ENVISIONING PORTLANDIA:

The Evolution of Civic Vision and Urban Redevelopment in Portland, Oregon

 

 

Keynote Presentation by Steven C. Ames

Principal, Steven Ames Planning, Portland, Oregon USA

International Cities and Town Centres Conference

Caloundra, Queensland, Australia

18-21 August, 2002

INTRODUCTION

In preparing my remarks for today, I discovered that I had a Muse. Her name is Portlandia and she is the lady pictured in the official seal of the City of Portland, Oregon, where she stands in a classical robes, trident in hand, welcoming commerce to our city. But, there's another Portlandia, too... and she's a statue.

When the new Portland Building for city offices was built in the early 1980s, it was considered the first major example of "postmodern" architecture in the United States. A big, garish jukebox-like structure straight out of Batman's Gotham, the building's designers wanted to include a signature piece of public art that could stand up to the new building. It also had to perch high on a pedestal several stories above the street.

Portlandia, the statue, was the result. But, rather than have her standing, the sculptor decided to have her kneeling, fixing her gaze downward and reaching out to the people on the street below.

Now, Portlandia is a handsome lady, but she is also rather large: 11 meters high and weighing in at roughly 6.5 tons. In fact, after the Statue of Liberty, she is the biggest hammered copper sculpture in the U.S. Portlandia is so big, in fact, that she had to be placed onto a barge and floated into the city.

From there, she was hoisted onto a truck for the final few blocks of her journey. More than 20,000 people turned out that day, lining the streets, crowding around to touch her for the first and last time before she was raised into position high above the street. It was a very Portland kind of event, marking another milestone in a chain of visionary projects.

In truth, most Portlanders were never thrilled with the Portland Building, but Portlandia was another story. With her democratic gesture, her artfulness, even a touch of whimsy, Portlandia captured the essence that is Portland. You could even say that she symbolizes the joining of vision and development that has become a hallmark of this city. And that is what I'd like to talk about today.

But, first... greetings from Portland, located at the confluence of the Columbia and Willamette rivers in the Pacific Northwest, in the one the world's great coastal temperate rainforests. Given its geography and politics, some people have taken to calling this place the Upper Left Coast. In truth, the Northwest has always been a little different from the rest of the U.S. - independent, environmental, sometimes progressive. And Portland seems to take all those qualities a step further.

It's been said that after arrival of the first white settlers in the old Oregon Territory, those people who wanted to make a lot of money headed north to Seattle... and those who wanted to make good government stayed in Portland. And that is how it seems to have turned out. Portland today is a very civic-minded place - a place where candidates for public office run on non-partisan tickets, policy discussions at the Portland City Club are considered a hot ticket, and people at dinner parties are as likely to talk about growth management and "traffic calming" as they are about the NBA or the latest Russell Crowe movie.

Despite a large number of cloudy wet days, people typically come to Portland because of its mild climate, lush greenery, and access to nature. Portland has the largest nature preserve inside a city in the U.S., and is about an hour's drive from Mt. Hood, the Columbia River Gorge, and the Pacific Ocean, depending on which direction you are headed. Theoretically, you could snowboard, windsurf and go clamming in one day - if you drove a Ferrari. Portlanders, however, all seem to drive Volvos.

People may come to Portland for the environment, but they typically stay because of its urban amenities - the fountains and squares, festivals and market places, light rail and streetcars - things that happen when a civic-minded culture in the midst of nature tries to carry that quality of life into its man-made environment. Portland is a city of bookstores, bicyclers, microbreweries, more coffee shops than I could possibly count, and, lately, more nose rings than I would care to. It's also a place where people love to live, hate to leave, and try not to talk about too much for fear that others actually might want to move there.

Envisioning Portlandia

And, that's what I would like to talk about today. No... not about moving to Portland, but rather, about how it came to be such a livable place. It's really a story about one city's continuous efforts to envision a better future for itself, and then to work over time, both systematically and serendipitously, to make that vision a reality.

Today, I'd like to touch down on a few key themes. They are:

• the tradition of civic vision that reaches deep into Portland's history;
• competing visions that fought for the soul of Portland in the 20th century - and the vision that ultimately won;
• Portland's waterfront as a case study in vision and urban redevelopment;
• lessons we might glean from Portland in the 20th century; and,
• finally, the emerging vision for greater Portland in the 21st century and a few examples of urban redevelopment that have resulted.

But, before I begin, let me express a few caveats...

• First, I hope you will indulge me in a bit of old-fashioned civic pride. Portland is a city that inspires people to say, "Yes, we can do things better." More than bricks and mortar, it's our process, I think, that has been the interesting story.
• Second, Portland is definitely a work in progress. Even as the reputed Mecca of planning in America, Portland is a far cry from Utopia. I could show you neglected areas of our city, where a vision is sorely needed and redevelopment has yet to take hold.
• Third, Portland is also an experiment. Certainly, the greater Portland region is charting new directions that are very different from most American cities. In time, I think they will see the wisdom and foresight in what we are doing.
• Fourth, I'm not an architect, developer or builder; so I can't tell you much about how specific urban redevelopment projects were designed or financed, but I can tell you something about how they were planned and the kind of impact they've had.
• Finally, from what I've seen already, there's much that we Portlanders can learn from the great cities of Australia, and that is something to which I look forward to - both at this conference and in the rest of my travels.

