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 Summer Solstice in the shadow of this mountain, chances are you have never tasted a Hood strawberry. The Hood is […]
Strawberries and economic prosperity Read More »
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 massive cost overruns. They’re using this fiction to argue that the state is somehow obligated to pay for expensive freeway expansions and can’t first fix
The Week Observed, June 21, 2024 Read More »
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 project was a “commitment” of the 2017 Legislature The original HB 2017 only directed ODOT to produce a “cost to
Inventing a “commitment” to freeway cost overruns Read More »
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 records obtained by City Observatory show ODOT and WSDOT have long known that traffic modeling needed to be fixed, and put
An 18 month delay for the IBR due to flawed traffic projections Read More »
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 modeling that overestimates future traffic use. City Observatory and others have long pointed up flaws in IBR’s traffic modeling, arguing it overestimates traffic growth and
The Week Observed, June 14, 2024 Read More »
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 scorecard has some serious limitations.This scorecard emphasizes policies and process over measurable progress—only 6 of a possible 250 points are tied directly
The Week Observed, June 7, 2024 Read More »
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 over measurable progress—only 6 of a possible 250 points are tied directly to lowering greenhouse gas emissions Scores and rankings can help motivate action,
Grading the City Clean Energy Scorecard Read More »
The number of security guards is a good measure of a city’s level of “anti-social” capital We thought we’d take an updated look at one of our favorite indicators of “social-capital”–the number of private security guards as a share of the local workforce. Having lots of security guards is likely an indicator of distrust and
How “anti-social” capital varies by city Read More »
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 outdated economic thinking. Portland was never more than a very minor player in containerized shipping, handling less than
The Week Observed, May 24, 2024 Read More »
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-20th century. The cults were inspired by the arrival of European colonizers and the material goods they brought. The islanders observed the seemingly magical ability of outsiders
Cargo Cult Comeback: Cost–$30 million a year Read More »
