, the Joint Center on Housing... → By Joe Cortright 20.6.2017
Downzoning won’t make housing cheaper The fallacy of composition leads people to get the connection between density and affordability backwards Our good friend at Strong Towns, Chuck Marohn is utterly right about a great many things. But he's committed a cl... → By Joe Cortright 19.6.2017
Pricing roads for autonomous vehicles Portland and other cities are considering future policies for a world of autonomous vehicles: We have some advice: Use this opportunity to dynamically price roads. Like many cities, Portland is considering what poli... → By Joe Cortright 15.6.2017
Historic Preservation: NIMBYism for the Rich? Is historic preservation just thinly veiled NIMBYism? There's a growing recognition that local land use controls that preclude increased density in cities are helping contribute to the shortage of affordable housing. Pr... → By Joe Cortright 13.6.2017
Portland’s Green Dividend When you build a city that enables people to drive less, they spend less on cars and gas and have more to spend on other things. Here is my 2007 report, published by CEOs for Cities, which describes Portland's Green Div... → By Joe Cortright 6.6.2017
Cultural appropriation: Theft or Smorgasbord? If it weren't for cultural appropriation, would America have any culture at all? In Portland, two women opened a food cart business--Kook's Burritos--selling burritos based on ones that they'd seen and tasted during a ... → By Joe Cortright 12.6.2017
How green was my City (Hall) In the wake of Pres. Trump's withdrawal from the Paris climate accords, many mayors and governors have stepped up their rhetoric on climate change. Will their actions match their words? On June 1, President Trump announ... → By Joe Cortright 5.6.2017
More evidence on ridesharing’s growth surge New data shows the diffusion of ride-sharing among US metro areas: Parking prices matter. We know from casual observation and the occasional leaded corporate document that ridesharing (which is more accurately but clums... → By Joe Cortright 7.6.2017
Your college degree pays off more if you live in a city The more education you have, the bigger the payoff to living in a city It's a well-understood fact that education is a critical determinant of earnings. On average, the more education you've attained, the higher your le... → By Joe Cortright 11.1.2018
Cities and the returns to education The more education you have, the bigger the payoff to living in a city A recent Wall Street Journal article painted the nation's rural areas as its new inner cities, with high rates of poverty, limited economic opportun... → By Joe Cortright 30.5.2017
The hidden bias of big data So-called smart cities have an achilles heel: data is biased by the status quo Streetsblog recently highlighted a new report from Houston's Kinder Institute, evaluating bike and pedestrian road safety based on user-repo... → By Joe Cortright 31.5.2017
Integration and social interaction: Evidence from Intermarriage Reducing segregation does seem to result in much more social interaction, as intermarriage patterns demonstrate Change doesn't happen fast, but it happens more frequently and more quickly when we have integrated communi... → By Joe Cortright 4.4.2019
Integration and social interaction: Evidence from Intermarriage Reducing segregation does seem to result in much more social interaction, as intermarriage patterns demonstrate Yesterday, we took a close and critical look at Derek Hyra's claim that mixed-income, mixed-race communitie... → By Joe Cortright 1.6.2017
Socioeconomic mixing is essential to closing the Kumbaya gap Integrated neighborhoods produce more mixing, but don't automatically generate universal social interaction. What should we make of that? Our recent report, America's Most Diverse, Mixed Income Neighborhoods identifies ... → By Joe Cortright 25.6.2018
Integration and the Kumbaya gap Gentrifying neighborhoods produce more mixing, but don't automatically generate universal social interaction. What should we make of that? In one idealized view of the world, economically integrated neighborhoods would ... → By Joe Cortright 31.5.2017
Just ahead: Road pricing? Trump's infrastructure package would let states pursue road pricing A trillion dollars for infrastructure. That's been the headline talking point for months about the Trump Administration's policy agenda, but the detail... → By Joe Cortright 25.5.2017
Back at the ranch What the ranch house teaches us about house prices and filtering. Back in the heyday of the post-war housing boom, back when the baby boomers were babies, America was building ranch houses–millions of them. In its pri... → By Joe Cortright 31.10.2017
Dirt cheap. Why we're very skeptical about urban farming. At City Observatory, we don't tend to have a lot of content about agriculture. Farming is not an urban activity. But every so often, we read techno-optimistic stories about ... → By Joe Cortright 22.5.2017
Let’s use a marketing campaign to solve traffic congestion Here's a thought: Let's fight traffic congestion using the same techniques DOT's use to promote safety. Let's have costumed superheroes weigh in against congestion, and spend billions on safety, instead of the other... → By Joe Cortright 6.10.2020
Hagiometry: Fawning flatterers with an economic model It's no longer fashionable to get an unrealistically flattering portrait painted, but you can get an economist to do it with numbers. You've no doubt heard the term "hagiography" an unduly flattering biography or other ... → By Joe Cortright 26.4.2017
The 0.1 percent solution: Inclusionary zoning’s fatal scale problem Inclusionary zoning programs are too small to make a dent in housing affordability Two of the most respected names in housing research are Lance Freeman and Jenny Schuetz. Freeman is professor urban planning at Columb... → By Joe Cortright 25.4.2017
Happy Earth Day, Oregon! Widening Freeways Kills the Planet! Despite legal pledges to reduce greenhouse gases to address climate change, Portland's transportation greenhouse gas emissions are going up, not down. State, regional and city governments have adopted climate goals t... → By Joe Cortright 22.4.2024
Happy Earth Day, Oregon! Let’s Waste Billions Widening Freeways! If you're serious about dealing with climate change, the last thing you should do is spend billions widening freeways. The Oregon Department of Transportation is hell-bent on widening freeways and destroying the planet ... → By Joe Cortright 22.4.2022
Happy Earth Day, Oregon! Let’s Widen Some Freeways! If you're serious about dealing with climate change, the last thing you should do is spend billions widening freeways. April 22 is Earth Day, and to celebrate, Oregon is moving forward with plans to drop more than a bil... → By Joe Cortright 22.4.2018
Happy Earth Day, Oregon! Let’s Widen Some Freeways! Four decades after the city earned national recognition for tearing out a downtown freeway, it gets ready to build more April 22 is Earth Day, and to celebrate, Oregon's Legislature is on the verge of considering a tran... → By Joe Cortright 20.4.2017
The New Urban Crisis: Cliff Notes version Your 1,200 word bluffer's guide to Richard Florida's new book Richard Florida’s new book “The New Urban Crisis: How our cities are increasing inequality, deepening segregation, and failing the middle class–and wha... → By Joe Cortright 18.4.2017
Volunteering as a measure of social capital Volunteering is one of the hallmarks of community; here are the cities with the highest rates of volunteerism The decline of the civic commons, the extent to which American's engage with one another in the public realm,... → By Joe Cortright 15.5.2017
Why America can’t make up its mind about housing Here are two ideas that, if you’re like most Americans, you probably mostly agree with: Government policy should help keep housing broadly affordable, so as not to price out people of low or moderate incomes from en... → By Joe Cortright 16.5.2017
My illegal neighborhood Editor’s note: City Observatory is pleased to provide this guest commentary by our friend Robert Liberty a keen observer of and advocate for cities. We first published this post in 2015, but its as timely today as it... → By Joe Cortright 9.5.2017
Key to prosperity: Talent in the “traded sector” of the economy "Traded sector" businesses that employ well-educated workers mark a prosperous region At City Observatory, we regularly stress the importance of education and skills to regional economic success. Statistically, we can e... → By Joe Cortright 10.5.2017
The pernicious myth of “naturally occurring” affordable housing 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 ... → By Joe Cortright 11.1.2024
The myth of naturally occurring affordable housing Block that metaphor! There's nothing "natural" about "naturally occurring affordable housing." There's a new term that's gaining currency in some housing policy circles: "naturally occurring affordable housing." It ev... → By Joe Cortright 10.10.2017
Too soon to write off city revival County data can't tell us much about thriving urban neighborhoods New county-level census population estimates became available last week, and Jed Kolko produced an interesting analysis published by FiveThirtyEight conc... → By Joe Cortright 10.4.2017
More debate on city revival Is the urban renaissance over? Earlier this week, The New York Times published an op-ed from Jed Kolko–"Seattle Climbs but Austin Sprawls, The Myth of the Return to Cities"–offering up another iteration of his lo... → By Joe Cortright 23.5.2017
Has Portland’s rent fever broken? More evidence that supply and demand are at work in housing markets In early 2016, Portland experienced some of the highest levels of rent inflation of any market in the US. According to Zillow's rental price estimate... → By Joe Cortright 11.4.2017
Why might Uber & Lyft support road-pricing? The real disruptive technology for transportation is road-pricing. There's been a surge of interest in road pricing in the past few weeks. In a new study of growing traffic congestion in New York City, Bruce Schaller at... → By Joe Cortright 12.4.2017
New York City isn’t hollowing out; It’s growing You can't leave out births and deaths when you examine population trends The release of the latest census population estimates has produced a number of quick takes that say that cities are declining. The latest is Derek... → By Joe Cortright 6.4.2017
Migration is making counties more diverse Migration, especially by young adults, is increasing racial and ethnic diversity in US counties As we related last week, a new report from the Urban Institute quantifies the stark economic costs of racial and income seg... → By Joe Cortright 5.4.2017
A teachable moment: Ben & Jerry’s seminar in transportation economics They'll be lined up around the block because the price is too low–just like every day on urban roads Your highway department is broke, and thinks it needs much bigger roads because it gives its produce away for free e... → By Joe Cortright 16.4.2024
Time for the annual Ben & Jerry’s seminar in transportation economics They'll be lined up around the block because the price is too low–just like every day on urban roads You can learn everything you need to know about transportation economics today, just by helping yourself to a free i... → By Joe Cortright 9.4.2019
The Ben & Jerry’s crash course in transportation economics What one day of free ice cream teaches us about traffic congestion Today's that day, folks. Ben and Jerry are giving away free ice cream to everyone who comes by their stores. Whether you're hankering for Cherry Garcia ... → By Joe Cortright 4.4.2017
The Ben & Jerry’s crash course in transportation economics They'll be lined up around the block because the price is too low–just like every day on urban roads Today's that day, folks. Ben and Jerry are giving away free ice cream to everyone who comes by their stores. Whether... → By Joe Cortright 10.4.2018
Carmaggedon does a no-show in Portland Once again, Carmaggedon doesn't materialize; Shutting down half of the I-5 Interstate Bridge over the Columbia River for a week barely caused a ripple in traffic It's a teachable moment if we pay attention: traffic ad... → By Joe Cortright 28.9.2020
Carmaggedon does a no-show in Seattle, again Once again, Carmaggedon doesn't materialize; this time when Seattle started asking motorists to pay a portion of the cost of their new highway tunnel Initial returns suggest that tolling reduced congestion by reducing t... → By Joe Cortright 12.11.2019
Why Carmaggedon never comes (Seattle edition) Why predicted gridlock almost never happens and what this teaches us about travel demand Seattle has finally closed its aging Alaskan Way viaduct, a six-lane double-decker freeway that since the 1940s has been a concret... → By Joe Cortright 16.1.2019
Carmaggedon stalks Atlanta Why predicted gridlock almost never happens and what this teaches us about travel demand It had all the trappings of a great disaster film: A spectacular blaze last week destroyed a several hundred foot-long sectio... → By Joe Cortright 3.4.2017
The High Cost of Segregation A new report from the Urban Institute shows the stark costs of economic and racial segregation Long-form white paper policy research reports are our stock in trade at City Observatory. We see dozens of them every month,... → By Joe Cortright 29.3.2017
Autonomous vehicles: Peaking, parking, profits & pricing 13 propositions about autonomous vehicles and urban transportation It looks more and more like autonomous vehicles will be a part of our urban transportation future. There's a lot of speculation about whether their effe... → By Joe Cortright 27.3.2017
Breaking Bad: Why breaking up big cities would hurt America New York Times columnist Russ Douthat got a lot of attention a few days ago for his Johnathan Swiftian column–"Break up the liberal city"–suggesting that we could solve the problems of lagging economic growth in rural ... → By Joe Cortright 28.3.2017
Transit and home values Homes with better transit access command higher prices, especially in cities with good transit. Our friends at Redfin, the real estate data and analytics company, have an interesting new report exploring the connection ... → By Joe Cortright 22.3.2017
The hamster wheel school of transportation policy Going faster doesn't mean your city gets anywhere more quickly, and it doesn't make you happier One of the key metrics guiding transportation policy is speed: how quickly can you get from point A to point B. But is go... → By Joe Cortright 24.10.2017
Going faster doesn’t make you happier; you just drive farther Speed doesn't seem to be at all correlated to how happy we our with our local transportation systems. If there's one big complaint people seem to have about the transportation system its that they can't get from place... → By Joe Cortright 27.11.2018
Going faster doesn’t make you happier; you just drive farther Speed doesn't seem to be at all correlated to how happy we our with our local transportation systems. Yesterday, we presented some new estimates of the average speed of travel in different metropolitan areas developed... → By Joe Cortright 16.3.2017
Are restaurants dying, and taking city economies with them? Alan Ehrenhalt is alarmed. In his tony suburb of Clarendon, Virginia, several nice restaurants have closed. It seems like an ominous trend. Writing at Governing, he's warning of "The Limits of Cafe' Urbanism." Cafe Urbanis... → By Joe Cortright 14.3.2017
What Travis Kalanick’s meltdown tells us about Uber As has been well chronicled in the media, it's been a tough month for Uber. The company's CEO, Travis Kalanick was vilified in the press for the company's tolerance for sexual harassment of its female employees, and deride... → By Joe Cortright 2.3.2017
Twilight of the NIMBYs? LA’s Measure S Fails La-La Land voters deal a crushing defeat to a "NIMBYism on steroids" The latest returns show Los Angeles' Measure S–the self-styled "Neighborhood Integrity Initiative"–failing by a 31 percent "Yes" to 69 percent ... → By Joe Cortright 8.3.2017
Getting to critical mass in Detroit Last month, we took exception to critics of Detroit's economic rebound who argued that it was a failure because the job and population growth that the city has enjoyed has only reached a few neighborhoods, chiefly those in... → By Joe Cortright 21.3.2017
The implications of shrinking offices The amount of office space allotted to each worker is shrinking. What does that mean for cities? Last week a new report from real estate analytics firm REIS caught our eye. Called "The Shrinking Office Footprint" this w... → By Joe Cortright 6.3.2017
What we know about rent control Today, partly as a public service, we're going to dig into the academic literature on an arcane policy topic: rent control. We also have a parochial interest in the subject: the Oregon Legislature is considering legislatio... → By Joe Cortright 7.3.2017
Houston (Street), we have a problem. A lesson in the elasticity of demand, prices and urban congestion. It looks like Uber, Lyft and other ride sharing services are swamping the capacity of New York City streets Every day, we're being told, we're on the ve... → By Joe Cortright 28.2.2017
Yet another flawed congestion report from Inrix Big data provides little insight Cue the telephoto lens compressed photo of freeway traffic; it's time for yet another report painting a picture of the horrors inflicted on modern society by traffic congestion. This lat... → By Joe Cortright 27.2.2017
Cursing the candle How should we view the early signs of a turnaround in Detroit? Better to light a single candle than simply curse the darkness. The past decades have been full of dark days for Detroit, but there are finally signs of a t... → By Joe Cortright 23.2.2017
The Geography of Independent Bookstores Which cities have the strongest concentrations of independent bookstores? Last week, we explored what we called the "mystery in the bookstore." There's a kind of good news/bad news set of narratives about bookselling in... → By Joe Cortright 8.5.2017
The Week Observed, April 7, 2017 What City Observatory did this week 1. Carmaggedon stalks Atlanta. Following an arson-caused blaze, a key section on Interstate 85 in Atlanta collapsed, and is likely to be out of service for at least a couple of months. ... → By Joe Cortright 7.4.2017
The Week Observed, April 14, 2017 What City Observatory did this week 1. Too soon to write off city revival? The release of the Census county-level population estimates two weeks ago led to a series of quick-reaction analyses of what the data portend for ... → By Joe Cortright 14.4.2017
The Week Observed, April 21, 2017 What City Observatory did this week 1. How we measure segregation depends on why we care. Daniel Hertz explores the various ways we measure the geographic separation of different racial and ethnic groups. There's a widely... → By Joe Cortright 21.4.2017
What patents tell us about America’s most innovative cities Patents rates are a useful indicator of innovative activity The US is increasingly becoming a knowledge-based economy, and as a result, the markers of wealth are shifting from the kinds of tangible assets that character... → By Joe Cortright 3.5.2017
The Week Observed, June 9, 2017 What City Observatory did this week 1. How green was my city? The Trump administration's announcement that it would pull the US out of the Paris Climate Accords was greeted with dismay by many environmentalists, but gover... → By Joe Cortright 9.6.2017
The Week Observed, June 23, 2017 What City Observatory did this week 1. Downzoning won't make housing cheaper. Chuck Marohn of StrongTowns notes that land that's zoned for apartments generally commands higher prices than nearby land zoned for single fami... → By Joe Cortright 23.6.2017
The Week Observed, June 30, 2017 What City Observatory did this week 1. Urban Myth Busting: Idling in traffic and carbon pollution. There's a frequently repeated, just-so story about carbon emissions: if we didn't spend so much time stuck in stop-and-go ... → By Joe Cortright 23.6.2017
The Week Observed, August 11, 2017 What City Observatory did this week 1. How luxury housing becomes affordable. It's always been the case that developers build new housing for those at the top end of the market. It's true today, and it was true 50 and 100... → By Joe Cortright 11.8.2017
The Week Observed, July 28, 2017 What City Observatory did this week 1. Housing policy lessons from Vienna, Part II. In the second of his two guest commentaries, Mike Eliason takes a close look at land use laws and development processes in Vienna--a city... → By Joe Cortright 28.7.2017
The Week Observed, October 13, 2017 What City Observatory did this week 1. The constancy of change in neighborhood populations. The canonical story of gentrification focuses on the fact that many of the people living in a neighborhood today are not the same... → By Joe Cortright 13.10.2017
The Week Observed, November 10, 2017 What City Observatory did this week 1. The growing premium for urban living. Three years ago, City Observatory introduced the term "the Dow of cities." In essence, its the observation that the growth in city home prices r... → By Joe Cortright 10.11.2017
The Week Observed, January 26, 2018 What City Observatory did this week 1. Two thing's everyone's missed about Amazon's HQ2. The urbanist Internet has been all abuzz reading the tea leaves from Amazon's decision to winnow the list of contenders fo... → By Joe Cortright 26.1.2018
The Week Observed, February 9, 2018 What City Observatory did this week 1. City Limits: Some qualms about the new localism. The nation is deeply divided along political lines and it's depressingly unlikely that we'll generate national consensus on many issu... → By Joe Cortright 9.2.2018
The Week Observed, February 16, 2018 What City Observatory did this week 1. Cappucino City. Our friend and colleague Alex Baca offers the first of her three-part review of Derek Hyra's book "The Cappucino City." Baca, a former Washington DC journalist take... → By Joe Cortright 16.2.2018
The Week Observed, March 9, 2018 What City Observatory did this week 1. The correlation between bad diets and vote for President. A new research paper has distilled mounds of data on consumer shopping behavior gleaned from supermarket scanners, and combi... → By Joe Cortright 9.3.2018
The Week Observed, April 6, 2018 What City Observatory did this week 1. 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. ... → By Joe Cortright 3.4.2018
The Week Observed, April 13, 2018 What City Observatory did this week 1. The Dow of Cities. The most predictable feature of any media business report is a recitation of the daily movements of major stock indices, like the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The... → By Joe Cortright 13.4.2018
The Week Observed, April 20, 2018 What City Observatory did this week 1. Housing reparations for Northeast Portland. The Oregon Department of Transportation is selling its plan to spend half a billion dollars widening a stretch of freeway in Portland by c... → By Joe Cortright 3.4.2018
The Week Observed, June 15, 2018 What City Observatory did this week 1. Handicapping the city vs. suburb horse race. The latest round of Census population estimates for municipalities has led some observers to claim that city growth has faltered. We take... → By Joe Cortright 15.6.2018
The Week Observed, July 13, 2018 What City Observatory did this week 1. Don't demonize cars, just stop subsidizing them. Is there anything in the urban space that is more inflamed than the passion and rhetoric around cars and driving? Advocates on both s... → By Joe Cortright 13.7.2018
The Week Observed, July 27, 2018 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... → By Joe Cortright 27.7.2018
The Week Observed, September 14, 2018 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... → By Joe Cortright 14.9.2018
The Week Observed, September 21, 2018 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... → By Joe Cortright 21.9.2018
The Week Observed, September 28, 2018 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... → By Joe Cortright 28.9.2018
The Week Observed, December 7, 2018 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... → By Joe Cortright 7.12.2018
The Week Observed, September 6, 2019 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... → By Joe Cortright 6.9.2019
The Week Observed, January 11, 2019 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... → By Joe Cortright 11.1.2019
The Week Observed, January 18, 2019 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... → By Joe Cortright 18.1.2019
The Week Observed, January 25, 2019 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... → By Joe Cortright 25.1.2019
The Week Observed, February 1, 2019 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 ... → By Joe Cortright 1.2.2019
The Week Observed, February 8, 2019 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... → By Joe Cortright 8.2.2019
The Week Observed, May 3, 2019 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... → By Joe Cortright 3.5.2019
The Week Observed, June 14, 2019 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... → By Joe Cortright 6.6.2019
The Week Observed, June 7, 2019 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 ... → By Joe Cortright 7.6.2019
The Week Observed, June 21, 2019 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... → By Joe Cortright 21.6.2019
The Week Observed, June 28, 2019 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 ... → By Joe Cortright 28.6.2019
The Week Observed, July 5, 2019 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... → By Joe Cortright 8.7.2019
The Week Observed, July 12, 2019 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.... → By Joe Cortright 12.7.2019
The Week Observed, July 19, 2019 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... → By Joe Cortright 27.6.2019
The Week Observed, August 23, 2019 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... → By Joe Cortright 23.8.2019
The Week Observed, August 30, 2019 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... → By Joe Cortright 30.8.2019
The Week Observed, August 16, 2019 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... → By Joe Cortright 16.8.2019
The Week Observed, August 9, 2019 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... → By Joe Cortright 9.8.2019
The Week Observed, August 2, 2019 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... → By Joe Cortright 2.8.2019
The Week Observed, July 26, 2019 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... → By Joe Cortright 26.7.2019
The Week Observed, May 24, 2019 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. ... → By Joe Cortright 24.5.2019
The Week Observed, May 31, 2019 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... → By Joe Cortright 31.5.2019
The Week Observed, May 17, 2019 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... → By Joe Cortright 17.5.2019
The Week Observed, May 10, 2019 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... → By Joe Cortright 10.5.2019
The Week Observed, April 26, 2019 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... → By Joe Cortright 26.4.2019
The Week Observed, April 19, 2019 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... → By Joe Cortright 19.4.2019
The Week Observed, April 5, 2019 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 ... → By Joe Cortright 5.4.2019
The Week Observed, April 12, 2019 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 ... → By Joe Cortright 12.4.2019
The Week Observed, February 15, 2019 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... → By Joe Cortright 4.1.2019
The Week Observed, March 29, 2019 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... → By Joe Cortright 29.3.2019
The Week Observed, March 22, 2019 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 ... → By Joe Cortright 22.3.2019
The Week Observed, March 15, 2019 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 ... → By Joe Cortright 15.3.2019
The Week Observed, March 1, 2019 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... → By Joe Cortright 1.3.2019
The Week Observed, March 8, 2019 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 ... → By Joe Cortright 8.3.2019
The Week Observed, February 22, 2019 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... → By Joe Cortright 22.2.2019
The Week Observed, December 14, 2018 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... → By Joe Cortright 14.12.2018
The Week Observed, December 21, 2018 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... → By Joe Cortright 21.12.2018
The Week Observed, November 16, 2018 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.... → By Joe Cortright 16.11.2018
The Week Observed, January 4, 2019 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... → By Joe Cortright 4.1.2019
The Week Observed, November 2, 2018 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... → By Joe Cortright 2.11.2018
The Week Observed, November 9, 2018 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... → By Joe Cortright 9.11.2018
The Week Observed, November 23, 2018 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.... → By Joe Cortright 23.11.2018
The Week Observed, October 12, 2018 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... → By Joe Cortright 12.10.2018
The Week Observed, October 19, 2018 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... → By Joe Cortright 19.10.2018
The Week Observed, October 26, 2018 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... → By Joe Cortright 26.10.2018
The Week Observed, September 7, 2018 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... → By Joe Cortright 7.9.2018
The Week Observed, August 31, 2018 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... → By Joe Cortright 31.8.2018
The Week Observed, August 24, 2018 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... → By Joe Cortright 24.8.2018
The Week Observed, August 17, 2018 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... → By Joe Cortright 17.8.2018
The Week Observed, August 10, 2018 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... → By Joe Cortright 10.8.2018
The Week Observed, July 20, 2018 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... → By Joe Cortright 20.7.2018
The Week Observed, August 3, 2018 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... → By Joe Cortright 3.8.2018
The Week Observed, June 29, 2018 What City Observatory did this week 1. Closing the Kumbaya Gap. As we documented in our recent report, America's Most Diverse, Mixed Income Neighborhoods, a growing number of cities boast neighborhoods with relatively hig... → By Joe Cortright 29.6.2018
The Week Observed, July 6, 2018 What City Observatory did this week 1. Envisioning how we want to live in cities. Much of the discussion of the future of cities seems to revolve around what kind of new technologies we might apply in urban settings. But ... → By Joe Cortright 6.7.2018
The Week Observed, June 22, 2018 What City Observatory did this week 1. City Report: America's Most Diverse, Mixed Income Neighborhoods. Our new City Report digs deep into the patterns of racial/ethnic and income segregation in US metro areas. We've us... → By Joe Cortright 22.6.2018
The Week Observed, June 1, 2018 What City Observatory did this week Caveat Rentor: the problem with flawed rental inflation statistics. We highlight the continuing problem of erratic and unreliable rental price indices. A recent column by a financial jo... → By Joe Cortright 1.6.2018
The Week Observed, June 8, 2018 What City Observatory did this week 1. Growth in the center. A new report from New York City's Office of Planning graphically demonstrates the growing centralization of people and economic activity in the nation's largest... → By Joe Cortright 8.6.2018
The Week Observed, May 18, 2018 What City Observatory did this week California's next step in fighting global warming is building more apartments near transit. California has been a leader in climate change policy, being one of the first states to execu... → By Joe Cortright 18.5.2018
The Week Observed, May 11, 2018 What City Observatory did this week 1. Cities as selection environments. It's an article of faith in the economic development business that cheaper is better, or at least more competitive. The claim is that businesses wil... → By Joe Cortright 11.5.2018
The Week Observed, May 4, 2018 What City Observatory did this week 1. Why don't we have a powerful federal agency who can pre-empt local laws that drive up housing costs? Last week, the Federal Communications Commission took action that invalidated a ... → By Joe Cortright 4.5.2018
The Week Observed, April 27, 2018 What City Observatory did this week 1. Gerontopoly: Is homeownership a sure route to building wealth? It has been in the US, but increasingly, its only working for older generations. Homeowners 55 and older now hold mos... → By Joe Cortright 27.4.2018
The Week Observed, March 30, 2018 What City Observatory did this week 1. Gentrification and integration in DC schools and neighborhoods. A recent study looks at changes in school enrollment in the most gentrified neighborhoods in Washington DC over the pa... → By Joe Cortright 30.3.2018
The Week Observed, March 16, 2018 What City Observatory did this week 1. Portland doesn't really want to make housing affordable. Portland's City Council has officially declared a housing crisis, and has passed strong renter protection measured and an ill... → By Joe Cortright 16.3.2018
