Urban Studies and Planning Commons^™

Periodic Atlas Of The Metroscape: The Geography Of Eating Well - Food Access In The Metroscape, Joy Margheim

Institute of Metropolitan Studies Publications

This issue of the Atlas looks at food stores in the urban metroscape, their locations, their variety, and their neighborhood settings, raising questions about food access in this region.

The Preservation Perplex: Finding The Balance Between Our Past And Future, Elizabeth Mylott

Institute of Metropolitan Studies Publications

James Conway’s September 2005 description of Portland in Preservation typifies the city’s image as a place where innovative planning has created an exceptional and impressive urban landscape. Portland prides itself on being uniquely livable. Known for clean streets, urban parks and a laid back lifestyle, for many it’s the very model of a successful city. Public transportation is widely used, the city’s downtown remains vibrant, and smaller neighborhood commercial centers provide big draws for shopping and entertainment. Local natural amenities are widely enjoyed, as residents fl ock to urban parks and natural areas outside the city. As a result, the …

Educational Achievement: Shaping The Region's Reputation And Driving Its Economy, John Tapogna

Institute of Metropolitan Studies Publications

Any region’s reputation in education is a key to its economic vitality. Businesses look for signals of a quality workforce. Families want good schools for their children. The Portland-Vancouver region is making progress in education, but the news is not uniformly good. On the positive side, Portland is rising in the ranks of so-called “well educated” cities—a reputation that benefits the region as a whole. Portland’s attractiveness to young, recent college graduates is well documented and has played an important role in the trend. The influx of young professionals is a plus for the regional economy. However, instability of K-12 …

Population Outlook For The Portland-Vancouver Metropolitan Region, George C. Hough Jr., Amy Koski

Institute of Metropolitan Studies Publications

While many people both inside and outside Oregon envision the state as a place of picturesque coastal bluffs, mountain ranges, the Columbia River Gorge, and oldgrowth forests, the population is primarily urban. It has been for many decades. In 2000, three-quarters of Oregon’s 3.4 million residents lived in towns and cities. Almost one-half of Oregon’s population lived in the metropolitan Portland area. This paper offers an overview of population dynamics in the Portland-Vancouver metropolitan area, which includes five of Oregon’s thirty-six counties–Clackamas, Columbia, Multnomah, Washington, and Yamhill–and Clark County in the state of Washington. It refers to the “metropolitan Portland-Vancouver …

Ecological Landscapes : Connecting Neighborhood To City And City To Region, Michael C. Houck, Jim M. Labbe

Institute of Metropolitan Studies Publications

While many factors are unique to communities on both sides of the Columbia River, our local and regional landscapes unite us and provide a shared sense of place. Bald eagles from the headwaters of the Tualatin basin are just as likely to forage in the Vancouver Lake lowlands as on Sauvie Island. Proximity to the Columbia Gorge, coast, high desert, and the Cascades adds to the region’s mystique and quality of life. But it’s the more proximate landscapes, those within our immediate radius of reach, that we treasure most. What matters most to the region’s residents are their streetscapes, neighborhood …

Microclimates In The Portland-Vancouver Regional Economy, Sheila A. Martin

Institute of Metropolitan Studies Publications

Portland-Vancouver operates as a regional market for labor, housing, entertainment, and a broad range of goods and services. The 2006 Regional Business Plan was developed with the understanding that each part of our region is linked economically and that the economic performance of each community depends on the success of its neighbors. Nevertheless, the region is not economically homogeneous. Each community demonstrates specific industry concentrations. These concentrations are driven by factors that encourage similar or linked businesses to locate near one another. And population demographics vary, affecting each sub-region's economic performance as our workforce travels throughout the region to find …

Godless In Eden? : The Metroscape's Post-Modern Religious Life, Patricia Killen

Institute of Metropolitan Studies Publications

An independent proprietorship focused on eclectic spiritual quests, a fading historic Protestant denomination, a thriving suburban mega church, and a home base for organized atheism—these seemingly disparate entities are both old and new on the religious landscape of the Portland metro area. They exemplify long-standing patterns in the ways people in Oregon compose individual and corporate religious journeys—fluid, unfettered individual spiritual quests that for some coalesce into communal forms that provide structure, interpersonal connections and spiritual resources. At the same time, like the growing cone on Mount St. Helens, these groups are the crust of deeper activity, three decades of …

