Urban Studies and Planning Commons^™

Settlement Patterns In The Portland Region: A Historical Overview, Carl Abbott

Portland Regional Planning History

Cities exist because they serve two basic functions--to generate economic value and to sustain social and cultural values. In the most fundamental sense, the interaction of these two urban roles determines the growth of metropolitan areas and patterns of land use and settlement within those urban areas.

Within this framework of metropolitan functions, five factors have strongly affected American urban settlement patterns. The first section of this report briefly introduces these broad forces. The central section traces in detail the ways in which the factors have shaped settlement and land use in the Portland area over the last 150 years. …