My NIMBY tower-dwelling old neighbors are all celebrating yet another years-long delay for a 30-story tower in #Portland's RiverPlace, just south of downtown. It's pretty pathetic. Here's the (paywall) article; I'll copy its entire contents in this thread: bizjournals.com/portland/news/… Here's the entire article (1/n):
FYI @maccoinnich, @andersem

The developer of a 30-story residential skyscraper on the Willamette said the project is indefinitely "on hold" after permitting took a long time and financing became too difficult to secure.

Thread, with lots of photos: Commerce Street (between S 21st and 23rd), the heart of #Tacoma's Brewery Blocks, *must* become CAR-FREE. Its potential is incredible!! Without cars, it could quickly become the most exciting, European-feeling corridor in the entire Pacific Northwest! Here's the Google Street View of the 2100 block of S Commerce St. Would this be a *glorious* car-free block or what? The couple I talked to (previous photo) agreed 100%! They walk their dog all the time, and they can't stand the cars, especially at night, when mischief happens.

Taking a break from the #CapitolSiege to ask everyone a question I ponder ALL the time: Which urban neighborhoods bordering major waterfronts offer safe *pedestrian* access to the actual WATER—and preferably to long linear parks offering > 1000’/300m of continuous water access? I've spent MANY hours looking at Google Maps for ways to walk to the river from residential neighborhoods in cities all over the U.S. Access is TERRIBLE. I'm sooo envious of #Vancouver, BC. It's frustrating how cut off we are by seawalls, railroads, industry, private homes... /2

The U.S. has ~300 cities whose population exceeds 100K. Most of them have "buffered" (by PAINT: 0 protection) bike lanes, with the (car) #parking lane along the curb. SWITCH the bike & parked car lane, and you'd have traffic-calming and a MUCH safer #cycling experience. @PBOTinfo I cannot stand seeing streets that are "improved" for "cyclists" by putting a wide bike lane *between* parked and moving cars. #Portland's N Denver Ave is a classic example. SWITCH the bike lane & car #parking lane; it solves many issues simultaneously! /2

1/ This thread will be a VERY sobering analysis of some of the $billions (and $trillions, when pensions are included) that go solely to the #police--not including fire departments & other emergency management divisions of municipal budgets. @alex_zee @NigelJaquiss 2/ I've been saying for many years that over-militarized #police departments cripple #cities' budgets at BEST--and are brutal & racist at worst. NYPD's annual budget: $5 billion!! @NYCMayor’s proposed $24M cut is well under *1/200th* of the budget.

String of eye-popping stats on how truly counterproductive expanding freeways is, taken from strongtowns.org/journal/2020/3… @StrongTowns @nomorefreeways @sarahforpdx @enobacon @oregonmetro @chrisformetro @PBOTinfo @OregonDOT @SunrisePDX @tinaintheburbs @BrentToderian @JeffSpeckAICP 1/7 Between 1993 & 2017, total freeway lane-miles in the 100 largest U.S. metro areas increased by 42% (31% more than the population growth of 32%). So, free-flow on highways resulted, right, DOTs? Wrong: congestion skyrocketed by 144% (4.5X higher than the population growth).

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