The Week Observed, March 23, 2018 What City Observatory did this week 1. Portland's teachable moment: time for a little housing economics 101. There's a big debate going on in Portland right now about whether using discretionary land use approvals to bloc... → By Joe Cortright 23.3.2018
The Week Observed, February 23, 2018 What City Observatory did this week Drinking, Parking, Flying, Peaking, Pricing: The five drivers of ride-hailing demand. The Transportation Research Board has published a dense, 100 page study of ride-hailing demand, d... → By Joe Cortright 23.2.2018
The Week Observed, January 19, 2018 What City Observatory did this week 1. We're losing the battle for Vision Zero. One of the compelling aspects of the Vision Zero road safety campaign is its bold, measurable objective: we want to completely eliminate traf... → By Joe Cortright 19.1.2018
The Week Observed, December 15, 2017 What City Observatory did this week 1. Is inequality over? There was some good news from the labor market this month. According to an analysis by Jed Kolko, low wage workers saw their earnings increase slightly faster tha... → By Joe Cortright 15.12.2017
The Week Observed, December 22, 2017 What City Observatory did this week 1. Should cities be worried about "Peak Millennial?" Time magazine highlighted data from three cities where the count of millennials has declined in the past year, according to the Am... → By Joe Cortright 22.12.2017
The Week Observed, January 12, 2018 What City Observatory did this week 1. How great cities enable you to live longer. We take a close look at some findings from the Equality of Opportunity Project on the connections between community characteristics and ... → By Joe Cortright 12.1.2018
The Week Observed, January 5, 2018 What City Observatory did this week 1. Cities continue to attract the young and restless. We've seen some push-back in the last few months, arguing that city population growth is no longer outpacing suburbs, and that the ... → By Joe Cortright 5.1.2018
The Week Observed, December 8, 2017 What City Observatory did this week 1. The death of Flint Street. In Portland, a $450 million dollar freeway widening project is being sold as a way to "re-connect" a community that was divided by freeway construction hal... → By Joe Cortright 8.12.2017
The Week Observed, December 1, 2017 What City Observatory did this week 1. Uber and Lyft: A dynamic duo(poly)? The continued growth of the ride-hailing industry has been something we've followed closely. New data show that in most major markets across the c... → By Joe Cortright 1.12.2017
The Week Observed, November 3, 2017 What City Observatory did this week 1. Rent control's impact on the San Francisco housing market. A new study from three Stanford economists dissects the impacts of rent control in San Francisco. Using a late-in-the-g... → By Joe Cortright 3.11.2017
The Week Observed, November 17, 2017 What City Observatory did this week 1. Renter's credit scores are rising. What does that mean? New data from RentCafe shows a noticeable increase in the average credit scores of successful applicants for rental housing. I... → By Joe Cortright 17.11.2017
The Week Observed, October 27, 2017 What City Observatory did this week 1. Signs of the times. For most of the past few years, Portland--like other flourishing metro economies--has seen significant increases in apartment rents, as demand for urban living ha... → By Joe Cortright 27.10.2017
The Week Observed, October 6, 2017 What City Observatory did this week 1. Subarus and Suburbans: Flat fee unfairness. Proposals to implement some form of road pricing, which would charge cars based on which roads they use, when, and how far they drive, hav... → By Joe Cortright 6.10.2017
The Week Observed, October 20, 2017 What City Observatory did this week 1. Now we are 3. This week marks City Observatory's third birthday. It's been an exciting time to be engaged with cities. We take a few minutes to review what we've done over the past... → By Joe Cortright 20.10.2017
The Week Observed, September 22, 2017 What City Observatory did this week 1. What price autonomous vehicles? It's easy to obsess about the cool technological details of autonomous vehicles: their sophisticated computers, LIDAR systems, and vehicle-to-vehicl... → By Joe Cortright 22.9.2017
The Week Observed, September 29, 2017 What City Observatory did this week 1.Interim report card on Portland's Inclusionary Zoning Ordinance: An Incomplete. Portland's inclusionary zoning requirements have been in effect for six months. While the ordinance pro... → By Joe Cortright 29.9.2017
The Week Observed, September 15, 2017 What City Observatory did this week 1. Cash prizes for bad corporate citizenship. The urban world is all abuzz, handicapping the city vs. city vs. city race to land Amazon's HQ2, a rich prize of investment and jobs. A... → By Joe Cortright 15.9.2017
The Week Observed, September 1, 2017 What City Observatory did this week 1. Inequality in three charts. New data produced by Thomas Piketty and his colleagues provides a rich, high-definition look at the growth of income inequality in the US. But while the q... → By Joe Cortright 1.9.2017
The Week Observed, September 8, 2017 What City Observatory did this week 1. Is the urban revival over? A provocative (but highly misleading) headline in last week's New York Times sits atop Richard Florida's op-ed about the future of cities. Although Florida... → By Joe Cortright 8.9.2017
The Week Observed, August 25, 2017 What City Observatory did this week 1. Such a deal. Suppose someone offered you this investment deal: You can get $200,000 in preferred stock, that pays a 5% annual dividend tax free, and when it comes time to sell this... → By Joe Cortright 25.8.2017
The Week Observed, July 14, 2017 What City Observatory did this week 1. Climate change: the two-cent solution. The City of Chicago charges its residents a fee of 7 cents for each disposable grocery bag. The fee provides revenue and more importantly, crea... → By Joe Cortright 14.7.2017
The Week Observed, July 21, 2017 What City Observatory did this week 1. How green is my free parking structure? Not very. The National Renewable Energy Lab does cutting edge research on wind, solar and renewable energy. One area where their thinking ... → By Joe Cortright 26.7.2017
The Week Observed, July 7, 2017 What City Observatory did this week 1. Why median rents are an incomplete and often misleading indicator of housing affordability. Our colleague Daniel Hertz shows how the median rent statistics that are often cited to de... → By Joe Cortright 7.7.2017
The Week Observed, August 18, 2017 What City Observatory did this week 1. Hundred dollar bills on the municipal sidewalk? There's a lot of interest in tapping the hidden value of municipal assets to address city financial problems. The typical city owns bi... → By Joe Cortright 18.8.2017
The Week Observed, June 2, 2017 What City Observatory did this week 1. Cities and the returns to education. We know that the nation's best educated people are increasingly concentrated in urban areas. Data compiled by the US Department of Agriculture's ... → By Joe Cortright 2.6.2017
The Week Observed, June 16, 2017 What City Observatory did this week 1. Cultural appropriation: Theft or smorgasbord? A recent Internet furor erupted over a Portland burrito stand that copied its recipe from that of street vendors in Mexico. An essential... → By Joe Cortright 16.6.2017
The Week Observed, May 26, 2017 What City Observatory did this week 1. Dirt Cheap. A number of tech startups are exploring techniques for high density urban farming. In theory, new methods, like vertical farming in plastic tubes, can greatly reduce the ... → By Joe Cortright 26.5.2017
The Week Observed, May 5, 2017 What City Observatory did this week 1. Mystery in the Bookstore. In cities around the country, there's been a noticeable rebound in the local bookstore business. After decades of steady decline, this is a pleasant surpris... → By Joe Cortright 5.5.2017
The Week Observed, March 17, 2017 What City Observatory did this week 1. Are restaurants dying and taking city economies with them? In a column at Governing, Alan Ehrenhalt raises the alarm that a city economic revival predicated on what he calls "cafe ur... → By Joe Cortright 17.3.2017
The Week Observed, March 31, 2017 What City Observatory did this week 1. 13 propositions about autonomous vehicles. Despite occasional setbacks–like last week's crash of an Uber self-driving car in Phoenix–it looks increasingly likely that autonomous ... → By Joe Cortright 31.3.2017
The Week Observed, March 24, 2017 What City Observatory did this week 1. The US retail industry is getting marked down in a big way, with hundreds of stores operated by well-established chains including Macy's, J. C. Penney, and the Gap, as well as others... → By Joe Cortright 24.3.2017
The Week Observed, March 3, 2017 What City Observatory did this week 1. More flawed congestion rankings. Traffic analysis firm Inrix released yet another report purporting to estimate the dollar cost of congestion and ranking the world's cities from mos... → By Joe Cortright 3.3.2017
The Week Observed, March 10, 2017 What City Observatory did this week 1. Shrinking offices: What it means for cities. Its not just you're imagination: offices are becoming less common and smaller, and a variety of space-sharing and space-saving practices ... → By Joe Cortright 10.3.2017
The Week Observed, February 17, 2017 What City Observatory did this week 1. Anti-social capital. You're probably familiar with the term "social capital" which Robert Putnam popularized with his book Bowling Alone. In it Putnam devised a series of indicators ... → By Joe Cortright 17.2.2017
Are young adults moving less? Conflicting data sources present very different pictures of young adult migration rates The Pew Research Center presented an analysis of census data reporting that today's young adults are less likely to move in a given... → By Joe Cortright 14.2.2017
Visions of the City Part III: You don’t own me What kind of future do we want to live in? While that question gets asked by planners and futurists in an abstract and technical way, some of the most powerful and interesting conversations about our future aspirations are... → By Joe Cortright 9.2.2017
Envisioning the way we want to live in cities The biggest challenge for creating great cities is imagination, not technology There's a definite technological determinism to how we approach future cities. Some combination of sensors, 5G Internet, sophisticated compu... → By Joe Cortright 2.7.2018
Visions of a future city, Part I What stories do we tell ourselves about the kind of world we want to live in? In his recent presidential address to the American Economics Association, Nobel Laureate Robert Shiller talked about "narrative economics." ... → By Joe Cortright 7.2.2017
Visions of the City Part II: A Perfect Day Yesterday we took a close look at Ford's vision for the future of cities. Our take: Ford's preferred narrative of the places we'll live is all about optimizing city life for vehicles. But is that the narrative that should ... → By Joe Cortright 8.2.2017
The enduring effect of education on regional economies One of the themes we stress at City Observatory is the large and growing importance of talent (the education and skills of the population) to determining regional and local economic success. As we shift more and more to a ... → By Joe Cortright 6.2.2017
The Week Observed, February 10, 2017 What City Observatory did this week 1. The persistence of talent. City Observatory regularly stresses the strong connection between educational attainment and economic success at the metro level. We step back and look at ... → By Joe Cortright 10.2.2017
The Week Observed, February 3, 2017 What City Observatory did this week 1.What HOT Lanes tell us about the value of travel time. The economic underpinning of claims that traffic congestion costs Americans billions and billions of dollars each year is the as... → By Joe Cortright 3.2.2017
Climate: Our Groundhog Day Doom Loop Every year, the same story: We profess to care about climate change, but we're driving more and transortation greenhouse gas emissions are rising rapidly. Oregon is stuck in an endless loop of lofty rhetoric, distant ... → By Joe Cortright 2.2.2024
Climate: Our Groundhog Day Doom Loop Every year, the same story: We profess to care about climate change, but we're driving more and greenhouse gas emissions are rising rapidly. Oregon is stuck in an endless loop of lofty rhetoric, distant goals, and zer... → By Joe Cortright 2.2.2023
Climate: Our Groundhog Day Doom Loop Every year, the same story: We profess to care about climate change, but we're driving more and greenhouse gas emissions are rising rapidly. Oregon is stuck in an endless loop of lofty rhetoric, distant goals, and zer... → By Joe Cortright 2.2.2022
Again, it’s Groundhog’s Day, again Every year, the same story: We profess to care about climate change, but we're driving more and greenhouse gas emissions are rising rapidly. Oregon is stuck in an endless loop of lofty rhetoric, distant goals, and zer... → By Joe Cortright 2.2.2021
With climate change, it’s always Groundhog’s Day Every year, the same story: We profess to care about climate change, but we're driving more and greenhouse gas emissions are rising rapidly. Oregon is stuck in an endless loop of lofty rhetoric, distant goals, and zer... → By Joe Cortright 30.1.2020
It’s Groundhog’s Day yet again, Oregon: How’s your climate change strategy working? Another year later, and we're still stuck with the same hypocrisy on climate change If it seems like you've read this post before at City Observatory, you're not wrong. For the past couple of years, every Groundhog's Da... → By Joe Cortright 31.1.2019
It’s Groundhog’s Day again, Oregon: How’s your climate change strategy working? A year later, and we're still stuck with the same hypocrisy on climate change The 1993 movie, Groundhog's day has been a cultural touchstone for the endless do-loop of futility. Bill Murray finds himself waking up every... → By Joe Cortright 2.2.2018
Happy Groundhog’s Day, Oregon Climate change gets lip service, highways get billions. Like many states and cities, Oregon has been a leader in setting its own local goals for reducing greenhouse gases. In a law adopted in 2007, the state set the goa... → By Joe Cortright 2.2.2017
Happy Birthday America; Thanks Immigrants! We celebrate the fourth of July by remembering that a nation composed overwhelmingly of immigrants owes them a special debt. [caption id="attachment_4083" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Lighting the way to a stronger ... → By Joe Cortright 4.7.2019
What makes America great, as always: Immigrants Happy Independence Day, America! All Americans are immigrants (Even the Native American tribes trace their origins to Asians who migrated over the Siberian-Alaskan land bridge during the last ice age). And this nation o... → By Joe Cortright 4.7.2018
Openness to immigration drives economic success Last Friday, President Trump signed an Executive Order effectively blocking entry to the US for nationals of seven countries—Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen. We'll leave aside the fearful, xenophobic ... → By Joe Cortright 31.1.2017
The constancy of change in neighborhood populations Neighborhoods are always changing; half of all renters move every two years. There's a subtle perceptual bias that underlies many of the stories about gentrification and neighborhood change. The canonical journalistic a... → By Joe Cortright 30.5.2019
The constancy of change in neighborhood populations Neighborhoods are always changing; half of all renters move every two years. There's a subtle perceptual bias that underlies many of the stories about gentrification and neighborhood change. The canonical journalistic a... → By Joe Cortright 9.10.2017
Constant change and gentrification A new study of gentrification sheds light on how neighborhoods change. Here are the takeaways: The population of urban neighborhoods is always changing because moving is so common, especially for renters. There's... → By Joe Cortright 26.1.2017
How urban geometry creates neighborhood identity Does geometry bias our view of how neighborhoods work? Imagine a neighborhood that looks like this: On any given block, there might be a handful of small apartment buildings—three-flats—which are usually clus... → By Daniel Hertz 23.1.2017
The Week Observed, February 24, 2017 What City Observatory did this week 1.Busting the urban myth about high income housing and affordability. One of the most widespread beliefs about housing is that the construction of new high income housing somehow makes ... → By Joe Cortright 24.2.2017
What HOT lanes reveal about the value of travel time Every year, the Texas Transportation Institute, and traffic monitoring firms like Inrix and Tom-Tom trot out scary sounding reports that claim that Americans lose billions or tens of billions of dollars worth of time sitti... → By Joe Cortright 30.1.2017
The immaculate conception of your neighborhood It's naive to assume that existing housing stock sprang to life magically (We're pleased to reprise this classic essay from Daniel Kay Hertz, long-time contributor to City Observatory, and now author of the newly releas... → By Daniel Hertz 21.11.2018
Speed: Fast cities Which cities move the fastest? Does it matter? The raison d'etre of the highway engineer is making cars go faster. That's reflected in chronic complaints about traffic congestion, and codified in often misleading studie... → By Joe Cortright 15.3.2017
The immaculate conception theory of your neighborhood’s origins A while back, a columnist in Seattle Magazine, Knute Berger, expressed his discontent with modern housing development. As Berger sees it, today’s homebuilding pales in comparison to the virtues of early 20th century bung... → By Daniel Hertz 2.5.2017
In a New York minute Why are travel speeds in Manhattan dropping? There's a kind of ominous tidbit in New York City's most recent mobility report. Travel on streets in Manhattan is getting slower. Here's the data, computed from the... → By Joe Cortright 25.7.2017
The Week Observed, May 19, 2017 What City Observatory did this week 1. Volunteering as a measure of social capital. Thanks to the work of Robert Putnam, author of Bowling Alone and more recently, Our Kids, there's a growing understanding of the importan... → By Joe Cortright 19.5.2017
The Week Observed, January 20, 2017 What City Observatory did this week 1. The long journey toward greater equity in transportation. The observance of Dr. Martin Luther King's birthday got us thinking about how far we've come–and how far we have yet to g... → By Joe Cortright 20.1.2017
The Week Observed, January 27, 2017 What City Observatory did this week 1.How urban geometry creates neighborhood identity. Our colleague Daniel Hertz is back this week with an examination of the way we look at and think about neighborhood identities. He po... → By Joe Cortright 27.1.2017
Louisville’s experiment in transportation economics As we pointed out yesterday, there's some initial visual evidence–from peak hour traffic cameras–suggesting that Louisville's decision to toll its downtown freeway bridges but leave a parallel four-lane bridge un-toll... → By Joe Cortright 19.1.2017
Postcard from Louisville: Tolls Trump Traffic Tolls cut traffic levels on I-65 in half; So did we really need 6 more lanes? Last month, we wrote about Louisville's newly opened toll bridges across the Ohio River. As you may recall, Ohio and Indiana completed a ma... → By Joe Cortright 15.2.2017
The latest from the Louisville traffic experiment Even with the free alternative closed, traffic is very light on the new I-65 bridges Time for one of our periodic check-ins on our real world transportation pricing experiment in Louisville, Kentucky. As you recall, w... → By Joe Cortright 24.4.2017
Who pays the price of inclusionary zoning? Requiring inclusionary housing seems free, but could mean less money for schools and local services Last month, the Portland City Council voted 5-0 to adopt a sweeping new inclusionary housing requirement for new apartm... → By Joe Cortright 12.1.2017
Has Louisville figured out how to eliminate traffic congestion? Louisville is in the transportation world spotlight just now. It has formally opened two big new freeway bridges across the Ohio River, and also rebuilt its famous (or infamous) "spaghetti junction" interchange in downto... → By Joe Cortright 18.1.2017
Race & transportation: Still a long way to go January 17 is the day we celebrate the life and dream of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. This year is also the first year that we're observing a national day of racial healing. We thought we'd take a minute to reflect on tw... → By Joe Cortright 16.1.2017
Housing supply is catching up to demand As Noah Smith observed, economists invariably encounter monumental resistance to the proposition that increasing housing supply will do anything meaningful to address the problem of rising rents–especially because new un... → By Joe Cortright 11.1.2017
Nothing’s worse than funky beer, except funky beer data You know the feeling: you're thirsty, you're primed for a cool, refreshing beverage, and the anticipation has your taste buds tingling. But you pop the cap on the bottle only to find that the beer has turned skunky. It's... → By Joe Cortright 17.1.2017
Pollyanna’s ride-sharing breakthrough A new study says ride-sharing apps cut cut traffic 85 percent. We're skeptical We've developed a calloused disregard for the uncritical techno-optimism that surrounds most media stories about self-driving cars and how f... → By Joe Cortright 5.1.2017
Brownstone Brooklyn and the challenges of urban change In the middle of The Invention of Brownstone Brooklyn—a book published in 2011, but no less relevant today—Suleiman Osman turns the tables on the people who have long been the heroes of urbanist lore. Speaking of th... → By Daniel Hertz 4.1.2017
The Week Observed, January 6, 2017 What City Observatory did this week 1. A Toast to 2017: Beer and Cities. Its traditional to begin the New Year with a delicious beverage, and more and more Americans are choosing to celebrate with a locally brewed ale. ... → By Joe Cortright 6.1.2017
The Week Observed, January 13, 2017 What City Observatory did this week 1. How diverse are the neighborhoods white people live in? Data from the newly released 5-year American Community Survey tabulations give us an updated picture of the demographics of ur... → By Joe Cortright 13.1.2017
How not to fix housing affordability Plans to subsidize renters and homebuyers will likely just fuel housing cost inflation Rising rents and home prices are becoming unbearable–or at least politically unpalatable–in cities around North America. Over ... → By Joe Cortright 2.1.2017
Beer and cities: A toast to 2017 Celebrating the new year, city-style, with a local brew Champagne may be the traditional beverage for ringing in the new year, but we suspect that a locally brewed ale may be the drink of choice for many urbanists today... → By Joe Cortright 2.1.2017
For whom the bridge tolls A crazy toll structure that encourages more driving. Kentucky and Indiana have just put the finishing touches on two new bridges crossing the Ohio River. Built at a cost of about $2.6 billion, the bridge project also ... → By Joe Cortright 28.12.2016
Our ten most popular posts of 2016 As 2016 draws to a close, we look back at our most popular commentaries of the year. Hear they are, in reverse order: #10. Introducing the sprawl tax #9. Urban myth busting: New rental housing and median income hou... → By Joe Cortright 29.12.2016
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Another housing bubble brewing? Not really
Another housing bubble? Strong Towns Chuck Marohn argues that we're in the midst of another housing bubble. He claims the housing market is full of fraud and is a bubble that's "ready to pop," just like in 2008. Is the... →
City Observatory’s Joe Cortright on the Housing Bubble–2005
In an op-ed published in the Portland, Oregonian on July 17, 2005, City Observatory director Joe Cortright predicted that the US was in the throes of a housing bubble. The text of this op-ed follows: THE ECON... →
How Metro’s RTP Illegally favors car travel and violates climate rules
Oregon's planning rules require Portland area transportation plans to prioritize investments that reduce vehicle miles traveled Metro's adopted Regional Transportation Plan devotes most of its resources to providing add... →
Hiding the growing cost of the Interstate Bridge Replacement
The cost of the Interstate Bridge Replacement (IBR) is going up: But we won't tell you how much . . . And we're not going to tell you until a year from now, after the 2025 Legislature adjourns In January, 2024, IBR o... →
Strawberries and economic prosperity
Perishable, special, and local: The economics of unique and fleeting experiences I pity you, dear reader. You likely have no idea what a real strawberry tastes like. Unless you spend the three weeks around the Summe... →
An 18 month delay for the IBR due to flawed traffic projections
The $7.5 billion Interstate Bridge Replacement Project (IBR) is likely delayed up to 18 months because of flawed traffic modeling. The Oregon and Washington DOTs are in denial about the problem, but previously secret rec... →
Grading the City Clean Energy Scorecard
A new scorecard tries to measure how cities are promoting energy efficiency and reducing greenhouse gases—a laudable goal. But the scorecard has some serious limitations. This scorecard emphasizes policies and process... →
Cargo Cult Comeback: Cost–$30 million a year
Portland's $30 Million Container Shipping Folly Cargo cults are a well-documented sociological phenomenon: Cargo cults were religious movements that emerged among indigenous people in Melanesia during the early to mid-... →
Oregon DOT can and should mitigate past damage from highways
The Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) has proposed a $1.9 billion freeway widening project for Portland's Rose Quarter. The agency proposes to cover a portion of the freeway in what it calls "restorative justice... →
The Interstate Bridge Replacement is Two Years Behind Schedule
The $7.5 Billion Interstate Bridge Project is two years behind schedule IBR's Draft SEIS was supposed to be complete in December 2022—It now won't be done before December 2024. This two-year delay means the environ... →
Bye Containers, Again
Once again, Portland loses container service: the economic effects will be minimal. Economic development has long been obsessed with "cargo cult" thinking: the idea that economic prosperity is caused by ports and hi... →
Another thing IBR doesn’t want you to know: 30 seconds over Portland
The $7.5 Billion Interstate Bridge Replacement project will save the average commuter just 30 seconds in daily commute time IBR officially determined that "leaking" the project EIS would result in "negative public react... →
What IBR 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 their Environmental Impact Statement IBR officially determined that "leaking" the project EIS would result in "n... →
Monkey-wrenching road pricing
R.I.P. Road Pricing in Oregon: Dead before its even tried More than just money, the demise of pricing monkey-wrenches state transportation policy It's no surprise: ODOT's attempts to implement pricing have been hal... →
A yawning chasm: Patterns of neighborhood distress in US metros
There's a yawning chasm of neighborhood level economic distress across US metro areas. While about 1 in 6 US neighborhoods is classed as distressed, some metro areas have large concentrations of distress, while others ha... →
Freeway covers are an expensive way to create new urban land
Wouldn't it be nice if we could create valuable new urban land by decking over freeways? Turns out, its massively uneconomical, and doesn't eliminate many of the most negative effects of urban freeways Its massively ... →
Inventing a “commitment” to freeway cost overruns
How ODOT is trying to re-write history to create a commitment to freeway cost overruns. The 2017 Legislature authorized zero funding for the I-205 Bridge project In 2024, ODOT now falsely claims that the I-205 projec... →
States need honest reporting on transportation greenhouse gases
You can't tell if you're winning or losing if you don't keep score, especially when it comes to transportation greenhouse gas emissions. But a close look at the data shows we're not making much progress, and not making ... →
Three big flaws in ODOT’s Highway Cost Allocation Study
There are good reasons to be dubious of claims that trucks are being over-charged for the use of Oregon roads. The imbalance between cars and trucks seems to stem largely from the Oregon Department of Transportation''s ... →
Bad data: Not a decline in travel
An imagined decline in trip-making is the result of bad data analysis USDOT counted fewer trips in 2022, because it used a different, and less reliable survey method USDOT's social media created a false perception th... →
Down is not up: The truth about traffic, congestion and trucking
A central message of the highway building sales pitch is that traffic is ever-growing and ever worsening, and that we have no choice but to throw more money at expanded capacity. The Oregon Department of Transportation ... →
Diversion: IBR tolls will gridlock I-205
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. These tolls will cause tens of thousands of vehicles per day to stop crossing the I-5 br... →
Why spend $200 million on consultants for “basically the same project”?
Why does it take four years and $200 million 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" pr... →
Lying about climate: A 5 million mile a day discrepancy
Metro's Regional Transportation Plan (RTP) claims it will meet state and regional climate objectives by slashing vehicle travel more than 30 percent per person between now and 2045. Meanwhile, its transportation plan ac... →
Rose Quarter’s Killer Ramps
The proposed re-design of the I-5 Rose Quarter Project now includes two deadly hairpin freeway off-ramps. Just last week, Brandon Coleman was killed at a similar hairpin highway ramp in downtown Portland The Oregon... →
Doubling down on climate fraud in Metro’s RTP
Earlier, we branded Portland Metro's proposed Regional Transportation Plan (RTP) a climate fraud because in falsely claimed the region was reducing greenhouse gases, and falsely claimed its transportation investments were ... →
ODOT Snow Job: Give us more money, or we’ll stop plowing your roads
Oregon's Department of Transportation (ODOT) says it doesn't have enough money to maintain roads, fix potholes or even plow snow. This is a Big Lie: Mega-projects and their cost-overruns, not maintenance, are the cause ... →
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 Project is a value-destroying proposition: it costs more to build than it provides in economic benefits Fede... →
Britain’s Caste System of Transportation
UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak proclaims the primacy of drivers "We are a nation of drivers" Those who don't own cars, or can't, or choose not to drive, are second class citizens The transportation culture war is f... →
This is what victory looks like, Freeway Fighters
Bad projects die with a whimper, not a bang Freeways are promoted with extravagant—and usually false—p.r. campaigns, but their death is just a bureaucratic footnote Freeway fights are often long, drawn-out affair... →
Gentrification and Housing Supply
New York lost more than 100,000 homes due to the combination of smaller, more affordable apartments into larger, more luxurious homes When rich people can't buy new luxury housing, they buy up, and combine small apartme... →
The ten lane freeway hiding in Rose Quarter Plans
Secret ODOT plans obtained by City Observatory show ODOT is planning a ten-lane freeway through the Rose Quarter Though the agency claims its "just adding one auxiliary lane" in each direction, the I-5 Rose Quarter proj... →
Metro’s Climate-Denying Regional Transportation Plan
Portland Metro's Regional Transportation Plan (RTP) does nothing to prioritize projects and expenditures that reduce greenhouse gases Metro falsely asserts that because its overall plan will be on a path to reduce GHGs ... →
The climate fraud in Metro’s Regional Transportation Plan
Metro's Regional Transportation Plan rationalizes spending billions on freeway expansion by publishing false estimates and projections of greenhouse gas emissions Transportation is the number one source of greenhouse ga... →
Rose Quarter: So expensive because it’s too damn wide
The cost of the $1.9 billion Rose Quarter freeway is driven by its excessive width ODOT is proposing to more than double the width of the I-5 Rose Quarter Freeway through the Albina neighborhood ODOT could easily str... →
Rose Quarter: Death throes of a bloated 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 downtown Portland. The past few months show this project is in serious trouble. Here's a su... →
Extend and Pretend: ODOT’s Zombie Rose Quarter project
The Oregon Department of Transportation is playing "Extend and Pretend" with the $1.9 billion I-5 Rose Quarter Freeway widening project The cost of the 1.5 mile freeway widening has quadrupled from $450 million in 2017 ... →
ODOT’s I-205 Bridge: 1/10th of 1 Percent for Black Contractors
The Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) is falling short of its own goals of contracting with disadvantaged business enterprises One-tenth of one percent of I-205 contracts went to Black construction firms ODO... →
Who sold out the HAAB?
