Category Commentary

The Week Observed, January 14, 2022

What City Observatory did this week What does equity mean when we have a caste-based transportation system? Transportation and planning debates around the country increasingly ponder how we rectify long-standing inequities in transportation access that have disadvantaged the poor and people…

Transportation trends and disparities

If you aren’t talking about our two-caste transportation system, you’re not really addressing equity. Portland’s regional government is looking forward at trends in the transportation system and their implications for equity.  In December, City Observatory submitted its analysis of these…

The Week Observed, January 7, 2022

What City Observatory did this week 1. Metro’s failing climate strategy. Portland Metro’s Climate Smart Strategy, adopted in 2014, has been an abject failure. Portland area transportation greenhouse gasses are up 22 percent since the plan was adopted: instead of falling by…

The Week Observed, January 28, 2022

What City Observatory did this week Why Portland shouldn’t be moving elementary and middle schools to widen freeways.  We’re pleased to publish a guest commentary from Adah Crandall, a high school sophomore and climate activist, who recently testified to the…