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Pok Pok Parking & Yogi Berra’s Lament
Andy Ricker, the mastermind behind some of the best chicken wings you’ll ever taste, caused quite a stir this week when he opined that allowing development along SE Division Street without accordingly requiring creation of new parking was, “a really stupid idea.” This is not an uncommon sentiment among people who own retail-based businesses in the…
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Don’t Call It an Accident
Even as desensitized as our culture has become to vehicular violence, the tragedy of February 22nd, 2015 is a tough one to stomach. That day, three children—ages 4,5, and 8—were run down while crossing a street in Springfield. They were crossing legally, in a crosswalk, with the signal. The driver of the car that killed…
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The Rise and Fall of the Suburbs
I’m in the middle of reading Benjamin Ross’, “Dead End: Suburban Sprawl and the Rebirth of American Urbanism” Did you know that the evolutionary path of suburbs went from the Streetcar suburb (which became inner-ring neighborhoods in many cities, including Portland) to the Railroad suburb, very separate from its city, which in turn became the template…
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Oregonian still tone-deaf on Port of Portland
The Oregonian continues to demonstrate its tone-deafness regarding the Port of Portland. Last week, the newspaper revealed its “editorial agenda” for 2014, one plank of which is titled “Portland’s industrial lands scavenger hunt.” The title is misleading. The editorial’s real thrust is to complain bitterly about the city’s policy towards economic development, relying on the…
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Report: Portland City Council to vote on parking minimums
According to Elliot Njus of The Oregonian, the Portland City Council is expected to vote next week to impose minimum parking requirements on new apartment construction, but will not move to block a controversial 80-unit project already under construction at SE 37th and Division. According to the report, the following minimums will be voted on:…