Back in 2017, Portland, Oregon enacted new inclusionary zoning policies mandating that all new residential projects with 20 or more units must deliver a specified amount of affordable housing. Early accounts, by people like Joe Cortright of City Observatory, suggested that the market was reacting… Read More
All posts tagged “portland”
Where developers won’t build even with $0 land
Building on yesterday’s post about inclusionary zoning, below is a telling diagram from the Urban Land Institute showing which areas of Portland can support new development and which areas cannot. To create this map, ULI looked at achievable rents in each US census block to… Read More
City stereotypes
The New Yorker recently published a “daily shout” on Instagram called, How You Know You’ve Made It, by City. It is essentially a series on city stereotypes, and it’s pretty funny. Sorry Cleveland. If you can’t see the embed below, click here.
Eliminating single-family zoning
There is something happening in many North American cities right now. We are starting to question the supremacy of zoning for only single-family homes. This past summer, the state of Oregon passed policy requiring cities of 25,000 people or more to allow duplexes, triplexes, and… Read More
These 3 things happened after Portland enacted inclusionary zoning
On February 1, 2017, an inclusionary zoning ordinance came into effect in Portland, mandating that all new residential projects with 20 or more units dedicate a portion of the building to affordable housing. For the first year, the requirement was 8% of all units for… Read More
A picture of dynamic road pricing
Below is a photo of Interstate 95 near Miami, which, for the record, I myself did not take while driving. The two empty lanes that you see are the “Express Lanes.” The price for using these lanes varies based on demand. During periods of low demand,… Read More
Red tide, scooters, and civic security
I am reading up on a few different things this morning. Southwest Florida, which is where I am right now, is in the midst of a “red tide” that began last November. These happen fairly regularly along the Gulf Coast, but this one is high… Read More
Portland is considering whether to solve traffic congestion
Chris Hagerbaumer is the deputy director of the Oregon Environmental Council. She recently delivered the below testimony on “variable traffic-based tolls”, a form of road pricing. This is something we have talked a lot about here on the blog. Oregon is currently looking at implementing this on… Read More
Car-dependent spatial structure
Earlier this week a 58 year old woman named Dalia was struck and killed by a car near the University of Toronto’s downtown campus. This tragedy has everyone talking about and questioning how to make our roads safer, though the answers are not difficult to… Read More
One year of Inclusionary Housing in Portland
About a year ago, Portland enacted “Inclusionary Housing” policy requiring new apartment buildings of 20 units or more to offer up a portion of the units at below market rents. Developers are able to select from a few different options and the rents are calculated according… Read More