Posted on: Monday, June 7, 2004

A SECOND OPINION
An odyssey to the Land of Tod

By Cliff Slater

I have just returned from the Land of Tod — a mystical journey full of surprise, disbelief, tears and wonder. It is a land where light-rail lines are everywhere, where new high-density communities spring up spontaneously around the stations. It is always spring. They have many Walgreens stores, and so it is the land called Perfect, according to Portland's elected officials.

Let me tell you more about this wonderland of Transit Oriented Development (TOD).

In the Land of Tod, the first requirement of its inhabitants is that they suspend any belief in what is in front of their eyes. Thus, when their daily paper, the Oregonian, describes the rail line as "a popular alternative for transit riders," you must forget that the trains you see are mostly empty. And should someone tell you that the light rail only carries 1.9 percent of Portland's commuters, you must definitely ignore such a number since it is so obviously silly.

And when you hear that this high-density housing you are looking at is only allowed — and only needs — one parking space per apartment because a light-rail station is nearby, then you have to ignore the number of automobiles parked on sidewalks and in adjacent neighborhoods. Instead, you should focus on the one space per apartment because that must mean there are fewer automobiles in the Land of Tod, which is virtuous.

And when you look down the 60-foot-wide light-rail right-of-way from Orenco station and can see no trains in sight for miles, it might occur to you that it would make a good transitway for buses and vanpools, and carry cars as well, and take far more riders than the light rail, and be far cheaper, and help with Portland's really bad traffic congestion. But don't think that; it is not a good thought since rail is virtuous.

And when people gush over 15-foot-wide "skinny houses" and apartment blocks with the density of New York's Lower Eastside of the 1890s, keep your thoughts to yourself and just repeat, "The emperor is wearing clothes."

Seriously, it was my first trip to Portland, and I found the TOD structures to be quite bizarre. There is a cold, eerie feeling about these developments. There are few people around there, no people on the sidewalks, nobody walking the dog, no joggers.

And consider the fact that the light-rail train stops at the Cascades station. There is nothing in the empty 120 acres surrounding Cascades station. It was to be a development, but it has been lying dormant for many years now. However, the train stops every 15 minutes in each direction — day in, day out. The doors don't open, but the train waits the obligatory 45 seconds anyway as if loading and unloading passengers. Do not ask why.

Transit Oriented Development is a worrisome concept that planners are attempting to foist on us in Honolulu and across the nation. What is the concept about? Quite simply, it is about planner power.

The sole result of this Portland TOD exercise is heavily subsidized substandard housing theoretically accessed (but only in theory) by heavily subsidized light-rail lines.

You must go to Portland to see for yourself. Take TOD advocate material in one hand and the Cascade Policy Institute's in the other and go visit. You may find it quite unnerving to think that such plans are afoot for Honolulu.

Cliff Slater is a regular columnist whose footnoted columns are at www.lava.net/cslater.