Portland's Urban Growth Boundary

Over on Queen City Survey, a suitably harsh post about Council's recent streetcar vote.

"Finance Committed voted 5-2 in favor to approve $800,000 for preliminary studies required for federal funding applications. The studies would include the Uptown-downtown link."

Qualls and Cranley dissented. I never liked Cranley, but I wonder about Qualls. I voted for her in the last election, and I know she has an extensive academic background in urban policy. Something is not sitting right with her, and I wonder what it is.

As far as Monzel - if this were put to a referendum it would flat out fail. So to Monzel, I say BOOOOO.

Over on the Enquirer's Politics blog, a post about the same subject elicited (as of this very moment) 56 comments. I've been hearing a lot about why you can't compare Cincinnati and Portland because of Portland's Urban Growth Boundary laws. John Schneider weighs in on this one in a comment:

"Critics say that Portland’s Streetcar is successful only because of that city’s Urban Growth Boundary, a sprawl-limiting measure that enables Portland to achieve the density necessary for its many great urban projects, a density of 3,939 persons per square mile. But here’s the thing -- even without an urban growth boundary, Cincinnati is 8% denser than Portland, with 4,249 persons per square mile."