Recovery?

Over the past couple of months, Portland's Planning Board has received a slow but steady stream of significant development proposals.

The Cumberland Cold Storage warehouse on Portland's waterfront, currently used for self-storage with bricked-in windows, could soon become offices for a law firm (funded with a controversial tax break granted when the lawyers threatened to move across the river), along with ground-level space reserved (for the time being) for marine businesses.

On Congress Street, Avesta Housing is proposing to build a handsome apartment building that would contain 37 efficiency apartments, marketed towards single, creative-economy workers. The building would only have 8 parking spaces for cars (which is probably still too much for a site near half-vacant public garages and abundant bus services right around the corner), 8 spaces for scooters or motorcycles, and 24 sheltered bike racks on the ground floor, in addition to a residential lobby and art gallery space. The building would replace a 33-space parking lot with living space for 37 new downtown residents, most of whom will probably walk or use transit the majority of the time.

And, down on Franklin Street, the old Jordan's Meats factory has been cleared away to make room for a new six-story hotel, condo, and restaurant complex, which has been approved and is already under construction. The eastern half of the block will be a parking lot for the time being, but the site has been used only for leased parking for the past five years anyhow, and the project's developers seem keen to put build something else on the rest of the site soon.

Set aside for a moment questions about the wisdom of spending public subsidies on lawyers who pull six figures, and the mysteriousness of how the Jordan's Meats building burned and collapsed before the construction company had a chance to begin the expensive asbestos removal process (the Fire Marshall declined to investigate).

In the end, these new buildings will all add new jobs and residences to Portland's downtown neighborhoods, contribute to our city's walkable streets with quality architecture and active street-level facades, and convert empty lots and underutilized buildings into new engines for the local economy.

Bike Coalition of Maine benefit dinner - tonight at Flatbread in Portland

Allison Vogt from the Bike Coalition of Maine writes: "I hope you'll all come out for pizza and beer in support of better bicycling tonight (Tuesday) at Flatbreads from 5 to 9. It will be a great chance to socialize among greater Portland cyclists!"

See you there!

The Old in Oldsmobile

Via AdAge, new demographic data confirms that spending two hours every day stuck behind a steering wheel is not what the kids these days are into:

"In 1978, nearly half of 16-year-olds and three-quarters of 17-year-olds in the U.S. had their driver's licenses, according to Department of Transportation data. By 2008, the most recent year data was available, only 31% of 16-year-olds and 49% of 17-year-olds had licenses, with the decline accelerating rapidly since 1998. Of course, many states have raised the minimum age for driver's licenses or tightened restrictions; still, the downward trend holds true for 18- and 19-year-olds as well (see chart) and those in their 20s."

That's not all - the share of total miles driven is increasingly skewing towards older demographics as well. "The share of automobile miles driven by people aged 21 to 30 in the U.S. fell to 13.7% in 2009 from 18.3% in 2001 and 20.8% in 1995, according to data from the Federal Highway Administration's National Household Travel Survey released earlier this year." This while the total number of American 20-somethings increased, growing from 13.3% to 13.9% of the American population.

In other words, there's a growing generation gap in terms of total miles driven. Older folks are more likely to drive longer distances, while younger people generally make shorter trips in cars, if they drive at all.

AdAge blames the Internet, as well as changing ideas about worker productivity. "Time becomes really valuable to them," he said. "You can work on a train. You can't work in a car. And the difference is two to three hours a day, or about 25% of one's productive time," says William Draves, a higher-education consultant.

The entire article is worth a read - here's the link.

It's funny. As older folks draw closer to the ends of their lives, you'd think they'd be less interested in wasting a quarter of their dwindling lifetimes stuck behind a steering wheel. But that's just my insensitive, young-worker perspective. It's a beautiful day, and I'm off to take a pleasant bike ride back home.

How Portland Can Fight the Oil Spill

AP photo by Charlie Riedel, from Boston.com's Big Picture blog

The Gulf of Mexico oil spill is the inevitable product of a culture that is disastrously addicted to oil. BP isn't simply a corporate monster; it's our dealer. Anyone who's pays $3 a gallon for their gasoline is complicit with the multi-trillion dollar industry that works to squeeze oil from tens of thousands of wells deep under the waters of the Gulf.

Here's the good news: we're not by any means helpless. We don't need to take our toothbrushes to Louisiana to clean up this mess: we need to stop buying and burning so much oil every day.

