Commentary

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 vehicle miles traveled–but the region’s transportation plan illegally prioritizes spending for freeway expansions. Metro’s adopted Regional Transportation Plan devotes most of its resources to providing additional

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 10-lane mile and a half expansion that has quadrupled in cost to $1.9 billion.  Local advocates, led by No More Freeways, have

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 amount of time cars spend indling in traffic.  If we widening the highway so that cars could just go

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 Legislature adjourns In January, 2024, IBR official publicly acknowledged that their 13 month-old cost

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 official publicly acknowledged that their 13 month-old cost estimate of up to $7.5 billion

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 per dwelling costs of providing physical infrastructure.  This study looked at the cost of providing roads, water lines and sewers to

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 the development of affordable, sustainable multi-family housing in the US is thwarted by two arcane regulatory

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 case of Hood strawberries in Oregon’s Willamette Valley, we explore how scarcity and locality can enhance economic and cultural value