CIVIC VISION

Adjacent to Portland's Saturday Market in Skidmore Old Town, is the city's first official piece of public art. Dedicated in 1888, Skidmore Fountain features two Grecian maidens bearing a vessel that spills water into a large pool. Framed by cobbled streets and the vendors of America's largest permanent crafts market, Skidmore Fountain is an urban jewel and my favorite fountain in a city that is full of them. What I like most about it is the quiet inscription chiseled in granite below the pool. It says: "Good citizens are the riches of a city."

Skidmore Fountain was originally set up as a watering station for work horses in this river town, although the fun-loving founder of Portland's first brewery proposed pumping ale through it instead. Unfortunately, that never happened, but not only did the fountain become an enduring part of our landscape, it was also very prescient in its claim about citizenship. Good citizens are Portland's wealth. More important, they have imbued our city with a rich tradition of vision.

A Tradition of Civic Vision

The history of Portland, like many cities, is a story of the tension between economic progress and civic betterment. More often than not, it was progress that ruled the day as the new city was carved out of the wilderness. But, from its earliest days, Portland also demonstrated this curious tendency towards self-improvement, resulting in a string of redevelopment projects over the years. This visionary urge seems to have sprung from several sources...

• First, there was Portland's strong sense of place shaped by the natural environment. In a city from which you could see several volcanic peaks on a clear day, there were ever-present reminders that people were part of something much bigger than themselves and their daily enterprises. Today, we might call this "quality of life".
• Second, there was a spirit of independence that came with being a frontier society located at the far edge of a new continent. Basically, this was the last stop for the American city - one might even say the last chance. It seemed to make for a people who were willing to do things differently - and sometimes better.
• Third, there were quirks of history and geography. Take, for example, the tiny 200-foot blocks used to form Portland's original downtown grid - about one-third the size of a city block you'd find in Chicago. This was done for purely economic reasons - to maximize marketable corner commercial spaces. But, it gave the city something far more valuable: narrow streets and an intimate, small-town quality. And this provided wonderful windows of opportunity in the years to come.
• Fourth, there was a succession of visionary individuals over the years. Some were locals - daring political leaders or uppity citizens - and some were from other places. If you are a student of planning, architecture or landscape design, you may recognize names like John Olmsted, Edward Bennett, Lewis Mumford or Ada Louise Huxtable. They all came to Portland, and they taught us how we might do things better. Sometimes, we even paid attention.

In the long view of history, Portland made a lot of mistakes - some of them very big. But it seemed to learn from them; and sometimes its best efforts came in trying to right past wrongs. It also achieved some remarkable results. I'd like now to share with you a few of the unique visions from Portland's past and the resulting realities that still shape our city today.

Vision: A "Cathedral" of Trees

One hundred and fifty years ago, in 1852, a prominent Portlander dedicated 26 linear blocks near the edge of the small town to the community, and they were designated as a "promenade park." At the time the city was known as "Stumptown" because so much of the immediate vicinity had been logged off. But, the new "Park Blocks" were seen as a civic amenity and an investment in the future of the city. A quarter century later, they were formally landscaped with American elms. The vision was that, in time, the Park Blocks would become a "cathedral" of trees. The full extent of the Park Blocks was never completely realized - in fact, a number of blocks were sold off for development over the years, severing the park into two. Still, the mainstay was preserved. In retrospect, it was a remarkable act of foresight, blossoming from the seed of a simple idea.

Today, Portland's Park Blocks have achieved their original vision, offering an oasis of greenery in the heart of downtown. All manner of public amenities - a performing arts complex, historical center, art museum, and university campus - have grown up around the park's edges. Recently, a group of prominent civic leaders have been working on a proposal to reclaim the blocks lost to development, uniting the two sections once again. This would mean removing several blocks of older buildings. Pundits and naysayers say that will never happen, but then, they haven't been around for 150 years.

Vision: A Parkway to the Trains

In 1912, Edward Bennett, a Chicago architect famous for his involvement in the City Beautiful movement, was retained by the City to develop the "Greater Portland Plan", a precursor of today's regional Plan. Bennett's plan included spectacular visualizations, including a system of grand streets radiating out from West Burnside, Portland's main drag and a crowded, gritty working street. One stately parkway would run along the North Park Blocks to a proposed new train station, linking pedestrians, cars and rail. Bennett's vision laid forth a scale of planning never imagined in Portland, and it seemed more than the city could ever muster.

And yet, today, 90 years later, the city's Transit Mall, provides a similar, if less grand, approach to a recently refurbished Union Station, linking pedestrians and automobiles to trains, overland buses, city buses - and by extension, light rail, the airport, and points beyond. Burnside Street never approached anything like Bennett's vision. But today, the city is engaged in a process to re-vision the entire Burnside corridor, implementing major improvements. And they have not forgotten Bennett's plan.

Vision: A Place for People in the Heart of the City

Back in 1890, a group of developers raised money to construct one of the grand hotels of the west coast. For 60 years, the old Portland Hotel was the premier gathering place for Portlanders in the heart of their City. But, by the 1940s, the hotel had fallen on tough times. The old building was unceremoniously razed and replaced with a parking lot in 1951.

In the late 1960s, a 10-story parking structure was proposed on the same site. But times had changed, and the proposal set off a firestorm of protest. Citizens argued passionately that more parking would only aggravate downtown pollution and hinder revitalization. What was needed, they said, were "walkways, parks and people" - in short, a public square. The City's Plan Commission killed the parking structure proposal and called for a new downtown plan that would balance cars and people.

