Shared Air

We mentioned Portland’s $150 million transportation stimulus bonanza here last week. Well, here’s PBS’ documentary explaining what the Oregon city of similar size and geography to Richmond has been doing to earn it, and how they’ve had to tackle the transport, land use and energy economics and mindsets that worked in 1957 but no longer do. Can you spare an hour Mayor Jones, Councilpersons, GRTC, County Supervisors, Chamber and RRDPC members? Maybe we should email our municipal executives and tell them to find the time. There will be a quiz.

OregonOnline: A national PBS documentary will point to Portland as one of three cities that exemplify how the nation can use transportation infrastructure to fight sprawl, preserve the environment and promote mass transit.

“Blueprint America: Road to the Future” airs Wednesday at 8 p.m. on public broadcasting stations nationwide and on Oregon Public Broadcasting in the Portland area.

Yes, it’s on WCVE/Channel 23/Ideastations tonite @8. Watch it and we’ll try and synopsize it here and see what discussion develops. And email your friends, and elected poohbahs,  to tell them.The Oregon online piece above (read it, there agood details) also goes on to mention a May 10th showing of another Portland-focused documentary that sadly wasn’t broadcast in VA. Gonna see about tracking down something more than a trailer:

Making Sense of Place – Portland: Quest for the Livable City

A documentary film and educational outreach project produced as a collaboration of the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy and Northern Light Productions.

For decades, the city of Portland, Oregon prohibited sprawl in farmland at the periphery, with density and transit within an urban growth boundary – and then confronted a backlash that challenged the system to its core.

After the passage of Oregon’s landmark land use planning system in 1973, Portland embarked on a grand experiment in city planning: an urban growth boundary containing development within a 22-square-mile area, protecting surrounding farmland and open space; a regional governance system spanning 24 municipalities and three counties; and an ambitious system of light rail and streetcars to service more dense, compact, mixed-use urban form. Then, in 2004, voters passed Measure 37, which allowed development outside the boundary and raised questions about property rights and the fairness of the entire planning and regulatory framework.