Said Mark Edlen, the CEO of Portland-based Edlen & Co., formerly Gerding Edlen Development, quoted in "See you in 20 (or less): Living where access is within a short walk or bike ride/How cities aim to incorporate getting to and from common destinations in less than an hour" (WaPo).
Edlen invented the term "20-minute living" — 20 minutes being how long it takes to walk across downtown Portland.
If people felt safe jaywalking, the theory went, then cars were not dominating the built environment in a way that's inhospitable to other forms of transportation. So Edlen and his company set out to create places where people could get around within 20 minutes, be it by walking, bike, public transit or, as a last resort, by car. He eventually took his work to cities as far away as Boston.....
This is definitely what I'm looking for in a place to live. Of course, I'm interested in what one encounters on that 20-minute walk. What's that like in Portland these days? I want everything to be peaceful and aesthetically pleasing. Icing on the cake would be not feeling hated.
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3 comments:
Alex writes:
t's twenty minutes if you dont count the time spent dodging mentally ill homeless camped on the sidewalks. And you won't find much in between because all the businesses are fleeing the constant violence and high costs. Guys like the one quoted in the article are parasites who infected cities and killed them with nutty ideas and weird aesthetics.
-Alex (Currently headed to the PDX airport after one last visit to the city)
A reader named John writes:
You can get around downtown Portland by walking and biking (I live in Portland.) You will encounter boarded-up businesses, tents on sidewalks, piles of trash, graffiti, and open-air drug deals. If you are a woman you might get verbally harassed. I've personally seen all of this. If you hang around past 9 pm you might see a riot. People still function, and business still limps along. Life goes on, but it's not the same as it was a few years ago.
And now there is the possibility of getting shot. Murders in Portland are way up. Someone shot a bus driver yesterday.
https://www.oregonlive.com/news/2021/05/trimet-driver-shot-and-wounded-while-driving-bus.html
Finally, with enough freeway capacity, you can go across town within 20 minutes. A bus takes several times as long. Cars are faster! Even with traffic, I can get anywhere in Portland within an hour. If that's the aim, we are already there.
James writes:
Various places that provide 20-minute existences if not living …
Hospital Complex
Amazon/Microsoft/Google/Apple/Adobe Campuses
Ford River Rouge Plant (now mostly extinct)
The Pentagon (may be bigger than 20 minutes)
O’Hare/Atlanta/LAX Airports
Lots of jobs but not attractive places to live.
Any number of small towns in the US Midwest provide 20-minute living but for some reason the people who live there still have cars. And while those small towns are attractive to many people there aren’t many jobs there.
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