Jonathan Hiskes, in a recent post on Grist, has offered up "10 Ways Cities and Towns Can Kick the Offshore-Oil Habit." Here's a sampling, in a shortened format:

• Build complete streets, roads that include sidewalks, and are safe to walk across and bike along;
• Build more development near public transit;
• Let the market lead - consumer demand for walkable, transit-oriented development is on the rise, but Portland needs to do more to make sure that local laws and ordinances don't prohibit such smart-growth development;
• Demand density: along the same lines, locals should fight the "not-in-my-backyard" attitudes that often thwart smart development, and welcome new neighbors in close-in neighborhoods so that more people can enjoy the benefits of car-free living;
  
• Cut parking, which wastes valuable space, invites more traffic congestion, and reduces tax revenues, all in the service of subsidizing gasoline sales;
• Grant free parking for carsharing vehicles - something that Portland has already done on a temporary basis to lure UCar Share.

These are all things that we can absolutely do on the local level, right here in Portland, and in surrounding communities. We even have a great plan in place (the Portland Peninsula Transit Study) to make many of these things happen. The question is, do our City Councilors and planners have the will and the diligence to help our city gain independence from the filthy oil companies?

Or will we continue to export millions of dollars out of our local economy to pay companies like BP?

Eliot Cutler on Roads, Transit, and Reducing Maine's Transportation Costs

Over lunch today I participated in the "live chat" on mainetoday.com with independent gubernatorial candidate Eliot Cutler. Here's the question I asked him:

Inflation of fuel costs and commute distances means that many Maine households are spending more on their cars than they do on their homes - it's a major threat to our cost of living, not to mention our public finances. Meanwhile, the state Dept. of Transportation seems incapable of building basic sidewalks in our downtown areas, much less improve transit services. How would you hold the DOT accountable to reduce its own costs and Mainers' transportation energy expenditures in general?

His response (you might pardon the typos, since this was a "live" chat, after all):

Boy, is that a good question. It all comes down to strong leadership. Thats how you insure success and change.

First of all, we need to do a good job everywhere in Maine of making sure that the "external" costs of development are borne in some fair measure by those undertaking the development. Sidewalks and other basic improvements need to be incorporated at the outset of projects, not added remedially at a later date, when it is much more expensive to do so.

Second, we need to address some of the hidden taxes that we impose right now on people who depend upon cars to get their kids to school or themselves to their jobs. (Yes, we need to build more compact communities, but we also need to deal with the hand that we've already dealt ourselves.) I already mentioned the vehicle inspection program that costs each of us a bunch of money each year without any measurable impact on safety. The sorry and deteriorating condition of our roads in Maine now imposes a hidden tax of $200-300 a year on every car owner in unnecessary maintenance costs per vehicle. We need to find the money to fix these problems and to remove these burdens on both Maine people and visitors to our state.

Third we need to look at transit solutions that will work in Maine today. My experience tells me that efficient and effective bus service (particularly with electric buses that reduce our use of liquid fossil fuels) will be our best bet.

Would love to explore these issues with you some time at greater length, Christian. Good question!

Overall, a fair response - kudos to Cutler for seemingly acknowledging that the state DOT is imposing big external costs on our communities by failing to plan or build complete projects from the get-go (see Exit 7 in Portland for a classic example) and for talking up buses, the inexpensive workhorses of our transit systems that don't typically get as much political attention as glitzy trains do. And kudos as well for acknowledging that the repair of existing roads and bridges should be a higher priority than planning or building new highways (particularly if we can't afford to maintain the roads we already have).

I'm a bit puzzled at the reference to vehicle inspections (I've heard him mention this before at another event). They might not add appreciably to safety, but they're also only $12.50 a year - pretty small potatoes in the context of the thousands of dollars a typical Maine household spends on cars every year. Getting rid of car inspections is not a sufficient transportation policy, not by a very long shot. But it's probably a populist talking point, so there you have it.

All in all, I'd grade it a solid "B" - he's an intelligent candidate, but he needs to work on bringing that intelligence to bear on this issue where Maine households and governments are bleeding hundreds of millions of dollars a year.