In the meantime, the square's backers pushed ahead with their proposal. First, however, they had to convince local merchants as to the value of their vision, find a way to accommodate displaced parking, negotiate to buy the land, come up with a design that satisfied diverse interests, and raise the money to build the square. Each step provided huge hurdles - including last minute maneuvers by a few civic leaders who felt that a free public space would attract undesirable people. When a new and unsympathetic Mayor threatened to kill the deal by withdrawing funding, the square's promoters found the money themselves, literally getting citizens to buy their square - brick by brick. And it worked. Sixty-five thousand bricks were purchased and the square was built.

In 1984, 33 years after the Portland Hotel was torn down, Pioneer Courthouse Square was born. I attended the celebration with 9,000 other people and it was a party I won't forget. Time magazine called the square one of the 10 most notable design achievements in America - the first of a new generation of public spaces designed to be programmed and used. Portlanders called it the city's "living room". Located adjacent to light rail and the Portland Transit Mall, the square today is the most central, strategic block in the region. Twenty-one thousand people pass by every day.

Pioneer Courthouse Square is a place where people go to see and be seen, champion their causes, and feel part of a community. There are tree-lighting ceremonies, speeches by presidents and cultural figures like the Dalai Lama, political demonstrations, floral shows and rock concerts. It's our Alexanderplatz, Spanish Steps and Speakers' Corner rolled into one and stuffed into a very intimate space. It even has it's own Starbucks... gotta have coffee.

So, in its genes, it seems, Portland has always had a tradition of trying to envision a better image of itself. But it also has had to overcome it's own shortsightedness, greed and petty politics to see its visions through. In some cases, they took decades to manifest. And for most the 20th century, the city struggled to decide if it had a larger vision for its future - and what kind of vision it would be.

COMPETING VISIONS

In July 1938, Lewis Mumford, the great American urban thinker stepped up to the podium at the City Club of Portland, the city's leading forum for public discourse. He had been touring the region, and was visibly impressed by its awesome natural setting. His message that day had a prophetic quality that would reveal itself only many years later:

Mumford said, "I have seen a lot of scenery in my life, but I have seen nothing so tempting as a home for man as this Oregon country... You have here a basis for civilization on its highest scale, and I am going to ask you a question which you may not like. Are you good enough to have this country in your possession? Have you got enough intelligence, imagination and cooperation among you to make the best use of these opportunities?"

To his startled audience, Mumford continued. "... In providing for new developments you have an opportunity here to do a job of city planning like nowhere else in the world... Most city planners think if they can make more and more automobiles pass a certain point in a given time, they have accomplished their task. (But) good city planning begins with giving the best possible life for man and woman in the city... "

Not long after Mumford's visit, World War II began. After the War came a time of unparalleled urban expansion in America, dominated by the automobile in every conceivable way. And as far as I know, Mumford never returned

Actually, the postwar era in Portland is really the story of two visions - one, the dominant vision, of a society whose every aspect would be shaped to accommodate the advancing automobile, and the other, a less well-formed vision, hinting of a possible future that put people before cars. In today's language, it was essentially a question of drivability versus livability. For at least three decades, from World War II until the mid-1970s, the automotive vision utterly ruled - and nearly destroyed - downtown Portland. It was not necessarily the future that had been advanced by some of Portland's earliest visionaries, but it reflected the reality of the times in America - and Portland was no exception.

Vision: Drivable Portland

In the years following the war, the nation took to wheels on inexpensive gas and America's modern interstate highway system was born. Portland's power brokers were ready. They hired Robert Moses, the famous New York City developer and highway mogul, to prepare a plan for postwar Portland. As it turned out, this Moses led his chosen people into a different kind of wilderness.

The Moses plan was created with little local input. He and his associates booked the top floor of a local hotel and worked behind closed doors. As the story goes, when the Mayor of Portland dropped by to inquire as to their progress, Moses told him to go away and not come back until the plan was done. Adopted in 1943, the Moses plan set into motion a system of freeways and massive bridges that today encircle Portland's central city and utterly dominate the east bank of the Willamette River. The idea was to fight urban decay and keep downtown alive by allowing easy access for suburban commuters. But, to some, it actually advanced urban decay by destroying neighborhoods and driving people out of the city.

That the Moses plan and the vision that drove it had an impact on Portland is undeniable, but the reality that resulted was not anticipated. The Postwar period - from 1945 to roughly 1970 - saw the removal of Portland's old streetcars, destruction of many of its historic buildings, and in their place, a profusion of surface parking lots. Downtown Portland was losing its primacy as an urban center, as people and businesses fled to new suburbs. In 1940, 61 percent of the region's population lived in Portland; by 1970, only 38 percent lived in the city, even though the population had doubled. Ultimately, what was left was an 8-hour working downtown, with fading amenities, and scarce housing, mainly for the people who couldn't afford to leave.

In 1970, Ada Louise Huxtable, the well-known architecture critic, visited Portland. In an interview with the local paper, she minced no words. "In Portland," she said, "the cohesive and intimately scaled core city is being decimated for parking lots and parking garages. The trend can only lead to total physical disintegration. But here, as elsewhere, there is no sign that anyone is willing to take anything except his car, whatever the urban consequences may be."

