On break between sessions, I have time for a brief update. The most interesting mid-day activities revolved around two issues, first the idea of transportation reform at the Federal level, and second in regards to the history of the misplaced priorities that got us to where we are as a nation today.
Discussing the reform of [...]

According to the CNU Transportation Summit, networks — like Portland’s downtown street grid — may be a better solution to the transportation needs of the 21st Century than capacity improvements to arterials and other hub-and-spoke systems. Image: 1950 Downtown Portland map, collection of Jason McHuff.
After scaring attendees with the eccentricities of Voodoo Doughnuts, day two [...]

A Voodoo Donuts sticker on a commuter bike at OHSU — you can’t get much more stereotypically urbanist Portland than this.
Day one of the Congress for New Urbanism’s Transportation Summit 2009 is now over. I have a small pile of notes and I’m simply not going to get to them all tonight, especially since I [...]

This week, the Congress for New Urbanism will be in Portland for its Transportation Summit 2009. The purpose of this gathering will be to discuss potential reforms to transportation policy, and I will be in attendance. Given the sorry state of my iBook, I suspect I won’t be doing any live blogging, but I will [...]

The redevelopment of the old Macadam industrial area into the South Waterfront district with its Vancouverist condominium towers has long been a controversial subject in the public realm. Critics of modern Portland regional planning goals have cited it as an example of everything that is wrong with the region, even noting (with barely repressed glee) [...]

Industrial parks have always held a fascination for me. I’ve previously written about the role of industrial parks as a prototype for form-based-code principles. I think the notion deserves more examination, especially as it relates to how industrial parks and their child, the business park, have become economic engines, and at the same time examples [...]

This morning, a fighter, a citizen activist, a pillar of local politics, and a vast influence on my life passed away. Her name was Martha Bishop, and she was 87 years old.
I first met Martha when, at the age of 17, I walked into a City of Tigard committee meeting and got “hooked.” To me, [...]

Certainly, downtown Portland has always been a center of metropolitan political and economic power, but policy makers and political movers-and-shakers must not forget that the true center of politics in Portland does not lie in glass office buildings. Instead, it lies in the inner neighborhoods that developed in the early 20th century along the streetcar [...]

Anyone who is a transportation and transit geek has likely heard arguments about the superiority of buses over rail. Usually the argument is based on a notion known as “bus flexibility,” the idea being that buses can reroute to meet changing market demands.
At least in the case of Portland, however, this idea may need revising. [...]

Prior to the recession, much of the buzz in the Portland food scene revolved around the latest and greatest in haute cuisine. Newsmakers were places like Higgins, Blue Hour, ClarkLewis, the ill-fated Lucier, or the all-too-LA-for-Portland Departure at The Nines Hotel (what the rest of us will always call Meier & Frank). Named star chefs [...]