News Tagged: Livability

Daylong discussion with local and state leaders will help federal agencies work better together

Posted on July 2, 2010

The Oregon Transportation Research and Education Consortium held the West’s first listening session Wednesday under the Sustainable Communities Partnership, the effort to get federal agencies working together on green transportation and housing projects. Regional administrators from the Department of Transportation, the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Environmental Protection Agency met with local, regional and state leaders for open-ended discussions on building sustainable communities.

More than 150 people attended the daylong Oregon Community Dialogue at Willamette University  in Salem, organized by OTREC and facilitated by the National Policy Consensus Center. In one-on-one interviews, participants brainstormed the barriers to sustainable communities, the existing opportunities to work together and actions they could take to take to make their own communities more sustainable. They also discussed what they could accomplish if agencies did a better job of working together to pay for projects.

The discussions produced the following insights:

• Barriers to sustainable communities include a lack of shared vision on results, a lack of integration and coordination, a lack of marketplace incentives and confusion over how to achieve the goals.
• Federal agencies working better together would create opportunities for collaboration at all levels of government, give flexibility to use resources in new ways, allow for a better response to community needs and reduce waste and duplication of efforts.
• Given federal support, participants would erase divisions between agencies, create more inclusive local land-use planning processes and honor previously completed plans, reward visionary community efforts, create a clearinghouse for research and best practices and set up pilot projects to showcase those practices.
• Collaborative funding would create a simpler process, help meet multiple community goals simultaneously, build stronger working relationships and provide for more funding stability.

Administrators in attendance were Mary McBride of HUD Region 10; Michelle Pirzadeh, deputy administrator of EPA Region 10; Phil Ditzler of the Federal Highway Administration’s Oregon Division; and Rick Krochalis of the Federal Transit Administration’s Region 10. The administrators will now attend listening sessions in the other states of Region 10 and use the input to help make their agencies more effective, responsive and collaborative.

Available documentation:

• PowerPoint Presentations
• Summary Report
• Report Appendices
  • Interview Notes (For questions 1, 2, 3, and 4)
  • Group Notes
  • Registration Directory
  • Questions and Answers
• Summary report from Washington Community Dialogue (Seattle, July 2010)
• HUD/EPA/DOT Report: "Partnership for Sustainable Communities: A Year of Progress for American Communities" (October, 2010)

Tags: livability, mary mcbride, npcc, phil ditzler, rick krochalis, sustainable communities

Sustainable Communities Partnership - Oregon Community Dialogue

Posted on June 25, 2010

The Regional and Division Administrators of the Environmental Protection Agency, Housing and Urban Development and Department of Transportation are working with the Oregon Transportation Research and Education Consortium (OTREC) to convene a one-day, statewide, community dialogue to discuss their joint Partnership for Sustainable Communities today (June 30, 2010) at Willamette University.

Attendees represent a balanced representation of subject (transportation, housing, environment), geography (statewide, regional, local), and sector (public, private, academic, NGO).

The purpose of the event is to “increase awareness and understanding of the Partnership for Sustainable Communities; to receive input from state, regional, and local participants about opportunities and needs to inform our efforts; and, to catalyze an enhanced level of participation throughout Oregon.” The meeting will include presentations by the Administrators and workshop discussions facilitated by the National Policy Consensus Center.

Tags: epa, fta, hud, interagency partnership, livability

Portland is a livable city

Posted on April 7, 2010

National Geographic recently described Portland as the City that “…gets almost everything right; it’s friendly, sustainable, accessible, and maybe a model for America’s future” (Cover story, Dec. 2009). Portland has a shared vision of a livable city, articulated in many different ways. It is seen in neighborhood self-help projects, big municipal investments, enlightened developers that build infill projects consistent with city plans, and the highest recycling participation rate in the country.  Taken together Portland is a city that is environmentally responsible, and conscious of both street level and of global impact of doing things right.

Early History

Arguably, Portland’s first act of ‘building green’ was in 1892, when it built a reservoir network to protect and preserve the sole source of its drinking water, the pristine . Today, this 102-square mile conservation zone provides ample fresh water to a region of half million people

Fast forward almost 100 years and the same ethic motivated Portlanders to reject a Robert Moses-style highway plan in 1972, (the Mount Hood freeway), in favor of protecting neighborhoods and a strong downtown.  Then-Mayor Neil Goldschmidt joined forces with Multnomah County Commissioners Don Clark and Mel Gordon to divert the funds, and build a light-rail line to the city of Gresham instead. That same year, the City Council adopted its first Downtown Plan.  The City used the plan to reinvent the central city with new auto-free zones, public spaces, and a connection to the river.

Efforts at the state level matched Portland’s local efforts.  Then-Oregon Governor Tom McCall overcame Oregon’s long-reigning urban/rural divide by ushering in Senate Bill 100 in 1973. It is the most comprehensive state land regulation ever adopted in the United States.  Representative Earl Blumenauer, a young freshman state legislator at the time gathered enough momentum to pass the landmark Bike Bill, requiring bicycle and pedestrian improvements on all transportation projects that received funding from the state. Twenty years later, the federal government followed Blumenauer’s lead with the 1991 Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act.