The members of ODOT's "Historic Albina Advisory Board" (HAAB) are hopping mad. As related by Jonathan Maus at Bike Portland, they feel board betrayed by a decision to postpone construction of the $1.6 billion I-5 Rose Qu... →
Testimony to the Oregon Transportation Commission
On June 28, 2023, City Observatory's Joe Cortright testified to the Oregon Transportation Commission about the agency's dire financial situation. Background: The Oregon Department of Transportation is pushing a multi-... →
Scratch one flat top!
Oregon freeway fighters chalk up a key victory—but the fight continues On June 26, the Oregon Department of Transportation finally bowed to reality that it simply lacks the funds to pay for a seven-mile long widening ... →
Pens down!
The price of ODOT's trouble plagued Rose Quarter project has quadrupled to $1.9 billion, and the agency has no way to pay for it, because it spent the money the Legislature provided in 2017 on another project. And agency... →
Carmageddon does a no show, again (Baltimore edition)
On Tuesday, March 26, the containership Dali slammed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, causing it to collapse into the Patapsco River. Tragically, six workers on the bridge were killed, but fortunately the ... →
Carmageddon does a no show, again (Philadelphia edition)
On Sunday June 11, a tanker truck caught fire on I-95 and the intense heat caused a section of the freeway to collapse. I-95 is one of the nation's principal north-south connections, and carries 160,000 vehicles per day.... →
Getting prices right to improve urban transportation
City Observatory is pleased to publish this guest commentary from Miriam Pinski. With the needed federal environmental approvals in hand, New York looks set to be the first American city to implement congestion pricin... →
What Cincinnati’s Brent Spence Bridge can tell Portland
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 funding and re-designing, especially shrink... →
Bus on shoulder: Stalking horse for freeway widening
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 ... →
Why can’t ODOT tell the truth?
The Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) can't tell the truth about the width of proposed $7.5 billion Interstate Bridge Replacement Project ODOT is more than doubling the width of the bridge from its existing 77 ... →
A blank check for the highway lobby: HB 2098-2
The HB 2098 "-2" amendments are perhaps the most fiscally irresponsible legislation ever to be considered by the Oregon Legislature. They constitute an open-ended promise by the Oregon Legislature to pay however much m... →
IBR’s plan to sabotage the moveable span option
IBR officials are planning to sabotage the analysis of a moveable span options as part of the Interstate Bridge Project The Coast Guard has said a replacement for the existing I-5 bridges would need a 178 foot navigatio... →
The Color of Money: Bailing out highways with flexible federal funds
ODOT grabs a billion dollars that could be used for bikes, pedestrians and transit, and allocates it to pay highway bills. Oregon highways are out of compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the cost of ... →
Oregon’s transportation fiscal crisis
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 budget-writing committee about the fin... →
Houston’s I-45: Civil rights or repeated wrongs?
Editor's Note: For the past two year's the Federal Highway Administration has been investigating a civil rights complaint brought against the proposed I-45 freeway expansion project in Houston. This week, FHWA and TxDO... →
Housing affordability? Localism is the problem, not the solution
Do we need a federal commission on housing affordability? Bruce Katz, author of "The New Localism" is calling for a national commission to come up with recommendations for dealing with the nation's housing crisis. &n... →
Why does a $500 million bridge replacement cost $7.5 billion?
The "bridge replacement" part of the Interstate Bridge Replacement only costs $500 million, according to new project documents So why is the overall project budget $7.5 billion? Short answer: This is really a massi... →
More induced travel denial
Highway advocates deny or minimize the science of induced travel Induced travel is a well established scientific fact: any increase in roadway capacity in a metropolitan area is likely to produce a proportional increa... →
The Case Against the Interstate Bridge Replacement
Here are our 16 top reasons Oregon and Washington need to re-think the proposed Interstate Bridge Replacement Project. The bloated size of the project and its $7.5 billion cost, and the availability of better alternative... →
What new computer renderings really show about the IBR
The Interstate Bridge Project has released—after years of delay—computer graphic renderings showing possible designs for a new I-5 bridge between Vancouver and Portland. But what they show is a project in real troubl... →
IBR floats new bridge design, proving critics right
For four years, the Oregon and Washington highway departments have been pushing a revival of the failed multi-billion dollar I-5 Columbia River Crossing. Their key sales pitch is that the size and design of the project c... →
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 commuters, and two-thirds of all traffic on the bridge are Washington residents. On average, these commut... →
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 cost of the I-5 Bridge Replacement Program (IBR) had ballooned 54 percent, to as much as $7.5 billion. To... →
What the City of Portland said about the Rose Quarter
City of Portland raises big questions about the I-5 Rose Quarter freeway widening project (translated). Last month was the deadline for comments on the supplemental environmental analysis for the proposed $1.45 billio... →
I-205 tolls will cost you $600 per year
ODOT's planned I-205 tolls will cost the average local household $600 annually. Regular commuters on I-205 will have to pay $2,200 per year in tolls under the ODOT plan The Oregon Department of Transportation is prop... →
Another flawed Inrix Congestion Cost report
Sigh. Here we are again, another year, and yet another uninformative, and actively misleading congestion cost report from Inrix. More myth and misdirection from highly numerate charlatans. Burying the lede: Traffic... →
It looks like the Interstate Bridge Replacement could cost $9 billion
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 ... →
Blame inflation now: Lying about the latest IBR Cost Overrun
The price of the I-5 "bridge replacement" project just increased by more than 50 percent, from $4.8 billion to $7.5 billion ODOT and WSDOT are blaming "higher inflation" for IBR cost overruns As we've noted, the Oreg... →
Why won’t ODOT tell us how wide their freeway is?
After more than three years of public debate, ODOT still won't tell anyone how wide a freeway they're planning to build at the Rose Quarter ODOT's plans appear to provide for a 160-foot wide roadway, wide enough to acco... →
ODOT doesn’t care about covers, again
ODOT's Supplemental Environmental Analysis shows it has no plans for doing anything on its vaunted freeway covers It left the description of cover's post-construction use as "XXX facilities" in the final, official Suppl... →
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-way, at the peak hour. Drive from Vancouver to a job in Wilsonville? Get ready to shell out as much as $30 per day. ... →
ODOT’s I-5 Rose Quarter “Improvement”: A million more miles of local traffic
ODOT's proposed relocation of the I-5 Southbound off-ramp at the Rose Quarter will add 1.3 million miles of vehicle travel to local streets each year. Moving the I-5 on ramp a thousand feet further south creates longer ... →
ODOT: Our I-5 Rose Quarter safety project will increase crashes
A newly revealed ODOT report shows the redesign of the I-5 Rose Quarter project will: creates a dangerous hairpin turn on the I-5 Southbound off-ramp increase crashes 13 percent violate the agency's own highw... →
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 a Interstate 5 Is ODOT's supposed "safety" project really creating a new "Deadman's Curve" at the Moda Center? Bike riders wi... →
ODOT reneges on Rose Quarter cover promises
The soon-to-be released Rose Quarter I-5 Revised Environmental Assessment shows that ODOT is already reneging on its sales pitch of using a highway widening to heal Portland's Albina Neighborhood. It trumpeted "highway ... →
A Toll Policy Primer for Oregon
Oregon doesn't have tolls on any of its major roads or bridges. But faced with stagnant gas tax revenues, and with an appetite for huge freeway expansion projects, the Oregon Department of Transportation has committed it... →
Flat Earth Sophistry
The science of induced travel is well proven, but state DOTs are in utter denial Widening freeways not only fails to reduce congestion, it inevitably results in more vehicle travel and more pollution The Oregon Depar... →
The IBR project: Too much money for too many interchanges
The real expense of the $5 billion I-5 bridge replacement project isn't actually building a new bridge over the Columbia River: It's widening miles of freeway and rebuilding every intersection north and south of the rive... →
ODOT’s safety lie is back, bigger than ever
Oregon DOT is using phony claims about safety to sell a $1.45 billion freeway widening project People are regularly being killed on ODOT roadways and the agency claims that it lacks the resources to fix these problems ... →
Pricing works better than spending $1.45 billion to fix I-5 traffic
A recently disclosed ODOT memo shows that congestion pricing would do a better job of fixing I-5 congestion than spending $1.45 billion widening the I-5 freeway at the Rose Quarter Congestion pricing would would be more... →
Two out of three candidates for Oregon Governor are climate denialists
The Republican and Independent candidates for Oregon Governor are happy to spout a convenient myth that we can fight climate change by widening highways. That myth has been completely disproven: wider roads encourage ... →
Highway officials misrepresent Coast Guard permit requirements
The Interstate Bridge Project falsely claimed to a legislative committee that the USDOT/Coast Guard agreement on bridge permits doesn't apply to the IBR project. This is part of a repeated series of misrepresentations a... →
ODOT’s “Fix-it first” fraud
ODOT claims that its policy is "fix-it first" maintaining the highway system. But it is spending vastly less on maintenance and restoration than is needed to keep roads and bridges from deteriorating It blames the Le... →
A bridge too low . . . again
Ignoring the Coast Guard dooms the I-5 Bridge Project to yet another failure The Oregon and Washington DOTs have again designed a I-5 bridge that's too low for navigation In their rush to recycle the failed plans for... →
Oregon and Washington DOTs plan too low a bridge–again.
The Coast Guard has told Oregon and Washington that a new I-5 bridge must have a 178-foot vertical clearance for river navigation--vastly higher than the 116-foot clearance the state's have proposed A fixed span with th... →
Risky Bridges: Deja vu all over again
Needed: An independent review of technical mistakes that could cost billions The proposed multi-billion dollar Interstate Bridge Replacement is shaping up a repeat of the Columbia River Crossing (CRC) fiasco because t... →
ODOT’s Reign of Error: Chronic highway cost overruns
Nearly every major project undertaken by the Oregon Department of Transportation has ended up costing at least double its initial estimate As ODOT proposes a multi-billion dollar series of highway expansions, its estima... →
How ODOT & WSDOT are hiding real plans for a 10- or 12-lane I-5 Bridge Project
Ignore the false claims that the Oregon and Washington highway departments are making about the number of lanes on their proposed I-5 project: its footprint will be 164 feet—easily enough for a 10- or 12-lane roadway. ... →
Ten unanswered questions about the IBR Boondoggle
In the next month or two, regional leaders in Portland are going to be asked to approve the "modified locally preferred alternative" for the I-5 Bridge Replacement (IBR) Project, an intentionally misnamed, $5 billion, 5 mi... →
What are they hiding? Why highway builders won’t show their $7.5 billion freeway
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 and Washington highway departments are using an old Robert Moses tri... →
Sprawl and Tax Evasion: Driving forces behind freeway widening
Sprawl and tax evasion are the real forces fueling the demand for wider freeways Highway widening advocates offer up a a kind of manifest destiny storyline: population and traffic are ever-increasing, and unless we ac... →
A Universal Basic income . . . for Cars
California is the first in the nation to establish 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 Inco... →
Flying blind: Why public leaders need an investment grade analysis
Portland and Oregon leaders shouldn't commit to a $5 billion project without an investment grade analysis (IGA) of toll revenues Not preparing an IGA exposes the state to huge financial risk: It will have to make up tol... →
Which metros are vulnerable to gas price hikes?
Green cities will be less hurt by higher gas prices; Sprawling cities are much more vulnerable to gas price hikes. In sprawling metros like Atlanta, Dallas, Orlando, Nashville and Oklahoma City, higher gas prices will c... →
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 the road, ODOT will use pricing to limit demand This shows Oregon can quickly implemen... →
A reporter’s guide to congestion cost studies
Reporters: read this before you write a "cost of congestion" story. Congestion cost studies are a classic example of pseudo-science: Big data and bad assumptions produce meaningless results Using this absurd meth... →
More Congestion Pseudo Science
A new study calculates that twenty percent of all time "lost" in travel is due to traffic lights Finally, proof for the Lachner Theorem: Traffic signals are a major cause of traffic delay Another classic example o... →
Freeway widening for whomst?
Widening freeways is no way to promote equity. The proposed $5 billion widening of I-5 between Portland and Vancouver is purportedly being undertaken with "an equity lens," but widening Portland's I-5 freeway serves high... →
Biased statistics: Woke-washing the I-5 Boondoggle
The Oregon and Washington transportation departments are using a biased, unscientific survey to market their $5 billion I-5 freeway widening project. The survey over-represents daily bridge users by a factor of 10 compa... →
The I-5 bridge “replacement” con
Oregon and Washington highway builders have re-branded the failed Columbia River Crossing as a "bridge replacement" project: It's not. Less than 30 percent of the cost of the nearly $5 billion project is actually for ... →
Portland: Don’t move or close schools to widen freeways
Adah Crandall is a sophomore at Grant High School. She is the co-lead of Portland Youth Climate Strike and an organizer with Sunrise PDX's Youth Vs ODOT campaign, a biweekly series of rallies fighting for the decarboniza... →
Transportation trends and disparities
If you aren't talking about our two-caste transportation system, you're not really addressing equity. Portland's regional government is looking forward at trends in the transportation system and their implications for e... →
Metro’s “Don’t Look Up” Climate Policy
Metro, Portland's regional government, says it has a plan to reduce transportation greenhouse gases But in the 8 years since adopting the plan, the agency hasn't bothered to look at data on GHGs—which have increased 2... →
ODOT’s forecasting double standard
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 forecasts revenue, it says it will ignore a... →
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, emi... →
Why the proposed $5 billion I-5 bridge is a climate disaster
The plan to spend $5 billion widening the I-5 Bridge Over the Columbia River would produce 100,000 additional metric tons of greenhouse gases per year, according to the induced travel calculator Metro's 2020 transporta... →
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 ... →
Oregon’s economic success: The triumph of the city
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... →
Let’s stop whining about gas prices: Gasoline is cheap, too cheap.
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 gas. Even with a recent uptick, gas prices are still lower than they were a decade ago. Cheap ... →
How to solve traffic congestion: A miracle in Louisville?
Louisville charges a cheap $1 to $2 toll for people driving across the Ohio River on I-65. After doubling the size of the I-65 bridges from six lanes to 12, tolls slashed traffic by half, from about 130,000 cars per... →
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 futu... →
The opposite of planning: Why Metro should stop I-5 Bridge con
Portland's Metro regional government would be committing planning malpractice and enabling lasting fiscal and environmental damage if it goes along with state highway department freeway widening plans The proposed $5 ... →
Oregon, Washington advance I-5 bridge based on outdated traffic projections
The Oregon and Washington Departments of Transportation are advancing their $5 billion freeway widening plan based on outdated 15-year-old traffic projections. No new projections have been prepared since the 2007 estimates... →
Here’s what’s wrong with Oregon DOT’s Rose Quarter pollution claims
10 reasons not to believe phony DOT claims that widening highways reduces pollution We know that transportation is the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the US, and that our car dependent transportation syst... →
Freeway-widening grifters: Woke-washing, fraud and incompetence
The Oregon Department of Transportation's glossy mailer to sell its $1.25 billion I-5 Rose Quarter Freeway widening project is a cynical, error-ridden marketing ploy. ODOT doesn't show or tell about its wider freeway an... →
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, gentrification is far from the biggest problem we face. Gentrification is ... →
Climate efforts must be cost effective
Portland's $60 million a year clean energy fund needs climate accountability Any grant writer can spin a yarn that creates the illusion that a given project will have some sort of climate benefits, but if you're actuall... →
A net zero blind spot
Stanford claims its campus will be 100 percent solar powered . . . provided you ignore cars. A flashy news release caught our eye this week. Stanford University is reporting that its campus will be 100 percent powered... →
Insurance and the Cost of Living: Homeowners Insurance
Yesterday, we explored the differences in car insurance premiums in the nation’s largest metropolitan areas. Today, we will take a look at homeowners insurance rates. Unlike car insurance, homeowners insurance is not... →
Insurance and the Cost of Living: Auto Insurance
Everyone loves to compare the affordability of different cities, and most of the attention gets focused on differences in housing prices and rents. Clearly, these are a major component of living costs, and they vary su... →
BIB: The bad infrastructure bill
Four lamentations about a bad infrastructure bill From the standpoint of the climate crisis, the infrastructure bill that passed the Senate is, at a minimum, a tremendous blown opportunity. Transportation, especially ... →
To solve climate, we need electric cars—and a lot less driving
Electric vehicles will help, but we need to do much more to reduce driving Editor's Note: City Observatory is pleased to offer this guest commentary by Matthew Lewis. Matthew is Director of Communications for Califor... →
America’s berry best cities
Why Boston and Portland are the berry-best metros, and why it matters Summer is the height of berry season in most of the US, and nothing beats a fresh, locally grown blackberry, blueberry or raspberry. Today we're ra... →
Selling Oregon into highway bondage
Borrowing billions to widen roads endangers the climate and finances It's doubly wrong to burden future generations with the environmental costs of wider roads, and then also send them the bill Bond financing of new... →
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... →
Welcome to Portland Secretary Pete! Now about the Rose Quarter Freeway
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is visiting Oregon to learn more about local transportation issues. The local advocacy group No More Freeways has sent him an open letter to provide some background for his visit. ... →
Burn, baby, burn: ODOT’s climate strategy
The Oregon Department of Transportation is in complete denial about climate change Oregon DOT has drafted a so-called "Climate Action Plan" that is merely perfunctory and performative busywork. The devastation of cli... →
Miami’s E-Scooters: Revisiting the Double Standard
In Miami, e-scooters pay four to 50 times as much to use the public roads as cars If we want to encourage greener, safer travel, we should align the prices we charge with our values Florida is home to some of the... →
It’s back, and it’s even dumber than ever: The Urban Mobility Report
There was an unprecedented decline in traffic congestion in the US last year. According to the Urban Mobility Report, there's essentially nothing we can learn from this experience The Texas Transportation Institute ha... →
Lower interest rates = More expensive homes
The decline in interest rates in 2020 is a huge factor in explaining the recent surge in home prices. Population growth, a key driver of housing demand, actually slowed dramatically in the past year. The current surg... →
The Bum’s Rush
The $800 million project transitions from "nothing has been decided" to "nothing can be changed" There's a kind of calculated phase-shift in the way transportation department's talk about major projects. For a long, l... →
More proof of ODOT’s Rose Quarter Freeway coverup
Newly revealed documents show its roadway is vastly wider than needed for traffic, and also makes "buildable" freeway covers prohibitively expensive If you really want just two additional lanes, you can do so much more ... →
How highways finally crushed Black Tulsa
Tulsa's Greenwood neighborhood survived the 1921 race massacre, only to be ultimately destroyed by a more unrelenting foe: Interstate highways Black Tulsans quickly rebuilt Greenwood in the 1920s, and it flourished for ... →
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 medi... →
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 whit... →
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 ... →
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... →
Just say no: How to deal with highway widening zealots
The Oregon and Washington highway departments are at it again, pushing a 10- or 12-lane, five mile long freeway widening project that's likely to cost at least $5 billion. They're responding to objections with a combina... →
Failing to Learn from Failed CRC
Metro Council voted on July 14th to wave on the proposed "Interstate Bridge Replacement" project which is really a bloated, 5 mile long, 12-lane wide freeway that will cost $5 billion and likely much more. It's a scene-for... →
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... →
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 vastl... →
Getting real about restorative justice in Albina
Drawings don't constitute restorative justice ODOT shows fancy drawings about what might be built, but isn't talking about actually paying to build anything Just building the housing shown in its diagrams would requi... →
The NIMBYs made $6 trillion last year
In 2021, US residential values increased by $6.9 trillion, almost entirely due to price appreciation Those gains went disproportionately to older, white, higher income households Capital gains on housing in 2021 were... →
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 tota... →
ODOT’s peer review panel admits it didn’t validate Rose Quarter travel forecasts
ODOT has claimed a "peer review panel" vindicated its air pollution analysis Now the panel says they didn't look into the accuracy of ODOT's travel forecast Travel forecasts are critical, because they determine air a... →
The freight fable: Moving trucks is not longer the key to economic prosperity
It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it. Upton Sinclair It's even harder to get a trucking industry lobbyist or a highway department booster to un... →
Driving stakes, selling bonds: ODOT’s freeway boondoggle plan
The Oregon Department of Transportation is launching a series of boondoggle freeways, with no idea of their ultimate cost, and issuing bonds that will obligate the public to pay for expensive and un-needed highways. Fut... →
Wholly Moses: Pave now, pay later
Oregon legislation goes whole hog on highways HB 3065 would launch a whole new round of freeway boondoggles, and plunge the state into debt to pay for them The classic Robert Moses scam: Drive stakes, sell bonds ... →
How ODOT destroyed Albina, part 3: The Fremont Bridge ramps
ODOT's Fremont Bridge wiped out multiple blocks of the Albina neighborhood A freeway you've never heard of leveled dozens of blocks in North and Northeast Portland The stub of a proposed "Prescott Freeway" still scar... →
Greenwashing auto infrastructure: Natick’s diverging diamond
A proposed interchange in Natick, Mass. is a classic example of greenwashing The diverging diamond is an idea entirely given over to making things better for cars, and creates a disorienting, circuitous and dangerous wo... →
An open letter to the Oregon Transportation Commission
For years, the Oregon Department of Transportation has concealed its plans to build a ten lane freeway through Portland's Rose Quarter We're calling on the state to do a full environmental impact statement that assesses... →
Is the pandemic driving rents down? Or up?
