November 5, 2007 6:23 AM

Sure, it may LOOK like Paradise....

Now that I’ve been back in Portland for a month, I find myself trying to take stock of all the changes that have taken place here over the past ten years. In a lot of ways, I barely recognize the place, which I think is a good thing. That tells me the Portland, and the metropolitan area surrounding it, have worked hard to grow and change. It’s exciting to drive through and around Portland and see the new constrcution, the OHSU tram, the new restaurants, and all of the other myriad changes that have taken place over the past decade.

I will say, though, that all is not well in Paradise. Sure, there may be 230 (and counting) Starbucks locations throughout the Portland metropolitan area (no joke), but all is not wine and roses here in the Rose City. Traffic here is MUCH worse than I remember, and I fear that the Portland area is falling behind the curve when it comes to dealing with this reality. Having lived for the past 10 years in a metropolitan area famous for ridiculous traffic, Portland is nowhere near that bad. What I do see, though, is a disturbing trend- a willingness to turn a blind eye to a problem that cannot and will not be solved by ignorance and neglect.

Portland has always eschewed the idea of building more traffic lanes for more environmentally-friendly and creative solutions. Building more and higher density housing and improving public transit options have always been top priorities here, but I fear that as time goes by and the area grows- as it inevitably will- that gridlock will become an issue impossible to ignore but difficult to fix after decades of benign neglect.

Given Portland’s topography, building more traffic lanes is not a one-size-fits-all answer, but all one has to do is to try to move up I-5 from Wilsonville on a weekday morning (and not just during rush hour) to understand that there’s a very real problem here. My job requires a lot of driving during the course of my workday, so I spend a fair amount of time in traffic. In Houston, traffic tie-ups are generally confined to rush hours. Outside of those time frames, traffic generally moves fairly smoothly. Here in Portland, that’s no guarantee, especially if you’re on one of the major arteries (US 26, OR Hwy 217, I-5, or I-84).

I’m not an advocate of duplicating the monstrosity that Houston’s Katy Freeway is turning into, but at some point planners need to recognize the reality. People like their cars, and while they might be less tied to them here than in Houston, public transportation can only go so far. From what I’ve seen so far, Portland has succeeded over the past 10 years by tinkering around the margins- expanding light rail and building more high-density housing. The problem, though, is that even with high-density housing, people bring their cars with them. A good example of this is the Alphabet District, Portland’s trendy Northwest. Crammed with upscale shops, bistros, and uber-hip restaurants, Northwest Portland is the perfect example of 12 pounds stuffed into a five-pound sack. I used to live near NW 21st and Marshall, just down the street from St. Vincent’s Hospital. It’s always been a popular and very busy area, but now it’s an area that truly only tries my patience. Parking is all on-street and at times virtually impossible to find, and traffic is…well, maddening would be the only charitable way I could describe it.

All of Northwest Portland’s streets are narrow, two lane streets with parking spots accessible only by parallel parking. Between people looking for parking spots, people trying (clumsily) to parallel park, people jaywalking, and a lack of effective means for ensuring anything resembling traffic flow, driving to, in, or through Nortwest Portland is an exercise in frustrations even during the best of times. This was true when I lived there 10 years ago, but it’s even more true now.

I fear that the ignorance of a growing reality and declining tax dollars focused on the problem of gridlock will mean that the problem will become much worse before any sort of effective action is taken. How far does our legendary quality of life need to be degraded before planners recognize that there’s trouble in River City?

No, we’re not where Houston, San Francisco, or New York are in terms of traffic congestion, but an honest assessment just might reveal that we’re not far away from that scenario. The problem is that it takes money, planning, and will to find the light at the end of the tunnel. Right now, I fear that none of those things are in place, and I fear for the future of a city and a region that has always been renowned for it’s quality of life.

Quality of life doesn’t count for much when you’re sitting at a dead stop in traffic on northbound I-5 in Tigard.

blog comments powered by Disqus

Technorati

Technorati search

» Blogs that link here

About this Entry

This page contains a single entry by Jack Cluth published on November 5, 2007 6:23 AM.

Silliness by any other name is still silliness was the previous entry in this blog.

"Gross Old Perverts"...and principled "family values": not a contradiction if you're a Republican is the next entry in this blog.

Find recent content on the main index or look in the archives to find all content.

Contact Me

Powered by Movable Type 5.12