Vision: Livable Portland

It was about this time that the citizens of Portland began to recognize that the probable future of their city was not what they might have envisioned - if anyone had bothered to ask. It was a time of heightened community activism, and something caught fire. In a variety of actions and campaigns, citizens rejected the implicit vision of Moses, and began to put in its place a new, de facto vision that put people before cars. One of the first flash points was the battle over the parking structure in the heart of downtown. Next came a protracted campaign to reclaim Portland's west bank waterfront, for 30 years held captive by a highway. Then, there was the titanic struggle over the crown jewel of the Moses freeway plan, the proposed Mt. Hood Freeway, which if built would displace entire neighborhoods and destroy more than 1,700 homes.

This shift in public thinking was reflected in the new Downtown Plan launched in the early 1970s and a watershed in Portland planning history. The plan established limits on the amount of parking, promoted mass transit, and encouraged pedestrian amenities and street level commercial activity. It was followed by the Central City Plan, and a succession of other visioning and planning efforts. Unlike before, citizens were actively involved in all of these planning efforts.

By the beginning of the 1980s, the new citizen-driven, people-oriented vision had won striking victories: the parking structure had been stopped, the riverfront highway was removed, and the Mt. Hood Freeway was cancelled - its funding reallocated to construct the Portland Transit Mall and launch the beginning of a new light rail system. From these early activist beginnings, a new era of civic vision had been inaugurated, and it gathered momentum through the rest of the century.

Today, Portland has been reborn from the shell of its once dying downtown. The vision of a livable city has become the dominant paradigm for downtown, the central city, and, one could even argue, the entire region. It is certainly the driver of local and regional planning. A large number of second and third generation projects have been unleashed, and urban revitalization has rippled across the region. Perhaps most important, the central city has reaffirmed its status as the primary regional center.

Extensive redevelopment has brought new life to the heart of the city. Downtown employment, office space, and retail footage have all increased dramatically from the early 1970s. Moreover, entertainment, culture and nightlife have been revived, and more people are moving back into the city to take advantage of these and other amenities. Downtown is a 16-hour city, moving rapidly toward the goal of 24/7. The wholesale destruction of historic buildings has long since been reversed, too late to save some of the best examples of our architectural heritage, but enough to remind us of the way it once was. Now, older structures are being converted into new offices, housing and boutique hotels.

Much of Portland's revitalization has been driven by an aggressive agenda for public transit and transit-oriented development. Today, a large number of downtown workers commute via public transit - one of the highest rates in the nation. The automobile, always a force to be contended with, has been wrestled into place, and public transit and pedestrians have become driving forces in the re-design of downtown and the central city.

The Portland area continues to expand its regional light rail system. The first major leg was opened in 1987 and the second leg in 1998. Today, we are constructing the third leg and planning for a fourth. In 2001, we launched a separate urban streetcar system, linking the densest neighborhoods in the central city, and it is already in the process of being expanded. And this year, we opened an additional light rail light line linking the airport directly to downtown.

Not surprisingly, the kudos and accolades have been rolling in... In recent years, Portland has been variously designated America's most livable city, the most bicycle-friendly city, and one of the best walking towns - not to mention the most kid-friendly city, one of the best cities for retirement, one of top arts destinations, and, my personal favorite, the "most wired city" in the U.S. (I think they're talking about Internet access... not coffee.)

While Portland's reputation as one of the best-planned cities in North America has earned it raves, it has also generated rants from some quarters. Some in the homebuilding and highway lobbies are not amused by the Portland vision. They spend a lot of time trying to discredit the region, its growth management policies and its mass transit system, somehow perceiving these things to be a threat to the American way of life. But, frankly, most Portlanders believe in the vision of a livable city, most Portland developers seem quite happy to make their money in a planned environment, and most businesses that come here do so, in part, because of the livability that planning has helped guarantee and the enticements it offers to skilled workers.

More on all this later... but first I'd like to tell you one more story...

WATERFRONT VISIONS

The history of Portland's competing visions is perhaps best illustrated in the saga of the city's downtown waterfront. It's a legendary parable of competing visions and urban redevelopment that spans an entire century, and I'd like now to give you a quick visual tour:

In 1903, the great Boston landscape architect John Olmsted prepared a Master Plan for the Portland Park Board in which he envisioned a comprehensive park system for the city. Among the many concepts he introduced was a series of squares along the downtown waterfront, which, he said "would become, in time, exceedingly valuable as pleasure grounds." However, Portland's waterfront in those days was anything but a walk in the park. In fact, the Willamette River was a working river dominated by commerce, and the river's front was a jumble of boats, docks and warehouses. It was a rough-and-tumble place where members of the general public did not venture.

By 1920, erosion, flooding, sanitation problems and urban blight along the waterfront had mounted, and waterborne commerce was moving downstream. Faced with such concerns, the City's engineer proposed a strategy to clean up the riverfront and turn it into a proper civic asset. His plan included a new seawall, sewer improvements, a public market, even a commuter railroad terminal sunken below grade. And, by and large, it worked. By 1930, much of the riverfront had been cleaned up, a new interceptor sewer had been built, the sea wall was complete, and funding for the market was being sought. The rail terminal never happened. What remained was a large swath of land ready for some form of redevelopment. But there were competing visions about what should be done with this civic asset...