The Deal Of The Art: Public Art Comes Of Age, John Motley

Institute of Metropolitan Studies Publications

Examines questions of how public art enhances an urban landscape, and what it says about the community. Looks at the history of public art in Portland and the impact of initiatives such as the Percent for Art ordinance. Considers the functions and forms of civic art from the Skidmore Fountain in 1891 to the present.

Da Torvalds Code: Opening Regional Minds To Open Source, Mateusz Perkowski

Institute of Metropolitan Studies Publications

Discusses the history and future of the Open Source Movement in Oregon, what makes Oregon attractive to software developers, and why open source software is attractive to software developers. Focuses on local efforts to organize the nebulous global community of open source developers, and examines local companies that use open source software in their products. Also considers the impact of having Linus Torvalds, one of the pioneers of the open source movement and creator of Linux, living in the Portland, Oregon, area.

Unblighting The Burbs: Renewing The Edges, Mateusz Perkowski

Institute of Metropolitan Studies Publications

The term “urban blight” conjures up images of the stereotypical devastated American inner city: drunks and drug addicts sitting against graffiti-splattered walls, decaying buildings with broken windows that nobody bothers to replace, and alleyways layered with decades of discarded liquor bottles and other debris symptomatic of poverty and hopelessness. “Urban renewal,” which federal, state and local governments have used to combat blight since middle of the 20th Century, has itself become a phrase loaded with negative connotations, because many efforts to improve “slums” only ended up aggravating poor neighborhoods’ problems with crime and economic dysfunction. “Urban blight” and “urban renewal” …

Planning In The Portland Metropolitan Area After Measure 37, Ted Reid

Institute of Metropolitan Studies Publications

Created in the aftermath of Measure 37, the Russill Fellowship is aimed at examining non-regulatory land use planning tools and their potential application in the Portland Metropolitan area, with a particular emphasis on habitat conservation. The above-mentioned ballot initiative and the larger private property rights movement have given an indication that Oregon voters perceive inequities in the State’s land use planning system. It is also clear that Oregonians still place a high value on the conservation of our state’s natural resources. According to a March, 2005 statewide survey, protecting farmland for farming is very important to 67% of respondents, protecting …

Documenting The Impact Of Measure 37: Selected Case Studies, Sheila A. Martin, Katie Shriver

Institute of Metropolitan Studies Publications

Oregon has long been known for progressive planning policies and visionary government. The passage of Senate Bill 100 in 1973 ushered in Oregon’s modern era of land use planning and reflected a commitment by Oregonians to the protection of farm land and other natural resources while planning for substantial urban growth. Many other states have envied Oregon’s framework as they struggle with the pressures of urban sprawl. While other states were quickly converting farmland to residential uses, Oregon converted just over one percent of its farmland to other uses between 1982 and 1997.

On November 2, voters in Oregon chose …

Master Of Disaster: An Interview With Multnomah County's Director Of Emergency Management, Merilee Karr

Institute of Metropolitan Studies Publications

An interview with Tom Simpson, Director of Emergency Management for Multnomah County, Oregon. Discusses crisis communications, issues the county faces regarding terrorism and natural disasters, as well as some obstacles and possible solutions.

