18 Posted Jun 3, 2011, 4:09 AM urbanlife A before E Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: Milwaukie, Oregon Posts: 11,155 Quote: photolitherland Originally Posted by

Heres Portland



How did you make that map MonkeyRonin? That looks pro. Im just relegated to some crappy paint program I downloaded. By the way, Toronto looks super healthy, hardly any parking, even compared to Portland, which is a very vibrant healthy city here, but yet, theres 4 times the parking lots in Portland, and Houston/Dallas are nearly half vacant lots. Heres PortlandHow did you make that map MonkeyRonin? That looks pro. Im just relegated to some crappy paint program I downloaded. By the way, Toronto looks super healthy, hardly any parking, even compared to Portland, which is a very vibrant healthy city here, but yet, theres 4 times the parking lots in Portland, and Houston/Dallas are nearly half vacant lots.



Also, not to nitpick, but I do live here, so I do know what some of those lots are. There are a number of the tiny surface lots that were highlighted that are barely anything more than a few cars in front of an old semi suburban building. Though the big amount of parking on the upper right side of the picture is from ConWay Trucking who used all of that land for a while and have been working with people about potentially turning all of that area into a middle class neighborhood, currently they are trying to figure out how to do it without having to lose their shirts over it in the process...which has been the most difficult part.



Of course if you really want to get technical about how much has changed in Portland, 15 years ago the Pearl District, the triangle area in the lower right side of the map was almost all surface lots, open lots, and abandon buildings. So this city has seen a real drastic change in its urban setting downtown. We still have a long way to go, but we are still a young, growing city. I wouldn't of marked the USPS lot because it is an actual functioning lot. Does it need to be redeveloped? Sure, but I wouldn't really consider it a surface lot blight. Also another one that shouldn't of been highlighted is a parcel at the very north end of the Pearl District is actually an open field park, not an empty lot.Also, not to nitpick, but I do live here, so I do know what some of those lots are. There are a number of the tiny surface lots that were highlighted that are barely anything more than a few cars in front of an old semi suburban building. Though the big amount of parking on the upper right side of the picture is from ConWay Trucking who used all of that land for a while and have been working with people about potentially turning all of that area into a middle class neighborhood, currently they are trying to figure out how to do it without having to lose their shirts over it in the process...which has been the most difficult part.Of course if you really want to get technical about how much has changed in Portland, 15 years ago the Pearl District, the triangle area in the lower right side of the map was almost all surface lots, open lots, and abandon buildings. So this city has seen a real drastic change in its urban setting downtown. We still have a long way to go, but we are still a young, growing city.

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