Tuesday, May 19, 2009

George Will Hates Portland

Newsweek is running a piece by George Will about Ray LaHood liking Portland and why liberals hate cars. It's really quite entertaining, as it's painfully obvious throughout the piece that George Will has never been to Portland, and probably only knows of us as Little Beirut.

One of the best moments of the piece is when he speculates, "Does he think 0.01 percent of Americans will ever regularly bike to work?" According to a 2007 article it's about .4 percent already.

He may want to take a look at the Pearl District. It's an upscale, urban neighborhood built around a streetcar. It nothing but warehouses and rail lines just 15 years ago, and not the type of neighborhood you'd want to be in unless you were looking for drugs or whores.

Column from the old Lovejoy Viaduct in front of a new high rise
The Pearl District Now

As for his claims about how everyone needs a car, well, I don't. If I really do need one Enterprise will pick me up, or I can use ZipCar which has several sites near my neighborhood.

2 comments:

  1. In some cities bicycle usage is much higher than the average (like San Francisco, New York or Portland). 6% of all trips in San Francisco are made by bicycle (http://www.cyclelicio.us/2009/05/san-francisco-state-of-cycling.html) and it has been going up steadily every year! Cars are expensive, and eat up a huge percentage of many people's household budgets. I hope George Will reads a bit more on the topic and has a change of heart.

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  2. I saw this today and thought of you: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28235890/

    Yet another reason to encourage people to get out of their cars- they'll lose weight!

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