In 1932, the City's Bartholomew Report envisioned a waterfront that harkened back to Olmsted, where parks and promenades would open downtown to the river. Existing roads and bridges would be accommodated, but would not dominate. One might call it the first livability vision for the waterfront. Portland's business leaders had a different idea. They lobbied local politicians and the state Highway Commission for widening and improvements along Front Avenue. Their implicit vision was about drivability. In 1938, the Commission accepted their pitch and took it further, unveiling a plan for a new arterial on the waterfront to funnel automobile traffic into, through and out of the city.

The Commission's plan prevailed. Construction began during the war and was completed shortly after. Despite its lovely name, Harbor Drive, the new road was essentially a limited-access highway. Interestingly, by that time, the public market had been built, and so the new highway had to work around it. It was not a very elegant solution. Over the next 30 years, traffic congestion on Harbor Drive increased and it was widened. Along with Front Avenue, there were now ten lanes of traffic between most of downtown and the river. Pedestrian access to the water was effectively blocked and the waterfront was a virtual dead zone.

By 1964, the East Bank Freeway, part of the highway system planned by Robert Moses, was finally completed, locking up the other side of the river. Thus, the city was walled off from the river on both sides. Some people believed the new freeway would make Harbor Drive redundant... and that an open space on the West side was an idea whose time had finally arrived. Thus began the quest for a new vision for the riverfront. The City and State studied a number of alternatives, but none of them would completely remove the highway. Finally, Governor Tom McCall, an ardent environmentalist, stepped in, proposing to remove Harbor Drive in its entirety. The City Club launched a public dialogue on the issue, and a citizen's campaign, Riverfront for People, was formed to work for the removal of the road. Among their many activities, group members held fundraising picnics on the concrete waterfront - just to make the point.

In time, their point was taken. Ultimately, all the major parties came to an agreement... the highway would go. The City closed Harbor Drive in 1972, and in 1974 the highway was torn up and hauled off, creating a canvas for a major new public open space. Guidelines for the design and development of the waterfront were adopted two years later, and Waterfront Park was officially born. In the coming years, the park was developed, improved and eventually expanded.

Today, Tom McCall Waterfront Park stretches 22 blocks along the central city riverfront, from Old Town in the River District, through downtown, to the edge of the newest urban redevelopment area south of downtown known as North Macadam. The Park is one of the most used public spaces in Portland. If Pioneer Courthouse Square is the city's living room, Waterfront Park is its "front porch." Most of the city's major summer festivals are programmed at the Park, and on any given day there are all manner of informal activities. The park has also seen a new kind of adjacent development, with high-density housing, restaurants, retail and commercial development, hotels and a public marina.

Waterfront Park has been so successful, in fact, that 25 years of use have taken its toll. Some areas of the park have been overused, and there is a feeling that the public festivals have come to dominate the park. This has shed new light on the purpose and functioning of such a key public amenity.

Nearly 100 years after the first proposal of John Olmsted, the City has now launched a major effort to revision the park for the next 25 years. The thrust is to preserve what people like most, while enhancing it with new and innovative features. The new design will better connect the downtown area to the park, and bring people even closer to the water. As the redevelopment journey begins anew, the vision of a riverfront that puts people before cars seems secure for the next century. The same thing might be said for the city as a whole.

20th CENTURY LESSONS

In a few minutes, I'd like to give you a visual tour of the role that vision is playing in the continuing urban redevelopment of our city and region, and where Portland may be headed in the next century. But, first, I'd like share a few lessons that I have gleaned from the experiences of the century just concluded...

Many people who visit Portland first time - even those who have been away for a while and recently returned - are impressed at what our city has accomplished. They often ask, "Why Portland?" "Who thought of this?" "How did they do it?" "Where did they get the money?" Or my personal favorite, posed by a Seattle journalist: "Is there something in the water?" There are no simple answers to such questions. But, in my estimation, Portland's vision has been driven by a combination of factors:

• First, are the historic sources of vision I mentioned earlier.
• Second, is momentum. Nothing succeeds like the success of a Pioneer Courthouse Square, Waterfront Park, or more recently, our regional light rail system. Such developments have created a momentum that over time has become a force in its own right.
• Third, has been a progressive policy environment, particularly in the last 25 years. The City's various visions and plans, the state's nationally renowned land-use planning laws, and, most recently, the growth management and transportation plans of Metro, our regional government, have provided a policy framework that has contributed to and reinforced the envisioned change.
• Fourth, has been a history of public/private/civic collaboration. On the public side, in addition to the City and Tri-Met, our regional transit authority, is the Portland Development Commission, or PDC. PDC is a public agency whose structure, unique in the United States, provides a coordinated approach to urban renewal, housing, economic development and redevelopment in the City. PDC has employed a variety of financial tools, including tax increment financing, to launch dozens of major redevelopment projects. This has created an environment conducive to private sector investment. The impact has been enormous.

The private sector has, by-and-large, followed with the drive, know-how and money to make things happen. A lot of Portland's visions have called for developers who were willing to take risks, sometimes before all the financing or other pieces were in place. Portland's new Streetcar and airport light rail are recent projects that actually have been led by private sector working within a public policy framework.

The civic sector has also been a force: certainly the City Club, which has served as Portland's conscience over the years, stepping in at critical junctures to push for change.

Margaret Mead once said, "Never doubt that a small group of committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." Mead's theorem could well have been written about Portland in the 20th century. Who actually shaped Portland's vision?

