I have just returned from 5 weeks of traveling, and I would like to share some insights about Portland and our cities future:
New York, New York:
Urban Design: New York is old. In fact of all the places I have ever traveled it feels the oldest. New York is also small. Very small, but very built up. No where else in the world do you have such a large collection of 60-100 year old skyscrapers. There has been talk on the forum about 'urban canyons' and after staying 3 days in Manhattan I have realized that DT Portland should try to keep up its 'urban canyon' form. The effect of absolute maximization of land makes for a human environment that cannot be replicated in suburbs or urbanist additions like SoWa, that, in a concentrated and contained space, is needed for world business and culture. Outside of downtown, we should keep our low, moderately dense and open forest of built environment for that is Portland's character and charm.
Architecture: The loss of the Rose Friends is minuscule. New York and its supply of thousands of Rose Friends era buildings has taught me that. Replacing it with a conservative glass box that takes no action to be architecturally different by any means is SO Portland (whether you like it or not we are not an architecturally bold city).
Transport: Robert Moses destroyed Portland more than New York. If you choose to drive in NY, be prepared to pay massive tolls every couple of miles. Also, be prepared to wait... days. Instead take a ride on the old and dirty rail system. The subway is old, just like the city. Portland doesn't need a subway, well, not yet at least. Portland needs to look at NY for its excellent commuter rail system. Fast and reliable you can travel almost anywhere with ease. I can see Portland as a great place for CR as a compliment to our MAX, streetcar and bus system. CR routes to Salem, St. Helens, Hazel Dell, Battle Ground, Camus, Troutdale, Oregon City, Newberg (via Lake Oswego), and Banks would be a great start. BTW, the NY bus system is expansive, but is irritatingly slow mixed with auto traffic.
Boston, Massachusetts:
Urban Design: I always thought it would be nice if Portland had more funky streets like Sandy, the Ankeny angled street realignment and Ladd's Addition to have more little nooks and plazas. However, Boston's mess of arcane carriage streets and land fill expansions has made me realize that the 'funky' spaces created in this manner can also make for disorientation and undesirable pockets of crime and urban blight. New York's combination of carriage and grid streets made the best of both worlds much like Portland has.
Architecture: OK, I said PDX was boring and conservative. Boston's style is far, far more boring and conservative. No creativity in Boston for about 50 years... let's not emulate that.
Transport: Boston's Big Dig may have received headlines for its price tag, but the result is pretty amazing. Portland should cap I-405, parts of the Banfield and parts of I-5 north in NoPo with mainly parks much like Boston has (not all buildings like Vera wanted). So much less noise and air pollution than before. As for I-5 eastbank... well... let's hope we can someday bury it for cheaper than the Big Dig... as for now, let's worry about the entire transport system before bankrupting ourselves on only one part. Boston has the oldest subway in the USA. Good for them; it's the nastiest, dirtiest, smelliest, least maintained and most hectic subway I have ever ridden extensively. Let's not build a subway yet, instead lets build bike paths and MAX lines that go along with our slower pace of life. Our culture is slow paced, and we should recognize and appreciate it.
Amsterdam, Netherlands:
Urban Design: Amazing. Everything in Holland makes sense. Just plain and simple common sense. All streets are cobblestoned to minimize maintenance costs, reduce material usage and reusage, and make it easy and cheap to dig up and replace again for utilities. Every street, EVERY STREET has bike paths made of different colored cobble and is usually curb or ballast separated from peds and autos. Autos are irrelevant there. Bikes take precedence, then the trams, then people, and then maybe a car can go through if they are lucky. Benches are everywhere in Europe and it just makes sense that people need public places to sit. Bathrooms are also everywhere, but they cost money to use (even in train stations, airports and some restaurants). Brilliant idea isn't it to make bathrooms pay for themselves. Everything is also built to last at least 100-1000 years, not like the current US practice of lasting 10-50 years for public projects (look at the way ODOT builds bridges and overpasses).
Architecture: Ok, I have accused PDX of being boring and conservative, but we are very much creating our own style of building (as a part of our culture). Holland has done the same. As far back as the 1200's the Amstel River Dam city was famous for gabled houses. Most of Europe has the same cultural mentality that cities should have very small footprints amongst the necessary-for-human-survival farm and natural lands, and Amsterdam's density reflects that. But, no where do you get the overbearing sense of buildings being too tall or a lack of open space with all the canals and parks. Now, the Dutch are creating a new modern style all to their own. PDX shares a lot of cultural liberalness with Holland, it is no wonder our modern style is very much a hybrid of the weird ass Dutch style (if you think 937 is odd, every new building in Amsterdam is that style, but less restricted by our street grid). Let's keep our arch style evolving, and appreciate the low rise appeal of PDX.
