Quote:
Originally Posted by Rob Nob
They are comparing the entire City limits of Portland to a similar size bite of Houston that is centered around their down town?
So Portland City limits includes large swaths that are just the Airport, Shipping Terminals, the Columbia River, Willamette River, Ross Island, Oaks Bottom, Smith and Bybee Wetlands, Delta Park, Forest Park, Washington Park, Tryon Creek Park, Powell and Kelly Butte Park? Pretty low housing density there!
Obviously most of Houston's sprawl occurs outside of the 610 loop. This is an apples to oranges comparison. It's pretty ridiculous, though I do agree Portland could relax height limits and Design Review.
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Wholly agree. This particular author, Scott Beyer, has written a couple of pieces on Portland that read like a jilted lover.
He suggests that Houston and Portland "started in the same place" post WW2, which bypasses the fact that 1950 Houston was roughly the same size as modern day Portland (~600,000). Let us not forget, as well, that during the depression, Houston was dubbed "the city the depression forgot." Houston's oil economy surpasses anything Portland can bring to the table.
The author begins the essay mentioning how Portland is seen as the urban planning darling while Houston is dragged across the coals within those same circles -- adding that this perspective is wrong because he "recently lived in both places," and has seen both with his own eyes, which by dictionary terms does make him an expert.
The problem is that after setting up a "Houston is out-urban-planning Portland" thesis, his arguments have little to do with urban planning, and center mostly around the very obvious fact that central Houston is denser than the entirety of Portland, and that Houston has the 4th largest skyline in the United States.
His closer "So which metro area--Houston or Portland--is doing urban density better?" reads as if that was the original argument he set forth, which it's not.
As the years go by Portland will become increasingly dense. The narrow streets, parks, and neighborhood atmosphere will remain intact. Just because 2017 Portland isn't as dense as City X or City Y does not mean that current urban planning/growth policies are a failure.