In my case, the Vancouver-Portland love-affair is literal. I married an Oregonian. But lots of Portlanders and Vancouverites have a platonic relationship, particularly planners, politicians and those interested in urban development.
A busload of admirers from down south showed up a few weeks ago, organized by Metro, the regional government of the Portland area, accompanied by a few reporters. Their stories are now coming in – and you can read this one from the Portland Tribune on the web. Here’s an excerpt:
People drew different lessons from the journey.
Halfway through the trip, Metro planner Marc Guichard stood on the rooftop patio of an eight-story condo tower, complete with putting green and birdhouses, and looked down on an exquisitely landscaped courtyard. Ten years in his field had worn him down, but “I feel revitalized,” he said.
Later, as the bus rolled through suburban Vancouver, Portland developer Bradley Malsin said the Canadian city, with its difficulty keeping jobs downtown, shows that Portland should place more emphasis on supporting jobs-oriented development, especially given the softening of the condo market in Portland.
“I think the residential market is a dangerous one,” he said.
“I saw lots of very cool ways to re-create a downtown that still feels like a community … and gets people out of their cars walking around,” Milwaukie city councilor Carlotta Collette said following the trip. She then turned downright giddy: “I’m charged!”
Gordon, a question I didn’t get to ask is why Vancouver seems to tolerate higher traffic speeds than Portland does? Our downtown grid is signalized for 12-18mph, yours seemed to be about 30mph (50kph)?
In New Westminster we saw a traditional downtown district with four lanes of (very noisy!) 50kph traffic running through it.