Portland: Quest for the Livable City, a Documentary Film Chronicling Struggle for Sustainablity

It looks like I’ve had a lot of Portland on my mind.  Here’s an interesting documentary film that is actually the third in a series from the Lincoln Institute of Land Planning.  It was recently released on PBS stations across the States.  Unfortunately, I’m without cable/satellite, so I don’t get PBS anymore.

Here’s a summary of the documentary from the article.

Following the passage of Oregon’s landmark land use planning system in 1973, Portland established an urban growth boundary containing development within a 22-square-mile area, protecting surrounding farmland and open space; a regional governance system spanning 24 municipalities and three counties; and an ambitious system of light rail and streetcars to service more dense, compact, mixed-use urban form. Then, in 2004, after a state-wide campaign that raised questions about property rights and the fairness of the entire regulatory framework, voters passed Measure 37, which allowed development outside the urban growth boundary. A competing initiative, Measure 49, was then put on the ballot in 2008 to reverse those changes.

The first two documentaries are about two other American cities.  One is Phoenix: The Urban Desert and the other is Cleveland: Confronting Decline in an American City.  Synopsese and further info (including purchase info for the first two films) about all three documentaries can be found at www.makingsenseofplace.org.