Bicycle-Friendly City

With over 200 miles of bikeways (bike lanes, boulevards, and multi-use trails) and a 6% mode share, Portland is one of the best cities in the US to bike. In February 2010, Portland’s City Council voted unanimously to adopt the Portland Bicycle Plan for 2030 in addition to a $20 million kick start. The implementation of the plan is critical to: attracting new riders, strengthening bicycle policies, form a denser bikeway network, increase bike parking, expand programs to support bicycling, and increase funding for bicycling facilities

Bicycling contributes to healthy communities and vibrant neighborhoods, and an excellent example of this is Sunday Parkways. With a generous grant from the Environmental Protection Agency, Portland piloted Sunday Parkways in North Portland in conjunction with the International Car-free Conference in June 2008. Six miles – six hours of streets open to bicycling, walking, strolling, skating, and scootering crowded local North Portland streets. These thousands who participated and the community at large wanted more.

In 2009, the Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) worked with partners in the Police, Parks, Revenue, Environmental Services, and Planning and Sustainability Bureaus and with key sponsors Kaiser Permanente, Metro, and ORbike to organize three Sunday Parkways in North, Northeast, and Southeast Portland. Creating a uniquely Portland happening and inspired by the dozen Latin American cities that close streets to car traffic on Sundays, Sunday Parkways has become an institution in just two short years. With the leadership from Mayor Sam Adams, Portland is planning to bring Sunday Parkways to Portland residents five times all across the city in 2010.

Carbon Reduction Strategy

Concurrent with its efforts on streetcar, Portland adopted a carbon reduction strategy in 1993, the first US city to do so.  Relying heavily on public transit to meet its goals, this action was part of a broader effort to integrate sustainability into building design, energy conservation and recycling.   Portland and Multnomah County have jointly adopted an updated Climate Action Plan this year.

Planning for Livability

Currently Portland is engaged in major planning efforts to continue creating a livable region of neighborhoods. It is planning for the growth and development of our centers and transit systems, making bikes a more important part of our transportation networks and thinking about complete neighborhoods and learning. The City of Portland's citywide planning effort is branded as the Portland Plan. Metro, the regional MPO also has an ongoing planning for growth effort.

Transit – Streetcar & Light Rail

Like many cities in the late 1980’s, Portland felt threatened by suburban housing developments and business parks on the outskirts of the city center. In early 1990, the City initiated a Streetcar Feasibility Study to bring vitality into the inner city core. Within five years, construction was underway for the first 3 miles of streetcar line.  It was the first line to be built in the United States in over 50 years.  It was marked by more than $3 billion in new development along the route from Portland State University (PSU) through the celebrated Pearl District to the 23rd Avenue NW Neighborhood. The line now extends another four miles to Oregon Health and Science University and the aerial tram.  Another 3.3 mile extension to the City’s Central eastside is slated for completion in Spring 2012.

The Green Line, an 8.3 mile light rail extension, opened up in September 2009 bringing the total system length to 52.4 miles. Work has begun on 7.3 miles of light rail (target 2015 competition) connecting PSU, inner SE Portland, and the cities of Milwaukee and Oak Grove. Download the Portland Livability Flyer.

Contributors: Dan Bower(Portland Bureau of Transportation), Steve Dotterrer (Portland Bureau of Planning & Sustainability), Randy Gragg (Portland Monthly), Nancy Hales (First Stop Portland), and Hau Hagedorn (OTREC)

Tags: active transportation, bicycling, livability, transit-oriented development, transportation and land use

Comparing Active Transportation Approaches in China and Europe

Posted on March 14, 2010 in Presentations

In the last of the livability seminar series, OTREC’s visiting scholars program welcomed Shawn Turner†from the Texas Transportation Institute.†Shawn’s research spans the gamut of intelligent transportation systems data to bicycle and pedestrian issues.† Most recently, Shawn participated in the International Scan on Pedestrian and Bicyclist Safety and Mobility.† His presentation†compared his experiences on the†scan in Europe to those in China.† During his presentation, he posed three challenges to Oregon:

• How does active transportation contribute to economic development?
• What is the tipping point for behavior and behavioral change?
• Can vanity play a role†in social acceptance?

His presentation was followed by a discussion with local agencies, faculty, students and partners along with a 10-mile tour of innovative bike infrastructure in Portland.† Thank goodness the weather held up!

Tags: livability, otrec, shawn turner, texas transportation institute, visiting scholars program

FTA Perspective on Regional Implications of the Federal Livability Initiative

Posted on January 7, 2010 in Presentations

Rick Krochalis, Federal Transit Administration (FTA) Region X Administrator, recently kicked off the Center for Transportation Seminar Series on January 8th with a presentation on the Regional Implications of the Federal Livability Initiative. The presentation touched on the federal interagency partnership in addition to FTA’s involvement in the effort. Smart growth and transit-oriented development are not new concepts.  With growing congestion, energy use, greenhouse gas emissions, needs for maintaining a state of good repair on existing transportation systems in addition to a growing and aging and population in the United States; transit is playing a key role in helping address these issues.The seminar was followed with with a roundtable group discussion with TriMet and local partners; and meeting with faculty and students highlighting transit-related research. You can download the podcast or view the seminar if you missed the presentation.   Livability is also the theme for the winter transportation seminar series.

Tags: fta, livability, rick krochalis, transit

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