Portland is a PR machine for light rail & streetcar
Here are Some Facts About Portland Oregon
“It must always be remembered how cost-effectiveness works in the public sector: the cost IS the benefit.” - author unknown
Former Metro Planning Director: Planners are Fascists
For years some people have been accusing planners of being fascists, socialists, and/or communists. Now we have a professional planners saying it!
Here is exactly what former Metro Planning Director, Rich Carson, wrote about planners:
No, they are not all terrorists. But they do make pretty good communists and fascists. Planners want organization and for all things to be predictable. The profession came into being in the 1960s. So they tend to believe in the issues spawned in the day. They are environmental socialists. In other words, they believe in collective environmentalism (Gore) and not individual environmentalism.”
From: 9/11: Richard Carson PDX Is Ready for a Bike Ride but Not an Emergency (local copy)
Mayor Sam Adams said about this incident that "This is a city and a state that prides itself on, you know, clean government." That is not true. These people are morally bankrupt ideologues. To say they are socialists would be to underestimate them. I am fine with socialists and capitalists. These people are fascists. They force you to do their bidding.
From A Former Member of the Professional Planner Class Speaks Out on Parking Scandal, Light Rail, Fascism (local copy)
The writer of the above quotes:
Richard Carson is a doctorate student at Washington State University. He is a former planning director for METRO that planned for the 1.5 million people, 25 cities and three counties in the Portland region. He is a former planning manager for the state of Oregon, Metro, Oregon City and Clark County Washington.
Richard Carson is a Pacific Northwest writer, practicing planner, and doctorate student at Washington State University. A collection of his essays are on the web at www.carsonessays.org.
More Richard Carson
Jane Jacobs, in The Death and Life of Great American Cities (1961), says that using persons-per-acre is a “statistical monstrosity” because it masks the real problem of overcrowding. She argues that higher density is really overcrowding — or too many people in a space — and the real culprit destroying urban livability.
Rich Carson: The Pathology of Portland Density
According to a recent Oregonian story (Watering Can for Startups – September 16, 2012) the state of Oregon, and the cities of Portland and Hillsboro “granted outright” over $1.5 million in taxpayer dollars to the Portland Seed Fund. That means the money was given to a private entity with no expectation of any money being paid back.
Rich Carson: Portland Seed Fund
A major nationwide study done by these professors from Dublin City University and the University of California (Social Interaction and Urban Sprawl, CESifo Working Paper Series No. 1843, November 2006) – of some 15,000 individuals in average urbanized-area and MSA (metropolitan statistical areas) populations – finds that:
“The frequency of interaction with neighbors is lower in high-density census tracts.”
“That residents living in dense census tracts have fewer confidants.”
“High tract density reduces the number of friends.”
“Interactive individuals sacrifice something by locating in dense tracts.”
“Membership in hobby-oriented club is less likely [in low-density tracts].”
“Group involvement tends to be weaker [in low-density tracts].”
The statistical revelation behind all of these findings is that for every 10% increase in density, there is a 10% decrease in socialization. That’s a simple, one-to-one inverse relationship that everyone can understand
Bowling Alone in Urbanistaville
I read on MSN that Portland, Oregon is the number one “unhappiest city” in American due to a high rate of depression and suicide.Rich Carson: The Death of Morality in Portland
Remember the phrase “War is Hell.” It was spoken by General William Tecumseh Sherman after he burned Atlanta to the ground. And that ended slavery at a very high price.
Rich Carson: Pissing on the Dead
At $62 million, the proposed Oregon Sustainability Center is one the most expensive environmental boondoggles that Oregon has seen to date. And that is saying a lot considering the city of Portland is already the land of some of the most stunningly stupid environmental policies in America.
*UPDATED! Rich Carson: The Oregon Sustainability Center is a WASTE of Money
The power grid will be gone for weeks. You will now be living off the grid. Hopefully, this event this will happen in warm weather. Otherwise you will need a power generator to survive the frigid cold. In my case we are talking about a propane powered generator. In the middle of winter, in the Pacific Northwest, you may simply starve or freeze to death.
You will need food. The estimate is that such an event will shut down commerce and transportation for about 30 days. That means you won’t have water or food for that long.
Rich Carson: The Big One
Portland, Oregon is now rated as the most promiscuous city in America. From Time Magazine. But what also escapes many is that it also has the most depressed people in America.
Rich Carson: A Sexy Kind of Blue
I moved out of Oregon and California because I found both to be socially-engineered manic states. As in a state-of-mind and political dysfunctionality. I spend 30 years as a government manager at the state, regional, county and city level. I worked for two governors as a policy analyst. I helped put in place some of the most amazing (good and bad) social agendas in the last two decades.
Rich Carson: Secession Redux
More on planners tricking us: