Katz is Back!
Posted by: kmikeym
Just read on KGW.com that former Mayor Katz is going back to work:
A public relations agency called The Gallatin Group has hired 75-year-old Katz as a media consultant. The agency says she will call upon her decades of public service in Oregon as she advises Gallatin's clients. Her first client will be the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI).
I'm very happy she is doing better, and I look forward to her continued impact on Portland.
BOOM! PDX For The Win!
Posted by: kmikeym
For the third year in a row Portland International Airport wins "Best Airport." From the Business Journal:
PDX received the top overall score, and the magazine noted the airport's green initiatives, including the 28 solar panels installed on a canopy between the terminal and parking garage, and how the airport's restaurants collect used oil and grease for conversion into biofuel.
Portland's Smart Tower
Posted by: kmikeym
I am jealous of the Space Needle. And the St. Louis Arch. And those other iconic structures that define cities. Portland doesn't have anything like that... yet.
Portland Architecture has a post about Hanna & Mulvanny G2's SMART Tower proposal, originally a proposal for the redevelopment of the Portland Visitors Information Center on waterfront park (the bicycle waystation idea won), and now looking for a new home.
... the tower has a twisting shape with functions at the base and top, and wind turbines comprising about the middle two-thirds. The idea is that this is a "SMART Tower."The tower relies on an innovative turbine developed in Holland called the Turby that Hanna describes as "the most advanced urban wind turbine. It can go on top of or on the side of buildings; it can take updrafts and sidedrafts and winds from all different directions."
The Smart Tower already has a wikipedia page and if it was built to it's proposed 650 feet it would be the tallest building in Portland. The architect firm is at mulvannyg2.com, and Randy Gragg interviewed the developer.
The part I really like from the interview is when Rand Gragg asks about the costs:
Randy G: Are you looking for R&D money from the city?DH: No, it's on our dime. The business plan makes sense. It doesn't need subsidy.
Randy G: So if you build it, what will the city get in rent?
DH: Five percent of our gross: $500,000 to $1.5 million per year. That would be the most revenue the city gets from any property. Plus we'll light the park, put in 10 restrooms, and provide a beautiful 30,000-square-foot canopy in Waterfront Park!
A big ambitious project that not only pays for itself, but also provides funds back to the city! What an amazingly terrific idea.
MLS by 2011
Posted by: kmikeym
As reported all over the place, the owner of the Timbers wants to go to the major leagues! My favorite headline is from OPB, Major League Soccer Team Possible In Portland By 2011, because nothing says FUTURE and AWESOME more than a date like 2011.
The plan is pretty awesome. Renovate PGE Park as a soccer stadium, and build a new baseball stadium in SE Portland. Commissioner Randy Leonard says he's ready to support a financing plan, and both Saltzman and Fish say they could support some public financing. Mayor Potter grumped about price a little (but he is leaving office, so it doesn't matter what he thinks).
There is a nice website up at MLStoPortland.com with more info about the plan and some actions you can take (email city officials!).
I know this isn't a done deal, and may not happen at all, but it's very exciting to me and it's hard not get my hopes up.
PDC Takes A Risk On Streetcar
Posted by: kmikeym
The Oregonian reports that the Portland Development Commission approved $5 million for design and engineering of a new streetcar route that would go across the broadway bridge and down to OMSI on the east side of the Willamette.
The risk is that the Federal Transit Authority has not yet agreed to provide grants for the construction of the new line, and without those funds Portland can't afford to extend the streetcar.
Best Cities For Design
Posted by: kmikeym
Brian Libby of the Portland Architecture blog posted about how Portland Ranked #5 In "Best Cities For Design" List. The list was compiled by RMJM Hillier, one of the world's largest architecture firms.
The rankings were based on ten criteria: public transit systems, LEED certified or registered buildings, art and design universities, museums, sustainability rankings, architecture awards, employees in creative industries, housing and community design awards, and buildings on the National Historic Register. MJMH then commissioned a public opinion and research firm to interview over 1000 residents of those cities on architecture and design issues and incorporated those results into the research to determine the final rankings.
The days of urban sprawl are over ...
Posted by: kmikeym
Richard Florida (the man who coined the phrase "creative class") wrote a column in the Globe and Mail titled The days of urban sprawl are over ... but not for the reasons you think. The point of the article is that:
Rising energy costs may be the proverbial straw that is breaking the camel's back, but the geographic transformation we are living through is driven by something far bigger than high prices at the gas pump.
He says:
We are now passing through the early development of a wholly new geographic order - what geographers call "the spatial fix" - of which the move back toward the city is just one part.
... in today's idea-driven economy, it's time costs that really matter. ... it makes little sense to waste countless collective hours commuting. And, according to detailed research by the Nobel Prize-winning economist Daniel Kahneman, commuting is among the least enjoyable, if not the single least enjoyable, of all human activities.
Thus, urban cores are again becoming centres for technology, jobs and economic growth. Leading-edge companies are recognizing the value of an urban location.
While we are in the early development of this new economic geography, one trend is clear: The history of economic development and of capitalism revolves around the more intensive use of urban space. The coming decades will thus probably see greater concentrations of people, increasing densities, and further clustering of industry, work and innovation in a smaller number of humongous cities and mega-regions globally.
This article isn't specifically about Portland, but I wonder if Portland will be helped or hurt by this trend. Two ways is could hurt are, a) a "brain drain" where the best and brightest are lured to larger cities with more opportunities, or b) a swelling population that eventually dilutes the essence of Portland.
I don't really think we're at risk of losing our Portland-ness, and I'm pretty optimistic about the estimated influx of people that are expected to move here over the next ten years or so. More people means we'll have more opportunities and can support more ambitious projects and ideas.
Old Town Uwajimaya
Posted by: kmikeym
It's looking like Uwajimaya is going to happen, which is really exciting. Mike Thelin describes it best over at Portland Spaces:
... a 40,000-square foot store capped by 140 units of low-income housing and possibly a restaurant in what's currently a surface parking lot between Fourth and Fifth Avenues and Streets Davis and Couch. This development would give Old Town what it most needs: a reason for people to go there.
You Get What You Pay For
Posted by: kmikeym
In December of 2005 the City of Portland had a "wire cutting" ceremony which left us feeling concerned about the promise of Portland's Wi-Fi cloud. If you look at the Metro-Fi website today it sure does look like they have covered a large part of Portland:
But of course personal experience and Unwire PDX Watch have shown that the cloud they built is a myth and a recent Mercury article proclaims the project is Dead in the water. None of this comes as any real surprise. The only people who ever seemed to think anything would come of this project were MetroFi and the City, and neither have much of a successful track record when it comes to technology implementation. In the end you get what you pay for, and Portland's poor decision to try to get a free Wi-Fi cloud is the real cause of the failure.
(Whenever Wi-Fi networks fail one is obligated to bring up wonderful Hermiston.)
POPSCI: Portland #1 Green City
Posted by: kmikeym
According to Popular Science magazine's America's Greenest Cities article, Portland is ranked number #1!
"America's top green city has it all: Half its power comes from renewable sources, a quarter of the workforce commutes by bike, carpool or public transportation, and it has 35 buildings certified by the U.S. Green Building Council."
