Portland is a PR machine for light rail & streetcar

Here are Some Facts About Portland Oregon          

“It must always be remembered how cost-effectiveness works in the public sector: the cost IS the benefit.” - author unknown

Updated January 2, 2025

Planners Results

Nobel Economist: Planning Caused Housing Bubble  Charts
Nobel Economist, More

Portland’s planning has doubled the cost of housing

The Price of URBAN RENEWAL

“Smart Growth” Causes Crime.

“Creating Defensible Space” by Oscar Newmann  (Local)

TODs fail to reduce congestion or driving

High Density REDUCES socail interactions

sprawl is associated with shorter distance commutes on average.

Facts About Sprawl  (Critiquing Sprawl’s Critics) (lcl)

Vera's Portland The City That Shrinks

A Vibrant Downtown

Why Many Portlanders Can't afford a house

Cost of Housing Comparisons    

Why California is more unaffordable than Oregon (pdf)

Cost of High Density Construction

Affordable Living for the Middle-Income (Glaeser)

More on cost of housing

Zoning Increases Housing Cost

public policy have not made land scarce enough

Common Deceptions About Growth Boundaries

Regional Planning Doesn't Work

Why Metropolitan Planning Doesn't Work

10 Failed Attempts To Create Utopian Cities

Planning Harms Us

Letter from a Semiconductor Company Leaving town

Urban Villages Don’t Work;  Sprawl is Good

Misc

Are Compact Cities a Desirable Planning Goal?  (lcl)

Do TODS need transit?  (local)

The Genius of 50 Year plans

High Density Requires Subsidies.

Do People Like What Portland's Planners Do

Portland Votes Against Density Increase

(Portland Gives Millions in Development Subsidies)

List of Developer Subsidies

Growth Pays For Itself

Growth Pays for Itself 2  

Metro's scheme

How Bad Is Houston?

Should we Copy Europe?

Driving, regional & Per Person

Population is NOT Careening out of control

Condos by the Train Tracks

Must New Urbanism  BE Tied To Rail?

Imagining a world without chain stores

Big box stores pay more than mom-pop shops

Portland Area Driving Increases, Vancouver drives Less

Portland Drives out a business, replaces it with $300-$600 per sq foot condos, outraging neighborhood

Population NOT Out of Control

US Census Population Projections

UN's Population Division

UN's projection to 2300

Comprehensice Plan examples

Clark County Washington     (Local copy)

Critique of Clark County Plan

Portland Oregon   (Local Copy)

Plan Bay Area (California)  (Local copy)    

Salem Oregon   

Vancouver Washington    (Local copy)

Suggestion: Search for “Comprehensive Plan”

About Planners

Planners are wrong about most things

Planners False Beliefs

Former Metro Planning Director: Planners are Fascists

How the CRC manipulateed public input

Louvre Café Syndrome

Why Portland Loves Light Rail

Portland builds projects with secret backroom deals

How Planners Trick You

Some Observations on Transportation Policy (common planning errors)

Portland Bureau of Planning and Sustainability removed critical remarks from their testimony before reprinting it in a roundup of public comments.   

Road Design

In 1922, planners cared about safety & reducing congestion (pdf with text)   Original Source

Traffic Calming Kills People

Portland’ Metro

Portland’s Metro Wants to Replicate L.A.

Metro’s Vision for Portland:

• Future Vision Report
• Carrying Capacity and Its Application to the Portland Metropolitan  Area
•  Settlement_Patterns_in_the_Portland_Region
• Educational_Visioning_Statement

Failed Portland Area Plans

Grand Projects

The Round

Cascade Station

The Pearl

South Waterfront

Portland area No. 6 in U.S. for bankruptcies  (lcl)

Minor Projects

“North Main Village,” city of Milwaukie

McLoughlin Plan

Solving Sprawl

What is sprawl?

What does sprawl look like?

ALTERNATIVES TO SMART GROWTH

Do People Like Density?

Planning