• First, there were the exceptional leaders who were not afraid to be bold or visionary. Governor Tom McCall said "Move Harbor Drive" and eventually they did. Neil Goldschmidt, neighborhood activist, then City Councilor and Mayor, led citizens in rejecting senseless highway expansion and envisioning a future attuned to public transit.
• Second, there were active citizens responding to perceived threats or opportunities. The citizens who banded together to create Waterfront Park clearly fit the Mead profile, although they were more than a small group.
• Third, were the planners and other public servants whose professional and technical skills brought clarity and rigor to public visions. As the Portland Bureau of Planning said on the 25th anniversary of the Downtown Plan, "We planned, it worked." And... it's true.
• Fourth, and most recently, public process itself has become more central in charting new visions. The commitment to public involvement is enshrined in Oregon's planning laws. But in recent years, the process of planning has become more attuned to the importance of a longer-term perspective.

In fact, in the future I believe that the "great leader" and "small groups" schools of vision will become less central, as we shift from the adversarial activism of the 1970s to a more collaborative model of change. To my mind, it will be well-designed public process, backed by cross-sector partnerships, that shape and implement the great visions of the coming century. Actually, I believe this is already happening.

Community-based visioning, a planning process that I have worked with quite a lot, is a key tool in this shift to a more collaborative model of civic vision. Visioning is simply a process through which any community can consider alternative futures, chart preferred future directions, and put their visions into action. Visioning can be applied in almost any setting, and works well in conjunction with traditional planning approaches. But, perhaps it's greatest strength is the way in which it makes public participation more anticipatory and proactive. In the last decade Oregon has become a national leader in the use of the visioning process.

As a case in point, today there are functioning visions in place at every level of government in the Portland region, guiding planning and, ultimately urban redevelopment. (The City of Portland alone has multiple, overlapping visions in its downtown, central city, neighborhood, district and functional area visions.) These concentric visions overarch and augment local land-use plans. They are the result of a more deliberative approach to public process, and they are being implemented by coalitions of public, private and civic-sector entities.

While the content of these visions vary from one entity to the next, I believe that they collectively reflect an emerging consensus on a vision for the region. This vision is well captured, in my opinion, in six principles that drive Metro's regional mission. They are:

• access to nature
• protection of habitats for wildlife and for people
• safe and stable neighborhoods
• transportation choices
• resources for future generations, and
• a vibrant culture and economy

These concepts have been tested with the public over time and they are very enduring. I am not surprised. The emerging vision of a livable region is sinking roots and becoming part of our shared experience.

Lest you come away believing that there truly is "something in the water" in Portland, let me assure you that there are a number of developments afoot that collectively represent a threat to the emerging regional vision.

• First, is the rise of anti-government sentiment, a national trend in the United States that is no different in Oregon. This trend is making it more problematic for local governments to innovate in the area of urban reform.
• Such anti-government sentiment has garnered support for a succession of tax limitation initiatives that have cut back on sources of local government revenues.
• This has in turn led to reductions in public spending for discretionary services and projects.
• In addition, a number of ballot measures have explicitly attempted to dismantle the statewide planning system that provides the context for urban and regional policy. Most have failed, but one has passed and is now being litigated in the courts.
• Another recently passed ballot measure would place constraints on the ability of Portland Development Commission to raise monies for urban renewal projects. It is also being challenged.

Collectively, these kinds of forces represent a threat to the Portland regional vision. My own prediction is that they will force some course corrections, but that they will not deflect the overall direction of urban reform. I believe this is true for two reasons: First is the high level of general support for the regional vision, as mentioned earlier. Second, and perhaps more important, are the many larger, external trends that are afoot - such as the decline of cheap energy and acceleration of environmental degradation. I believe such trends will validate the direction in which the Portland region has chosen to proceed. In short, a livable city is probably much more sustainable.

21st CENTURY VISIONS

How is Portland's emerging regional vision reflected in urban redevelopment? It would be impossible to describe all the projects that are underway or being planned, but I'd like to give you at least a flavor, both in the central city and some outlying communities. First, I would like to explain the regional context within which such redevelopment is occurring because it is very important.

Portland today has about 535,000 people, and the Portland metropolitan area has about 1.5 million in an area encompassing 369 square miles or about 95,500 hectares. (This does not include cities in Washington state across the Columbia River.) There are 3 county governments and 24 local cities in the region.

As mentioned, we have a regional government called Metro, the only elected regional government in the U.S., which is responsible for growth management, transportation planning, regional parks and greenspaces, and more. All cities in the region must have comprehensive land-use plans in compliance with statewide planning laws and Metro's 2040 framework plan. The entire metro area is encircled by an Urban Growth Boundary (or "UGB"), strictly controlling the amount of new land available for development. As a result of this system, the emphasis is on minimizing urban sprawl and promoting greater urban density.

And it's working. Compact communities accounted for nearly half of the Portland region's growth between 1990 and 2000. Compared to our rival city in the Northwest, Seattle, the Portland region maintained a relatively compact footprint between 1989 and 1999, while Seattle lost ten acres to development every day - much of it in outlying areas of the region. With the Region 2040 Growth Concept, adopted in 1995, such contrasts will become more pronounced. According to this strategy, the Portland region has nine designated "regional centers" that are currently - or planned to be - connected by light rail, along with a series of smaller "town centers," "rail station communities," and "main streets." Up to 85 percent of new development within the region is intended to take place within a 5-minute walk of a transit station.