Transport: Amsterdam's trams are a combination of our MAX and streetcars. They lay track down surface streets inches away from walking and biking paths, but travel at speeds closer to MAX than our pitifully slow Streetcar. There are no warnings, no flashing lights or gaits. It just makes common sense to look where you are going. It's amazing how different a society is when lawyer's haven't succeeded in ruling a person's right to being absolutely stupid and lack any common sense and self-responsibility. Everywhere in Europe, and Holland is no exception, the trains, trams and subways are incredibly modern and well kept. I remember reading a forum about how we should not take 'ancient' technology from the Czech's when Oregon Ironworks makes its first modern streetcars. That idea is nonsense and ignorant. America has no idea how to make trains. Look at our archaic and unnecessary federal rules for passenger trains. We still mostly have withering wood ties and only a few lines on the east coast are electrified. All tracks are laid on concrete and are electrified, all of them including freight tracks. Europe is far more modern than America is. At least Portland leaders are looking at making a sustainable, modern worldly culture.
Munchen (Munich), Bavaria:
Urban Design: Germany has the most amazing sustainable culture, or cultures rather. As I've stated in the Netherlands part, Germany is the same as being very modern, very culturally sound, and holding sustainability as a life style rather than a new buzz word. Cars are more prominent in Germany with the auto makers (BMW, Volkswagen, Daimler-Chrysler, etc...) being some of their biggest industries. The cities are still designed for the human being though and the street level presence of windows and retail is definitely something to thank Portland policies for trying to create and maintain here at home.
Architecture: Munchen survived most of the last two wars, unlike its sister cities in western Germany. It is a history rich city with a great many museums and culturally significant buildings. Portland seams to lack in this way, but I feel that over time we will develop and appreciate the older federal buildings much like we do our old library and pioneer courthouse.
Transport: In Germany you can go to any town anywhere in the country by train. Fast, reliable very sleek and modern trains that leave every hour-ish to even the most remote parts. Remember, Germany has 80 million people crammed into scattered, small footprint cities everywhere in an area about twice the size of Oregon. The German Autobahns are actually pretty empty, and incredibly small compared to our wide laned counterparts, and are used mainly as freight transport.
Frankfurt, Hesse (western Germany):
Urban Design: Frankfurt is a beautiful city. It's downtown looks like Houston's skyline from a distance, but the city center is actually rather friendly and ped oriented. The city holds its older heritage in small pockets where the city wasn't so bombed out during WWII, and by its wonderful connection to its river, the Main. Frankfurt feels like Portland from its riverbank (the Main is roughly Willamette size) with its river fronting parks (on both sides about the same width as Waterfront Park) and its many bridges. I did notice that Portland is lacking pedestrian and bicycle only bridges. Also, Frankfurt's urban canyon areas are much lower rise like the Pearl District. In fact, almost all German and Holland cities with newer construction felt like the Pearl District in nature. Frankfurt's skyscraper district, which felt like the Lloyd District with green space instead of surface parking lots, is spread out with very few right next to each other giving the city an open air feeling and less of a world city (even though it is the location of the Euro Bank and many other European Union institutions). Maybe the Loyd area should maintain its low skyscraper density and fill in with lower rises and open space (bury the parking?).
Architecture: Portland skyscrapers, with the exception of all of the new dark and gloomy glass boxes of SoWa, are similar to Frankfurt's in that they are very functional buildings made for utilitarian purposes. PDX can learn from their level of green building practices though. Just look up Norman Foster's Commerzbank tower and see what I mean by sustainability.
Transport: Frankfurt is like any other German city except was almost entirely rebuilt after the wars. Cars are more prominent, but not nearly as prominent as anytown, USA. The Frankfurt Rail Terminal is huge, regional service is incredible, and you can take bullet trains to almost anywhere in Europe for $100-200 USD.
There are too many small cities and places I went to, but I think this post is long enough. Overall, I'm glad to be living in Portland. We have an amazing place. Let's look to our future and try to sustain what we love about Portland for generations to come. If we are to have 700,000 people move here in the next 20 years as predicted let's make them pay for maintaining our way of life instead of footing us a bill after destroying what we hold with pride.
-Increase rail services, upgrade and electrify (Commuter, Regional and Interstate)
-Make toll roads mandatory even on older highways to maintain them and promote alternate transport.
-Build actual bike lanes, bike paths, bike parking and bike safety knowledge.
-Promote individual self-responsibility in our culture.
-Promote sustainable culture as a means of survival not just an architectural style.
-Hold the urban growth boundary for 100 years at least.
-Protect and maintain farmland and natural resources like forests and grazing lands.
-Keep Portland relatively low rise outside of the downtown core, but don't NIMBY the loss of single family homes that are not historic.
-Keep all urban design in the pedestrian mindset, not from a car.
-Cap freeways that are easy to cover (I-405, I-5 North, I-84 Banfield, I-205 Gateway, etc...), build public land on top.
-Redesignate streets as public realm, not just as thruways for autos.
Just a few ideas...
Sorry... kind of a long post here!
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