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City Observatory

cityobservatory.org

Society / politics / economy

’15’20’25
Posts
1,785 from 22 Aug 2014 to 30 Oct 2026
Posting
weekly (112 in the last year)
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magazine
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Latest

October 2026

  1. Risky business: How IBR’s contracting will produce billions in added costs
  2. The Week Observed: October 23, 2026
  3. Survey says . . . Fix it first, we don’t trust ODOT
  4. The Week Observed: October 9, 2026
  5. I-205 Abernethy Bridge hits $885 million
  6. The Week Observed: October 9, 2026
  7. The Rose Quarter Freeway Widening Sucks . . . Sucks up all the money
  8. Deriu on “Why Urban Planning Does Not Exist”: A Response
  9. The Week Observed: October 2, 2026

September 2026

  1. What Global Rankings Say About Successful Cities and Portland’s Performance
  2. How ODOT covers up cost overruns
  3. This is what “Success*” Looks Like: Hiding cost overruns
  4. The Week Observed: September 25, 2026
  5. ODOT’s “Strategic Review”: Conflicted consultants whitewashing mis-management
  6. Oregon DOT: First, third, and nearly worst
  7. ODOT admits its climate strategy is failing, tries to shift blame
  8. America’s Most Expensive Highway Projects
  9. Two lies and a truth about Oregon Transportation Finance
  10. The Week Observed: September 18, 2026
  11. Where’s my Carmaggedon?
  12. Testimony on the Prosperity Council Report
  13. The Week Observed: September 4, 2026
  14. Carmaggedon is coming to Portland! Or is it?
  15. The Rose Quarter Freeway Widening Sucks . . . Sucks up all the money
  16. Consultant Delays Cost Us Billions, While Padding Their Profits

August 2026

  1. The Week Observed: August 28, 2026
  2. What $2 billion in R&D investments says about Oregon’s business climate
  3. The Week Observed: August 21, 2026
  4. Senator Khanh Pham on ODOT’s Financial Crisis
  5. The Week Observed: August 13, 2026
  6. Bankrupt: A $3.5 billion Rose Quarter Freeway widening project
  7. The Week Observed: August 6, 2026
  8. Portland’s advanced seminar on sports economics

July 2026

  1. The Week Observed: July 31, 2026
  2. Business Oregon studies lied about tax incentives and business climate
  3. The Week Observed: July 24, 2026
  4. America’s shortage of cities
  5. The Week Observed: July 17, 2026
  6. Report of the Oregon Regressivity Council
  7. The Week Observed: July 10, 2026
  8. Don’t copy losers
  9. The Week Observed: July 3, 2026
  10. Why wages matter; why the minimum wage matters, to Oregon

June 2026

  1. Wrong before, wrong again: Taxes haven’t damaged Oregon’s prosperity
  2. A $650 million Cash Grab: Prosperity Council members call for cutting . . . their taxes
  3. Why Education, Not Taxes Matters to Oregon Economy
  4. Major Projects: The real cause of ODOT’s financial crisis
  5. The Week Observed: June 5, 2026
  6. ODOT re-writes history to hide its culpability for cost overruns
  7. ODOT: Going Orwell on falling behind schedule

May 2026

  1. The Week Observed: May 29, 2026
  2. The Week Observed: May 22, 2026
  3. Investment Grade Forecasts actually over-estimate future traffic
  4. Oregon’s lagging investment in higher education
  5. Interstate Bridge Project: Tolls will cause massive traffic diversion to I-205
  6. The Week Observed: May 15, 2026
  7. Are Oregonians getting jobs: the Employment Population Ratio
  8. The Week Observed: May 8, 2026
  9. Wrong way: ODOT is driving in the wrong direction for climate
  10. Oregon economy: Outperforming US, not in a recession, resilient
  11. Two bad years for two big firms

April 2026

  1. Eight reasons the Interstate Bridge project shouldn’t–and can’t legally–move forward
  2. Biotech: Still clustered after all these years
  3. What Oregon can learn from America’s best performing mid-sized metro economy
  4. The Week Observed: April 24, 2026
  5. Let’s get real: Oregon’s economy has performed well
  6. Earth Day in Oregon: Groundhog Day for the Climate Doom Loop
  7. What doom loop? Portland businesses optimistic about hiring in 2026
  8. The Week Observed: April 17, 2026
  9. City of Industry: Portland, Oregon–Number one large metro in new manufacturing firms
  10. The High Cost of Hiding: Why IBR’s Delayed Revenue Study is a $15 Billion Warning Sign
  11. The Week Observed: April 3, 2026
  12. Harbor Drive