Central City Redevelopment

Metro's regional plan has encouraged a significant amount of infill and redevelopment, especially within Portland's central city. This is also consistent with Portland's vision of the central city as the region's population, housing, employment and cultural hub. Let's take a look at some of that redevelopment.

I'd like to focus on Portland's River District, a large triangle of land immediately north of downtown. Two decades ago the western half of the district was a fading collection of old warehouses, small companies and underutilized rail yards. The eastern half encompassed Portland's historic Old Town, including Union Station and Chinatown. As businesses began to close or relocate, the River District became a gold mine of redevelopment potential in the heart of the city. What it needed was a vision, a plan, and leadership. Ultimately, all those things came together.

Today, the River District backed by a PDC development plan and working in partnership with property owners, investors and developers, is well on its way to becoming Portland's newest high density, mixed-use residential neighborhood, with offices, retail businesses, educational and cultural institutions, parks and public spaces. In this map, purple areas indicate River District projects already completed, gold areas indicate projects proposed or now under development, and the darker green areas indicate new parks. As you can see, a major urban makeover is underway.

The River District plan calls for 5,000 new housing units with an average density of 100 units per acre. Most of that potential is being met with a 50/50 mix of new development and redevelopment in the west end of the district known as the Pearl District, or simply "The Pearl." In 2000, The Pearl housed 1,300 residents and 9,000 jobs; when it reaches build-out, it is planned to accommodate 12,450 residents and 21,000 jobs.

The Pearl has quickly become one of Portland's most desirable new neighborhoods, drawing a mix of urbanites, young professionals, empty nesters, and others. This highly urban environment, punctuated by older buildings, a mix of galleries and restaurants have some people calling it Portland's SoHo. The Pearl has a wide diversity of housing, from townhomes to lofts and apartments. Portland's new Streetcar, with its sleek, retro, Czech-built cars, runs through the heart of the Pearl, connecting it to downtown, the Park Blocks, Portland State University, and ultimately to the next great urban redevelopment area targeted for south of downtown, North Macadam.

Hoyt Street Yards, located at the northern edge of The Pearl, is the single largest project in the entire River District. Situated on 34 acres of old rail yards, it is also one of the most ambitious redevelopment projects in the U.S. Unlike the rest of the Pearl, Hoyt Street Yards is mainly being built from the ground up. The City helped the project move forward with $150 million in infrastructure improvements.

When complete, Hoyt Street Yards will include hi- and medium-rise units with condominiums, lofts and rental apartments ranging from 500 to 2,800 square feet and targeted at different income segments, including lower income brackets. That was part of the deal with the City. Hoyt Street Yards is located right on the Portland Streetcar line. One of its newest residential developments, Street Car Lofts, simultaneously pays homage to the new streetcar and the old Union Station with its whimsical signage. Very Portland. And just opened this summer is the first of several new small parks in Hoyt Street Yards, designed to provide a bit of urban greenery among the density. You should have been there when the fountains came on. It was a very hot day - and kids seemed to materialize from nowhere.

The River District and Pearl have become attractors for not only new housing and commercial development, but also a mix of creative businesses and enterprises - also consistent with the City's vision. One the most unique ventures is the Natural Capital Center, developed by Ecotrust, a non-profit group promoting the "conservation economy".

The Natural Capital Center brings together urban redevelopment, historic rehabilitation, and sustainable development in its award-winning structure. The building, which once was a warehouse and transfer station, today houses a variety of environmental businesses and organizations. The Center itself was developed according to standards of the U.S. Green Building Council, incorporating environmentally innovative materials and techniques to save water, reduce energy consumption, and promote air quality. Fully 98 percent of construction debris was reclaimed and recycled.

The completed 70,000 square foot Center houses offices, a conference center, library and public spaces, as well as retail stores and food vendors. It's definitely one of the hippest business addresses in The Pearl. Sheltering this very hip space is a state-of-the-art ecoroof and bioswale system that filters and absorbs most of the site's rainwater, helping to eliminate stormwater runoff. In Portland, that's a lot of water!

Suburban Redevelopment

Perhaps even more interesting than central city redevelopment, is the urban development that is occurring in Portland's suburbs. Some say the answer to whether the Portland vision ultimately prevails will be decided in the suburbs. And, while much of the impetus for suburban redevelopment may be linked to the emerging regional vision, local visions are also important drivers.

Take the example of Gresham, Oregon. In 1992 Gresham, a booming suburb east of Portland, was struggling to maintain its identity as it experienced rapid growth and annexation. The city had benefited from the first leg of the region's light rail system, but its historic downtown was almost literally lost among decades worth of auto-oriented, strip commercial development. As a result of its visioning process, Envision Gresham, the City committed itself to revive its downtown core, surround it with close-in, mixed use development, promote a mix of affordable housing, and use other techniques to strengthen community identity.

In 1995, the City adopted a new plan for an enlarged downtown area. Today, the transformation of Gresham's once moribund downtown is well under way. The plan also put into place new zoning districts and design standards that encouraged mixed-use, pedestrian- and neighborhood-friendly development and greenspaces around downtown. Again, all of this has happened.

