3 ms·
A lot of portland's problems stem from a century of institutional racism. Do you know why single-family zoning was driven so hard for so long? It keeps out und
by demondemidi 3y ago
A lot of portland's problems stem from a century of institutional racism.
Do you know why single-family zoning was driven so hard for so long? It keeps out undesirables. The consequences of that policy go very deep, from preventing new development to driving up values of existing properties. Both of which are terrible for affordable housing.
The shockwaves of Portland's past are still reverberating. I'm glad they finally passed laws to allow infill and rezoning, although all the boomers are squawking like crows around roadkill.
- oooyay 3y agoMy problem with discourse in Portland is that all anybody wants to talk about is the history of these issues. Nobody actually has a plan for fixing them, much less the desire. That's kind of at odds with the history of the issues on the facade, right? When you dig in deep, many groups it used to impact now benefit from those policies in some way and want them around. Those people aren't boomers; they're a more diverse group of young millennials who are just coming into their own. So we can sit around and talk about history and pop words like boomer off, but it ignores the reality of these problems today. We have an opportunity to come together as larger, more diverse (on multiple fronts) communities and decide what the future looks like, but most people are sitting on their hands making excuses for one reason or another.