The Big Moves: Where People Are Moving
by Wendell Cox 12/11/2020
For decades, New York has been the leading exporter of people to other states, though has been severely challenged since 2000 by California. During five years around the housing bust, more net domestic migrants left California than New York. Then, for a time, California's annual losses were not quite as severe read more »
Low-Density Fire Buffer
by Randal OToole 01/24/2019
Someone in Bend must be reading this blog, or at least thinking along the same lines. In 2017, after the Wine Country fires had burned homes in Santa Rose, the Antiplanner noted that the problem was the homes were too dense and needed a buffer of low-density homes around them. I made the same point after the Camp Fire burned homes in Paradise.
Now Deschutes County is zoning a buffer between Bend and the national forest for low-density housing. read more »
By Law, California High Speed Rail May Be Doomed To Fail
by Ronald Stein 12/11/2018
It has been 10 years since passage of California Proposition 1A the High-Speed Rail Act that approved the $9.95 billion bond, a down payment on a high-speed rail project that was optimistically estimated by proponents at that time to cost $40 billion. Today, the California high-speed rail cost may approach $100 billion. Public enthusiasm is obviously dwindling. read more »
Bridges Boondoggle, Portland Edition
by Aaron M. Renn 10/25/2013
A couple weeks ago I outlined how the Ohio River Bridges Project in Louisville had gone from tragedy to farce. Basically none of the traffic assumptions from the Environmental Impact Statements that got the project approved are true anymore. According to the investment grade toll study recently performed to set toll rates and sell bonds, total cross river traffic will be 78,000 cars (21.5%) less than projected in the original FEIS. read more »
Portland Metro's Competitiveness Problem
Portland Metro's president, David Bragdon, recently resigned to take a position with New York's Bloomberg administration. Bragdon was nearing the end of his second elected term and ineligible for another term. Metro is the three county (Clackamas, Multnomah and Washington counties) planning agency that oversees Portland's land use planning and transportation policies, among the most stringent and pro-transit in the nation. read more »
Welcome to Ecotopia
by Joel Kotkin 02/22/2010
In this era of tea-partying revolutionary-era dress-ups, one usually associates secessionism with the far right. But if things turn sour for the present majority in Washington, you should expect a whole new wave of separatism to emerge on the greenish left coast.
In 1975 Ernest Callenbach, an author based in Berkeley, Calif., published a sci-fi novel about enviro-secessionists called Ecotopia; a prequel, Ecotopia Rising, came out in 1981. These two books, which have acquired something of a cult following, chronicle--largely approvingly--the emergence of a future green nation along the country's northwest coast. read more »
Atlanta: Ground Zero for the American Dream
The Atlanta area has much to be proud of, though it might not be obvious from the attitudes exhibited by many of its most prominent citizens. For years, local planners and business leaders have regularly trekked to planning's Holy City (Portland) in hopes of replicating its principles in Atlanta. They would be better saving their air fares. read more »
California Disease: Oregon at Risk of Economic Malady
by Joel Kotkin and Bill Watkins 08/17/2009
California has been exporting people to Oregon for many years, even amid the recession in both states.
Indeed, the 2005 American Community Survey report shows that California-to-Oregon migration was 56,379 in 2005, the sixth-largest interstate flow in the United States. The 2000 census showed a five-year flow of 138,836 people, the eighth-largest over that time period. Until two years ago, Oregon was managing to absorb this population with mixed results, but generally as part of an expanding and diversifying economy. But that pattern has ended, at least for now. read more »
Oregon Fail: With Hard Times Ahead for Business and Real Estate, It's Time to Look Small
There is something about Oregon that ignites something close to poetic inspiration, even among the most level-headed types. When I asked Hank Hoell recently about the state, he waxed on about hiking the spectacular Cascades, the dreamy coastal towns and the rich farmlands of the green Willamette Valley.
"Oregon," enthused Hoell, president of LibertyBank, the state's largest privately owned bank, from his office in Eugene, "is America's best-kept secret. If quality of life matters at all, Oregon has it in spades. It is as good as it gets. It's just superb." read more »
Oregon's Immigration Question: Addressing the Surge in the Face of Recession
by Ilie Mitaru 01/29/2009
The men huddle outside the trailer, eyeing the passing traffic. Handmade signs stapled to telephone posts speak for them: "Hire a Day Worker!" The site, a fenced-in lot at Northeast MLK and Everett Street, was launched in 2007, a testament both to Oregon's recent immigration boom and lack of federal reform. read more »