Since Covid started, rents are down in some cities, but up in most "Superstar" cities have experienced the most notable declines; the demographics of renters in these cities are different than elsewhere. Rent decline... →
Progress Zero: Lofty vision but increasing deaths and injuries
Vision Zero is a popular and widely embraced safety campaign, but the latest data shows Portland is not only not on track, it's going in the wrong direction when it comes to road safety Multi-lane, car-dominated urban a... →
Taking Tubman: ODOT’s plan to build a freeway on school grounds
ODOT's proposed I-5 Rose Quarter project would turn a school yard into a freeway The widened I-5 freeway will make already unhealthy air even worse Pollution from high volume roads has been shown to lower student ac... →
A new framework for equitable economic development
Editor's Note: Darrene Hackler is a consultant and a senior advisor with Smart Incentives. Darrene brings economic development expertise in economic equity and inclusive growth, entrepreneurship and small business, and inn... →
Revealed: ODOT’s Secret Plans for a 10-Lane Rose Quarter Freeway
For years, ODOT has been planning to build a 10 lane freeway at the Rose Quarter, not the 6 lanes it has advertised. Three previously undisclosed files show ODOT is planning for a 160 foot wide roadway at Broadway-Weidl... →
Wile E. Coyote hits bottom: Portland’s inclusionary zoning
Portland's inclusionary zoning requirement is a slow-motion train-wreck; apartment permits are down by sixty percent in the City of Portland, while apartment permitting has more than doubled in the rest of the region In... →
Inclusionary Zoning: Portland’s Wile E. Coyote moment has arrived
Portland's inclusionary zoning requirement is a slow-motion train-wreck; apartment completions are down by two-thirds, and the development pipeline is drying up This will lead to slower housing supply growth and increas... →
The Fundamental, Global Law of Road Congestion
Studies from around the world have validated the existence of induced demand: each improvement to freeway capacity in urban areas generates more traffic. The best available science worldwide—in Europe, Japan and Nor... →
Oregon’s I-5 bridge costs just went up $150 million
Buried in an Oregon Department of Transportation presentation earlier this month is an acknowledgement that the I-5 bridge replacement "contribution" from Oregon will be as much as $1 billion—up from a maximum of $850 mi... →
Equitable Carbon Fee and Dividend
An equitable carbon fee and dividend should be set to a price level necessary to achieve GHG reduction goals; kicker payment should be set so 70% of people receive a net income after paying carbon tax or at least break eve... →
How ODOT destroyed Albina: The I-5 Meat Axe
Interstate 5 "Meat Axe" slashed through the Albina Neighborhood in 1962 This was the second of three acts by ODOT that destroyed housing and isolated Albina Building the I-5 freeway led to the demolition of housing ... →
How ODOT destroyed Albina: The untold story
I-5 wasn't the first highway that carved up Portland's historically black Albina Neighborhood. Seventy years ago, ODOT spent the equivalent of more than $80 million in today's dollars to cut the Albina neighborhood off ... →
How freeways kill cities
Freeways slash population in cities, and prompt growth in suburbs Within city centers, the closer your neighborhood was to the freeway, the more its population declined. In suburbs, the closer your neighborhood was t... →
Covid Migration: Temporary, young, economically insecure
There's relatively little migration in the wake of Covid-19 Most Covid-related migration is temporary, involves moving in with friends or relatives, and not leaving a metro area It's not professionals fleeing cities:... →
Albina Then and Now
Albina then and now Basically, Albina was wiped out by Interstate Ave 99E (ODOT) 1951 Memorial Coliseum (City) 1958 I-5 1962 Emmanuel Hospital (PDC) 1970s Blanchard Center (PPS) 1980 Convention Center 1990... →
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 strong correlation between metropolitan segregation and black-white housing wealth dispari... →
America’s K-shaped housing market
Home prices are soaring, rents are falling The disparate impact of the recession on high income and low income households in driving the housing market in two directions at once. Job losses have been concentrated amo... →
Calculating induced demand at the Rose Quarter
Widening I-5 at the Rose Quarter in Portland will produce an addition 17.4 to 34.8 million miles of vehicle travel and 7.8 to 15.5 thousand tons of greenhouse gases per year. These estimates come from a customized cal... →
Congestion Pricing: ODOT is disobeying an order from Governor Brown
More than a year ago, Oregon Governor Kate Brown directed ODOT to "include a full review of congestion pricing" before deciding whether or not to do a full environmental impact statement for the proposed I-5 Rose Quarter... →
Why parking should pay its way instead of getting a free ride
Hartford Connecticut considers a pioneering move to make parking pay its way A higher parking tax works much like a "lite" version of land value taxation (LVT) Surface parking lots are highly subsidized polluters ... →
A regional green new deal for Portland
by Garlynn Woodsong Editor's note:City Observatory is pleased to publish this commentary by Garlynn Woodsong. Garlynn is the Managing Director of the planning consultancy Woodsong Associates, and has more than 20 years ... →
2021: Time to get serious about climate
Our new year's resolution should be to take climate action seriously. Time is running out to actually do something that will reduce the steady growth of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere, which is triggering irreversible... →
2020: The Year Observed
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... →
Portland carbon tax should apply to all big polluters
By all means, Portland should adopt its proposed healthy climate fee, a $25 ton carbon tax But make sure it applies to the biggest and fastest growing sources of greenhouse gases in the region The healthy climate fee... →
City Observatory on housing supply and affordability
Here's just some of what we've had to say about research on housing markets at City Observatory. Building more housing lowers rents for everyone December 14, 2020 A new study from Germany shows that added housing supp... →
Housing discrimination is baked into zoning
The real housing discrimination today is institutional, not personal The unfinished business of dismantling the institutional racism built into zoning Overt, personal discrimination in housing is just the tip of the ... →
Sustainability is about more than electrification
Editor's Note: We're pleased to publish this guest commentary by Kevin DeGood, Director of Infrastructure Policy at the Center for American Progress. This commentary originally appeared as a tweetstorm, and is republish... →
Building more housing lowers rents for everyone
A new study from Germany shows that added housing supply lowers rents across the board A 1 percent increase in housing is associated with a 0.4 to 0.7 percent decrease in rents Housing policy debates are tortured by ... →
The only reason some people drive is because we pay them to
Here's an insight from tolling: A substantial portion of the people driving on our roadways are only there because we're subsidizing the cost of their trip. When we charge a toll to use a road, suddenly many of those ... →
The real $3.4 billion hole in the I-5 bridge project
The Oregon and Washington transportation departments understated the funding gap for a revived I-5 Columbia River Bridge by more than $1 billion Correcting for an arithmetic error increases the gap between identified re... →
The truth about Oregon DOT’s Rose Quarter MegaFreeway
The Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) desperately wants to build a mega-freeway through NE Portland, and is planning to double the freeway from 4 lanes to 8 or 10 lanes. But it has hidden its true objective, by ... →
Put a bird on it: Highway Greenwashing
There's no shortage of cynical greenwashing to sell climate-killing highway widening projects GeorgiaDOT and AASHTO have a new PR gimmick to promote the same old product In a famous season one sketch of Portlandia, F... →
More cynical greenwashing from the highway industry
There's no shortage of cynical greenwashing to sell climate-killing highway widening projects GeorgiaDOT and AASHTO have a new PR gimmick to promote the same old product AASHTO—the American Association of State Hig... →
Phoenix: Climate Hypocrisy
You can't be a climate mayor—and your city can't be a climate city — if you're widening freeways Phoenix says it's going to reduce greenhouse gases 90 percent by 2050, but the city's transportation greenhouse gases ... →
Why—and where—Metro’s $5 billion transportation bond measure failed
Portland voters resoundingly defeated a proposed multi-billion dollar payroll tax to pay for transportation projects The two areas slated for the biggest benefits voted against the measure: The Southwest Corridor and ... →
Systemic racism and automobile insurance
Does geographic rating of car insurance amount to 21st Century redlining? Car insurance rates vary more based on who your neighbors are than on your driving record The premium penalty for living in a Black neighborho... →
Covid & Cities: Reasons for optimism
There are several compelling reasons—the seven "C's"—to believe cities will thrive and prosper in a post-pandemic world: Competition: Zooming it in works when everyone has to do it, but if you work remotely whil... →
Frog Ferry: The slow boat to nowhere
A proposed Portland area ferry makes no economic or transportation sense. Why the Frog Ferry is a slow boat to nowhere A ferry between Vancouver and Portland would take 20 minutes longer than existing bus service ... →
Equity and Metro’s $5 Billion Transportation Bond
Advocates for a $5 billion transportation bond that Portland area voters will be deciding in November are making a specious argument about it being an equity measure. Its largest single project, a multi-billion dollar l... →
The Great Disconnect: The perverse rhetoric of gentrification
The Great Disconnect By Jason Segedy City Observatory is pleased to publish this guest commentary from Akron's Jason Segedy. It originally appeared on his blog. As this decade draws to a close, the story... →
Parking and equity in cities
The average price of a monthly parking permit in cities is $2.25, compared to $70.00 for a transit pass. Everything you need to know about equity and privilege in urban transportation is reflected in how much we charge ... →
Red states are now the red zone for Covid-19
Covid-19 now disproportionately affects rural America, and is hitting red states harder than blue ones. Rural counties have 14 percent of US population and 21 percent of new Covid-19 cases. The nation's largest, densest... →
Covid-19 is now a rural and red state pandemic
Covid-19 now disproportionately affects rural America, and is hitting red states harder than blue ones. OK, reporters, we're waiting for the stories about rural Americans decamping to cities (or suburbs) and from red st... →
How to make gentrification even worse
Banning new construction is a great way to push up home values and accelerate gentrification Cities are conflicted and confused about how to protect affordability "Stop the world - I want to get off" was the title of... →
City Beat: Another sketchy claim of Covid-driven urban flight
Again: It's anecdotes, not data that are fueling claims of an urban exodus due to Covid-19 The virus is now deadlier in the nation's rural areas than it is in cities, undercutting the basis for the urban flight theo... →
City Beat: No flight to Portland’s suburbs
Another anecdote-fueled, data-starved article repeats the "suburban flight" meme, this time for Portland. Actual market data show the central city's market remains strong Janet Eastman, writing in the Portland, Orego... →
Lived segregation in US cities
We're much less segregated during the day, and when we're away from home Commercial and public spaces are important venues for interaction with people from other racial/ethnic groups Patterns of experienced segregati... →
Why this Portland transit veteran is voting no on Metro’s bond
Editor's Note: City Observatory is pleased to present this guest commentary from GB Arrington, longtime veteran of Portland's transit and land use planning systems, explaining why he's against a proposed $5 billion transpo... →
More performative pedestrian infrastructure
Houston's "Energy Corridor" gets a pedestrian makeover, but just one thing seems to be missing. Bollards and better landscaping can't offset the increased danger from wider, faster slip lanes. Most "pedestrian" infra... →
The myth of pedestrian infrastructure in a world of cars
Big money "pedestrian" projects are often remedial and performative; their real purpose is to serve faster car traffic. One of the biggest lies in transportation planning is calling something "multi-modal." When someb... →
Is there anything “smart” about smart cities?
Big data and new technology make bold promises about solving urban problems, but not only fall well short of solutions, but actually can end up making things worse. Why we're skeptical of the "smart city" movement. Y... →
The case against Metro’s $5 billion transportation bond
Metro's proposed $5 billion transportation measure makes no sense for the region, for transportation, for our economy, for our kids and for our planet. Portland's regional government, Metro, will be asking voters in Nov... →
America’s least (and most) segregated metro areas: 2020
The latest Census data show that Black/White segregation is decreasing in large metro areas. Racial segregation still prevails in most American cities, but varies widely across the nation. Portland is one of America'... →
America’s least (and most) segregated cities.
Racial segregation still prevails in most American cities, but varies widely across the nation. Portland is the nation's least segregated large city. The murder of George Floyd by police has reignited national intere... →
Is it random, or is it Zumper?
Pay no attention to Zumper's claims about rent trends Zumper claims rents for one-bedroom and two-bedroom apartments are moving in opposite directions in about a fifth of all markets There's a lot of hyperventilation... →
A world of fewer cars and less driving
Auto industry consultants KPMG see fewer cars and less driving in our future That may be bad for the car business, but good for the environment and cities One clear implication: hold off building new road capacity ... →
The amazing disappearing urban exodus
The greatest urban myth of the Covid-19 pandemic is that fear of density has triggered an exodus from cities. US Post Office data show that the supposed urban exodus was just a trickle, and Americans moved even less in ... →
The Exodus that never happened
The greatest urban myth of the Covid-19 pandemic is that fear of density has triggered an exodus from cities. The latest data show an increase in interest in dense urban locations. At City Observatory, we've regularl... →
The toxic flood of cars, not just the freeway, crushed Albina
Restorative Justice & A Viable Neighborhood What destroyed the Albina community? What will it take to restore it? It wasn't just the freeway, it was the onslaught of cars, that transformed Albina into a bleak a... →
“Let them drive Teslas” is not a climate or a justice plan
Portland's climate emergency efforts are tarnished by an inability to plainly speak the facts about climate change But the tragic fact is that the city is utterly failing to meet even its own previous goals, and more al... →
CityBeat: NPR’s suburban flight story
Yet another entry in the trumped-up pandemic-fueled suburban flight narrative Anecdotes aside, there's no data that people are fleeing cities to avoid the Coronavirus The data show young, well-educated adults moving ... →
Vancouver Columbian: Suburban drivers matter
Who are the real beneficiaries of the $800 million I-5 Rose Quarter project? Vancouver, Washington commuters, who won't pay a dime for its construction. Wider freeways just double down on the damage done to city neigh... →
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 rep... →
Dominos falling on Rose Quarter freeway widening
Last week, over the space of about 24 hours, the prospects for Portland's proposed the Rose Quarter freeway widening dimmed almost to extinction. Leaders of Portland's African-American community have concluded that the ... →
Portland awards itself a participation trophy for climate
Portland is utterly failing to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from transportation, but not to worry, its ticking lots of boxes in its bureaucratic check-list. The city walks away from its 2015 Climate Action Plan after... →
Covid-19: Surging in Sunbelt cities
The pandemic is exploding in Sunbelt Cities, from the Carolinas to California Covid-19 is subdued in the North and surging in the South Hotter southern temperatures and a move indoors, coupled with looser reopening r... →
City Beat: When workers can live anywhere
Another anecdote-fueled tale predicting of urban decline Writing in The Wall Street Journal, Rachel Feintzeig and Ben Eisen add another story, this one headlined "When workers can live anywhere" to the growing pile of c... →
COVID Lessons for Portland (and others)
COVID Lessons for Portland (and others) by Ethan Seltzer (. . . with profound thanks to anonymous reviewers) Editor's Note: We're pleased to publish this essay by City Observatory friend Ethan Seltzer, reflecting o... →
Youth movement: A generational shift in preference for urbanism
Well-educated young adults are increasingly moving to city centers Real estate search activity shows no decline in interest in city living due to the pandemic Our new report—Youth Movement: Accelerating America's U... →
Youth Movement Dashboard
See how your city's close-in neighborhoods did in attracting well-educated young adults Our CityReport, Youth Movement: Accelerating America's Urban Renaissance, charts the growing concentration of well-educated young a... →
Covid-19 accelerating in five cities
New Covid-19 cases are increasing in five metro areas: Phoenix, Tucson, San Antonio, Tampa and Raleigh These are the places to watch to see how well re-opening plans manage to avoid re-igniting the pandemic. Metro ar... →
Covid-19 and segregation
Segregated cities seem to be harder hit by the pandemic Covid-19 prevalence is more strongly correlated with metropolitan racial and economic segregation than with urban density The New York City metro area has been ... →
Covid-19: A catalyst for more inclusive cities
Will the Covid-19 pandemic be a catalyst for better, more inclusive cities? The media fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic has been a series of largely baseless stories predicting a panicky flight from cities to avoid the... →
Whitewashing the freeway widening
A so-called "peer review" panel was kept in the dark about critiques of the highway department's flawed projections This is a thinly veiled attempt These are the products of a hand-picked, spoon-fed group, asked by ODOT... →
The convention business is cratering, and cities are getting stuck with the bill
By Mike McGinn and Joe Cortright Editor's Note: We're pleased to publish this commentary jointly authored by former Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn and City Observatory's Joe Cortright. Mike McGinn served as Mayor of Sea... →
Covid-19 and Cities: A very uneven pandemic
The Covid-19 pandemic has played out very differently in different metro areas; some have been devastated, others only lightly touched and these patterns have shifted over time. Among US metro areas with a million or mo... →
Memo to the Governor: Recovering from Covid-19
Some advice on economic policy for states looking to rebound from the pandemic City Observatory's Joe Cortright has served as Chair of the Oregon Governor's Council of Economic Advisers under three Governors. The Coun... →
Coronavirus in L.A. County: Separating Fact from Fiction
Are cities the latest victim of coronavirus? Editor's Note: City Observatory is pleased to publish this guest commentary by Anthony Dedousis of Abundant Housing LA. Some elected officials and journalists have draw... →
City Beat: Why Portland is not like NYC when it comes to Covid
Once again, there's a naive and unsubstantiated association between urbanism and the pandemic Portland and Multnomah County have some of the lowest rates of Covid-19 cases of any large metro area The big drivers of Cov... →
Is the pandemic worse in cities or suburbs?
Using county-level data, it depends on who's classification system you use Counties may not be the right basis for diagnosing the contributors to Covid. One of the oft-repeated claims in the pandemic is the notion th... →
City Beat: No evidence that people are fleeing to the suburbs
Today's misleading and incomplete take on cities: There isn't any evidence that people are fleeing cities for the suburbs; plus it wouldn't help them avoid the virus if they did. We've addressed the claim that t... →
Don’t make “equity” the enemy of improving cities for people
Invoking concerns about equity to block providing more street space for people is destructive A cautionary tale from Chicago, with some keen insight from Greg Shill. Let's begin by stipulating one thing: Ther... →
Oregon DOT: The master of three-card monte
The highway department's claims it doesn't have enough for maintenance are a long-running con You've all seen the classic street con three-card monte. All you have to do to double your money is follow one of three cards... →
What is urban?
Shape of the urban/suburban divide: Views differ There's a lot of debate about the relative merits and performance of cities and suburbs. You'll read that the migration to cities has come to a halt, that suburbs are g... →
Postcards from the edges: Density is not Destiny
There's a meme equating density with Covid-19 risk. Two polar cases shows that density (or lack thereof) has little to do with the spread of the pandemic. Many, including New York's Governor, have been quick t... →
Density is not Destiny: Covid in Cascadia
One of the densest cities in North America has recorded relatively few Covid-19 cases. There's a popular theory going around--unfortunately being propagated by the Governor of New York--that somehow density is to blame ... →
The Covid Corridor: The pandemic is worst in the NE Corridor
The incidence of reported Covid-19 cases, and their daily growth is higher in the metros of NE corridor than the rest of the country. The Northeast Corridor has all four of the cities with the highest rate of newly repo... →
What Covid-19 teaches us about how to fix freeways
Limiting demand actually makes freeways work better Portland's I-5 North freeway now carries more cars, faster at the peak hour than it did prior to the pandemic. Average speeds on I-5 between the Marquam and Intersta... →
Why suburbs aren’t safer from the pandemic than cities
Whether you live in a city its suburbs, your metro area is the biggest geographic factor in variations in Covid-19 rates Suburban incidence is lower, but there's about a six-day difference between the reported rate of C... →
Regional Pandemic Hotspots: NE Corridor and Great Lakes
Originally published April 12; Revised and Corrected April 14 The Covid-19 pandemic is hitting two regions in the US much harder than others: The NE Corridor and the Great Lakes Metro areas in these regions have th... →
A Note on Covid-19 Case Data
Reported case data correlate strongly with Covid-19 deaths, and provide a reasonable basis for assessing the geographic pattern of the pandemic across US metro areas. A critical question in judging the state of the Covi... →
Who’s flattening the curve? Evidence from Seattle & San Jose
Seattle and San Jose had the first outbreaks of Covid-19 but now have the slowest rates of growth of any large US metro area Their progress seems closely related to the fact that they've cut back on travel more than nea... →
Staying at home: Estimates for large metro areas
How well are "stay at home" and "shelter in place" policies working in different metro areas? "Big data" from smartphones gives us a picture of how we're dialing back on travel in response to "stay-at-home" orders to co... →
What cities tell us about the trajectory of the pandemic
Each metro area represents a different instance of the Covid-19 pandemic; we can use the varied experiences and timing of the virus in each metro area to better understand where we're headed. Seattle is 10 days to 2 wee... →
Growth rates of Covid-19 in counties with many cases
The key to flattening the curve is reducing the daily rate of growth in Covid-19 cases We've charted the daily average growth rate for the counties with the most cases. The results are mixed: Covid-19 growth is slo... →
Understanding the geography of Covid-19
What maps and charts can--and can't--tell us about the spread of the pandemic National dashboards now have county data We need to shift our focus to changes in rates of growth at smaller geographies South Korea ... →
How bad is the Covid-19 pandemic in my metro area?
Our "how to" guide to interpreting metro level Covid-19 data Here''s our explainer for understanding where your metro area stands compared to others A word of caution: Reported case data can be noisy and pot... →
The state of the pandemic by metro area
Updated April 29 with data through April 28. In geographic terms, the Corona Virus has become the Northeast Corridor Virus: NE Corridor metros account for 6 of the 8 hardest hit large metros, and have 6 of the ... →
Covid-19 Prevalence by Metro Area (April 17 data)
REVISED April 18; Data through April 17, 2020 Among the 53 metro areas with a million or more population: New York, New Orleans, Detroit, Boston and Philadelphia have the highest incidence of pandemic among l... →
Covid-19 Prevalence by Metro Area (April 8 data)
SUPERSEDED: Please see latest data here. Original post below is for archival purposes. REVISED April 9; Data through April 8, 2020 Among the 53 metro areas with a million or more population: The situati... →
Covid-19 Prevalence by Metro Area (April 2 data)
UPDATED April 3, 2020 Among the 53 metro areas with a million or more population: New Orleans, New York, Detroit, Boston and Seattle have the highest incidence of pandemic among large metros. New Orleans rat... →
Covid-19 Prevalence by Metro Area (April 1 data)
NOTE: This post has been superseded with more recent data: click here. Among the 53 metro areas with a million or more population: New York, New Orleans, Detroit, Boston and Seattle have the highest incidence of ... →
Covid-19 Prevalence by Metro Area (March 31 data)
UPDATED April 1, 2020 Among the 53 metro areas with a million or more population: New York, New Orleans, Detroit, Seattle and Boston have the highest incidence of pandemic among large metros. Seattle's rate ... →
Covid-19 Prevalence by Metro Area (March 30 data)
UPDATED March 31, 2020 Note: More recent data is now available here. Among the 53 metro areas with a million or more population: New York, New Orleans, Detroit and Seattle have the highest incidence of pande... →
Prevalence of Covid-19 in large US metro areas
UPDATED, March 30, 2020 Among the 53 metro areas with a million or more population: New York, New Orleans, Detroit and Seattle have the highest incidence of pandemic among large metros. Detroit has now surpa... →
Prevalence of Covid-19 in large US metro areas
UPDATED, March 29, 2020 NOTE: More recent data is now available here. Among the 53 metro areas with a million or more population: New York, New Orleans, Detroit and Seattle have the highest incidence of pa... →
Covid-19: Metro Incidence Estimates, 25 March [SUPERSEDED]
A note to our readers: This post has been superseded by new analysis published on March 28. In addition, the original post contains an error: The original version of estimates for the New York Metropolitan area r... →
Covid-19: Metro Incidence Estimates, 22 March
New York, New Orleans and Seattle have the highest incidence of pandemic among large metros. The typical metro is only about 1-2 weeks behind these cities in the progression of the virus. Editor's Note: As of 2... →
Covid-19: County-level Incidence Estimates, 19 March 2020
We've estimated the incidence of Covid-19 by county in states with 200 or more cases as of March 19, 2020. Incidence is calculated as diagnosed cases per 100,000 population. Data are shown for counties with 100,000 popul... →
Cities and coronavirus: Some thoughts
The Coronavirus pandemic is already worse in several American states than anywhere in China outside Hubei Province The pandemic is all about geography, and we need to do more to pinpoint hotspots and contagion The ve... →
Widening I-5 at the Rose Quarter will increase greenhouse gases
Adding more freeway capacity at the Rose Quarter will thousands of tons to the region's greenhouse gas emissions If you say you believe in science, and you take climate change seriously, you can't support spending $800... →
Anatomy of a rental marketplace
A new report from the DC Policy Center shows the inner-workings of the shadow rental market that is a key to housing affordability Too often, our debates about housing policy are shaped by inaccurate pictures of how the... →
Declining bus ridership is no mystery
We know what's responsible for declining bus ridership: Cheap gas And now, its about to get worse, thanks to $30 a barrel oil Prices matter. Last Friday's New York Times has a nice data-driven article by the pap... →
Cheaper gas: Bad for climate and safety
Gasoline prices will drop 50 cents per gallon in the next week or so, and cheap gas will fuel more bad results: more air pollution, more greenhouse gases and more road deaths Now is the perfect time to put a carbon tax ... →
Equity and Homelessness
What's equitable about spending six times as much per homeless person in the suburbs as in the city? The "equity" standard that's guiding the division of revenue for Metro's housing initiative is based on politics, not ... →
Why Atlanta’s anti-gentrification moratorium will backfire
Blocking new development will only accelerate demand for existing homes The moratorium makes flipping houses even more lucrative Atlanta's making a major investment in Westside Park at Bellwood Quarry, not far from t... →
Mapping Walkable Density
Walkable density mapped for the nation's largest metropolitan areas by DW Rowlands Editor's Note: We're pleased to offer this guest commentary by DW Rowlands. DW Rowlands is a human geography grad student at the U... →
Understanding Walkable Density
A new way of measuring urban density that explicitly considers walkability by DW Rowlands Editor's Note: We're pleased to offer this guest commentary by DW Rowlands. DW Rowlands is a human geography grad student a... →
Fighting Climate Change is Inherently Equitable
Happy Earth Day, Everyone! If we care about equity, we need to make rapid progress on climate change Equity needs to be defined by substantive outcomes, not vacuous rhetoric and elaborate process. Ultimately equit... →
Local flavor: Independent restaurants indicate city vitality
Which US cities have the most independent restaurants? One of the chief advantages of cities is the range of consumption choices they afford to their residents. In general, larger cities offer more choices than smaller ... →
Local flavor: Cities with the most independent restaurants
Which US cities have the most independent restaurants? One of the chief advantages of cities is the range of consumption choices they afford to their residents. In general, larger cities offer more choices than smaller ... →
How driving ruins local flavor
Car-dependent metros have fewer independent restaurants Chain restaurants and cars go together Yesterday, we used data compiled by Yelp on chain and independent restaurants to compute the market share of chains in th... →
Abernethy Bridge Cost Triples to $750 million
Oregon DOT's I-205 Abernethy Bridge rebuild, advertised as costing $248 million, will really cost $750 million The project's estimated cost has tripled in just over five years, and still has further cost overrun risk ... →
Yet another exploding whale: ODOT’s freeway widening cost doubles
It now looks like Oregon DOT's I-205 Abernethy Bridge rebuild, advertised as costing $248 million, will really cost $500 million The project's estimated cost has doubled in just four years, and still has further cost ov... →
Another exploding whale: ODOT’s freeway widening cost quadruples
It now looks like Oregon DOT's I-5 Rose Quarter $450 million freeway widening project will cost more than $1.9 billion The project's estimated cost has nearly quadrupled in just six years, and still has further cost ov... →
Another exploding whale: ODOT’s freeway widening cost triples
It now looks like Oregon DOT's I-5 Rose Quarter $450 million freeway widening project will cost more than $1.25 billion The project's estimated cost has nearly tripled in just four years, and still has further cost over... →
ODOT: Exploding whales and cost overruns
It now looks like Oregon DOT's $450 million freeway widening project will cost over a billion dollars Whales aren't the only than blow up on ODOT One of the most viewed clips on YouTube depict the handiwork of Oregon... →
Lying about safety to sell freeway widening
ODOT's lies about safety at the Rose Quarter are so blatant they can be seen 400 miles away. Freeway widening isn't about deaths or injuries, but "motorist inconvenience" according to this safety expert, making this $80... →
Manufacturing consent for highway widening
ODOT doesn't want to hear the questions its Community Advisory Committee raises about the proposed $800 million Rose Quarter Freeway widening project--so it fires them. Agency staff misrepresent public testimony to publ... →
Climate failure and denial at the Oregon Department of Transportation
Oregon is utterly failing to reduce transportation greenhouse gas emissions Instead of being down 10 percent by 2020, transportation greenhouse gas emissions are up more than 20 percent Oregon will miss its 2020 GHG ... →
Memo to the Oregon Transportation Commission: Don’t Dodge
Climate change? Not our job. We're just following orders. The Oregon Transportation Commission is on the firing line for its plans to build a $800 million I-5 Rose Quarter freeway widening project in Northeast Portlan... →
In the bag: Pricing works
Denver's new bag fee is another object lesson on how to use economics to achieve environmental objectives. Now do it for greenhouse gases Starting this month, you'll have to pay 10 cents for each disposable paper o... →
Bags, bottles and cans: Pricing works
Oregon's new mandatory bag fee harnesses market forces to promote environmental objectives Now do it for greenhouse gases On January 1, a new law went into effect in Oregon, which mostly bans single use plastic groce... →
Why we should enable more people to move to opportunity
Enabling low income households to move to high opportunity neighborhoods is one way to promote equity and intergenerational mobility. But some people apparently don't want anyone to move. Last year, we profiled an exp... →
Why TOPA isn’t the tops
Turning renters into owners is not a simple solution to housing affordability Housing affordability is a tough, multi-faceted problem. Portland is wrestling with one approach to that, a new ordinance that would make it ... →
Climate Fail: Metro’s 2020 Transportation Package
Metro's multi-billion dollar transportation package does nothing to reduce greenhouse gas emissions Spending $5 billion reduces Portland's transportation greenhouse gases by .05 percent This package costs $50,000 p... →
Climate Fail: Metro’s 2020 Transportation Package
Metro's multi-billion dollar transportation package does nothing to reduce greenhouse gas emissions Spending $3 billion reduces Portland's transportation greenhouse gases by .05 percent This package costs nearly $40,... →
Why cheap gas is our real climate and transportation policy
Forget about lofty greenhouse gas reduction goals and vision zero, our real climate and transportation policy is cheap gas The fall in gas prices in 2014 led to more driving, more SUV purchases, less transit ridership, ... →
Portland’s Phony, Failing Climate Strategy
Portland has soaring climate rhetoric, but 1,000 pounds per person more in greenhouse gases from driving Portland has adopted bold climate goals, but when it comes to the single largest local source of greenhouse gas em... →
Freeway deja vu all over again: The freeway builders ignore school kids
The Oregon Department of Transportation has a decades long-tradition of ignoring Portland Public Schools when it comes to freeway projects So here's our story so far. The Oregon Department of Transportation, ODOT, is ... →
ODOT’s Climate Lie: An idle theory of greenhouse gas emissions
ODOT Director Kris Strickler makes a phony claim that we can fight climate change by reducing traffic idling in congestion Asked about how his agency will respond to the challenge of climate change, newly nominated Oreg... →
Walkable places are growing in value almost everywhere
Over the past decade, across the nation, the most walkable homes have appreciated the most In two-thirds of large metro areas, walkable neighborhoods have higher home values than car-dependent ones Walkable neighborh... →
Transportation planners flunk Econ 101: Price elasticity of demand
The most basic concept in economics is that higher prices lead to less consumption, yet this fact is routinely ignored in transportation planning and policy. If we got the prices right, many of our most pressing transpo... →
Alexa: What is Cascadia Vision 2050?
A tech-centered vision of the future of the Pacific Northwest envisions creating a series of new urban centers 40 to 100 miles away from the region’s current largest cities—Seattle, Vancouver and Portland. The answ... →
Want more housing? Build a landlord.
