Paul J. Berg
2007-07-16 17:51:00 UTC
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Portland long touted as the paradigm of modern urban planning, is awash
in corruption, government waste and public discontent.
In "Debunking Portland: The City That Doesn't Work," Randal O'Toole
catalogues Portland's failures in city planning and offers suggestions
to other cities on how not to repeat its mistakes.
O'Toole uncovers the vested interests responsible for Portland's bloated
and unused transportation infrastructure. The "light-rail mafia," as
O'Toole calls it, centered upon former Portland mayor Neil Goldschmidt
and a network of cronies who profited from favorable zoning regulations
and subsidies. This political machine has held influence and power in
Portland for over thirty years. Among the planning racket's
beneficiaries is Bechtel Corporation, which received a no-bid contract
to build a light-rail line.
Planning has resulted in skyrocketing housing costs and traffic
congestion -- the outcomes it was supposed to alleviate. "Planners made
housing unaffordable to force more people to live in multifamily housing
or in homes on tiny lots ... and allowed congestion to increase to
near-gridlock levels to force more people to ride the region's expensive
transit lines," writes O'Toole. In fact, the high cost of living has
forced families to move out of Portland proper, resulting in longer
commutes and higher taxes from those who remained in the city to
maintain the costly public transit infrastructure.
The costs of public investments in mass transit greatly outweigh the
benefits. O'Toole shows that despite spending billions of dollars on
light- rail and other transit systems in Portland since 1980, the
percentage of commuters who ride transit has actually declined. Even
Portland's planners acknowledged that congestion would increase despite
all the region's land-use and transit plans, but rather than increase
roadway capacity, they have actively reduced it.
Even ostensible successes in moving families into dense housing units
are questionable. While "high-density, mixed-use developments are
supposed to herald a new lifestyle that uses less land and resources ...
these developments are heavily subsidized, frequently vacant and have
not shown any affect on people's travel habits." Subsidies to
transportation development projects have led to budget cuts in
education, public health, police and other essential services..
O'Toole concludes: "People who want to see their cities remain
affordable, uncongested, and livable should look at Portland only as an
example of how not to plan."
~
Portland long touted as the paradigm of modern urban planning, is awash
in corruption, government waste and public discontent.
In "Debunking Portland: The City That Doesn't Work," Randal O'Toole
catalogues Portland's failures in city planning and offers suggestions
to other cities on how not to repeat its mistakes.
O'Toole uncovers the vested interests responsible for Portland's bloated
and unused transportation infrastructure. The "light-rail mafia," as
O'Toole calls it, centered upon former Portland mayor Neil Goldschmidt
and a network of cronies who profited from favorable zoning regulations
and subsidies. This political machine has held influence and power in
Portland for over thirty years. Among the planning racket's
beneficiaries is Bechtel Corporation, which received a no-bid contract
to build a light-rail line.
Planning has resulted in skyrocketing housing costs and traffic
congestion -- the outcomes it was supposed to alleviate. "Planners made
housing unaffordable to force more people to live in multifamily housing
or in homes on tiny lots ... and allowed congestion to increase to
near-gridlock levels to force more people to ride the region's expensive
transit lines," writes O'Toole. In fact, the high cost of living has
forced families to move out of Portland proper, resulting in longer
commutes and higher taxes from those who remained in the city to
maintain the costly public transit infrastructure.
The costs of public investments in mass transit greatly outweigh the
benefits. O'Toole shows that despite spending billions of dollars on
light- rail and other transit systems in Portland since 1980, the
percentage of commuters who ride transit has actually declined. Even
Portland's planners acknowledged that congestion would increase despite
all the region's land-use and transit plans, but rather than increase
roadway capacity, they have actively reduced it.
Even ostensible successes in moving families into dense housing units
are questionable. While "high-density, mixed-use developments are
supposed to herald a new lifestyle that uses less land and resources ...
these developments are heavily subsidized, frequently vacant and have
not shown any affect on people's travel habits." Subsidies to
transportation development projects have led to budget cuts in
education, public health, police and other essential services..
O'Toole concludes: "People who want to see their cities remain
affordable, uncongested, and livable should look at Portland only as an
example of how not to plan."
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