The Dark Side of Portlandia
I know a lot of Ricochet readers are long-suffering residents of liberal bastions where it often seems as if everyone around them has collectively lost their minds. As someone who originally hails from Oregon, all the recent hype praising Portland as America's civic ideal finally sent me over the edge. I've written a long story about the cultural and political degeneration of the city for The Weekly Standard that I hope serves as a cautionary tale. Given that it's the favorite city of urban planners and New York Times travel writers, the Obama administration and progressive politicians across the country want to turn your town into the next Portland. And that should be avoided at all costs if you value the most basic indicators of livability such as affordable housing:
The rush to praise Portland’s smart-growth policies has been strangely unimpeded by their results. Oregon’s urban growth boundary is defended from criticism as if it were the Maginot Line of American environmentalism, but, tellingly, its supporters don’t even pretend it makes for prudent economic policy. Rather, it’s just one of those things that make Portland’s culture so darn special. A 2010 article in Good magazine—a publication of environmentalist bent, chiefly notable for employing Albert Gore III—described it this way:
Along with creating dense neighborhoods, encouraging mass-transit use, and irritating free-market zealots, the growth boundary saves farmland close to the city. The resulting proximity between country and town defines life here. Portland is a small-to-medium city with a frequently dismal economy, a single major sports team that hasn’t won a championship in 30 years, and world-class access to premium local produce. Ambitious small restaurants crowd the city, bedazzling visiting food critics from New York; some Portlanders follow the local pinot noir harvest the way people in Greenwich, Connecticut, track hedge funds. None of this could exist without the boundary.
Portland is indeed surrounded by thousands of square miles of prized Willamette Valley farmland, and a glance at a map will tell you that there’s a long way to go before sprawl is a major concern. Of course, you’re a free market zealot if you oppose the growth boundary, even though it might have something to do with Portland’s “frequently dismal” economy, because—well, have you tasted the arugula? It’s world-class.
If you want to credit the growth boundary with preserving the state’s farmland, then you should also have to defend the havoc it’s wreaked inside the city. In 2010, consultant Wendell Cox did a quick survey of the urban growth boundary’s effect on property values in Portland. “The land adjacent to, but outside, the urban growth boundary (on which development is prohibited) was assessed at approximately $16,000 per acre,” he concluded. “The land adjacent to, but inside, the urban growth boundary (on which development is permitted) was assessed at approximately $180,000 per acre, approximately 11 times the price of land that is virtually across the street.” Tough luck for Portland’s homebuyers.
But there's much more than that! To entice you to read the whole thing I'll just mention that the story has lots of salacious political scandals, a discussion of the the television show Portlandia, vegan strip clubs, and liberal America's fascination with light rail is finally explained.
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Mar '11
Re: The Dark Side of Portlandia
Excellent article on Portland. Like Camelot, it is a silly place.
Re: The Dark Side of Portlandia
For about 20 years now, I've smelled a rat, feeling certain that Portland couldn't possibly be quite as perfect as everyone seemed to contend. I'm so often wrong that I'm grateful to you, Mark, for, this once, proving me right.
Portland, the picture of paradise? Faugh.
Dec '11
Re: The Dark Side of Portlandia
Yeah I have to say I love the portlandia show because it mocks all of this rediculousness.
As far as places I have lived I would say Beaufort County (Hilton Head), and Carmel Indiana are my two favorites for civic planning.
Civic planning within reason is good but lets all be realistic that our main transportation is cars, and the main want is a single family home with a backyard.... you can't change that. So plan with those two priorities in mind.
Jan '12
Re: The Dark Side of Portlandia
I hate to admit it, but taken solely on a local level, in Marin County, a locality not so dissimilar to Portland, the environmental focus of the Left* has, so far, preserved the beauty of the place. Mind you, however, that the money here is lodged either in old families whose ancestors were among the Robber Barons but whose descendents live off of trusts** or in the new rich of the cybernetic high-bourgoisie. No heavy manufacturing here, just mellow productivity.
The reversal, however, is on its way. Go to the Canal area of San Rafael. That's where all the Latin American maids and gardeners live. You can see many of the young men standing on the side of Bellum Ave. waiting for construction foremen to pick them up for work. How many are illegals? Beats me, but it can't be just a few.
Marin looks lovely now, but time may take its toll. Then again, it may not. Some old tony baronies last for centuries, even as the world around them convulses.
----
*This is part of the reason why the Left here, except for the teachers-union types, is relatively well behaved.
** Cf. the Reeds of Portland
Edited on February 25, 2012 at 7:13pmJun '10
Re: The Dark Side of Portlandia
Two things that you never want to artificially concentrate: pollution and hipsters.
Re: The Dark Side of Portlandia
Thanks for the kind words Peter and Basil. As for this:
I kind of wish I'd thought of that line myself.
Edited on February 25, 2012 at 7:41pmMar '11
Re: The Dark Side of Portlandia
The dirty little secret about Portland, and Oregon in general, is that they're the little brother of the Northwest. As such they will do the wildest things to get attention.