If we're going to have a lot more missing middle housing; we're also going to have a lot more landlords Accessory dwellings, duplexes, triplexes and fourplexes are suited to "mom-and-pop" landlords, but tough tenants ri... →
The shaky argument for the Columbia River Crossing
Despite claims from Oregon DOT officials, the only published seismic studies suggest the I-5 bridges will survive a Cascadia earthquake. It's far from clear that spending billions to replace this bridges is a good inves... →
No deposit, no return: Another lie to sell the Columbia River Crossing
State DOT's are using a false claim about financial liability to revive the Columbia River Crossing folly There's no requirement to repay $140 million in federal funds, if states choose the "No-Build" option The Oreg... →
The city as labor saving device
Great cities, especially ones with dense, walkable mixed use neighborhoods are an economic boon to households because they save the precious commodity of time [caption id="attachment_9013" align="aligncenter" width="700... →
Climate crisis: Cities are the solution
A new report shows how cities are central to any strategy to fight climate change Cities have the "3 C's: Clean, compact, connected National government policies need to support cities Let's describe a low carbon f... →
Here’s what climate change denial looks like
Pretending that climate change can be solved by widening roads to keep cars from idling in traffic is dishonest and reprehensible, yet that's exactly what Portland's regional government is doing. A new poll in Portland ... →
Bartik: The verdict on business tax incentives
Political rationalizations and exceptionalism will always be used to justify giveaway policies With the possible exception of Greg LeRoy (who tracks state and local incentives for Good Jobs Now) and Amazon's site locati... →
Achieving equitable mobility: Reallocate road space, price driving
Reallocating street space to buses is inherently equitable Charging a very high price to cars for using scarce road space promotes equity Just a year ago, New York took the bold step of of restricting traffic on 14th... →
Revealed: the secret of a successful urban economy
One factor trumps all others in determining economic success: Educational attainment Brookings researchers pile on more evidence of this key fact, and outline strategies for increasing skills. But remember: talente... →
Does walkability promote economic mobility?
A new study shows a tantalizing connection between more walkable places and intergenerational economic mobility City Observatory readers will be familiar with the findings of Raj Chetty and his colleagues in the Equalit... →
How homeownership as wealth is rigged against people of color
Timing is everything in real estate, and mortgage availability cycles mean that people of color buy high and sell low. The Urban Institute has an informative new report charting the swings of home prices across the nati... →
Reduced demand: Tolling or restricting cars reduces traffic
We have urban traffic congestion because we heavily subsidize people driving in cities. Reducing subsidies and lowering road capacity reduces traffic and congestion. Why are we building highway capacity for users wh... →
No youth exodus from cities: WSJ is detecting noise, not signal
There's no statistically significant news on young adults in cities in the latest Census release Pro-tip: Ignore changes smaller than the margin of error: they're noise, not signal It's hard to underestimate the ... →
Won’t be fooled again: Transportation for America
Too often, progressive transportation advocates have been rolled by the highway crowd; No more, says Transportation for America Three principles for reform: Fix it First, Safety before Speed, Accessibility, not Mobility... →
What if we regulated cars like we do houses?
What if we regulated new car ownership the same way we do new housing? A recent story about Singapore caught our eye: In Singapore, you can't even buy a car without a government issued "certificate"—and the number o... →
A modest proposal: An EIS for the DMV
Many states subject housing approval to environmental reporting requirements; what if we extended this same principle to car registrations. Back in the early days of the environmental movement--the late sixties and earl... →
Why economic diversification is a poor guide to local strategy
Too much economic development policy is based on a naive analogy to portfolio theory Cities looking to strengthen their economies should concentrate on building upon and extending current specializations One of the... →
A lack of nearby jobs doesn’t cause urban poverty
There's scarcely any evidence that proximity to jobs matters for escaping poverty. One of the most popular and persistent theories of urban poverty is that the poor are poor because they don't live particularly close to... →
Portland’s Climate Fail: More Driving
Carbon emissions from transportation in Portland increased 6 percent last year In the one are where city policy can make the most difference, greenhouse gas emissions are increasing Portland has long prided itself in... →
Why its important for your city to be unequal
If your city isn't unequal, it's either poor or exclusionary Measured income equality, which is sensible goal nationally, is a perversely misleading indicator of which cities are the most just and and inclusive Incom... →
How Ecotopia is failing its biggest test
West Coast political leaders talk a good greenhouse gas game, but actions speak louder Throughout Ecotopia, carbon emissions are rising due to more driving, yet the region's leaders are throwing even more money at subsi... →
What supercommuting really means
Super-commuting is a really a plea for more housing and better transit If long distance commutes are up, its probably because gas prices are so low If you're covering the transportation beat, the plight of the poor s... →
Inclusive urbanism comes to the presidential race
Beto O'Rourke brings a strong urbanist, inclusive message to the presidential campaign The 2020 Democratic presidential race has been remarkable for addressing both climate change and housing policy issues that have long ... →
Seeing red
We're killing more people because more people are ignoring traffic signals We've charted the ominous increase in road deaths in the past several years, and now there's a new bit of evidence of just how bad the problem h... →
The Week Observed, September 27, 2019
What City Observatory did this week 1. Why diversification is a simplistic, often flawed economic strategy. When it comes to personal investment everyone understands (or certainly should understand) the concept of portfol... →
The Week Observed, September 20, 2019
What City Observatory did this week 1. What super-commuters really mean. Media coverage of super-commuters--people who travel more than 90 minutes each way to and from work--is invariably sympathetic, treating these fol... →
2019: The Year Observed
What City Observatory did in 2019 We spent a lot of time this year addressing Portland's proposed half-billion dollar Rose Quarter freeway widening project. You may have thought Portland put its freeway fights behind it i... →
The Week Observed, January 10, 2020
What City Observatory this week 1. 2019: The Year Observed. We take a look back at 2019 and review some of the most important City Observatory commentaries, interesting stories and valued research. Our most read pos... →
The Week Observed, January 24, 2020
What City Observatory did this week 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 ca... →
The Week Observed, January 12, 2024
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... →
The Week Observed, January 26, 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 roadw... →
The Week Observed, January 19, 2024
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... →
The Week Observed, January 15, 2024
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... →
The Week Observed, January 22, 2021
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... →
The Week Observed, January 29, 2021
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... →
The Week Observed, February 5, 2021
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... →
The Week Observed, February 12, 2021
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... →
The Week Observed, February 19, 2021
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... →
The Week Observed, February 26, 2021
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... →
The Week Observed, April 2, 2021
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 ... →
The Week Observed, April 9, 2021
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... →
The Week Observed, April 16, 2021
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... →
The Week Observed, April 30, 2021
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... →
The Week Observed, April 23, 2021
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 ... →
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 faile... →
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 ... →
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 breaki... →
The Week Observed, July 16, 2021
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. ... →
The Week Observed, July 30, 2021
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... →
The Week Observed, September 17, 2021
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... →
The Week Observed, September 10, 2021
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... →
The Week Observed, April 1, 2022
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. ... →
The Week Observed, April 15, 2022
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... →
The Week Observed, April 22, 2022
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 ... →
The Week Observed, April 29, 2022
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, ... →
The Week Observed, May 6, 2022
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... →
The Week Observed, May 13, 2022
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... →
The Week Observed, May 20, 2022
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... →
The Week Observed, June 10, 2022
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... →
The Week Observed, June 17, 2022
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... →
The Week Observed, June 24, 2022
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... →
The Week Observed, July 1, 2022
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... →
The Week Observed, July 15, 2022
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... →
The Week Observed, July 22, 2022
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... →
The Week Observed, July 29, 2022
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... →
The Week Observed, November 18, 2022
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 ... →
The Week Observed, November 11, 2022
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... →
The Week Observed, February 3, 2023
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... →
The Week Observed, January 27, 2023
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... →
The Week Observed, March 10, 2023
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... →
The Week Observed, March 17, 2023
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... →
The Week Observed, March 23, 2023
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... →
The Week Observed, March 31, 2023
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 ... →
The Week Observed, April 7, 2023
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... →
The Week Observed, April 14, 2023
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... →
The Week Observed, June 30, 2023
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... →
The Week Observed, September 15, 2023
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... →
The Week Observed, October 6, 2023
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... →
The Week Observed, October 20, 2023
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... →
The Week Observed, October 13, 2023
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... →
The Week Observed, April 12, 2024
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-... →
The Week Observed, May 3, 2024
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 ... →
The Week Observed, July 19, 2024
Must Read Denser cities = Less expensive infrastructure. A new study from New Zealand confirms one of the fundamental intuitions about cities: Places with higher levels of residential density have lower per capita and... →
The Week Observed, August 30, 2024
What City Observatory Did This Week There's no evidence of a housing bubble. Strong Towns Chuck Marohn has a recent blog post proclaiming that the US housing market is the midst of another bubble, similar to 2008. But... →
The Week Observed, August 23, 2024
What City Observatory Did This Week How Metro's RTP illegally favors driving and violates state climate rules. Oregon's planning rules require Portland area transportation plans to prioritize investments that reduce ve... →
The Week Observed, August 16, 2024
Must Read Portland advocates sue to block Rose Quarter Freeway widening. There's a new chapter in the long-running battle to block the Oregon Department of Transportation's I-5 Rose Quarter Freeway widening project, a 1... →
The Week Observed, August 2, 2024
Must Read Induced Demand and Climate Denial. As we've long said, the favorite folk tale of state DOTs and highway boosters is the idea that the primary solution to reducing greenhouse gas emissions is lowering the amoun... →
The Week Observed, July 26, 2024
What City Observatory Did This Week The cost of the Interstate Bridge Replacement (IBR) is going up: But we won't tell you how much . . . And we're not going to tell you until a year from now, after the 2025 Legislatur... →
The Week Observed, July 12, 2024
Must Read The problem with elevators in America. Market Urbanism's Stephen Smith has an op-ed in the New York Times opening up a new front in the YIMBY effort to expand housing supply in the US. Smith argues that th... →
The Week Observed, June 28, 2024
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... →
The Week Observed, June 21, 2024
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... →
The Week Observed, June 14, 2024
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... →
The Week Observed, June 7, 2024
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... →
The Week Observed, May 24, 2024
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... →
The Week Observed, May 17, 2024
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... →
The Week Observed, May 10, 2024
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 ... →
The Week Observed, April 26, 2024
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 ... →
The Week Observed, April 19, 2024
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... →
The Week Observed, April 5, 2024
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... →
The Week Observed, March 29, 2024
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 ... →
The Week Observed, March 22, 2024
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... →
The Week Observed, March 15, 2024
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 ... →
The Week Observed, March 8, 2024
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 ... →
The Week Observed, March 1, 2024
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... →
The Week Observed, February 16, 2024
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 ... →
The Week Observed, February 9, 2024
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... →
The Week Observed, February 2, 2024
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... →
The Week Observed, January 5, 2024
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... →
The Week Observed, December 22, 2023
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... →
The Week Observed, December 15, 2023
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... →
The Week Observed, December 8, 2023
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... →
The Week Observed, December 1, 2023
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... →
The Week Observed, November 17, 2023
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... →
The Week Observed, November 10, 2023
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... →
The Week Observed, November 3, 2023
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... →
The Week Observed, October 27, 2023
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... →
The Week Observed, September 8, 2023
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 ... →
The Week Observed, September 1, 2023
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... →
The Week Observed, August 25, 2023
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... →
The Week Observed, August 18, 2023
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... →
The Week Observed, August 11, 2023
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... →
The Week Observed, August 4, 2023
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... →
The Week Observed, July 28, 2023
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... →
The Week Observed, July 21, 2023
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... →
The Week Observed, July 14, 2023
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... →
The Week Observed, July 7, 2023
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 ... →
The Week Observed, June 23, 2023
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... →
The Week Observed, June 16, 2023
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... →
The Week Observed, June 9, 2023
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... →
The Week Observed, June 2, 2023
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... →
The Week Observed, May 26, 2023
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... →
The Week Observed, May 19, 2023
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... →
The Week Observed, May 12, 2023
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... →
The Week Observed, May 5, 2023
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... →
The Week Observed, April 21, 2023
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... →
The Week Observed, April 28, 2023
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... →
The Week Observed, March 3, 2023
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... →
The Week Observed, February 24, 2023
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... →
The Week Observed, February 17, 2023
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... →
The Week Observed, February 10, 2023
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... →
The Week Observed, January 20, 2023
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... →
The Week Observed, January 13, 2023
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... →
The Week Observed, January 6, 2023
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... →
The Week Observed, December 16, 2022
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. ... →
The Week Observed, December 2, 2022
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... →
The Week Observed, November 4, 2022
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... →
The Week Observed, October 28, 2022
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... →
The Week Observed, October 21, 2022
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... →
The Week Observed, October 14, 2022
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... →
The Week Observed, July 8, 2022
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... →
The Week Observed, May 27, 2022
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... →
The Week Observed, March 4, 2022
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... →
The Week Observed, March 25, 2022
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... →
The Week Observed, March 18, 2022
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... →
The Week Observed, March 11, 2022
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... →
The Week Observed, February 25, 2022
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... →
The Week Observed, January 7, 2022
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... →
The Week Observed, January 14, 2022
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... →
The Week Observed, January 21, 2022
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... →
The Week Observed, January 28, 2022
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... →
The Week Observed, February 4, 2022
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... →
The Week Observed, February 11, 2022
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... →
The Week Observed, February 18, 2022
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... →
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... →
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 i... →
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: I... →
The Week Observed, November 19, 2021
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... →
The Week Observed, November 12, 2021
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... →
The Week Observed, November 5, 2021
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... →
The Week Observed, October 22, 2021
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... →
The Week Observed, October 15, 2021
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... →
The Week Observed, September 24, 2021
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 ... →
The Week Observed, September 3, 2021
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... →
The Week Observed, August 27, 2021
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... →
The Week Observed, August 20, 2021
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... →
The Week Observed, August 13, 2021
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... →
The Week Observed, August 6, 2021
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... →
The Week Observed, July 23, 2021
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... →
The Week Observed, July 9, 2021
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... →
The Week Observed, July 2, 2021
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... →
The Week Observed, June 25, 2021
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... →
The Week Observed, June 18, 2021
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... →
The Week Observed, June 4, 2021
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... →
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 project... →
The Week Observed, March 26, 2021
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 ... →
The Week Observed, March 19, 2021
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... →
The Week Observed, March 12, 2021
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... →
The Week Observed, March 5, 2021
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... →
The Week Observed, January 8, 2021
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... →
The Week Observed, March 6, 2020
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... →
The Week Observed, March 13, 2020
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... →
The Week Observed, April 3, 2020
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... →
The Week Observed, April 17, 2020
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... →
The Week Observed, April 24, 2020
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 ... →
The Week Observed, June 12, 2020
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... →
The Week Observed, June 19, 2020
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... →
The Week Observed, September 25, 2020
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... →
The Week Observed, October 2, 2020
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... →
The Week Observed, October 9, 2020
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... →
The Week Observed, October 16, 2020
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... →
The Week Observed, December 18, 2020
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... →
The Week Observed, December 11, 2020
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... →
The Week Observed, November 6, 2020
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 ... →
The Week Observed, November 13, 2020
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... →
The Week Observed, November 30, 2020
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 "... →
The Week Observed, October 23, 2020
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 ... →
The Week Observed, October 30, 2020
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.... →
The Week Observed, September 18, 2020
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... →
The Week Observed, September 11, 2020
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... →
The Week Observed, September 4, 2020
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... →
The Week Observed, August 28, 2020
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... →
The Week Observed, August 21, 2020
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... →
The Week Observed, August 7, 2020
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,... →
The Week Observed, July 31 2020
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... →
The Week Observed, July 24 2020
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... →
The Week Observed, July 17, 2020
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... →
The Week Observed, July 10, 2020
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... →
The Week Observed, June 26, 2020
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... →
The Week Observed, June 5, 2020
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 ... →
The Week Observed, May 29, 2020
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.... →
The Week Observed, May 22, 2020
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... →
The Week Observed, May 15, 2020
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... →
The Week Observed, May 1, 2020
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 ... →
The Week Observed, April 10, 2020
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... →
The Week Observed, March 20, 2020
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... →
The Week Observed, March 27, 2020
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... →
The Week Observed, February 28, 2020
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... →
The Week Observed, February 21, 2020
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... →
The Week Observed, February 7, 2020
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... →
The Week Observed, January 31, 2020
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... →
The Week Observed, December 13, 2019
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... →
The Week Observed, December 20, 2019
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 ... →
The Week Observed, December 6, 2019
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 ... →
The Week Observed, November 22, 2019
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... →
The Week Observed, November 15, 2019
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 ... →
The Week Observed, November 8, 2019
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... →
The Week Observed, November 1, 2019
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... →
The Week Observed, October 18, 2019
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... →
The Week Observed, October 11, 2019
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... →
The Week Observed, October 4, 2019
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... →
The Week Observed, August 30, 2019
What City Observatory did this week 1. 20 Reasons to ignore the Texas Transportation Institute's Urban Mobility Report. It's back. After a four-year hiatus Texas A&M University's transportation institute trotted out... →
The Week Observed, September 13, 2019
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... →
Highway to Hell: Climate denial at the TRB
The Transportation Research Board, nominally an arm of the National Academy of Sciences, is engaged in technocratic climate arson with its call for further highway expansion and more car travel. The planet is in immin... →
Highway to Hell: Climate denial at the TRB
The Transportation Research Board, nominally an arm of the National Academy of Sciences, is engaged in technocratic climate arson with its call for further highway expansion and more car travel. The planet is in immin... →
Its back, and its still wrong: the Urban Mobility Report
After a four year hiatus, the Texas Transportation Institute has once again generated its misleading Urban Mobility Report--and its still wrong. The UMR has been comprehensively debunked--it has never been peer-reviewed... →
Portland’s freeway fight: Round 1 goes to the scrappy upstarts
Community opposition forces Oregon Department of Transportation to do a full Environmental Impact Statement on its half-billion dollar Rose Quarter freeway widening project. For the past two years, we've been deeply eng... →
Get Out!: Moving to a new neighborhood to escape poverty
For many families, the way out of poverty is to move to a better neighborhood A new study shows modest investments in information combined with supportive services can help them make that move. We need to rethink... →
CityLab: Everything you think you know about gentrification is wrong
Facts are stubborn things: And they don't support the folk wisdom equating gentrification with displacement. There's a palpable and growing amount of cognitive dissonance between the accepted conventional wisdom about t... →
Triumph of the NIMBY’s: Less affordable, more displacement
When NIMBYs win, everybody loses Constricting housing supply drives up the price of housing further, and accelerates displacement, in rich neighborhoods and in poor ones. Two recent cases from different sides of the ... →
Gentrification: the case of the missing counter-factual
Why are there so few studies charting displacement and cultural decline in non-gentrifying neighborhoods? The implicit assumption in most gentrification research is that if a neighborhood doesn't change, that it stays t... →
Devaluation of housing in black neighborhoods, Part 2: Appreciation
Are home prices appreciating more or less in black neighborhoods? Is that a good thing? Today, in part 2 of our analysis of the home price gap between majority black and predominantly white neighborhoods we look at the ... →
Portland’s food cart pod is dead, long live Portland’s food cart pods!
How food carts illustrate the importance of dynamic change in cities. There's a tension in the city between the permanent (or seemingly permanent) and the fleeting, between the immutability of the built environment and ... →
How gentrification benefits long-time residents of low income neighborhoods
The new Philadelphia Fed study of gentrification is the best evidence yet that gentrification creates opportunity and promotes integration To many "gentrification" is intrinsically negative. When wealthier, whiter peopl... →
Why homeownership is frequently a bad bet
Home buying is a risky bet: There's a 30% chance your house will be worth less in five years It's a widely agreed that promoting homeownership is a key means to help American households build wealth. But as we and oth... →
Is Covid-19 the end of cities? (Spoiler: No.)
The New York Times tells us that cities were "losing their allure" before the Covid-19 pandemic, and that now people are preparing to flee urban areas. Sure, cities had a bit of a resurgence after 2000, But by the mid-2... →
About those swelling suburbs
Faster suburban population growth doesn't signal a preference for suburbs: Here's why Last week, the Wall Street Journal reported suburbs growing faster than cities. The article, "American suburbs swell again as a n... →
In Oregon: The middle isn’t missing any more
Oregon moves decisively to legalize missing middle housing Oregon became the first state in the nation to comprehensively bar local governments from imposing exclusive single-family residential zoning, and to effectivel... →
Why are US drivers killing so many pedestrians?
US drivers are killing 50 percent more pedestrians, European drivers are killing a third fewer If anything else--a disease, terrorists, gun-wielding crazies--killed as many Americans as cars do, we'd regard it as a nati... →
Has Falling Crime Invited Gentrification? – NYU Furman Center
http://furmancenter.org/research/publication/has-falling-crime-invited-gentrification →
The devaluation of black neighborhoods: Part 1.
Lingering racism holds down property values in majority black neighborhoods For most American households, their home is their largest financial asset; how valuable that asset is, and whether it appreciates has a profoun... →
Buses, Bike Lanes, Crosswalks: Reclaiming public space
Renegotiating the right of way in public space They erased the lines on 24th Avenue. Just a few blocks from my house is NE 24th Avenue in Portland, a principal North-South route through the Irvington neighborhood. F... →
Valuing Walkability
A new report confirms the growing market for walkable places George Washington University and Smart Growth America have a new report on the economic value of and growing market for walkable places. Called "Foot Traffic ... →
It’s official: I-5 Rose Quarter freeway widening is a boondoggle
Frontier Group and USPIRG's annual report on highway boondoggles calls out the Oregon DOT's wasteful, ineffective I-5 Rose Quarter freeway widening project as a national level boondoggle. Portland is famous for making t... →
Job Density: A new metric for urban economies
Employment is increasingly concentrating, and a few cities lead the way The Brookings Institution's Metropolitan Policy Program has a new report out, Where jobs are concentrating and why it matters to cities and regions... →
Fruit and economics: Local goods
Perishable, special, and local: The economics of unique and fleeting experiences I pity you, dear reader. You likely have no idea what a real strawberry tastes like. Unless you spend the three weeks around ... →
Fruit and economics: Riffing on Krugman
Perishable, special, and local: The economics of unique and fleeting experiences Friday night on Twitter, Paul Krugman waxed poetic about fruit and economic theory. Krugman is back from Europe, and thirsting for summe... →
Portland is winning the fight against congestion!
New data from TomTom shows Portland number one nationally in reducing traffic congestion: Where's the celebration? Portland chalked up the biggest reduction in traffic congestion of any city in the US over the past ... →
A solution for displacement: TIF for affordable housing
The case for using tax increment financing for affordable housing in gentrifying neighborhoods The problem with gentrification is that rising property values may make it expensive or impossible for lower and moderate in... →
Electric vehicle subsidies: Inefficient & Inequitable
Subsidizing electric vehicle purchases is an expensive way to reduce carbon emissions, and mostly subsidizes rich households who would have bought electric vehicles anyhow There's a new study from the National Bureau of... →
Another housing myth debunked: Neighborhood price effects of new apartments
New research shows new apartments drive down rents in their immediate neighborhood, disproving the myth of "induced demand" for housing If you're a housing supply skeptic, there's one pet theory that you've been able to... →
Who bikes?
Workers in low income households rely more on bikes for commuting, but the data show people of all income levels cycle to work There's a lot of hand-wringing and harrumphing about the demographics of cycling. Some worry... →
Will upzoning ease housing affordability problems?
More housing supply denialism--debunked It appears that we have been a bit premature in calling the housing supply debate over. Last week's urbanist Internet was all a flutter with the latest claim of an academic study ... →
The Young and Restless in Black and White
A sharp divide by race in urban residence for young adults Well-educated young whites are increasingly living in central cities, while well-educated young African-Americans are shifting increasingly to the suburbs Fo... →
Let’s have an honest discussion about the Rose Quarter freeway widening project
Good decisions result only if state officials are transparent and honest City Observatory has been closely following the proposal to spend $500 million widening the I-5 freeway at the Rose Quarter in Portland. In the pr... →
Our updated list from A to Z of everything that causes gentrification
Gentrification: Here's your all-purpose list, from artists to zoning, of who and what's to blame We first published this list in 2019, but the search for scapegoats has expanded, and now includes little libraries and ... →
Everything that causes gentrification, from A to Z
Gentrification: Here's your all-purpose list, from artists to zoning, of who and what's to blame When bad things happen, we look around for someone to blame. And when it comes to gentrification, which is loosely def... →
Measuring the civic commons
Using a data driven approach to understanding the health of the public realm We know that the civic commons, everything from parks and libraries, to city centers, the streetscape and other public spaces, play vital role... →
The case against the I-5 Rose Quarter Freeway widening
Portland is weighing whether to spend as much as $1.45 billion dollars widening a mile-long stretch of the I-5 freeway at the Rose Quarter near downtown. We've dug deeply into this idea at City Observatory, and we've publi... →
25 reasons not to widen Portland freeways
Portland is weighing whether to spend half a billion dollars widening a mile-long stretch of the I-5 freeway at the Rose Quarter near downtown. We've dug deeply into this idea at City Observatory, and we've published 25 co... →
More Orwell from the Oregon Department of Transportation
We have always been at war with Eastasia. Concealing and lying about key facts regarding the proposed Rose Quarter Freeway widening process is a violation of the National Environmental Policy Act and a betrayal of publi... →
ODOT consultant: Pricing is a better fix for the Rose Quarter
Oregon DOT's own consultants say congestion pricing would be a better way to fix congestion at the I-5 Rose Quarter than spending $800 million. Pricing would improve traffic flow and add capacity equal to another full l... →
Congestion pricing is a better solution for the Rose Quarter
Congestion pricing is a quicker, more effective and greener way to reduce congestion at the Rose Quarter than spending $500 million on freeway widening. Failing to advance pricing as an alternative in the environmental ... →
National transportation experts: Portland, you’re doing it wrong
Long regarded as a national leader in transportation policy, Portland is being called out by some of the best and brightest for a wrong-headed decision to spend half a billion dollars widening freeways. The damage done is ... →
Safety last: What we’ve learned from “improving” the I-5 freeway.
Expanding freeway capacity on I-5 hasn’t reduced crashes in Woodburn, but did triple in cost Today, we’re pleased to offer a guest commentary from Naomi Fast. Naomi currently lives in Beaverton, Oregon. Previously, ... →
The Lemming Model of Traffic
Highway planners use a deeply flawed "lemming" model of traffic that rationalizes highway widenings The traffic projections made as part of the Environmental Assessment for the $500 million Rose Quarter I-5 widening pro... →
Distorted images: Freeway widening is bad for pedestrians
The proposed I-5 Rose Quarter freeway widening project creates a bike- and pedestrian-hostile environment The Oregon Department of Transportation has crafted distorted images that exaggerate pedestrian use by a factor o... →
The Rose Quarter: ODOT’s Phony safety claims
There's no evidence that widening the I-5 freeway at the Rose Quarter will reduce crashes. ODOT used a model that doesn't work for freeways with ramp-meters When ODOT widened I-5 lanes and shoulders near Victory Boul... →
The Hidden Rose Quarter MegaFreeway
ODOT is really building an 8-lane mega-freeway at the Rose Quarter You can tell from the tortured rhetoric about "auxiliary" lanes that the Oregon Department of Transportation is falling all over itself to make the free... →
Traffic is declining at the Rose Quarter: ODOT growth projections are fiction
ODOT's own traffic data shows that daily traffic (ADT) has been declining for 25 years, by -0.55 percent per year The ODOT modeling inexplicably predicts that traffic will suddenly start growing through 2045, growing by... →
The black box: Hiding the facts about freeway widening
State DOT officials have crafted an Supplemental Environmental Assessment that conceals more than it reveals The Rose Quarter traffic report contains no data on "average daily traffic" the most common measure of vehicle... →
The black box: Hiding the facts about freeway widening
`State DOT officials have crafted an Environmental Assessment that conceals more than it reveals In theory, the National Environmental Policy Act is all about disclosing facts. But in practice, that isn't always how it ... →
Why do poor school kids have to clean up rich commuter’s pollution?
