Portland, Oregon, growth, and the roads "not taken" (Wilsonville: taxes, live)

[tablemtn]

One of the recurrent themes on this board and general Oregon debate has to do with this state's attitude toward "growth" - population and economic, mainly.

It's interesting to chart out the long-term population growth curves for Oregon and Washington:



After the turn of the last century, Washington's growth rate overtook that of Oregon, and the divergence has continued since then.

Portland was a prominent "freeway revolt" site back in the 1960's, unlike other western cities (aside from Vancouver in BC). The state's reputation in previous decades wasn't so much "anti-growth" as "insular," and many migrants gave it a pass in favor of other west-coast destinations.

How do current Oregon residents feel about this, though? Is there a certain value in being insular, even though it may be accompanied by slower growth and job creation than the state/city may be capable of?

As an exercise, here are the rough outlines of three other metro areas overlaid on top of Portland. The maps are courtesy of Google Maps.

Los Angeles:



Seattle:



Phoenix:



It's something to ponder...

[hamellr]

You can easily see where the jumps Population correlated to historic moments, the Alaskan Gold Rush, The Lewis and Clark Exposition, the WWI and WWII bumps in population.

Part of the problem is the Oregon got bypassed by economy in favor of Seattle due to the move from Wind and Steam power, to Gas powered ships. It also didn't help that two transcontinental lines hit Seattle within five years of the first one hitting Portland. The mountains in Northern California/Southern Oregon were easier to bypass with larger gauge trains.

The other problem is that Oregon's economy centers towards Timber too much, which keeps getting hit with various issues over the years.

Personally, I prefer the less populated state. It's nice to be able to drive an hour or two from town and be able to get away from everybody.

[jjpop]

This is really illuminating. I think both geography and land use laws are instrumental in the size of these three other metropolitan areas. Seemingly most of the easily-buildable flat land that is relatively close to the core has been built out. Contrast that with Portland--particularly south of Wilsonville where there is still a lot of flat land, but we obviously have valued maintaining high quality agricultural land over suburban sprawl.

There are a lot of folks who deride Oregon's choice to preserve agricultural lands, because this choice has resulted in higher property costs and smaller lots. But I think the real beneficiaries of these difficult choices that we have made over the past few decades will be our grandchildren and great grandchildren.

[UrbanAdventurer]

I've always thought Astoria/Warrenton would have made more sense than Portland as a bigger metro area because of the easy port access.

[Mclaurin]

Yes, I agree, smaller was the winner. Interesting to see the significance in patterns of development from a historical perspective.

Yes, what are we going for here?

As a native Oregonian, I am hard pressed to see the value in the "growth". Come on. Successful companies understand the perils of rapid growth.

Who actually profits? The growth I have seen where I live has lead to companies who are based outside of Oregon. The profits leave. So what's in it for me? Nothing but more crowded roads. The thought that ports may have been larger could have lead to a Vancouver situation. Foreign investment driving our housing markets crazy.

What I like seriously is seeing people ride bikes all around. They are teaching us the value of enjoying life and being healthy. Anyone who wants to move here, move into/remodel an existing structure...not build new....are welcome here in my way of looking at the world. Come on down. Just don’t put stress further stress on the roadways. I drive, so I am a hypocrite, but I don’t honk at least.

Start a business to employ the all of the young people who have moved here and want a job...all the better. Don't increase the driving load. Keep the benefits here. Let them pay taxes if they are doing business here.

[SIZE=3]The other group, wanting to increase the 1-5 corridor…I wished they’d go home. Along with the one’s who honk from their cars. I would rather they go too, or stop honking. [/SIZE]