In 1995, the City also developed a plan for a new, so-called Civic Neighborhood on a vacant 85-acre site adjacent to downtown. This is an area that would have become yet another collection of strip malls and conventional apartment buildings. The plan created small blocks with a grid-street pattern, calling for mixed-use development and a town square oriented to a planned new light-rail station. Today, Phase One of the Civic Neighborhood is complete, and Phase Two is under construction today.

Hillsboro, Oregon is a city of 73,000 located at the opposite edge of the region. It is also the epicenter of Oregon's high technology economy and has experienced intensive growth in the last two decades. A driving factor for Hillsboro's visioning process, Hillsboro 2020, was to address the need for greater community cohesion in the face of such growth and diversification. The Hillsboro vision encompasses many ideas, including: preservation of the community's "hometown" qualities; promotion of greater community cohesiveness; stronger physical and social connections between neighborhoods and people; and overall improvements in the community's livability.

Today, there is significant redevelopment in Hillsboro, driven both by regional planning, the new Westside light rail line connections, and the city's own vision and plans. These photos show the main light rail stop in Hillsboro's older downtown and civic center. Light rail has also helped to define such transit-oriented communities as Orenco Station, an award winning "neo-traditional," mixed-used development located along Hillsboro's light rail corridor.

According to its 2020 vision, Hillsboro intends to augment it use of light rail with an expanded pedestrian and bicycle trail system. All of this speaks to the goal of better physical and social connections in the community. And here's another future development that brings all these themes together: Hillsboro's new Civic Center will incorporate a new City Hall, public library, retail and commercial space, and two public pedestrian plazas, as well as adjacent mixed-use, high-density residential development, all directly served by light rail.

The new North Plaza, shown here, is a special feature of the Civic Center. It will be 24,000 square feet, expandable to twice that size for special events, incorporating water features and an amphitheatre with seating for 700. The plaza will be programmed for a variety of community events, including the city's popular Farmer's Market. The plaza is a relatively expensive element of the new center. But when the City briefly considered cutting back on the plaza to reduce the overall project cost, they were reminded that it one of the most popular ideas to come out of the city's visioning process. The plaza was retained... as is.

EPILOGUE

So is there a moral to this story of Portland, the evolution of its civic vision and its impact on urban redevelopment? I would have to cede such judgments to future historians, because the story is at a critical juncture today and we don't yet know the ending. But, I have gleaned a few overarching thoughts that I would like to share:

• First and foremost, having a vision in this day and age is critically important; a vision can help cities anticipate expected change and promote desired change. A vision is not the same thing as a plan. A vision tells you where you want to go; a plan tells you how you will get there. Plans move dirt; visions move mountains... and cities.
• Second, a vision has power only to the degree that it is shared by people - lots of people. Whether the creation of a bold leader, a group of committed citizens, or dedicated planners, a vision must in time catch fire with the people of a place - or it will not succeed. The best way to create support for a vision is to involve people in its creation - early and often.
• Third, achieving a vision takes time. Courage, hard work, persistence, flexibility, even a touch of obsession are all necessary. But, if you have a positive vision, and people are behind it, and you stick with it, in time it will happen.
• Fourth, at the same time, things never turn out exactly as you would have planned them; be prepared for synchronicity and serendipity - in equal amounts. Cities are organic entities. Visions must be as well.
• And, finally, envisioning a better future is an ongoing process... it never ends. So there is no need to try and figure it out all at once; rather; honor the past, be in the present, look to the future, and leave a door open for future generations. Who knows, they may pick up on the ideas that you never got to, and what greater tribute could there be?

Being in Australia for me is a little like stepping through the looking glass; in some ways everything is upside down and backwards, but familiar at the same time. I see reflections of my own country and I see different qualities as well. What excites me about your country is a vast sense of openness and potential. One can feel this in the great cities of this place. It's a quality that in America, especially these days, sometimes feels like its time may have come and gone. What makes me nervous about your country is that perhaps you might not live up to your own potential - or learn from the lessons of other older, less open or malleable places. I wonder, for example, if the apparent fascination with what I would describe as American-style, automobile-oriented suburban development will serve Australia's future well?

Someone one said that America is what happened when Europeans came upon a new continent with a lot of space and no true constraints. Is that also true of Australia? Or perhaps, here at the far edge of the world and the beginning of a new century, can you do things differently - and better? I could ask, like Lewis Mumford, if you are good enough for this country, but that would be terribly presumptuous of me. Instead, I'll simply quote that famous American philosopher, Casey Stengel, who said: "If you don't know where you're going, you might end up somewhere else."

I invite you learn how to develop and to put into place strong visions for your cities and for your communities and see what happens. If you do, I believe you will do things better.

With your permission, I'd like to leave you with a poem by Portland poet Ronald Talney that was written for the dedication of Portlandia the statue. It sums things up far better than I ever could:

She kneels down

and from the quietness

of copper

reaches out.

We take that stillness

into ourselves

and somewhere

deep in the earth

our breath

becomes her city.

If she could speak

this is what she would say:

Follow that breath.

Home is the journey we make.

This is how the world

knows where we are.

Thank you to the International Cities and Town Centres conference for inviting me to be here today.

© 2001 Steven C. Ames. All Rights Reserved.

Steven C. Ames, Principal

Steven Ames Planning

Portland, Oregon USA

1-503-235-3000 tel.

1-503-235-6000 fax

scames@aol.com

www.communityvisioning.com