The fundamental injustice of pollution from urban freeways Item: In the past two years, Portland Public Schools has spent nearly $12.5 million of its scarce funds to clean up the air at Harriet Tubman Middle School. ... →
Wider freeways don’t reduce congestion
Portland's $500 million Rose Quarter Freeway Widening Project is being sold as a way to reduce congestion: But it won't work In three recent commentaries at City Observatory, we've explored whether a wider freeway at ... →
Orwellian freeway-widening
What pretends to be an environmental assessment is actually a thinly-veiled marketing brochure In theory, an environmental impact statement is supposed to be a disclosure document. The idea behind the National Environme... →
How a freeway destroyed a neighborhood, and may again
Portland's Albina neighborhood was devastated by the I-5 freeway; Widening it repeats that mistake Freeways and the traffic they generate are toxic to vibrant urban spaces. The great lesson of the urban freeway building... →
There’s a $3 billion bridge hidden in the Rose Quarter Project EA
ODOT hid its plans to build a $3 billion Columbia River Crossing in the Rose Quarter Freeway Widening Environmental Assessment The carefully crafted marketing campaign for the I-5 Rose Quarter Freeway widening project i... →
Why Portland shouldn’t be widening freeways
Why Portland's freeway fight is so important to the future of cities everywhere The plan to widen the I-5 Rose Quarter Freeway in Portland, at a cost of $500 million, is a tragic error for one city, and an object lesson... →
Widening the I-5 Freeway will add millions of miles of vehicle travel
We can calculate how much added freeway lanes will induce additional car travel The takeaway: the I-5 freeway widening project in Portland lead to 10 to 17 million more miles of vehicle travel annually, which will in ... →
Freeway widening for whomst?
There's a huge demographic divide between those who use freeways and neighbors who bear their costs When it comes time to evaluate the equity of freeway widening investments, it's important to understand that there are ... →
How Portland thrives without a port
The myth of a freight dependent economy: debunked by a thriving reality Imagine a port city, whose port went away. It's economy would surely wither and die, right? That's what you might expect if you believed decades ... →
Angie’s List: The problem isn’t ride hailing, it’s the lack of road pricing
Streetsblogger extraordinaire Angie Schmidt is not happy with Uber and Lyft. They're not really the ones to blame. Are Uber and Lyft to blame for growing urban transportation problems? Streetsblog's Angie Schmit makes a... →
Backfire: How widening freeways can make traffic congestion worse
Widening I-5 in Portland apparently made traffic congestion worse Oregon's Department of Transportation (ODOT) is proposing to spend half a billion dollars to add two lanes to Interstate 5 at the Rose Quarter in Portl... →
Rose Quarter freeway widening won’t reduce congestion
Spending half a billion dollars to widen a mile of I-5 will have exactly zero effect on daily congestion. The biggest transportation project moving forward in downtown Portland isn't something related to transit, or cyc... →
More driving, more dying: Dangerous by Design, 2019
More driving and our car-oriented transportation system killed 50,000 pedestrians in the past decade Each year, Smart Growth America produces its annual report Dangerous by Design looking at pedestrian deaths and injuri... →
Economists & Scientists agree: To save the planet, we have to price carbon
One thing economists agree about: pricing carbon is essential to saving the planet; but if you don't believe economists, you ought to believe Bill Nye, the Science Guy. Economists are famous for disagreeing with one ano... →
The high cost of low house prices
Low house prices signify problems, not affordability There's a presumption that low housing prices are a sign of affordability, and a related belief that if housing prices rise, that its "a bad thing" because it must me... →
A third-way for approaching affordable housing
Here's a provocative proposal for getting more affordable housing, especially in rapidly changing, opportunity neighborhoods In part I of this series we laid out a key challenge to housing affordability described by Was... →
The outlook for the Portland housing market
Coping with the nation's shortage of cities is a key factor in the Portland housing market in 2019 On January 9, I was invited to talk to the annual housing outlook seminar convened by HFO Oregon. A video of my remark... →
A third way for more affordable housing? Part I. The problem
How can affordable housing help minimize, rather than perpetuate, income segregation? At City Observatory, we've long focused on the challenge of concentrated poverty, starting with our first report Lost in Place, in 20... →
Measuring the Civic Commons
A New DIY toolkit helps neighborhoods and cities measure the state of their civic commons At City Observatory, we're all about metrics, and especially keen on metrics that help us better understand the function of citie... →
Dr. King: Socialism for the rich and rugged free enterprise capitalism for the poor
It's a long road to redressing inequality A half-century ago, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. addressed the stilted rhetoric used use to talk about public spending to promote the social good: Whenever the government provid... →
Dr. King: Socialism for the rich and rugged free enterprise capitalism for the poor
It's a long road to redressing inequality Fifty-five years ago, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. addressed the stilted rhetoric used use to talk about public spending to promote the social good: Whenever the government prov... →
Dr. King: Socialism for the rich and rugged free enterprise capitalism for the poor
It's a long road to redressing inequality A half-century ago, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. addressed the stilted rhetoric used use to talk about public spending to promote the social good: Whenever the government provid... →
Scooter Lessons: Success, but a stark double standard
Data shows Portland's scooter experiment worked. Maybe it's time to critically appraise the failed 110 year experiment with cars. Starting in July, Portland, Oregon began allowing fleets of e-scooters, as an experiment,... →
Housing: Missing Middle or Missing Massive?
Gradually, more people and elected leaders are admitting that more housing density is needed if we're to tackle housing affordability, and provide equitable opportunities to live in great cities and neighborhoods. But l... →
You’re going to need a bigger boat
Eliminating exclusively single-family zones won't provide enough density: Recognizing the limits of "missing middle" as a solution to urban affordability At City Observatory, we're excited as anyone that there seems t... →
No deal: Why a CRC revival is going nowhere
Reviving the Columbia River Crossing will never happen: the two sides have incompatible aims There are continued rumblings in the Portland-Vancouver metropolitan area about reviving the abandoned plan to spend $3 bill... →
Ten things more inequitable than road pricing
Don't decry congestion pricing as inequitable until after you fix, or at least acknowledge, these ten other things that are even more inequitable about the way we pay for transportation. There's a growing interest in us... →
Displacement by decline
An obsession with gentrification obscures the urban problem: concentrated poverty Editor's Note: We're again pleased to offer a guest commentary from Akron Planning Director Jason Segedy, who has some keen insights... →
Is Oregon’s road tax limit a paper tiger?
The Oregon Constitution exempts refunds and debt repayment from the limits on how revenue from taxing cars and fuel is spent Note: What follows is a hypothesis and a question. What's presented here is not a legal opinio... →
How tax evasion fuels traffic congestion in Portland
Tax free shopping in Oregon saves the typical Southwest Washington household $1,000 per year Cross border shopping accounts for 10-20 percent of all trips across the I-5 and I-205 bridges Tax avoidance means we're ... →
A tool kit for value capture policies
Harnessing the value of public assets to support the civic commons It's widely recognized that public assets, like parks, libraries and community centers, generate important and tangible benefits for their neighborhoods... →
Cities, Ideas and Us: Paul Romer’s Nobel Address
Cities are critical to expanding the circle of "us" and generating the new ideas that propel progress In October, Paul Romer was awarded the Nobel Prize in the Economic Sciences for his work on technology and economic g... →
Oregon DOT admits it lied about I-5 safety
Oregon's Department of Transportation concedes it was lying about crashes on I-5 at the Rose Quarter For more than a year, we and others have been calling out the Oregon Department of Transportation for its false claims... →
Safety: Using the big lie to sell wider freeways
Oregon's Department of Transportation is lying about safety to sell a half billion dollar freeway project Fear-mongering is the one of the lowest, if unfortunately most effective, means of selling anything. Threaten a... →
Why road pricing is inherently equitable: Faster buses
Road pricing is inherently fairer to the poor because it speeds up buses As economists, we're keen on the idea of road pricing. The reason we have congestion and delay is because we charge a price for peak hour road use... →
Why road pricing is inherently equitable: Faster buses
Road pricing is inherently fairer to the poor because it speeds up buses As economists, we're keen on the idea of road pricing. The reason we have congestion and delay is because we charge a price for peak hour road use... →
You can’t feel ’em, if you can’t see ’em
We can't have empathy for those we can't encounter due to the way our cities are built Editor's Note: Last month, our friend Carol Coletta spoke to the Kinder Institute in Houston about the critical role that place play... →
Why suburban office campuses aren’t really walkable
A suburban campus with 10,000 parking spaces and virtually no transit isn't walkable A recent news item caught our eye: The Fort Worth Star Telegram reported that American Airlines was putting a premium on promoting w... →
The long tail of the housing bust
Adjusted for inflation, US home prices are still lower than in 2006 For most US households, the home they own is their biggest financial asset. After the housing bust of 2007, when collectively about $7 trillion in home... →
Real home prices: A regional view
Wide variations in regional home price patterns tell us a lot about housing markets and cities Yesterday, we looked at the path of inflation-adjusted home prices in the US. While much attention has been paid to the fa... →
Local neighborhoods matter even more for black kids
The Equality of Opportunity Project shows local factors matter, but even more for black kids We now have a rich understanding of how where you grow up influences your life prospects. As we reported last week, the new Op... →
Is Uber Unsafe? Is Lyft Lethal? Let’s dig into the data to find out
We have the data: Let's do a real test of whether Uber and Lyft lead to more crashes Last year, we asked some hard questions about a study from the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business that made the provocat... →
Unsafe Uber? Lethal Lyft? We’re still skeptical
We're still skeptical about an updated study claiming ride-hailing increases crashes and deaths In the Fall of 2018, we took a close look at a draft study from the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business whic... →
Unsafe Uber? Lethal Lyft? We’re still skeptical
We're still skeptical about an updated study claiming ride-hailing increases crashes and deaths In the Fall of 2018, we took a close look at a draft study from the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business whic... →
Unsafe Uber? Lethal Lyft? We’re skeptical
A new study claiming ride-hailing increases crashes and deaths leaves some questions unanswered. A new study from the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business makes the provocative claim that the advent of ride-... →
Cities, talent and prosperity
America's economy is increasingly driven by the concentration of talent in cities The Economic Innovation Group (aka EIG, a DC-based think tank) has been compiling some interesting data on the relative economic performa... →
Get out! Why economic mobility might mean leaving home
Part of the disparity in intergenerational economic mobility may stem from a willingness to leave home Raj Chetty, Nate Hendren and their colleagues at the Equality of Opportunity Project have crafted a rich picture of ... →
The limits of job creation
Whether at the neighborhood or metropolitan level, more job growth doesn't seem to improve economic mobility There's a seemingly un-questioned (and unquestionable) truth among economic development practitioners that mor... →
Fresh evidence for Portland’s green dividend
Building a city so its residents don't have to drive so much powers economic growth A decade ago, we coined the term "green dividend." We noted that among large US metropolitan areas, Portland residents drove signific... →
Now we are six.
We're six! On October 17, 2014, we launched City Observatory, with the aim of providing solid, data-driven research on cities, and offering a timely and informed voice on urban policy issues. Six years—and more than a... →
City Observatory turns five
We observe our fifth birthday On October 17, 2014, we launched City Observatory, with the aim of providing solid, data-driven research on cities, and offering a timely and informed voice on urban policy issues. Five yea... →
City Observatory’s Fourth Birthday
Today marks the fourth year since we launched City Observatory On October 17, 2014, we started up City Observatory. [caption id="attachment_7137" align="aligncenter" width="640"] (Flickr: Till Westermayer)[/caption] ... →
Exit, Hope and Loyalty: The fate of neighborhoods
How neighborhood stability hinges on expectations: If people don't believe things are going to get better, many will leave One of the most perplexing urban problems is neighborhood decline. Once healthy, middle-class ... →
The limits of Nieman Marcus environmentalism
Conspicuous non-consumption is really faux environmentalism; climate change is a social problem, not a personal one We're in the midst of the holiday shopping season, a potent reminder of how consumerism dominates so mu... →
Does your neighborhood help kids succeed?
The Opportunity Atlas: Stunning neighborhood maps of economic opportunity Some of the most important research findings of the past decade have come from the work of Raj Chetty and his colleagues at the Equality of Oppor... →
Does new construction lead to displacement?
A careful study of evictions in San Francisco says "No." There's a widespread belief among some neighborhood activists that building new housing triggers displacement. We-and most economists are highly skeptical of that... →
Why inclusive is so elusive, Part 5: Exclusive suburbs
Part 5. Are the nation's richest suburbs really its most economically inclusive cities? A statistical methodology that repeatedly flags high income suburbs as "inclusive" probably isn't actually measuring inclusiveness.... →
Why inclusive is so elusive, Part 4: Metropolitan context
Part 4. Are racially and economically homogeneous cities and suburbs in a segregated metro "inclusive?" Looking only at disparities within cities misses the often far larger disparities across cities within in single m... →
Why inclusive is so elusive, Part 3: Annexing growth
Part 3. Do annexations and mergers constitute economic growth? Not adjusting city job growth estimates for changes in city boundaries produces misleading estimates, especially when used for comparing and ranking cities.... →
Why inclusive is so elusive, Part 2: The limits of city limits
Part 2. Are city boundaries the right way to measure inclusion? Municipal boundaries produce a myopic and distorted view of inclusion; the boundaries themselves were often drawn to create exclusion (Editor's note: Th... →
The Urban Institute gets inclusion backwards, again
The Urban Institute has released an updated set of estimates that purport to measure which US cities are the most inclusive. The report is conceptually flawed, and actually gets its conclusions backwards, classifying som... →
Why inclusive is so elusive, Part I
Inclusiveness is a worthy policy goal, but in practice turns out to be devilishly hard to measure. A recent report from the Urban Institute shows some of the pitfalls: looking just within city boundaries ignores metropoli... →
Let’s stop with the absurd surveys masquerading as serious research
No: Eighty percent of today's 8 to 23 year-olds won't be buying houses in the next five years At City Observatory, we get a regular stream of press releases and media advisories about the results of surveys and other ... →
Does increased housing supply improve affordability?
Why a recent Fed study tells us very little about supply and affordability The takeaway: A recent Federal Reserve study which seems to show that building more housing won't improve affordability has little rel... →
If you want less displacement, build more housing
The more you limit housing, the more you increase displacement In city after city, we see the same refrain: a neighborhood is starting to attract new residents and new investment, current residents are starting to worry... →
Is St. Louis Gentrifying?
Gentrification Debates Without Gentrification? By Todd Swanstrom Editor's note: We're pleased to offer a guest commentary from Todd Swanstrom. Todd is the Des Lee Professor of Community Collaboration and Public Pol... →
Going the wrong way: NYC’s new ride-hailing cap
Capping or taxing ride-hailing services isn't going to solve NYC's congestion problem New York's City Council is moving ahead with a package of measures designed to cap the number of ride-hailed vehicles, like Uber and ... →
Whither small towns? Wither small towns?
Rural and small town America faces some tough odds In an article entitled: "How to save the Troubled American Heartland," Bloomberg's very smart Noah Smith shares his thoughts on how to revive the smaller towns of rural... →
Don’t decry new urban housing as “gentrification”
Whenever a distressed neighborhood gets new market rate housing, someone's bound to cry "Gentrification". Here's why that's wrong. This is a guest post from Jason Segedy, Director of Akron's Planning Department. Thi... →
The limited allure of small towns
A few knowledge workers decamp to rural America as they age, but cities are the key It's an oft-told tale: talented professionals grow weary of the stress and high cost of city-living, and decamp with their spouses, chi... →
E-Scooters and Paying for Roads
If charging scooters to use city streets makes sense, let's charge cars proportionately A little bit late to the party, but today the first electric scooters appeared on the streets of Portland. Bird announced that, wit... →
Race and economic polarization
The growth of concentrated poverty has been fueled by the secession of successful African Americans David Rusk has summarized his research on race and economic polarization in a series of three commentaries on "The Grea... →
More evidence of declining rents in Portland
Zillows data shows Portland rents have dropped 3.5 percent in the past year A couple of weeks ago, we published the latest data from ApartmentList.com on the decline in rents in the Portland metropolitan area. Their b... →
We disagree with the Washington Post about housing economics
Contrary to what you think you may have read in last week's Washington Post, rental housing markets at all levels still conform to the laws of supply and demand Monday's Washington Post ran a provocative headline: "In e... →
Portland rents are going down
More supply is driving down rents in the Rose City According to Apartment List.com, rents for one bedroom apartments in Portland have declined 3 percent in the past year. It's a solid vindication of the standard predict... →
Your summertime, urbanist “must read” Allan Mallach’s Divided City
A review of The Divided City Alan Mallach, The Divided City: Poverty and Prosperity in Urban America (Island Books, 2018, 326 pages). Before you head out to the beach or mountains or wherever your summertime plans ta... →
The clear case for congestion pricing in Portland
Why congestion pricing makes sense for Portland by Chris Hagerbaumer Today, City Observatory is pleased to offer a guest commentary from Chris Hagerbaumer on value pricing. Chris is the deputy director of the Oregon ... →
Philadelphia’s urban policy harmonic convergence
Philly's University City: The urban challenge in a nutshell The knowledge economy . . . tax breaks . . . NIMBYism . . . gentrification . . . Amazon's HQ2 . . . high speed rail . . . university economic development? Al... →
Where we embrace socialism in the US: Parking Lots
How we embrace socialism for car storage in the public right of way Florida Senator Marco Rubio has denounced President Biden's $3.5 trillion spending program as un-American socialism. Rubio claims: In the end, Ameri... →
Parking: Where we embrace socialism in the US
How we embrace socialism for car storage in the public right of way Comrades, rejoice: In the face of the counter-revolutionary neo-liberal onslaught, there's at least one arena where the people's inalienable rights r... →
IoT: The Irrelevance of Thingies
People and social interaction, not technology, is the key to the future of cities Smart city afficianado's are agog at the prospects that the Internet of Things will create vast new markets for technology that will disr... →
Envisioning more cohesive communities
What aspects of the built environment give rise to greater social trust? We're pleased to offer a guest commentary today from Em Friedenberg. Em is a recent graduate of the University of Oregon, who's studied urban desi... →
Detroit’s Corktown: Portrait of a diverse neighborhood
One of the places where socioeconomic mixing is highest Despite deep concerns that America is increasingly divided along racial, ethnic and economic lines, there are some neighborhoods that have a diverse array of resid... →
Profiles of Diverse, Mixed Income Neighborhoods
Our new CityReport dives deep in data; but what does a diverse, mixed income neighborhood look like? As we explained in our new report–America's Most Diverse, Mixed Income Neighborhoods–nearly seven million American... →
Portland votes to increase housing supply
Portland's City Council reversed its denial of one tall apartment building; we commend them Back in March, we were critical of a decision by the Portland City Council to deny approval of a 17-story apartment building in... →
Handicapping the City-Suburb Horserace
The simple-minded comparison on city and suburb population growth rates is misleading and incomplete Every year, in the late Spring, the Census Bureau releases its latest population estimates for the nation's municipali... →
The increasing centralization of urban economies: New York
Prime working age adults are increasingly clustering in the center of the nation's largest metro area City Observatory has long been following the movement of people and jobs back to cities. Our inaugural study on the... →
The persistence of residential segregation
How slow growth and industrial decline perpetuate racial segregation As regular readers of City Observatory know, we think that the continuing racial and economic segregation of the nation's metropolitan areas is at the... →
State government as an anchor industry
Eds and Meds . . . and Capitol Domes? I recently participated as a part of an expert panel reviewed Sacramento’s economic development strategy. You can learn more about the city’s “Project Prosper” here. It ... →
Fishy business: the promise and perils of city aquariums
To ballparks, convention centers and starchitect museums, add urban aquariums. To some boosters, your city is only one world-class visitor attraction away from economic prosperity. That pitch has been used to sell and e... →
California’s next bold step on climate should be building near transit
While the impetus for State Senator Scott Wiener’s proposed SB 827, which would allow apartment construction near transit lines was addressing housing affordability, the measure should also be a cornerstone of our effort... →
Cities as selection environments
Being cheaper may not be an advantage at all in a dynamic, knowledge based economy It's axiomatic in the world of local economic development that the sure-fire way to stimulate growth is to make it as cheap and easy as ... →
No exit from housing hell
Distrust and empowering everyone to equally be a NIMBY is a recipe for perpetual housing problems The recent defeat of SB 827--California State Senator Scott Wiener's bill that would have legalized apartment constructio... →
Why doesn’t the federal government protect access to affordable housing the way it does access to TV?
A powerful federal agency can override local laws limiting access to TV. But housing? Nope. Local control. It's the bedrock principle of land use planning. Cities and neighborhoods should have absolute control over the ... →
The Mortgage Interest Deduction: Smaller, but even more unfair
Tax changes cut the Mortgage Interest Deduction sharply–but not for the rich The 1.2 percent of households with incomes over $500,000 get 20 times as much tax relief from the mortgage interest deduction as the half of... →
Dow of Cities: Big data on the urban price premium
Zillow's data tracking prices of tens of millions of US homes adds further confirmation to the Dow of Cities For some time, we've been talking about the Dow of Cities: the notion that the price premium that urban home... →
City as theme park
There's no critique more cutting than saying that development is turning an urban neighborhood into a theme park. The irony of course, is that cities like Dubrovnik and Venice represent a profoundly obsolete, ... →
Video: Portland’s Housing Market
Earlier this month, City Observatory's Joe Cortright was interviewed for HFO TV. The interview focused on recent developments in Portland's housing market, and explored the reasons behind the growth in rents in the middl... →
A critical look at suburban triumphalism
The "body count" view of suburban population misses the value people attach to cities Lately, we've seen a barrage of comments suggesting that the era of the city is over, and that Americans, including young adults, are... →
Housing: A shortage of cities
City Observatory's Joe Cortright is one of the panelists at Chapman University's April 5 conference "Will California Ever Figure Out How to House Itself". Here's a summary of his remarks. The housing crisis in Califor... →
Gerontopoly: Homeownership, wealth, and age
Is the "dream" of homeownership really just a massive, intergenerational wealth transfer? Recently, that's just how it has worked out. The takeaways: Homeownership is a gerontopoly. Most housing wealth is held by... →
Is Fruitvale gentrifying? Did it prevent displacement?
What does Fruitvale tell us about gentrification and displacement? Gentrification solved, or at least prevented. That was the celebratory headline announcing a recent study from UCLA's Latino Politics and Policy Init... →
Vision Zero: Moving from slogan to reality
Editor's Note: Vision Zero is an impressive sounding slogan, but whether it will amount to more than that is in the hands of city leaders. The choices they make about how to prioritize public space for those who walk and... →
Diverse, Mixed Income Neighborhoods Maps
This page contains maps showing the nation's most racially and ethnically diverse neighborhoods, and those with the highest levels of income mixing. for City Observatory's Diverse, Inclusive Neighborhood report. These we... →
Gentrification isn’t ending. We must rise to meet that challenge.
We're pleased to publish another contribution from City Observatory friend and colleague Alex Baca. Alex has written about cities while living in Washington, D.C., San Francisco, and Cleveland, OH, and earlier this year au... →
Nattering Nabobs of NIMBYism at the NYT
Denouncing developers and density is no way to solve a housing crisis Editor's Note: Today we're publishing a guest commentary from Ethan Seltzer responding to New York Times columnist Tim Egan's recent column on housin... →
Time to get real about climate change
To change the world, we need to change the world… Editor's Note: Ethan Seltzer is an Emeritus Professor in the Toulan School of Urban Studies and Planning at Portland State University. He previously served as the P... →
An Open Letter on Housing Affordability to Portland City Commissioner Nick Fish
Our planning processes and land use decisions have a huge impact on housing affordability. Editor's Note: Today we're publishing an open letter from Ethan Seltzer to Portland City Commissioner Nick Fish. Portland is the... →
Portland’s brouhaha over housing market economics 101
Understanding how housing markets really work is essential to crafting solutions to our affordability problems Regular followers of City Observatory will know two things about us: We're keenly focused on the problem o... →
Inclusionary Zoning’s Wile E. Coyote moment
You won't know that your inclusionary zoning program is wrecking the housing market until it's too late to fix. How lags and game theory monkey wrench inclusionary zoning. One of the toughest problems in economics an... →
Moving the goalposts
The key to being on-time and under-budget: Orwellian double-speak Oregon DOT projects are always on-time and under budget--because the agency simply disappears its original schedules and budgets. Delayed, half-fini... →
Portland doesn’t really want to make housing affordable
Actions speak louder than words; blocking new housing will drive up rents Nominally, at least, the Portland City Council is all about housing affordability. They've declared a housing emergency. In the last general el... →
Housing reparations for Northeast Portland
Attention freeway builders! Want to make up for dividing the community and destroying neighborhoods? How about replacing the homes you demolished? One of the carefully crafted talking points in the sales pitch for the $... →
Barack Obama on Gentrification
. . . we want more economic activity in this community, because that’s what creates opportunity and with more economic opportunity it does mean that there’s going to be more demand for all kinds of amenities in the com... →
Dallas: Diverse mobility, complete neighborhoods & placemaking
Carol Coletta’s Remarks to Downtown Dallas, Inc. (Our friend and colleague Carol Coletta delivered the keynote address to the annual meeting of Downtown Dallas, Inc. on March 5. While her remarks are focused on Dallas... →
City Women
Jane Jacobs was just one of the first of many It’s International Women’s Day, and today, we’d like to acknowledge just a few of the really sharp women urbanists we rely on, every day, at City Observatory, to under... →
Cloaking a weak argument in big—but phony—numbers
Journalists: Stop repeating phony congestion cost estimates. They're just weak arguments disguised with big numbers. This month The Economist has an excellent special report exploring the prospects for autonomous vehic... →
Junk food America elected its president
The states with the worst diets voted disproportionately for Donald Trump A powerful new study from uses big data to shine a powerful light on our eating habits. Using data from grocery store scanner records, Hunt All... →
Road pricing for all vehicles, not just ride-hailed ones
The problem isn't the ride-hailed vehicles, it's the under-priced street It really looks like we're on the cusp of a major change in transportation finance. Cities around the country are actively studying real time road... →
Gentrification & integration in DC
Gentrification is producing more diverse schools and growing enrollment In Washington DC, gentrification is producing higher levels of integration and increasing the total number of kids–black and white–attending sc... →
What drives ride-hailing: Parking, Drinking, Flying, Peaking, Pricing
Ride-hailing is growing: We distill a new report into 5 key factors that explain its growth A good reporter is always supposed to ask five questions: "who, what, when, where and why?" A new report on ride-hailing provid... →
Do rich neighbors make low income people unhappy?
