Portland, Episode 2

So how did Portland come to be a mecca of sustainability? I could have used 'the Google' to quote George dubya, but thought it was easier if I paid someone to tell me.  


The Best of Portland walking tour runs for about 2 hours and highlights...the best of Portland....with about 50% of the tour focused on how sustainability thinking became embedded in the DNA of the city and has assisted it cope with economic downturns.  My guide for the day was a big fan of how Portland has developed, having no car and being an avid bike commuter.  He also appeared to be an out of work comedian / actor, I suspected this as he often quoted obscure roles he'd been in through the tour, and was pretty amusing.

The story goes back to the early 1970s, before even I was born, when the Mayor at the time Tom McCall, was concerned that the downtown area of Portland was unliveable and suffering from the donut syndrome, where the centre empties out at the end of the day. In response he (and I'd assume a range of faceless contributors that time has forgotten) developed and implemented The Downtown Plan.


The Plan focused on defining a holistic vision for the city - setting stringent urban design requirements (building heights, set backs, activated frontages, line of sight requirements and a overarching urban growth boundary), defining a sustainable transport approach to how citizens would move about the city, and setting out how to integrate environmental considerations into city planning.  While a number of plans have set such a vision it's a credit to Portland that it's been implemented, and the guiding philosophy behind it has been reinforced by ensuing generations of governing parties.  In addition to the Downtown Plan, Portland was the first US city to use and convince the Federal Government to use its allocation of highway funding to develop a light rail system that hubs through the centre of the city.

Today Portland prides itself on being innovative and at the forefront of sustainable thinking.  Like a German automobile there's a whole range of initiatives or elements to the city that are clever, but not obvious on first inspection.  Examples include city recycling bins that are transparent and have openable backs so that the homeless can extract recyclables of value without putting their whole body in the bin, or solar powered waste bins that automatically compact the waste when 80% full and send a message to a central area about when the bin needs to be collected.  There are also initiatives that are becoming more common, such a electric vehicle charging stations (even more exciting a family with a Nissan 'Leaf' actually using it) and free wifi in public plazas, with power outlets built into the brick work.


My feeling is that without the Plan, Portland would be a very different place to what it is today, with the 11 steel bridges crossing the Willamette River, and, from what I could gather, traditionally leaden skies, it had the potential to be a grim place indeed.