A reader is not impressed by the argument that Portland, Oregon is pointing the way to a more sensible greenery:

“What a crock. The reason Portland is such an environmental nirvana is that heavy industry and employers generally are fleeing to adjacent counties. US 26, the ‘Sunset Highway,’ linking Portland to Washington County, is now congested -outbound- in the mornings and -inbound- in the evenings. Mass transit ridership (run by a tri-county authority) is inflated by counting ‘boardings’ instead of modeling commuting patterns (bus to transit station, light rail to 2nd transit station, bus to work, is three trips). And the real howler is the one about easing traffic congestion. The C of P is openly hostile to sensible traffic accommodation. Congestion is a planning goal. Inadequate parking for new projects is mandated by zoning codes. Complain, and the answer is, Ride the Bus.

“Portland has been called in the pages of NR a ‘Potemkin Village,’ and the Soviet imagery is apt. A major employer wanting to site a plant in Portland can look forward to 12-plus months of government review of -everything-, right down to a list of approved landscape vegetation, and ’system development charges’ to cover infrastructure improvements up to 1/2 mile away. As one developer said, ‘these guys have no idea where money comes from.’ The idea that the City reserves the right to dictate how much return an investor is entitled to is inescapable….”