Portland Ideas??

Pioneer Courthouse square has been a really successful public “living room” (an underused parking lot turned into a lively area).

The Pearl district is a well-known urban neighborhood, gentrified within the last couple decades.

Last year, I made a quick visit out to a New Urbanist development in the Western suburbs that was supposed to be transit-oriented, Orenco Station. I was impressed by some of the design, but it didn’t end up having great access to transit, not by Portland standards anyway.

Pioneer Courthouse square has been a really successful public “living room” (an underused parking lot turned into a lively area).

The Pearl district is a well-known urban neighborhood, gentrified within the last couple decades.

Last year, I made a quick visit out to a New Urbanist development in the Western suburbs that was supposed to be transit-oriented, Orenco Station. I was impressed by some of the design, but it didn’t end up having great access to transit, not by Portland standards anyway.

Check out the elementary school converted into a “pub resort” by McMenamins: http://www.kennedyschool.com/index.php

Portland is discussed in the book “Sprawl” —

Funny you should mention Portland. I’ve never been there, but yesterday evening I was reading (skimming, really) Robert Bruegmann’s book, “Sprawl: A compact history,” and he discusses Portland quite a bit in Chapter 13: “Anti-Sprawl Remedies Since the 1970s” (hardcover, pp. 202-218).

Generally speaking, while the book is well researched, it is also intellectually sloppy and / or confused in my opinion. With regard to Portland, topics discussed are the history of growth management in the area, an evaluation of the result of growth management on prices, an evaluation of its effect on transportation, an evaluation of its effect on agriculture, a general discussion of winners and losers.

Thanks Dan. Should I plan to rent a car to be able to get around well?

Thanks Dan. Should I plan to rent a car to be able to get around well?

I should see if I can pick up a copy at my local B&N; for reading on the plane.

That looks interesting. Do you think thats a good place for dinner and a few beers after golf?

That looks interesting. Do you think thats a good place for dinner and a few beers after golf?

If you buy the book (which, given all the good research contained in the book, isn’t a bad idea) be prepared however to be extremely annoyed and frustrated at all the bad logic and analysis (especially from the perspective of market urbanism)!!

By the way, I looked up Bruegmann using the search box on the Market Urbanism website (set for “search this site,” or something like that) and apparently Bruegmann has been “mentioned” on your blog before — but when I click on the link that is showcased, the sentence referenced in the showcased listing doesn’t seem to be located on that page.

Another by the way: I notice each comment appearing on the blog has a icon of some sort attached to it. (Your posts seem to be accompanied by a Mies van der Rohe type building; some are angry smiley faces; some are surprised smiley faces; etc.) My comments seem to be posted with a smiley face who is licking his upper lip. I don’t necessarily object — but I do hope that people realize that I haven’t been choosing this “perplexed” (?) icon.

I did the search you mentioned and google linked me to Rent Control part 2, but there was no such wording. I don’t know why.

The avatar icons you see are computer generated “Wavatars”. It selects unique characters based on your email address. I guess the wavatars are a little juvenile, but the other option is monsters or boring shapes. If people don’t like them, let me know, I can just get rid of them or switch to the more modest identicons.

I use a custom Gravatar. You can create one at http://en.gravatar.com/ . Any site that has gravatars enabled will use that gravatar based upon your email address.

If you are looking for a nice, small, urban mixed-use infill project, check out the Belmont Dairy.

http://www.smartgrowth.org/pdf/cs_002_BelmontDairy.pdf

It is a handsome regeneration of an old dairy that began construction when I lived there in the mid 90s. I left Portland before construction began on the new buildings, which look to be urbanistically successful, if architecturally mediocre.

If you rent a car, I’d also recommend taking a drive out to the edge of Urban Growth Boundary (UGB). It might not be something you’d support, but it really is pretty incredible. You drive out through low-to-medium density neighborhoods, and then you cross a line and _bam_ – you are in the middle of pastoral farms and orchards. It’s like having a cool lake breeze hit you on a hot and muggy midwestern day. It is enough to make almost anyone support something like it.

Enjoy, and let us know your thoughts!

If you are looking for a nice, small, urban mixed-use infill project, check out the Belmont Dairy.

http://www.smartgrowth.org/pdf/cs_002_BelmontDairy.pdf

It is a handsome regeneration of an old dairy that began construction when I lived there in the mid 90s. I left Portland before construction began on the new buildings, which look to be urbanistically successful, if architecturally mediocre.

If you rent a car, I’d also recommend taking a drive out to the edge of Urban Growth Boundary (UGB). It might not be something you’d support, but it really is pretty incredible. You drive out through low-to-medium density neighborhoods, and then you cross a line and _bam_ – you are in the middle of pastoral farms and orchards. It’s like having a cool lake breeze hit you on a hot and muggy midwestern day. It is enough to make almost anyone support something like it.

Enjoy, and let us know your thoughts!

Really? I didn’t think I would be able to notice a contrast at the growth boundary.

Do you have or does anyone have suggestions of where I should go to see the most striking contrast at the UGB?

Maybe it was the eyes of my younger, more idealistic self, but I definitely noticed it. I think it was accentuated by the fact that the edge development was more dense than you typically find on the edge of metropolitan areas. So you go from something more dense to next to nothing fairly quickly, whereas in most places edge development is more like a schmear that goes from thick to thin.

I could have been wrong, or things could have changed (I seem to remember it being repealed for a while a few years back), so you may need to hear from a Portlander. And you definitely will for a more specific location to see it. You could contact an old professor of mine at Portland State, Ethan Seltzer. He won’t know me, I was only there for a short time, having transferred to study architecture as well as planning. But he’s a really nice guy, I’m sure he’d be happy to help.

http://www.pdx.edu/usp/profiles/3015/

If you go, take images and let us know your thoughts. I’d love an update.

Thanks Raymond!!

Thanks Raymond!!

Dan,
We didn’t need to rent a car, but I made it to the Pearl District and Courthouse Square. I enjoyed both places. The square was very active everytime we were there during the day – not so much at night. It was strange seeing so many young people living on the streets. I’d like to understand the reason for that phenomenon…
Thanks again,
Adam

Benjamin,
I should have picked up Sprawl at Powell’s bookstore, but didn’t find time to make it to the store, so I definitely wouldn’t have had time to read much.

But that place is huge. It’s a whole city block and several stories in some parts. Who needs public libraries, especially when the ones here in Brooklyn barely keep reasonable hours…
Adam

Raymond,
I borrowed a car for a day to visit Mt. Hood and Multnomah Falls, but didn’t notice the UGB when driving. However, on the flight in I could clearly see where the boundary was. It must be good for property values along the boundary on the inside, but horrible for the other side…
Adam