Sep '10
Re: The Dark Side of Portlandia
I happen to be in Portland for a visit, so your article is timely. Insufferable is a good word for it. So is supercilious and solipsistic. The light rail fetish annoys me as well. I'd be interested to know how much money is being wasted subsidizing it and to see more details about ridership. Everyone here seems to think it's been a smashing success. I'm pretty sure they're wrong, but it would be nice to have to some facts.
Aug '10
Re: The Dark Side of Portlandia
Oh, there's a difference?
Apr '11
Re: The Dark Side of Portlandia
Mr. Hemmingway,
Have you ever visited Tulsa, OK?
It is, from your description the complete opposite of Portland: Suburban sprawl, congested streets in new sections of town, poorly maintained ones in older, non-existent public transportation, mile after mile of box stores and chain restaurants, and an emphasis on development that defies any concern for neighborhood character or historical preservation.
Granted, the cost of living is low, as are home prices, but a lot of the character and charm of what in the 50's was considered by some as one of America's most beautiful cities, has been lost.
There needs to be some sort of balance between the two models of urban governance.
Sep '10
Re: The Dark Side of Portlandia
I followed up on a reference to Randal O’Toole in your article, Mark. It turns out all the data on light rail in Portland is available is his Cato paper. Even today, ridership is lower that it was pre-rail.
Evidently, the light-rail propaganda machine has been quite successful here in Portland, convincing the locals that their system is wonderful. The fact that each trip produces a $28 loss is, well, something we don't like to mention.
Apr '11
Re: The Dark Side of Portlandia
C'mon, billy. Everybody knows nobody lives in Flyover Country. And that balance business verges on heresy.
What hath Tulsa to do with Portland?
Sep '10
Re: The Dark Side of Portlandia
billy:
<snip>
non-existent public transportation
<snip>. · 37 minutes ago
The existence of public transit is of little consequence if no one rides it. Ridership in most cities is negligible. I suppose that it makes some folks feel all warm and fuzzy. That's worth something, I guess.
Tulsa may have its issues, but light rail ain't gonna fix 'em. Quite the contrary, it would impose an local tax burden and open the door to the kind of rent-seeking behavior observed in Portland.
Apr '11
Re: The Dark Side of Portlandia
drlorentz
billy:
<snip>
non-existent public transportation
<snip>. · 37 minutes ago
The existence of public transit is of little consequence if no one rides it. Ridership in most cities is negligible. I suppose that it makes some folks feel all warm and fuzzy. That's worth something, I guess.
Tulsa may have its issues, but light rail ain't gonna fix 'em. Quite the contrary, it would impose an local tax burden and open the door to the kind of rent-seeking behavior observed in Portland. · 3 minutes ago
I'm not advocating light rail by any means. But Tulsa's sprawl and lack of a useful public transport has made it difficult for lower income people to work and shop in this city.
Feb '12
Re: The Dark Side of Portlandia
Good article. The political corruption--- apparently with major stars in both the sex and the money varieties--- is surprising. I'd taken Portland to be rather like Boulder, Colorado, a city that has been very successful at its true goal of making sure no blacks and poor people live there, by making real estate really expensive and instituting policies that no poor person would ever support.
Maybe it's goal is even narrower than that: to retain only licentious rich people and keep out all those breeders, a little like the retirement cities. But with 600,000 people, I hope that's not it.
Jul '10
Re: The Dark Side of Portlandia
That's a nice piece Mark.
Another of the smart growth types favorite tools is "traffic calming."
Charitably, this would be described as reducing average vehicle speeds to maintain pedestrian safety and residential livability, after all who wants to live on a street with cars going 65mph? Less favorably, it is an intentional effort to make driving awful and push mass transit, bicycling, or walking, consequences aside.
Apparently, Portland seems to figure a new line item in the budget will solve this stuff:
Dec '10
Re: The Dark Side of Portlandia
Fascinating article. Thank you.
May '11
Re: The Dark Side of Portlandia
Actually the maximum speed aloud here has been 55mps for a long time. I feel so special to live in Portland these days as its getting so much attention. Its a bit strange being a conservative in Portland. Knowing that my views are totally out of line and possibly offensive to the general population. Voting even though nothing I have ever voted for has passed. Watching the city I love fall deeper and deeper into liberal nonsense. Sometimes I fear that this will resemble my life in America as the country slowly but steadily drifts toward the left.
Aug '11
Re: The Dark Side of Portlandia
Portland area citizens have consistently voted against the light rail projects. We are stupid but not that stupid. The light rail projects are being built because the referendums are being ignored by the bureaucrats.
May '11
Re: The Dark Side of Portlandia
Very true cbc, we seem to have a oligarchy that cares more about their special pet projects and feeling good about themselves, than the will of the people. I know all about it, living a few blocks down from Cesar E Chavez blvd. Its just a real shame that Sam Adam's special bridge for bikes only got cancelled.