March 2026

  1. The Week Observed: March 27, 2026
  2. NBA Extortion: Somebody call a cop.
  3. How should Portland pay for streets?
  4. The Business Climate is always bad, but it never matters
  5. The Week Observed: March 20, 2026
  6. Portland Economy’s Strong Report Card: Brookings Metro Monitor
  7. The IBR Boondoggle Blunders Ahead
  8. Single Stair Reform and Housing Affordability
  9. The Week Observed: March 13, 2026
  10. Abernethy & Accountability: Dashboards
  11. Friday the 13th IBR style: Spinning a terrifying new cost estimate
  12. The Week Observed: March 6, 2026
  13. Freeway fighters win! And a lesson for Portland

February 2026

  1. Accountability Roulette: Oregon’s SB 1544
  2. The Week Observed: February 20, 2026
  3. Interstate Bridge Replacement: The forever project
  4. The Market for Theatre Space in Portland
  5. The Week Observed: February 13, 2026
  6. The Week Observed: February 6, 2026
  7. Economic impact of NBA teams: Nearly nil.
  8. IBR: Falsely Blaming Inflation

January 2026

  1. The Week Observed: January 30, 2026
  2. IBR’s $17.7 billion cost estimate: Testimony to OTC
  3. The Week Observed: January 23, 2026
  4. IBR evasive, misleading and dishonest excuses for higher costs
  5. The Week Observed: January 8, 2026
  6. $17.7 Billion: Exploding costs doom I-5 bridge replacement

December 2025

  1. IBR: Still hiding–and lying about–coming billions in cost overruns
  2. The Week Observed: December 12, 2025
  3. ODOT’s systemic financial crisis
  4. The Week Observed: December 5, 2025
  5. Oregon’s climate fail

November 2025

  1. Why you can’t bribe your way to a low fixed span bridge
  2. The Week Observed: November 21, 2025
  3. Train Wreck: Will transit sink the Interstate Bridge Project?
  4. The Week Observed: November 14, 2025
  5. The Week Observed: November 7, 2025
  6. Interstate Bridge: $273 million on consultants for “basically the same project”?
  7. The Week Observed: October 31, 2025

October 2025

  1. Burnside Bridge Cost Blows Up
  2. Lars Larson Interview: Is the Interstate Bridge Destined to Fail?
  3. IBR’s problems are much deeper than its leadership
  4. The Week Observed: October 24, 2025
  5. Oregon DOT’s “Reign of Error” grows worse.
  6. The Week Observed: October 17, 2025
  7. Greenwashing the Interstate Bridge Project
  8. Engineers gone wild: The I-5 bridge “replacement” con
  9. The Week Observed: October 10, 2025
  10. The Week Observed: October 3, 2025

September 2025

  1. A bridge too short, again
  2. The Week Observed: September 26, 2025
  3. IBR: Federal Funding in Jeopardy
  4. The Week Observed: September 19, 2025
  5. Metro: Time to tell the truth about failing climate strategy
  6. IBR: Falling further behind schedule
  7. The Week Observed: September 12, 2025
  8. Denial and declining traffic on the I-5 bridges
  9. IBR costs headed to $10 billion, but don’t tell anyone

August 2025

  1. The Week Observed: August 29, 2025
  2. What OPB left out about the special session
  3. The Old Bait and Switch
  4. Lars Larson Interviews Cortright on Special Session
  5. Killing road pricing: Enviros get rolled again
  6. Ten Things to Know About the Transportation Package
  7. The Week Observed, August 22, 2025
  8. Oregon DOT’s accountability charade
  9. No guardrails: ODOT evades accountability
  10. Caution: Scam Alert
  11. The Week Observed, August 15, 2025
  12. The Week Observed, August 8, 2025
  13. The Gender Gap in City Perceptions
  14. The Week Observed, August 1, 2025

July 2025

  1. ODOT’s big lie about transportation spending
  2. The Week Observed, July 25, 2025
  3. Rewarding bad behavior, getting bad results
  4. Deeply in debt: ODOT’s profligate borrowing helped lead to layoffs
  5. The Week Observed, July 11, 2025

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