Portland’s Mayor on the “20-minute Neighborhood”

Notes from “Active Transportation in Portland,” a lecture by Portland Mayor Sam Adams, at the SFU City Program, Vancouver, earlier this evening.

- Stats: Population 570,00. 143 square miles, surrounded by urban growth boundary.

- Sam is the mayor but also the city’s transportation commissioner.

- Out of 143 square miles, 73 miles are pervious pavement, ie water flows through and into the ground rather than over.

- We have six watersheds, one of the most liveable in the United States, one of the most environmentally friendly and conscious cities in the united states.

- We are working to organize Portland to accept the realities and be inspired and creative in our decision-making, as we look to put together the Portland Plan, a plan for the next 20 years. It is really around this concept of 20-minute neighborhoods connected by green and multi-modal corridors.

- Back in the 1970s we established a robust definition of the “common good.” We drew a line around ourselves and protected farms and forests. We are not allowed to grow beyond that line except under certain conditions. We have some of the nation’s toughest land use laws.

- The word of the day and the future is multi-modalism. It is what we believe in in Portland, the American culture is marinating in the love for the car.

- A 20 minute neighborhood is a livable neighborhood — one in which you can get what you need and want within a 20 minute walk or bike ride from your home. We are in the process of analysis how many of our homes fall into that radius.

- We’ve found that two-thirds of our trips are not about community, they are about procuring stuff.

- In the next 20 years, most Portland neighborhoods will be connected by streetcars.

- We spent $125 million on eight miles of street cars during the Bush years, there was no federal funding. We raised local money, parking garage fees, we put together a pool of funding through the central city of Portland. It is some of the best money we have ever spent.

- Nothing else that we spend money on gets the private-sector response the way the streetcar does.

- We have a proposal to spend $24M on 110 miles of bike boulevards.

- Our research shows that people that drive are scared to death that they will hit a bicycle. Meanwhile, people who don’t ride bikes are scared to death they are going to get hit by a car. We are expanding “bike boulevard” network - secondary roads with dedicated lanes, boulevards and trails.

- We have 20,000 people in our “Bridge Pedal” every year; we shut down part of eight bridges. There are a high percentage of people who bike once a year at this bridge pedal. We use it as a way to get more info and market them on the bike, ped, and transit options in their neighborhoods.

- I am proud to be mayor of Portland, but it is high praise on a very low standard. We have not had a federal government hat have prioritized transit, that care much about cities. We have had to fight and claw our way for funding. The last eight years of the Bush administration have been incredibly punishing for cities and sustainability.

- We have reduced our per capita greenhouse gases and reduced our overall GhGs by 1 percent from 1990 levels. We do this by focusing on smart growth.

- 2050 goal: 80 percent reductions, 2030 interim goal: 40 percent reduction.

- Not pitching people with guilt. I pitch with “I can save you money.” I can make portland more economically competitive. Portlanders drive about 20 percent less than other cities in the United States. Portlanders spend net $800 million less every year on cars than the average american city. That is money that they are using for other things, that improves quality of life.

- There is a section of the population that is green and gets it. There is a bigger percentage where I need to make other arguments that Portlanders can have as good or better life than they have now.

- How do you have the political culture that makes this possible? We have a lot of wonks. Voter turnout in Portland is 85 percent. You have to work really hard with the numbers to make them understandable to folks. A lot of geeky wonky research. It is also you need to meet people where they’re at; people want options. And be responsive. And stick with it. We’re also blessed with a very progressive business community, they look to more than just the bottom line.

- We compete against the east side of the United States and Canada for high speed rail. [Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson] and I, along with the Mayor of Seattle, are going to fight hard to get investments in passenger rail between our cities.

- The next level is person-to-person change and household-to-household change. Providing people with options that they will actually act on.

- There is just something about getting on rail transit. We get a whole different set of ridership on streetcars than we do on buses.

Streetcar image: pchurch92.