19. June 2010

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Pedestrian friendly neighborhood soon to be gone if couplet succeeds

 A vision of peace and tranquility that will be a thing of the past if the ”Friends” and PBOT’s couplet plan succeed in dumping Burnside’s traffic onto Couch… our Better Burnside Alliance reporter is on the streets.  A picture may be worth a thousand words but video says it all… the video links below, filmed during rush hour on 11th and Couch, [...]

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18. June 2010

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An Urban Designer’s Opinion

In this enlightened age of “complete streets,” and as a former Portland resident, I am deeply troubled by the idea of making Couch a one-way street. I fully support a more sustainable alternative. Couplets are being reversed back to two-way streets all over the country because two-way streets are safer, more livable, better for economic [...]

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18. June 2010

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A Plea to Powell

Larry Norton’s blog,  An Old Town Perspective, features our site in his blog entry today.  There are some interesting links in the posting which shed a bit of light on the controversy around Mr. Powell’s push for a couplet.  Contrary to what some claim, our sources say he can’t build condo’s above his store because it’s not possible [...]

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16. June 2010

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Cars and the Living City

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While automobiles are an integral part of our lives, more and more enlightened people see the devastation that traffic brings to our cities. Besides the obvious noise, pollution and unfriendly environment created by cars, our dependence on the fuel that drives cars is no longer sustainable and hasn’t been for a [...]

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14. June 2010

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Wake Up and Smell the Couplet

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Couch Street will become a congested thoroughfare if the Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) and a group called “Friends of Burnside/Couch, Inc.” succeed in creating the West Burnside Couch Couplet, to be partially funded by a Local Improvement District (LID) tax.
The West Burnside Couch Couplet would make Couch a one-way street [...]

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1. June 2010

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One Way is the Wrong Way

Video from StreetFilms.org shows how changing a two-way street in Brooklyn, NY to a one-way will affect the street’s character and livability, as well as its residents.

Most advocates believe that two-way streets function better for pedestrians, cyclists, commerce, and livable streets. In fact all across the country, hundreds of cities are changing one-way streets back [...]

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