Extreme Makeover: Metroscape Cities Catch On To Recreational Trends, Steve Wilson

Institute of Metropolitan Studies Publications

In the summer of 2005, the City of Portland’s Department of Parks and Recreation approved a Skatepark Master Plan to build 19 skateparks and skatespots around the city, joining a nationwide trend that signals a shift in the relationship between municipalities and skateboarders. Dedicated and publicly-approved areas for skateboarding are popping up in towns across the country, demonstrating how skateboarding has become a recreational norm on par with traditional sports such as football, baseball, and basketball. In fact, according to the Sporting Goods Manufacturing Association (SGMA), the number of skateboarders has nearly doubled in the past decade, making it the …

Dreamscape: The Face Of Regional Housing, Alton Straub

Institute of Metropolitan Studies Publications

Few things are more central to the “American Dream” than owning your own home. Home ownership provides privacy and security. It binds us to our neighbors and communities, defi nes our consumption habits, and allows us to express our individuality. In the last few years, however, our homes have become “cash cow” investments that, for some people, substitute for retirement plans and college savings. The saga of American homeownership plays out across a complex landscape throughout the US and the Portland metropolitan region. It’s fi lled with many issues: housing supply, neighborhood amenities, population demographics, transportation networks, personal income levels, …

A Legacy In Land: A Primer On Realty And Reality, Mateusz Perkowski

Institute of Metropolitan Studies Publications

In depth look at the history and impact of Oregon's Measure 37, approved by the voters in 2004. Examines all sides of the debate around land use, property rights, and conflicts between property rights and preservation activists.

The Burden Of Oregon History: The Historian As Prophet, John P. Rosenberg

Institute of Metropolitan Studies Publications

In the latter part of his public career, after a lifetime of studying and thinking about the region and its people, Dodds began to write about “the tragedy of the lack of tragedy” in the lives of Pacific Northwesterners. Life had been relatively easy and perhaps “too successful” for the region’s citizens, “especially if one were a Caucasian,” wrote Gordon Dodds in the epilogue to his 1986 regional history, The American Northwest: A History of Oregon and Washington. Pacific Northwesterners had mastered their few difficulties with relative ease and their undemanding past may have left them unprepared for the adversities …

River Of No Return: The Willamette Regenerates, Gabriel Boehmer

Institute of Metropolitan Studies Publications

Brief article takes a look at the history and possible future of the Willamette River, with special focus on controlling pollution, restoration, and activities of groups like Willamette Riverkeeper.

Oregon Land Use Statewide Survey, Conkling Fiskum And Mccormick, Inc.

Institute of Metropolitan Studies Publications

This report presents the results of a 2005 telephone survey of Oregon residents statewide. Conkling Fiskum & McCormick, Inc. (CFM), a public affairs, strategic communications and research company located in Portland, Oregon, conducted the study. The research objectives were to assess perceptions, opinions and values relating to land use and land use policies in Oregon.

By The Numbers: The Region Votes Its Fate, Richard A. Clucas, Alton Straub

Institute of Metropolitan Studies Publications

The author examined how the residents in the five-county region of the metropolitan area (Clackamas, Columbia, Multnomah, Washington, and Yamhill) voted in the 2004 general election on selected ballot measures in order to understand the political values of the neighborhoods in which we live. Using geographic information systems (GIS), we mapped the distribution of votes by election precinct on what we thought were three of the most revealing measures: the constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriages (Measure 36), the initiative requiring state and local governments to pay landowners when land-use restrictions reduce property value (Measure 37), and the constitutional amendment limiting …

Breeding Trouble: West Nile On The Willamette?, Merilee Karr

Institute of Metropolitan Studies Publications

From the Roman aqueducts to Bonneville Dam, humans have built structures to moderate the extremes of natural water flow. Some of these structures, from Roman cisterns to the catch basins under modern city streets, have inadvertently supplied mosquitoes with the standing water in which they thrive and multiply. Even more mosquito habitat may have been created in the last decade by a change in the Clean Water Act. The original drive behind the Act, in 1972, was the elimination of point-source pollution: sewage and industrial discharge into waterways. In the 1990s new regulations aimed to prevent non-point-source pollution, due to …

Metropolitan Briefing Book, 2005, Craig Wollner, Sheila A. Martin, Deborah Elliott, Barry Edmonston, Masud Hasan, Joseph Cortright, John Provo, Jill Fuglister, Eric Jessup

Institute of Metropolitan Studies Publications

The Institute of Portland Metropolitan Studies (IMS) was created to connect the resources of higher education to the issues and needs in the six-county, bi-state Portland-Vancouver metropolitan area (Clackamas, Clark, Columbia, Multnomah, Washington, and Yamhill Counties). We have included the IMS mission statement and roster of IMS board members in this publication to give readers a clear sense of who we are and how we serve the region. You can find out about all of our initiatives and download additional copies of this publication from our web site: www.upa.pdx.edu/IMS .