Lower income households are happier in higher income neighborhoods How does your neighbor's income affect your happiness? Do you feel worse off if you have less income than most of your neighbors? The "Keeping up with t... →
Big Bad Data: The Uninformative Inrix Scorecard
Big data should be used for problem solving, not propaganda and promotion Cue the extreme telephoto shots of freeways! Wallow in the pity of commuters stuck in traffic because of all those other people! Wail that co... →
The emperor’s new infrastructure plan
Politics and the President's wheeler-dealer background suggest the infrastructure plan is a mirage If there's been one shred of hope for bi-partisan progress in this politically polarized time, its been the idea that so... →
The limits of localism
Overselling localism is becoming an excuse to shed and shred federal responsibility Our friend, and director of the Brookings Institution's Metropolitan Policy Program, Amy Liu, weighs in with a timely commentary on the... →
Qualms about the new localism: Cities need the national government to do its job well
We like cities, but localism can only flourish with a competent, generous, fair federal government As our name City Observatory suggests, we're keen on cities. We believe they're the right frame for tackling many of o... →
Challenging the Cappuccino City: Part 2: The limits of ethnography
City Observatory has long challenged the popular narrative about the nature and effects of gentrification. This is the second installment of a three-part commentary by our friend and colleague Alex Baca. You can read parts... →
Challenging the Cappuccino City: Part 1: A New Premise?
City Observatory has long challenged the popular narrative about the nature and effects of gentrification. This is the first installment of a three-part commentary by our friend and colleague Alex Baca. Parts two and three... →
Challenging the Cappuccino City: Part 3: Cultural Displacement
City Observatory has long challenged the popular narrative about the nature and effects of gentrification. Today, we are pleased to offer the final installment of a three-part commentary by our friend and colleague Alex Ba... →
Sprawl, stagnation, and NIMBYism: Animated maps of metro change
A picture of metropolitan growth: Sprawl then, stagnation now. We're in awe of Issi Romem's prodigious data skills. Romem is the economist and big data guru BuildZoom, the web-based marketplace for construction profes... →
2HQ2? Amazon doubles down, just as we predicted
As City Observatory predicted in January, Amazon will select multiple locations for HQ2 The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Amazon's much ballyhooed headquarters contest will choose not one winner, but two. Ama... →
Two things everyone’s missed about Amazon’s HQ2 decision
What kind of company is Amazon, and how many locations does it want? We're now into round 2 of the great Amazon HQ2 extravaganza, and as with the initial announcement much digital ink has been spilled to analyze the mea... →
More evidence of rent declines in Portland
Growing supply is producing growing vacancies and easing rents There's been a lot of skepticism expressed as to whether supply and demand are actually at work in the housing market. We've been strong believers that the ... →
2017 Year-in-review: More driving, more dying
We're driving more, and more of us are dying on the roads. Four days before Christmas, on a Wednesday morning just after dawn, Elizabeth Meyers was crossing Sandy Boulevard in Portland, near 78th Avenue, just about a bl... →
A modest proposal: Extend the Americans with Disabilities Act to highways
Let's require that highways really be accessible to those who can't drive: State highway departments should provide bus service on state roads for the disabled The Americans with Disabilities Act was landmark legislat... →
The high price of cheap gasoline
When gas prices stopped diving, Americans again began to drive less 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 somet... →
Cities continue to attract smart young adults
The young and restless are continuing to move to the nation's large cities One trend that highlights the growing demand for city living is the increasing tendency of well-educated young adults to live in the close-in ur... →
Our seven most popular posts of 2017
Affordable housing and sensible transportation were our most-read features #7 - Urban myth busting: How building more high income housing helps affordability. One of the predictable lamentations about the housing mark... →
Diverging diamond blues
A key design element of the supposedly pedestrian friendly Rose Quarter freeway cover is a pedestrian hostile diverging diamond interchange One of the main selling points of the plan to spend nearly half a billion dolla... →
How the g-word poisons public discourse on making cities better
We're pleased to publish this guest post from Akron's Jason Segedy. It originally appeared on his blog Notes from the Underground. Drawing on his practical experience in a rust-belt city, he offers a compelling new insig... →
Are the young leaving cities?
The so-called "peak millennial" conjecture. Is it right? What does it mean? Should I care? Time has published an article, based largely on the research of UCLA demographer Dowell Myers, proclaiming that US cities are ... →
Is inequality over?
After a long, slow recovery, wages are finally rising for the lowest-paid workers, but we're no where close to rectifying our inequality problem; in fact, it's going to get worse. The very smart Jed Kolko, who now write... →
The great freeway cover-up
Concrete covers are just a thinly-veiled gimmick for selling wider freeways As you've read at City Observatory, and elsewhere (CityLab, Portland Mercury, Willamette Week), Portland is in the midst of a great freeway war... →
A wider freeway won’t reduce traffic
Widening I-5 actually increased crashes, instead of reducing them, and an even wider freeway won't be less congested if crashes don't decline. We're going to dig deep into Portland's proposed freeway-widening controvers... →
The death of Flint Street
A proposed freeway widening project will tear out one of Portland's most used bike routes At City Observatory, were putting a local Portland-area proposed freeway widening project under a microscope, in part because we ... →
A constant state of change: turnover in business establishments
Churn means that lots of businesses, even large ones, aren't around forever Many of our discussions of the economy are based on simple, and often largely static mental models of the economy. In a good year, a local econ... →
Remember: There’s no such thing as a “Free” way
Congestion pricing is a win-win strategy and the only way to truly reduce traffic congestion The urban transportation problem is a hardy perennial: no matter how many lanes we add to urban freeways, traffic congestion i... →
Renters move up-market
What to make of the high credit scores of new renters in some markets: alarm bell or success signal? RentCafe–one arm of Yardi Matrix, a real estate data and services firm–has a very interesting new data series on t... →
Uber and Lyft: A dynamic duo(poly)?
Will two firms produce enough effective competition to benefit consumers? The use ride-hailing services continues to grow in the US, and while there are a range competitors in some markets, like New York, in most places... →
Kevin Bacon & musical chairs: How market rate housing increases affordability
Building more market rate housing sets off a chain reaction supply increase that reaches low income neighborhoods Households moving into new market rate units move out of other, lower cost housing, making it available t... →
The end of the housing supply debate (maybe)
Slowly, the rhetorical battle is being won, as affordable housing advocates acknowledge more supply matters There's been a war of words about what kind of housing policies are needed to address the nation's affordabilit... →
More evidence of the Dow of cities
The premium that households pay to live in cities relative to suburbs and rural areas continues to increase Three years ago, we introduced the term "Dow of cities." It's a riff on the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA)... →
Using Yelp to track economic growth
We review Yelp's new index for rating local economies: It's a good start For a long time, the only comprehensive and reliable means we've had of tracking and comparing economic activity across state and regional econo... →
Winners and losers from rent control
A new study of San Francisco's rent control shows it raises rents for some Rent control is a perennially contentious issue. Many housing activists see it as a logical and direct way to make housing more affordable. Econ... →
Autonomous Vehicles: Does federal preemption shut down the laboratories of democracy?
There are a lot of details to be worked out to integrate autonomous vehicles into cities. Federal preemption could foreclose the opportunity of states and cities to help figure out the best ways forward. It's a touchsto... →
Signs of the times
"For Rent" signs are popping up all over Portland, signaling an easing of the housing crunch and foretelling falling rents A year ago, in the height of the political season in deep blue Portland (in a county which voted... →
Metro economies pulling away nationally
Unemployment rates are down in cities, especially for those with less education One of the trends we've been following at City Observatory has been the increasing shift of the driving forces of the nation's economy to l... →
Portland’s Inclusionary Zoning Law: Waiting for the other shoe to drop
Developers stampeded to get grandfathered before new requirements took hold, will the pipeline run dry? In December, Portland's City Council adopted one of the nation's most sweeping inclusionary zoning requirements. ... →
Transportation equity, part 2: the Subaru and the Suburban
Flat per vehicle registration fees charge lower rates to wealthier households with more road damaging vehicles The prospect of shifting from using a combination of vehicle registration fees, fuel taxes and general reven... →
Transportation equity: Why peak period road pricing is fair
Peak hour car commuters have incomes almost double those who travel by transit, bike and foot The Oregon Legislature has directed the state's department of transportation to come up with a value pricing system for inter... →
Racial wealth disparities: How housing widens the gap
The wealth of black families lags far behind whites, and housing markets play a key role There's a great article from The New York Times' Emily Badger about a new study that shows just how much Americans (especially wh... →
Cities lead national income growth, again
Average household income in cities is increasing twice as fast as in their suburbs Earlier this week, the Census Bureau released its latest estimates of national income based on the annual Current Population Survey. The... →
Jealous billionaires: The story behind Amazon’s HQ2
Cash prizes for bad corporate citizenship: When we incentivize anti-social behavior by big corporations, we get more of it Bloomberg Business has a behind-the-scenes post-mortem of the Great Amazon HQ2 sweepstakes, "... →
Cash prizes for bad corporate citizenship, Amazon edition
When we strongly incentivize anti-social behavior by big corporations, we get more of it Everyone in the urban space is busy handicapping the Amazon horserace, to see which city will land Amazon's HQ2, which promises to... →
Cognitive dissonance on the Potomac
How can a city be named the first "LEED Platinum" city and be building freeways in its suburbs? Submitted for your approval: Two recent news items from our nation's capital. In the first, Washington DC proudly announc... →
An affogato theory of transportation
Coffee and ice cream and jam (or traffic jams) Just once, we are going to sugar-coat our commentary. [caption id="attachment_5029" align="aligncenter" width="700"] Affogato (1912Pike.com)[/caption] At City Observa... →
Oh, no! Is the urban revival really over?
Reports of the demise of the city rebound have been greatly exaggerated Richard Florida's op-ed piece in The New York Times last week had an eye-catching headline: "The Urban Revival is Over." Here was the apostle of ... →
Inequality in three charts: Piketty, the picket fence and Branko’s elephant
Rising inequality in the US isn't new; Declining inequality globally is. Scratch just beneath the surface of many daily problems, and you'll find income inequality is a contributing factor, if not the chief culprit. W... →
Why we’re talking about Portland’s freeway widening proposal
Portland is a bellwether for transportation policy; is it going to take a giant step backward? Last month, the Oregon Legislature passed a $5.3 billion transportation funding bill. A central piece of this legislation is... →
What Dallas, Houston, Louisville & Rochester can teach us about widening freeways: Don’t!
Portland is thinking about widening freeways; other cities show that doesn't work Once upon a time, Portland held itself out as a national example of how to build cities that didn't revolve (so much) around the private ... →
Uber’s Movement: A peek at ride-hailing data
Uber's lifting the veil--just a little--to provide data on urban transportation performance Uber's new Movement tool provides valuable new source of data about travel times in urban environments. We've gotten an early l... →
Is it a net zero home if it has a three-car garage?
Another model energy-saving project ignores density and location The National Institute of Standards and Technology has built what it calls a model "net-zero" energy home on its Gaithersburg, Maryland campus. The hous... →
Hundred dollar bills on the municipal sidewalk
The public wealth of cities is substantial, but under-pricing public assets is rampant There's an old saw among economists. Two economists are walking along, and one of them says, "Look, there's a hundred dollar bill ... →
What a congestion report doesn’t tell us about congestion
Congestion is increasing in Portland: But not, apparently, because traffic volumes are increasing Traffic congestion reports are just as formulaic as bodice-ripping romance novels. They have a predictable narrative form... →
How luxury housing becomes affordable
Build expensive new "luxury" apartments, and wait a few decades One of the most common refrains the the affordable housing discussion is "developers are targeting the high end of the market" and new apartments are just ... →
How luxury housing becomes affordable
Build expensive new "luxury" apartments, and wait a few decades One of the most common refrains the the affordable housing discussion is "developers are targeting the high end of the market" and new apartments are just ... →
Dying to widen highways
Oregon's DOT seems to be more concerned with making cars go faster than saving lives Yesterday, we took a look at a recent Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) "performance report" on Portland area freeways. One... →
Housing policy lessons from Vienna: Part I
Is Stadt Wien the model for US urban housing policy? We’re pleased to welcome a guest commentary from Mike Eliason of Seattle. Mike is a passivhaus designer with Patano Studio who is interested in baugruppen, mass tim... →
Such a deal
How tax policy subsidizes homeownership, mostly for the wealthiest Americans OK. Imagine that someone offers you this investment deal. We want you to buy some stock; in fact, we want you to buy about $150,000 or $20... →
Housing Policy Lessons from Vienna, Part II
Allowing multi-family housing in all residential zones, and aggressively promoting private bidding lowers housing costs We’re pleased to welcome a guest commentary from Mike Eliason of Seattle. Mike is a passivhaus de... →
“Free parking” isn’t green
No matter how many solar panels it has, your parking garage isn't green, and especially if you don't charge parking (This commentary is cross-published at the Parking Reform Network) Almost five years ago, we called ... →
How green is my free parking structure? Not very.
Why does the National Renewable Energy Lab give its employees free parking? The researchers at the National Renewable Energy Lab are hard at work on a lot of cool ideas for reducing pollution and promoting greater energ... →
Reality check: Poverty rates are much lower in suburbs
Despite what you may have heard, poverty rates in suburbs are on average half what they are in urban centers There's a growing chorus about the so-called suburbanization of poverty. A couple of years ago, Alan Ehrenhalt... →
What’s the biggest threat facing cities?
Politico's survey of experts leaves out the most important challenges, in our humble opinion. A couple of weeks back, Politco, the wonky-insider beltway news source queried a dozen of the nation's urban thought leaders ... →
A Nobel Prize with a solution for climate change
Let's put a price on using the atmosphere as a garbage dump for carbon Earlier this week, Yale economist William Nordhaus was announced as this year's co-recipient of the Nobel Prize in Economics (along with Paul Romer,... →
Climate Change: A 2-cent solution
Let's put a price on using the atmosphere as a garbage dump for carbon It works for plastic bags; let's use the same idea for carbon Consider the plastic bag: It's a highly visible environmental problem, one that w... →
Climate Change: A 2-cent solution
Let's put a price on using the atmosphere as a garbage dump for carbon For almost six months, Chicago has been charging shoppers a 7 cent fee for using disposable plastic grocery bags. Rather than banning the bags outri... →
Pity the poor Super Commuter
About 2 percent of all car commuters travel 90 minutes to work, same as a decade ago. We've always been clear about our views on mega commuters, those traveling an hour and a half or more to work daily. As we said last ... →
Prices Matter: Parking and Ride Hailing
Pricing parking drives demand for ride hailing services Ride-hailing companies like Uber and Lyft have been highly reluctant to share data about their services with cities. In California, the state Public Utilities Comm... →
Sisyphus meets Bob the Builder
Why traffic engineers really aren't interested in reducing traffic congestion We now know with a certainty that investments in additional highway capacity in dense urban environments simply trigger additional travel, wh... →
You can’t judge housing affordability without knowing transportation costs
The "commonly accepted" 30 percent standard for judging housing affordability leaves out transportation and location At City Observatory, we've long been dissatisfied with commonly used measures of describing housing af... →
You can’t judge housing affordability without knowing transportation costs
The "commonly accepted" 30 percent standard for judging housing affordability leaves out transportation and location At City Observatory, we've long been dissatisfied with commonly used measures of describing housing af... →
Rent inflation is abating
Over the past year, rent inflation has declined in 48 of the top 50 markets For the past several years, rising rents have been at the center of the nation's housing affordability debate. A combination of former homeowne... →
More evidence of the growth of concentrated poverty
Since 2000, the number of people living in extremely poor neighborhoods has doubled; neighborhoods of concentrated poverty are still disproportionately in the densest urban places. Last week, the Joint Center on Housing... →
Downzoning won’t make housing cheaper
The fallacy of composition leads people to get the connection between density and affordability backwards Our good friend at Strong Towns, Chuck Marohn is utterly right about a great many things. But he's committed a cl... →
Pricing roads for autonomous vehicles
Portland and other cities are considering future policies for a world of autonomous vehicles: We have some advice: Use this opportunity to dynamically price roads. Like many cities, Portland is considering what poli... →
Historic Preservation: NIMBYism for the Rich?
Is historic preservation just thinly veiled NIMBYism? There's a growing recognition that local land use controls that preclude increased density in cities are helping contribute to the shortage of affordable housing. Pr... →
Portland’s Green Dividend
When you build a city that enables people to drive less, they spend less on cars and gas and have more to spend on other things. Here is my 2007 report, published by CEOs for Cities, which describes Portland's Green Div... →
Cultural appropriation: Theft or Smorgasbord?
If it weren't for cultural appropriation, would America have any culture at all? In Portland, two women opened a food cart business--Kook's Burritos--selling burritos based on ones that they'd seen and tasted during a ... →
How green was my City (Hall)
In the wake of Pres. Trump's withdrawal from the Paris climate accords, many mayors and governors have stepped up their rhetoric on climate change. Will their actions match their words? On June 1, President Trump announ... →
More evidence on ridesharing’s growth surge
New data shows the diffusion of ride-sharing among US metro areas: Parking prices matter. We know from casual observation and the occasional leaded corporate document that ridesharing (which is more accurately but clums... →
Your college degree pays off more if you live in a city
The more education you have, the bigger the payoff to living in a city It's a well-understood fact that education is a critical determinant of earnings. On average, the more education you've attained, the higher your le... →
Cities and the returns to education
The more education you have, the bigger the payoff to living in a city A recent Wall Street Journal article painted the nation's rural areas as its new inner cities, with high rates of poverty, limited economic opportun... →
The hidden bias of big data
So-called smart cities have an achilles heel: data is biased by the status quo Streetsblog recently highlighted a new report from Houston's Kinder Institute, evaluating bike and pedestrian road safety based on user-repo... →
Integration and social interaction: Evidence from Intermarriage
Reducing segregation does seem to result in much more social interaction, as intermarriage patterns demonstrate Change doesn't happen fast, but it happens more frequently and more quickly when we have integrated communi... →
Integration and social interaction: Evidence from Intermarriage
Reducing segregation does seem to result in much more social interaction, as intermarriage patterns demonstrate Yesterday, we took a close and critical look at Derek Hyra's claim that mixed-income, mixed-race communitie... →
Socioeconomic mixing is essential to closing the Kumbaya gap
Integrated neighborhoods produce more mixing, but don't automatically generate universal social interaction. What should we make of that? Our recent report, America's Most Diverse, Mixed Income Neighborhoods identifies ... →
Integration and the Kumbaya gap
Gentrifying neighborhoods produce more mixing, but don't automatically generate universal social interaction. What should we make of that? In one idealized view of the world, economically integrated neighborhoods would ... →
Just ahead: Road pricing?
Trump's infrastructure package would let states pursue road pricing A trillion dollars for infrastructure. That's been the headline talking point for months about the Trump Administration's policy agenda, but the detail... →
Back at the ranch
What the ranch house teaches us about house prices and filtering. Back in the heyday of the post-war housing boom, back when the baby boomers were babies, America was building ranch houses–millions of them. In its pri... →
Dirt cheap.
Why we're very skeptical about urban farming. At City Observatory, we don't tend to have a lot of content about agriculture. Farming is not an urban activity. But every so often, we read techno-optimistic stories about ... →
Let’s use a marketing campaign to solve traffic congestion
Here's a thought: Let's fight traffic congestion using the same techniques DOT's use to promote safety. Let's have costumed superheroes weigh in against congestion, and spend billions on safety, instead of the other... →
Hagiometry: Fawning flatterers with an economic model
It's no longer fashionable to get an unrealistically flattering portrait painted, but you can get an economist to do it with numbers. You've no doubt heard the term "hagiography" an unduly flattering biography or other ... →
The 0.1 percent solution: Inclusionary zoning’s fatal scale problem
Inclusionary zoning programs are too small to make a dent in housing affordability Two of the most respected names in housing research are Lance Freeman and Jenny Schuetz. Freeman is professor urban planning at Columb... →
Happy Earth Day, Oregon! Widening Freeways Kills the Planet!
Despite legal pledges to reduce greenhouse gases to address climate change, Portland's transportation greenhouse gas emissions are going up, not down. State, regional and city governments have adopted climate goals t... →
Happy Earth Day, Oregon! Let’s Waste Billions Widening Freeways!
If you're serious about dealing with climate change, the last thing you should do is spend billions widening freeways. The Oregon Department of Transportation is hell-bent on widening freeways and destroying the planet ... →
Happy Earth Day, Oregon! Let’s Widen Some Freeways!
If you're serious about dealing with climate change, the last thing you should do is spend billions widening freeways. April 22 is Earth Day, and to celebrate, Oregon is moving forward with plans to drop more than a bil... →
Happy Earth Day, Oregon! Let’s Widen Some Freeways!
Four decades after the city earned national recognition for tearing out a downtown freeway, it gets ready to build more April 22 is Earth Day, and to celebrate, Oregon's Legislature is on the verge of considering a tran... →
The New Urban Crisis: Cliff Notes version
Your 1,200 word bluffer's guide to Richard Florida's new book Richard Florida’s new book “The New Urban Crisis: How our cities are increasing inequality, deepening segregation, and failing the middle class–and wha... →
Volunteering as a measure of social capital
Volunteering is one of the hallmarks of community; here are the cities with the highest rates of volunteerism The decline of the civic commons, the extent to which American's engage with one another in the public realm,... →
Why America can’t make up its mind about housing
Here are two ideas that, if you’re like most Americans, you probably mostly agree with: Government policy should help keep housing broadly affordable, so as not to price out people of low or moderate incomes from en... →
My illegal neighborhood
Editor’s note: City Observatory is pleased to provide this guest commentary by our friend Robert Liberty a keen observer of and advocate for cities. We first published this post in 2015, but its as timely today as it... →
Key to prosperity: Talent in the “traded sector” of the economy
"Traded sector" businesses that employ well-educated workers mark a prosperous region At City Observatory, we regularly stress the importance of education and skills to regional economic success. Statistically, we can e... →
The pernicious myth of “naturally occurring” affordable housing
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 ... →
The myth of naturally occurring affordable housing
Block that metaphor! There's nothing "natural" about "naturally occurring affordable housing." There's a new term that's gaining currency in some housing policy circles: "naturally occurring affordable housing." It ev... →
Too soon to write off city revival
County data can't tell us much about thriving urban neighborhoods New county-level census population estimates became available last week, and Jed Kolko produced an interesting analysis published by FiveThirtyEight conc... →
More debate on city revival
Is the urban renaissance over? Earlier this week, The New York Times published an op-ed from Jed Kolko–"Seattle Climbs but Austin Sprawls, The Myth of the Return to Cities"–offering up another iteration of his lo... →
Has Portland’s rent fever broken?
More evidence that supply and demand are at work in housing markets In early 2016, Portland experienced some of the highest levels of rent inflation of any market in the US. According to Zillow's rental price estimate... →
Why might Uber & Lyft support road-pricing?
The real disruptive technology for transportation is road-pricing. There's been a surge of interest in road pricing in the past few weeks. In a new study of growing traffic congestion in New York City, Bruce Schaller at... →
New York City isn’t hollowing out; It’s growing
You can't leave out births and deaths when you examine population trends The release of the latest census population estimates has produced a number of quick takes that say that cities are declining. The latest is Derek... →
Migration is making counties more diverse
Migration, especially by young adults, is increasing racial and ethnic diversity in US counties As we related last week, a new report from the Urban Institute quantifies the stark economic costs of racial and income seg... →
A teachable moment: Ben & Jerry’s seminar in transportation economics
They'll be lined up around the block because the price is too low–just like every day on urban roads Your highway department is broke, and thinks it needs much bigger roads because it gives its produce away for free e... →
Time for the annual Ben & Jerry’s seminar in transportation economics
They'll be lined up around the block because the price is too low–just like every day on urban roads You can learn everything you need to know about transportation economics today, just by helping yourself to a free i... →
The Ben & Jerry’s crash course in transportation economics
What one day of free ice cream teaches us about traffic congestion Today's that day, folks. Ben and Jerry are giving away free ice cream to everyone who comes by their stores. Whether you're hankering for Cherry Garcia ... →
The Ben & Jerry’s crash course in transportation economics
They'll be lined up around the block because the price is too low–just like every day on urban roads Today's that day, folks. Ben and Jerry are giving away free ice cream to everyone who comes by their stores. Whether... →
Carmaggedon does a no-show in Portland
Once again, Carmaggedon doesn't materialize; Shutting down half of the I-5 Interstate Bridge over the Columbia River for a week barely caused a ripple in traffic It's a teachable moment if we pay attention: traffic ad... →
Carmaggedon does a no-show in Seattle, again
Once again, Carmaggedon doesn't materialize; this time when Seattle started asking motorists to pay a portion of the cost of their new highway tunnel Initial returns suggest that tolling reduced congestion by reducing t... →
Why Carmaggedon never comes (Seattle edition)
Why predicted gridlock almost never happens and what this teaches us about travel demand Seattle has finally closed its aging Alaskan Way viaduct, a six-lane double-decker freeway that since the 1940s has been a concret... →
Carmaggedon stalks Atlanta
Why predicted gridlock almost never happens and what this teaches us about travel demand It had all the trappings of a great disaster film: A spectacular blaze last week destroyed a several hundred foot-long sectio... →
The High Cost of Segregation
A new report from the Urban Institute shows the stark costs of economic and racial segregation Long-form white paper policy research reports are our stock in trade at City Observatory. We see dozens of them every month,... →
Autonomous vehicles: Peaking, parking, profits & pricing
13 propositions about autonomous vehicles and urban transportation It looks more and more like autonomous vehicles will be a part of our urban transportation future. There's a lot of speculation about whether their effe... →
Breaking Bad: Why breaking up big cities would hurt America
New York Times columnist Russ Douthat got a lot of attention a few days ago for his Johnathan Swiftian column–"Break up the liberal city"–suggesting that we could solve the problems of lagging economic growth in rural ... →
Transit and home values
Homes with better transit access command higher prices, especially in cities with good transit. Our friends at Redfin, the real estate data and analytics company, have an interesting new report exploring the connection ... →
The hamster wheel school of transportation policy
Going faster doesn't mean your city gets anywhere more quickly, and it doesn't make you happier One of the key metrics guiding transportation policy is speed: how quickly can you get from point A to point B. But is go... →
Going faster doesn’t make you happier; you just drive farther
Speed doesn't seem to be at all correlated to how happy we our with our local transportation systems. If there's one big complaint people seem to have about the transportation system its that they can't get from place... →
Going faster doesn’t make you happier; you just drive farther
Speed doesn't seem to be at all correlated to how happy we our with our local transportation systems. Yesterday, we presented some new estimates of the average speed of travel in different metropolitan areas developed... →
Are restaurants dying, and taking city economies with them?
Alan Ehrenhalt is alarmed. In his tony suburb of Clarendon, Virginia, several nice restaurants have closed. It seems like an ominous trend. Writing at Governing, he's warning of "The Limits of Cafe' Urbanism." Cafe Urbanis... →
What Travis Kalanick’s meltdown tells us about Uber
As has been well chronicled in the media, it's been a tough month for Uber. The company's CEO, Travis Kalanick was vilified in the press for the company's tolerance for sexual harassment of its female employees, and deride... →
Twilight of the NIMBYs? LA’s Measure S Fails
La-La Land voters deal a crushing defeat to a "NIMBYism on steroids" The latest returns show Los Angeles' Measure S–the self-styled "Neighborhood Integrity Initiative"–failing by a 31 percent "Yes" to 69 percent ... →
Getting to critical mass in Detroit
Last month, we took exception to critics of Detroit's economic rebound who argued that it was a failure because the job and population growth that the city has enjoyed has only reached a few neighborhoods, chiefly those in... →
The implications of shrinking offices
The amount of office space allotted to each worker is shrinking. What does that mean for cities? Last week a new report from real estate analytics firm REIS caught our eye. Called "The Shrinking Office Footprint" this w... →
What we know about rent control
Today, partly as a public service, we're going to dig into the academic literature on an arcane policy topic: rent control. We also have a parochial interest in the subject: the Oregon Legislature is considering legislatio... →
Houston (Street), we have a problem.
