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Height Limits: Another Zoning Decision that Causes Sprawl
In Friday’s Oregonian is a story of another suburban city whose residents are fighting code changes to allow higher buildings in its downtown. Troutdale, like Lake Oswego, Wilsonville and other suburbs, have very low height limits for buildings even in their “downtowns.” Height limits are intended to maintain a “village” feel, even if these “villages”…
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There Oughta be a Law
The Oregon Legislature will convene in a short ten months. Now is the time to start developing ideas for legislation, finding sponsors and allies, and trying out your arguments. What changes would you like to see in the laws, what programs you think we should create and fund (and which ones should be killed) and…
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Setting Course for the 22nd Century
Metro is just beginning an update of the Regional Transportation Plan (RTP). Every four years, Metro is required to update our transportation plan to comply with state and federal planning requirements. I’m excited to announce that this update will be done in a different way than past updates, and, hopefully, give us some direction out…
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Congestion = Prosperity?
Rex passes along the following link from yesterday’s NY Times Magazine: The Way We Live Now: Speed Bump While talking about tolling as the increasing preferred approach to deal with congestion, it suggests this newly emerging perspective: The overarching new credo is that gridlock shouldn’t be conceived of as a problem or a mark of…
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Walking in Seattle
Rex passes on this pointer to a discussion from our neighbors to the north on sidewalks and pedestrian issues…