Commute Another Way Week

It's lousy weather for walking or cycling around town today, but it's nevertheless "Commute Another Way Week" here in Maine and across the nation. Some inspiration:

Today's Press Herald op-ed page features a column from editor and adjunct professor Henry Garfield of Bangor, who enjoys thousands of dollars in additional disposable income every year thanks to his decision not to pay for and take care of an automobile. "Giving up my car brought two immediate and ongoing benefits. I lost 10 pounds, and have kept the weight off ever since by walking and bicycling; and I had more money left at the end of the month because it wasn't going to car payments, insurance, gas, and repairs."

And here's a blog post about how they get to work at the world's most innovative company. Over a thousand workers - including the billionaire founder and the Chief Financial Officer - rode their bikes to the campus last Thursday (how would you like a 55-mile bike ride across redwood-forested mountains to start your day?).

Unelected Bureaucrats tell City Council: "Screw You, Augusta Knows Best"

Update: The League of Young Voters has sent out an action alert, asking members to call Governor Baldacci (287-3531) and hold his administration's highway planners accountable (a sample call script is below)

"Doesn't the Gov. want to promote energy independence? Blocking willing pedestrians with chain link fences and threatening their safety with unmarked street crossings next to the Park and Ride lot is not the way we would suggest promoting efficiency."

Last month, the Portland City Council passed a resolution calling for the Maine DOT to include basic pedestrian safety facilities when it widened Exit 7 at the junction of Franklin Street and Marginal Way. Exit 7, you may recall, is a long-planned trail connection between Bayside and Back Cove under I-296, the state-owned traffic sewer that monopolizes valuable waterfront real estate.

Traffic levels are still flat, and Augusta is still billions of dollars short of being able to do basic road repair for most of the state. But the Maine Department of Transportation is nevertheless STILL shoving forward a multi-million dollar freeway widening here. It recently released plans for construction, and intends to take bids from construction firms beginning on Wednesday.

Last month, the Portland City Council passed a resolution that this project would include basic sidewalks and crosswalks for pedestrians to negotiate their way between the busy Park and Ride Lot, the new developments on Marginal Way, and the Back Cove Trail. A trail connection between Marginal Way and Back Cove at this location has been called for in the City's Comprehensive Plan since 1990.

Also last month, Federal Transportation Secretary Ray Lahood declared "the end of favoring motorized transportation at the expense of non-motorized."

"We are integrating the needs of bicyclists in federally-funded road projects. We are discouraging transportation investments that negatively affect cyclists and pedestrians. And we are encouraging investments that go beyond the minimum requirements and provide facilities for bicyclists and pedestrians of all ages and abilities. [source]

But Augusta's construction drawings conspicuously omit any pedestrian safety measures in defiance of local elected officials and these new federal policies (not to mention basic common sense).

The plans would only build a short, 8' wide sidewalk under the freeway overpasses themselves. This sidewalk wouldn't be connected to the Back Cove Trail or the Marginal Way sidewalk. Quite the opposite: MDOT is actually going to spend a few thousand taxpayer dollars on not one but two chain-link fences to prevent anyone from using the sidewalk (at least until volunteers from the neighborhood "repair" the fences themselves).

This sidewalk would not have any lighting. It would be a narrow, dark alley squeezed next to speeding freeway traffic. Remember, they're calling this a "safety improvement".

MDOT is also refusing to build any crosswalks between the Park and Ride lot and adjacent sidewalks on the other side of Franklin Street and Marginal Way.

The plans do allow for future crosswalks to be built, someday. But they are conspicuously labeled "BY OTHERS," meaning that the State of Maine is refusing to pay for them. Instead, local Portland taxpayers will have to pay the bill to clean up MDOT's mess.

You can look at the plans yourself by following this link.

I find it pretty incredible that a few unelected bureaucrats in Augusta feel entitled to defy local elected officials so brazenly. Is Portland's City Council really going to take this?

Update: The League of Young Voters has sent out an action alert: "Can you make some time today to put in a quick phone call to the Governor and let him know what his administration is up to? The office's number is 287-3531. "

Here's a sample call script, written by local activist Steve Scharf:

Hello my name is ________ and I am calling about MDOT's plans for the I-295 Exit 7 in Portland project. I am appalled that after the public and the City of Portland has made it clear that they want a fully functioning, well-lit, 10' wide trail connection with crosswalks, that the bid is going out with no crosswalks and two chain link fences to block access between Back Cove and Marginal Way.

Please pull this bid document back and add the requirements to make this a fully usable trail connection in the city of Portland.

Again my name is _______________________, my phone is ____________ and my email is ___________. Thank you for taking my concerns into consideration.