The theme for this edition of the Metropolitan Briefing Book …

Traveling The Past Into The Present : The Region's Highways And Byways, David Peterson Del Mar, Heather Kaplinger, Meg Merrick

Institute of Metropolitan Studies Publications

Reviews the work of Oregon's first surveyors and cartographers, and compares early maps to the modern landscape.

Indicators: Healthcare -- The Uninsured, Ellie Fiore

Institute of Metropolitan Studies Publications

A brief statistical view of the status of insured and uninsured people in the Portland, Oregon, metropolitan area. Compares bi-yearly numbers from 1994 through 2002, and examines the numbers in light of the recent census.

Population Outlook For The Portland-Vancouver Metropolitan Area, Barry Edmonston, Masud Hasan

Institute of Metropolitan Studies Publications

This paper offers an overview of population dynamics in the metropolitan Portland-Vancouver area--describing current trends for population growth in its counties; the effect of births, deaths, and migration on population growth; how the age, sex, and ethnic composition are changing; and where residents live within the metropolitan area. Finally, the paper discusses likely growth prospects and their implications.

Portland's Regional Economy: The Dynamics Of Change, Sheila A. Martin, Amy S. Vander Vliet

Institute of Metropolitan Studies Publications

As the Portland-Vancouver economy emerges from recession, regional residents must come to terms with the realities of a restructured economy. The familiar sectors and industries upon which we based success in the past likely will no longer sustain us, at least to the degree they once did. We are simultaneously witnessing the rebuilding of an economy while suffering the symptoms of radical change. The slowdown that began in the Portland region in the summer of 2000 was caused, in part, by cyclical downturns in several of the region's key industries. As the region continues to recover, it will most likely …

Periodic Atlas: Mapping School & Society, Alton Straub

Institute of Metropolitan Studies Publications

When communities change economically, culturally, and politically, few institutions are expected to adapt and respond as quickly as are public schools. In part, this expectation is justifiable. Free and compulsory education is a cornerstone of modern democracy. But do we expect too much? Should our public schools, whose funding we always seem to begrudge, be expected to overcome issues of poverty, race, and language that other societal institutions struggle with unsuccessfully? If we leave no child behind, if we save our struggling public schools, if our students achieve, are we addressing those issues in the most efficient and fundamental way? …

Care Package: Are We Committed To Public Education?, Phyllis Edmundson

Institute of Metropolitan Studies Publications

Looks at the history of public education in Oregon, the functions it is presumed to fulfill, and public expectations. Examines the social and demographic factors affecting the makeup of public schools, and continued struggles over financing and mounting costs. Argues that schools and school administrations must work in partnership with the public to create schools that will be supported and successful.

Market Forces: Reviving The Public Market, Matthew Kauffman Smith

Institute of Metropolitan Studies Publications

Ron Paul worked in the restaurant business for 18 years, including 15 as the owner of Ron Paul Charcuterie . Then, as chief of staff in Commissioner Charlie Hales' office in 2000, Paul assembled a citizens group that began to explore the feasibility of a public market in the city. He now leads the effort for the Portland Public Market, drawing upon both of his career paths from the last 20 years. Paul, who works in the Bureau of Planning, talked to Metroscape about the history of public markets in Portland, the ongoing effort to build the year-round market, and …

Live Small And Prosper: The State Of Small Business, John Provo

Institute of Metropolitan Studies Publications

The prospects for small businesses are frequently discussed in politic al circles as metropolitan Portland looks for a path through the current recession. How are small businesses faring in today's metroscape? Addressing this question requires us to consider an even more obvious one? just what is a small business? In our region, it may be a self-employed artist showing at local galleries, a flower stand at a farmer's market employing a few unpaid family members, a professional office providing services to another small business that employs dozens of workers at hourly wages, or a small manufacturer with dozens of highly …