[twofiftyfive]

I don't know if this has been mentioned here yet. I noticed that Google Earth has some aerial photos of Portland from 1952 (you can find them by clicking the clock icon). Unfortunately, much of downtown is not pictured, but there is still a lot of interesting stuff to see, including the old baseball stadium on NW Vaughn St.

[MR. Cosmopolitan]

No it hasn't been mentioned yet; I took a glance recently, it's really cool to watch all the changes, it's like watching "Back to the future".

I've seen that it looks like the present industrial zone in Northern Northwest Portland was once some sort of mid density residential area. There were much more buldings in the downtown too.

If they had refused to build that highway around the downtown all this could had been kept, what a shame.

[2oh1]

If they had refused to build that highway around the downtown all this could had been kept, what a shame.

Portland has gotten so many things right that it's no wonder why our city is a national model for urban planning...

...but that highway is a heartbreaker.

[puerco]

Could you please post a website for viewing what you're talking about? I go to the google map of Portland and don't see a clock anywhere. Thanks.

[puerco]

I wasn't comprehending what I was reading and was looking at google maps not google earth. The 1952 shot is very milky on my monitor but it looks like there was once a large gas storage tank at the west end of the Steel Bridge. In the '70 view it's been replaced by the natural gas office building. Interesting views.

[puerco]

For those of you who weren't in Portland then, if you look between the Morrison & Hawthorne Bridges you'll be able to see how large the Farmer's Market was. I don't know when the Oregon Journal took it over but that's what I remember the building as. You can also see how the highway cut off downtown from the waterfront. I like the view of the old Morrison Bridge in the '52 shot.

[MR. Cosmopolitan]

Portland has gotten so many things right that it's no wonder why our city is a national model for urban planning...

...but that highway is a heartbreaker.

It really was and still is the major cause of sprawl in Portland, because the demolition of the highway on the west bank of the river, creating the Tom McCall park, meant only it's displacement to the east bank; Portland's downtown it's still as accessible by car as it was in the 1960's.

Portland is an urban-planning model in the country because thanks to the urban growth boundary it allowed to contain the sprawl, protecting the neighbouring landscape, and increasing the density in the suburbs, making them more suitable for alternative transport uses.

The building of a massive and effective (US standards) light rail system and revitalizing the downtown.

Portland has been very good in all that, but it still hasn't arrived to really stop people from moving to the suburbs, that's because its downtown it's still too accessible by car.