A lesson in the elasticity of demand, prices and urban congestion. It looks like Uber, Lyft and other ride sharing services are swamping the capacity of New York City streets Every day, we're being told, we're on the ve... →
Yet another flawed congestion report from Inrix
Big data provides little insight Cue the telephoto lens compressed photo of freeway traffic; it's time for yet another report painting a picture of the horrors inflicted on modern society by traffic congestion. This lat... →
Cursing the candle
How should we view the early signs of a turnaround in Detroit? Better to light a single candle than simply curse the darkness. The past decades have been full of dark days for Detroit, but there are finally signs of a t... →
The Geography of Independent Bookstores
Which cities have the strongest concentrations of independent bookstores? Last week, we explored what we called the "mystery in the bookstore." There's a kind of good news/bad news set of narratives about bookselling in... →
The Week Observed, April 7, 2017
What City Observatory did this week 1. Carmaggedon stalks Atlanta. Following an arson-caused blaze, a key section on Interstate 85 in Atlanta collapsed, and is likely to be out of service for at least a couple of months. ... →
The Week Observed, April 14, 2017
What City Observatory did this week 1. Too soon to write off city revival? The release of the Census county-level population estimates two weeks ago led to a series of quick-reaction analyses of what the data portend for ... →
The Week Observed, April 21, 2017
What City Observatory did this week 1. How we measure segregation depends on why we care. Daniel Hertz explores the various ways we measure the geographic separation of different racial and ethnic groups. There's a widely... →
What patents tell us about America’s most innovative cities
Patents rates are a useful indicator of innovative activity The US is increasingly becoming a knowledge-based economy, and as a result, the markers of wealth are shifting from the kinds of tangible assets that character... →
The Week Observed, June 9, 2017
What City Observatory did this week 1. How green was my city? The Trump administration's announcement that it would pull the US out of the Paris Climate Accords was greeted with dismay by many environmentalists, but gover... →
The Week Observed, June 23, 2017
What City Observatory did this week 1. Downzoning won't make housing cheaper. Chuck Marohn of StrongTowns notes that land that's zoned for apartments generally commands higher prices than nearby land zoned for single fami... →
The Week Observed, June 30, 2017
What City Observatory did this week 1. Urban Myth Busting: Idling in traffic and carbon pollution. There's a frequently repeated, just-so story about carbon emissions: if we didn't spend so much time stuck in stop-and-go ... →
The Week Observed, August 11, 2017
What City Observatory did this week 1. How luxury housing becomes affordable. It's always been the case that developers build new housing for those at the top end of the market. It's true today, and it was true 50 and 100... →
The Week Observed, July 28, 2017
What City Observatory did this week 1. Housing policy lessons from Vienna, Part II. In the second of his two guest commentaries, Mike Eliason takes a close look at land use laws and development processes in Vienna--a city... →
The Week Observed, October 13, 2017
What City Observatory did this week 1. The constancy of change in neighborhood populations. The canonical story of gentrification focuses on the fact that many of the people living in a neighborhood today are not the same... →
The Week Observed, November 10, 2017
What City Observatory did this week 1. The growing premium for urban living. Three years ago, City Observatory introduced the term "the Dow of cities." In essence, its the observation that the growth in city home prices r... →
The Week Observed, January 26, 2018
What City Observatory did this week 1. Two thing's everyone's missed about Amazon's HQ2. The urbanist Internet has been all abuzz reading the tea leaves from Amazon's decision to winnow the list of contenders fo... →
The Week Observed, February 9, 2018
What City Observatory did this week 1. City Limits: Some qualms about the new localism. The nation is deeply divided along political lines and it's depressingly unlikely that we'll generate national consensus on many issu... →
The Week Observed, February 16, 2018
What City Observatory did this week 1. Cappucino City. Our friend and colleague Alex Baca offers the first of her three-part review of Derek Hyra's book "The Cappucino City." Baca, a former Washington DC journalist take... →
The Week Observed, March 9, 2018
What City Observatory did this week 1. The correlation between bad diets and vote for President. A new research paper has distilled mounds of data on consumer shopping behavior gleaned from supermarket scanners, and combi... →
The Week Observed, April 6, 2018
What City Observatory did this week 1. 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. ... →
The Week Observed, April 13, 2018
What City Observatory did this week 1. The Dow of Cities. The most predictable feature of any media business report is a recitation of the daily movements of major stock indices, like the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The... →
The Week Observed, April 20, 2018
What City Observatory did this week 1. Housing reparations for Northeast Portland. The Oregon Department of Transportation is selling its plan to spend half a billion dollars widening a stretch of freeway in Portland by c... →
The Week Observed, June 15, 2018
What City Observatory did this week 1. Handicapping the city vs. suburb horse race. The latest round of Census population estimates for municipalities has led some observers to claim that city growth has faltered. We take... →
The Week Observed, July 13, 2018
What City Observatory did this week 1. Don't demonize cars, just stop subsidizing them. Is there anything in the urban space that is more inflamed than the passion and rhetoric around cars and driving? Advocates on both s... →
The Week Observed, July 27, 2018
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... →
The Week Observed, September 14, 2018
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... →
The Week Observed, September 21, 2018
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... →
The Week Observed, September 28, 2018
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... →
The Week Observed, December 7, 2018
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... →
The Week Observed, September 6, 2019
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... →
The Week Observed, January 11, 2019
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... →
The Week Observed, January 18, 2019
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... →
The Week Observed, January 25, 2019
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... →
The Week Observed, February 1, 2019
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 ... →
The Week Observed, February 8, 2019
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... →
The Week Observed, May 3, 2019
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... →
The Week Observed, June 14, 2019
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... →
The Week Observed, June 7, 2019
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 ... →
The Week Observed, June 21, 2019
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... →
The Week Observed, June 28, 2019
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 ... →
The Week Observed, July 5, 2019
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... →
The Week Observed, July 12, 2019
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.... →
The Week Observed, July 19, 2019
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... →
The Week Observed, August 23, 2019
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... →
The Week Observed, August 30, 2019
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... →
The Week Observed, August 16, 2019
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... →
The Week Observed, August 9, 2019
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... →
The Week Observed, August 2, 2019
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... →
The Week Observed, July 26, 2019
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... →
The Week Observed, May 24, 2019
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. ... →
The Week Observed, May 31, 2019
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... →
The Week Observed, May 17, 2019
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... →
The Week Observed, May 10, 2019
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... →
The Week Observed, April 26, 2019
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... →
The Week Observed, April 19, 2019
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... →
The Week Observed, April 5, 2019
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 ... →
The Week Observed, April 12, 2019
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 ... →
The Week Observed, February 15, 2019
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... →
The Week Observed, March 29, 2019
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... →
The Week Observed, March 22, 2019
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 ... →
The Week Observed, March 15, 2019
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 ... →
The Week Observed, March 1, 2019
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... →
The Week Observed, March 8, 2019
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 ... →
The Week Observed, February 22, 2019
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... →
The Week Observed, December 14, 2018
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... →
The Week Observed, December 21, 2018
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... →
The Week Observed, November 16, 2018
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.... →
The Week Observed, January 4, 2019
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... →
The Week Observed, November 2, 2018
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... →
The Week Observed, November 9, 2018
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... →
The Week Observed, November 23, 2018
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.... →
The Week Observed, October 12, 2018
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... →
The Week Observed, October 19, 2018
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... →
The Week Observed, October 26, 2018
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... →
The Week Observed, September 7, 2018
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... →
The Week Observed, August 31, 2018
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... →
The Week Observed, August 24, 2018
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... →
The Week Observed, August 17, 2018
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... →
The Week Observed, August 10, 2018
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... →
The Week Observed, July 20, 2018
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... →
The Week Observed, August 3, 2018
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... →
The Week Observed, June 29, 2018
What City Observatory did this week 1. Closing the Kumbaya Gap. As we documented in our recent report, America's Most Diverse, Mixed Income Neighborhoods, a growing number of cities boast neighborhoods with relatively hig... →
The Week Observed, July 6, 2018
What City Observatory did this week 1. Envisioning how we want to live in cities. Much of the discussion of the future of cities seems to revolve around what kind of new technologies we might apply in urban settings. But ... →
The Week Observed, June 22, 2018
What City Observatory did this week 1. City Report: America's Most Diverse, Mixed Income Neighborhoods. Our new City Report digs deep into the patterns of racial/ethnic and income segregation in US metro areas. We've us... →
The Week Observed, June 1, 2018
What City Observatory did this week Caveat Rentor: the problem with flawed rental inflation statistics. We highlight the continuing problem of erratic and unreliable rental price indices. A recent column by a financial jo... →
The Week Observed, June 8, 2018
What City Observatory did this week 1. Growth in the center. A new report from New York City's Office of Planning graphically demonstrates the growing centralization of people and economic activity in the nation's largest... →
The Week Observed, May 18, 2018
What City Observatory did this week California's next step in fighting global warming is building more apartments near transit. California has been a leader in climate change policy, being one of the first states to execu... →
The Week Observed, May 11, 2018
What City Observatory did this week 1. Cities as selection environments. It's an article of faith in the economic development business that cheaper is better, or at least more competitive. The claim is that businesses wil... →
The Week Observed, May 4, 2018
What City Observatory did this week 1. Why don't we have a powerful federal agency who can pre-empt local laws that drive up housing costs? Last week, the Federal Communications Commission took action that invalidated a ... →
The Week Observed, April 27, 2018
What City Observatory did this week 1. Gerontopoly: Is homeownership a sure route to building wealth? It has been in the US, but increasingly, its only working for older generations. Homeowners 55 and older now hold mos... →
The Week Observed, March 30, 2018
What City Observatory did this week 1. Gentrification and integration in DC schools and neighborhoods. A recent study looks at changes in school enrollment in the most gentrified neighborhoods in Washington DC over the pa... →
The Week Observed, March 16, 2018
What City Observatory did this week 1. Portland doesn't really want to make housing affordable. Portland's City Council has officially declared a housing crisis, and has passed strong renter protection measured and an ill... →
The Week Observed, March 23, 2018
What City Observatory did this week 1. Portland's teachable moment: time for a little housing economics 101. There's a big debate going on in Portland right now about whether using discretionary land use approvals to bloc... →
The Week Observed, February 23, 2018
What City Observatory did this week Drinking, Parking, Flying, Peaking, Pricing: The five drivers of ride-hailing demand. The Transportation Research Board has published a dense, 100 page study of ride-hailing demand, d... →
The Week Observed, January 19, 2018
What City Observatory did this week 1. We're losing the battle for Vision Zero. One of the compelling aspects of the Vision Zero road safety campaign is its bold, measurable objective: we want to completely eliminate traf... →
The Week Observed, December 15, 2017
What City Observatory did this week 1. Is inequality over? There was some good news from the labor market this month. According to an analysis by Jed Kolko, low wage workers saw their earnings increase slightly faster tha... →
The Week Observed, December 22, 2017
What City Observatory did this week 1. Should cities be worried about "Peak Millennial?" Time magazine highlighted data from three cities where the count of millennials has declined in the past year, according to the Am... →
The Week Observed, January 12, 2018
What City Observatory did this week 1. How great cities enable you to live longer. We take a close look at some findings from the Equality of Opportunity Project on the connections between community characteristics and ... →
The Week Observed, January 5, 2018
What City Observatory did this week 1. Cities continue to attract the young and restless. We've seen some push-back in the last few months, arguing that city population growth is no longer outpacing suburbs, and that the ... →
The Week Observed, December 8, 2017
What City Observatory did this week 1. The death of Flint Street. In Portland, a $450 million dollar freeway widening project is being sold as a way to "re-connect" a community that was divided by freeway construction hal... →
The Week Observed, December 1, 2017
What City Observatory did this week 1. Uber and Lyft: A dynamic duo(poly)? The continued growth of the ride-hailing industry has been something we've followed closely. New data show that in most major markets across the c... →
The Week Observed, November 3, 2017
What City Observatory did this week 1. Rent control's impact on the San Francisco housing market. A new study from three Stanford economists dissects the impacts of rent control in San Francisco. Using a late-in-the-g... →
The Week Observed, November 17, 2017
What City Observatory did this week 1. Renter's credit scores are rising. What does that mean? New data from RentCafe shows a noticeable increase in the average credit scores of successful applicants for rental housing. I... →
The Week Observed, October 27, 2017
What City Observatory did this week 1. Signs of the times. For most of the past few years, Portland--like other flourishing metro economies--has seen significant increases in apartment rents, as demand for urban living ha... →
The Week Observed, October 6, 2017
What City Observatory did this week 1. Subarus and Suburbans: Flat fee unfairness. Proposals to implement some form of road pricing, which would charge cars based on which roads they use, when, and how far they drive, hav... →
The Week Observed, October 20, 2017
What City Observatory did this week 1. Now we are 3. This week marks City Observatory's third birthday. It's been an exciting time to be engaged with cities. We take a few minutes to review what we've done over the past... →
The Week Observed, September 22, 2017
What City Observatory did this week 1. What price autonomous vehicles? It's easy to obsess about the cool technological details of autonomous vehicles: their sophisticated computers, LIDAR systems, and vehicle-to-vehicl... →
The Week Observed, September 29, 2017
What City Observatory did this week 1.Interim report card on Portland's Inclusionary Zoning Ordinance: An Incomplete. Portland's inclusionary zoning requirements have been in effect for six months. While the ordinance pro... →
The Week Observed, September 15, 2017
What City Observatory did this week 1. Cash prizes for bad corporate citizenship. The urban world is all abuzz, handicapping the city vs. city vs. city race to land Amazon's HQ2, a rich prize of investment and jobs. A... →
The Week Observed, September 1, 2017
What City Observatory did this week 1. Inequality in three charts. New data produced by Thomas Piketty and his colleagues provides a rich, high-definition look at the growth of income inequality in the US. But while the q... →
The Week Observed, September 8, 2017
What City Observatory did this week 1. Is the urban revival over? A provocative (but highly misleading) headline in last week's New York Times sits atop Richard Florida's op-ed about the future of cities. Although Florida... →
The Week Observed, August 25, 2017
What City Observatory did this week 1. Such a deal. Suppose someone offered you this investment deal: You can get $200,000 in preferred stock, that pays a 5% annual dividend tax free, and when it comes time to sell this... →
The Week Observed, July 14, 2017
What City Observatory did this week 1. Climate change: the two-cent solution. The City of Chicago charges its residents a fee of 7 cents for each disposable grocery bag. The fee provides revenue and more importantly, crea... →
The Week Observed, July 21, 2017
What City Observatory did this week 1. How green is my free parking structure? Not very. The National Renewable Energy Lab does cutting edge research on wind, solar and renewable energy. One area where their thinking ... →
The Week Observed, July 7, 2017
What City Observatory did this week 1. Why median rents are an incomplete and often misleading indicator of housing affordability. Our colleague Daniel Hertz shows how the median rent statistics that are often cited to de... →
The Week Observed, August 18, 2017
What City Observatory did this week 1. Hundred dollar bills on the municipal sidewalk? There's a lot of interest in tapping the hidden value of municipal assets to address city financial problems. The typical city owns bi... →
The Week Observed, June 2, 2017
What City Observatory did this week 1. Cities and the returns to education. We know that the nation's best educated people are increasingly concentrated in urban areas. Data compiled by the US Department of Agriculture's ... →
The Week Observed, June 16, 2017
What City Observatory did this week 1. Cultural appropriation: Theft or smorgasbord? A recent Internet furor erupted over a Portland burrito stand that copied its recipe from that of street vendors in Mexico. An essential... →
The Week Observed, May 26, 2017
What City Observatory did this week 1. Dirt Cheap. A number of tech startups are exploring techniques for high density urban farming. In theory, new methods, like vertical farming in plastic tubes, can greatly reduce the ... →
The Week Observed, May 5, 2017
What City Observatory did this week 1. Mystery in the Bookstore. In cities around the country, there's been a noticeable rebound in the local bookstore business. After decades of steady decline, this is a pleasant surpris... →
The Week Observed, March 17, 2017
What City Observatory did this week 1. Are restaurants dying and taking city economies with them? In a column at Governing, Alan Ehrenhalt raises the alarm that a city economic revival predicated on what he calls "cafe ur... →
The Week Observed, March 31, 2017
What City Observatory did this week 1. 13 propositions about autonomous vehicles. Despite occasional setbacks–like last week's crash of an Uber self-driving car in Phoenix–it looks increasingly likely that autonomous ... →
The Week Observed, March 24, 2017
What City Observatory did this week 1. The US retail industry is getting marked down in a big way, with hundreds of stores operated by well-established chains including Macy's, J. C. Penney, and the Gap, as well as others... →
The Week Observed, March 3, 2017
What City Observatory did this week 1. More flawed congestion rankings. Traffic analysis firm Inrix released yet another report purporting to estimate the dollar cost of congestion and ranking the world's cities from mos... →
The Week Observed, March 10, 2017
What City Observatory did this week 1. Shrinking offices: What it means for cities. Its not just you're imagination: offices are becoming less common and smaller, and a variety of space-sharing and space-saving practices ... →
The Week Observed, February 17, 2017
What City Observatory did this week 1. Anti-social capital. You're probably familiar with the term "social capital" which Robert Putnam popularized with his book Bowling Alone. In it Putnam devised a series of indicators ... →
Are young adults moving less?
Conflicting data sources present very different pictures of young adult migration rates The Pew Research Center presented an analysis of census data reporting that today's young adults are less likely to move in a given... →
Visions of the City Part III: You don’t own me
What kind of future do we want to live in? While that question gets asked by planners and futurists in an abstract and technical way, some of the most powerful and interesting conversations about our future aspirations are... →
Envisioning the way we want to live in cities
The biggest challenge for creating great cities is imagination, not technology There's a definite technological determinism to how we approach future cities. Some combination of sensors, 5G Internet, sophisticated compu... →
Visions of a future city, Part I
What stories do we tell ourselves about the kind of world we want to live in? In his recent presidential address to the American Economics Association, Nobel Laureate Robert Shiller talked about "narrative economics." ... →
Visions of the City Part II: A Perfect Day
Yesterday we took a close look at Ford's vision for the future of cities. Our take: Ford's preferred narrative of the places we'll live is all about optimizing city life for vehicles. But is that the narrative that should ... →
The enduring effect of education on regional economies
One of the themes we stress at City Observatory is the large and growing importance of talent (the education and skills of the population) to determining regional and local economic success. As we shift more and more to a ... →
The Week Observed, February 10, 2017
What City Observatory did this week 1. The persistence of talent. City Observatory regularly stresses the strong connection between educational attainment and economic success at the metro level. We step back and look at ... →
The Week Observed, February 3, 2017
What City Observatory did this week 1.What HOT Lanes tell us about the value of travel time. The economic underpinning of claims that traffic congestion costs Americans billions and billions of dollars each year is the as... →
Climate: Our Groundhog Day Doom Loop
Every year, the same story: We profess to care about climate change, but we're driving more and transortation greenhouse gas emissions are rising rapidly. Oregon is stuck in an endless loop of lofty rhetoric, distant ... →
Climate: Our Groundhog Day Doom Loop
Every year, the same story: We profess to care about climate change, but we're driving more and greenhouse gas emissions are rising rapidly. Oregon is stuck in an endless loop of lofty rhetoric, distant goals, and zer... →
Climate: Our Groundhog Day Doom Loop
Every year, the same story: We profess to care about climate change, but we're driving more and greenhouse gas emissions are rising rapidly. Oregon is stuck in an endless loop of lofty rhetoric, distant goals, and zer... →
Again, it’s Groundhog’s Day, again
Every year, the same story: We profess to care about climate change, but we're driving more and greenhouse gas emissions are rising rapidly. Oregon is stuck in an endless loop of lofty rhetoric, distant goals, and zer... →
With climate change, it’s always Groundhog’s Day
Every year, the same story: We profess to care about climate change, but we're driving more and greenhouse gas emissions are rising rapidly. Oregon is stuck in an endless loop of lofty rhetoric, distant goals, and zer... →
It’s Groundhog’s Day yet again, Oregon: How’s your climate change strategy working?
Another year later, and we're still stuck with the same hypocrisy on climate change If it seems like you've read this post before at City Observatory, you're not wrong. For the past couple of years, every Groundhog's Da... →
It’s Groundhog’s Day again, Oregon: How’s your climate change strategy working?
A year later, and we're still stuck with the same hypocrisy on climate change The 1993 movie, Groundhog's day has been a cultural touchstone for the endless do-loop of futility. Bill Murray finds himself waking up every... →
Happy Groundhog’s Day, Oregon
Climate change gets lip service, highways get billions. Like many states and cities, Oregon has been a leader in setting its own local goals for reducing greenhouse gases. In a law adopted in 2007, the state set the goa... →
Happy Birthday America; Thanks Immigrants!
We celebrate the fourth of July by remembering that a nation composed overwhelmingly of immigrants owes them a special debt. [caption id="attachment_4083" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Lighting the way to a stronger ... →
What makes America great, as always: Immigrants
Happy Independence Day, America! All Americans are immigrants (Even the Native American tribes trace their origins to Asians who migrated over the Siberian-Alaskan land bridge during the last ice age). And this nation o... →
Openness to immigration drives economic success
Last Friday, President Trump signed an Executive Order effectively blocking entry to the US for nationals of seven countries—Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen. We'll leave aside the fearful, xenophobic ... →
The constancy of change in neighborhood populations
Neighborhoods are always changing; half of all renters move every two years. There's a subtle perceptual bias that underlies many of the stories about gentrification and neighborhood change. The canonical journalistic a... →
The constancy of change in neighborhood populations
Neighborhoods are always changing; half of all renters move every two years. There's a subtle perceptual bias that underlies many of the stories about gentrification and neighborhood change. The canonical journalistic a... →
Constant change and gentrification
A new study of gentrification sheds light on how neighborhoods change. Here are the takeaways: The population of urban neighborhoods is always changing because moving is so common, especially for renters. There's... →
How urban geometry creates neighborhood identity
Does geometry bias our view of how neighborhoods work? Imagine a neighborhood that looks like this: On any given block, there might be a handful of small apartment buildings—three-flats—which are usually clus... →
The Week Observed, February 24, 2017
What City Observatory did this week 1.Busting the urban myth about high income housing and affordability. One of the most widespread beliefs about housing is that the construction of new high income housing somehow makes ... →
What HOT lanes reveal about the value of travel time
Every year, the Texas Transportation Institute, and traffic monitoring firms like Inrix and Tom-Tom trot out scary sounding reports that claim that Americans lose billions or tens of billions of dollars worth of time sitti... →
The immaculate conception of your neighborhood
It's naive to assume that existing housing stock sprang to life magically (We're pleased to reprise this classic essay from Daniel Kay Hertz, long-time contributor to City Observatory, and now author of the newly releas... →
Speed: Fast cities
Which cities move the fastest? Does it matter? The raison d'etre of the highway engineer is making cars go faster. That's reflected in chronic complaints about traffic congestion, and codified in often misleading studie... →
The immaculate conception theory of your neighborhood’s origins
A while back, a columnist in Seattle Magazine, Knute Berger, expressed his discontent with modern housing development. As Berger sees it, today’s homebuilding pales in comparison to the virtues of early 20th century bung... →
In a New York minute
Why are travel speeds in Manhattan dropping? There's a kind of ominous tidbit in New York City's most recent mobility report. Travel on streets in Manhattan is getting slower. Here's the data, computed from the... →
The Week Observed, May 19, 2017
What City Observatory did this week 1. Volunteering as a measure of social capital. Thanks to the work of Robert Putnam, author of Bowling Alone and more recently, Our Kids, there's a growing understanding of the importan... →
The Week Observed, January 20, 2017
What City Observatory did this week 1. The long journey toward greater equity in transportation. The observance of Dr. Martin Luther King's birthday got us thinking about how far we've come–and how far we have yet to g... →
The Week Observed, January 27, 2017
What City Observatory did this week 1.How urban geometry creates neighborhood identity. Our colleague Daniel Hertz is back this week with an examination of the way we look at and think about neighborhood identities. He po... →
Louisville’s experiment in transportation economics
As we pointed out yesterday, there's some initial visual evidence–from peak hour traffic cameras–suggesting that Louisville's decision to toll its downtown freeway bridges but leave a parallel four-lane bridge un-toll... →
Postcard from Louisville: Tolls Trump Traffic
Tolls cut traffic levels on I-65 in half; So did we really need 6 more lanes? Last month, we wrote about Louisville's newly opened toll bridges across the Ohio River. As you may recall, Ohio and Indiana completed a ma... →
The latest from the Louisville traffic experiment
Even with the free alternative closed, traffic is very light on the new I-65 bridges Time for one of our periodic check-ins on our real world transportation pricing experiment in Louisville, Kentucky. As you recall, w... →
Who pays the price of inclusionary zoning?
Requiring inclusionary housing seems free, but could mean less money for schools and local services Last month, the Portland City Council voted 5-0 to adopt a sweeping new inclusionary housing requirement for new apartm... →
Has Louisville figured out how to eliminate traffic congestion?
Louisville is in the transportation world spotlight just now. It has formally opened two big new freeway bridges across the Ohio River, and also rebuilt its famous (or infamous) "spaghetti junction" interchange in downto... →
Race & transportation: Still a long way to go
January 17 is the day we celebrate the life and dream of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. This year is also the first year that we're observing a national day of racial healing. We thought we'd take a minute to reflect on tw... →
Housing supply is catching up to demand
As Noah Smith observed, economists invariably encounter monumental resistance to the proposition that increasing housing supply will do anything meaningful to address the problem of rising rents–especially because new un... →
Nothing’s worse than funky beer, except funky beer data
You know the feeling: you're thirsty, you're primed for a cool, refreshing beverage, and the anticipation has your taste buds tingling. But you pop the cap on the bottle only to find that the beer has turned skunky. It's... →
Pollyanna’s ride-sharing breakthrough
A new study says ride-sharing apps cut cut traffic 85 percent. We're skeptical We've developed a calloused disregard for the uncritical techno-optimism that surrounds most media stories about self-driving cars and how f... →
Brownstone Brooklyn and the challenges of urban change
In the middle of The Invention of Brownstone Brooklyn—a book published in 2011, but no less relevant today—Suleiman Osman turns the tables on the people who have long been the heroes of urbanist lore. Speaking of th... →
The Week Observed, January 6, 2017
What City Observatory did this week 1. A Toast to 2017: Beer and Cities. Its traditional to begin the New Year with a delicious beverage, and more and more Americans are choosing to celebrate with a locally brewed ale. ... →
The Week Observed, January 13, 2017
What City Observatory did this week 1. How diverse are the neighborhoods white people live in? Data from the newly released 5-year American Community Survey tabulations give us an updated picture of the demographics of ur... →
How not to fix housing affordability
Plans to subsidize renters and homebuyers will likely just fuel housing cost inflation Rising rents and home prices are becoming unbearable–or at least politically unpalatable–in cities around North America. Over ... →
Beer and cities: A toast to 2017
Celebrating the new year, city-style, with a local brew Champagne may be the traditional beverage for ringing in the new year, but we suspect that a locally brewed ale may be the drink of choice for many urbanists today... →
For whom the bridge tolls
A crazy toll structure that encourages more driving. Kentucky and Indiana have just put the finishing touches on two new bridges crossing the Ohio River. Built at a cost of about $2.6 billion, the bridge project also ... →
Our ten most popular posts of 2016
As 2016 draws to a close, we look back at our most popular commentaries of the year. Hear they are, in reverse order: #10. Introducing the sprawl tax #9. Urban myth busting: New rental housing and median income hou... →