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precisely because of its high cost. President

Indeed, due in part to a severe recession, hous-

Carter was so impressed with Goldschmidt's

ing in Portland and other Oregon cities

remained very affordable through 1989.5 The

innovative solution to the freeway controversy

that he made Goldschmidt his second secre-

goal was to keep development orderly and effi-

tary of transportation. As it turned out, light

cient, not to slow or stop development.

rail required so much planning and design

Transportation planning was a completely

work that construction did not begin until

separate process, responding mainly to federal

Goldschmidt had left that office in 1981 and

funding and mandates. Inspired by federal

was not completed until Goldschmidt was

support for 90 percent of the cost of urban

running for governor of Oregon in 1986.

interstate freeways, Portland had planned a

Until that point, there was still no con-

gridded network of such highways. But the

nection between Portland's land-use and

early 1970s saw a backlash against urban inter-

transportation planning. But when the light-

states from neighborhood residents who

rail line opened, the city zoned much of the

argued that freeways reduced their property

land near light-rail stations for high-density

values. In response, Congress passed a law

housing in order to allow more people to live

allowing cities to cancel planned interstate

within walking distance of the light rail.

highway projects and to spend the money on

In the 1970s,

mass transit capital improvements instead.6

During Goldschmidt's term as governor,

Mayor Neil

the Land Conservation and Development

Under Mayor Neil Goldschmidt, Portland

Commission began writing a transportation-

became one of the first cities to take advantage

Goldschmidt

planning rule.7 This rule was heavily influ-

of the law, canceling a road known as the Mt.

selected light-rail

Hood Freeway in 1974. But that created a

enced by controversy over another proposed

technology pre-

dilemma for the city. The federal share of the

freeway, this one skirting the southwestern

freeway cost would be enough to buy hundreds

suburbs of Portland. A land-use group called

cisely because its

of new buses. But Portland's transit agency did

1000 Friends of Oregon argued that the high-

high cost would

not have the funds to operate that many new

way would lead to expansion of the urban-

buses. Moreover, simply buying buses did not

growth boundary and that the city could avoid

allow him to

create the local construction jobs and profits

such expansion by integrating its land-use and

spend lots of

that would have been gained from freeway con-

transportation planning to emphasize com-

federal dollars

struction.

pact development that relied on transit, walk-

ing, and cycling instead of driving.8

Goldschmidt's solution was light-rail tran-

creating

sit, a sort of heavy-duty streetcar that some-

The proposed highway was never built and

construction jobs

times operated in streets and sometimes on an

the  final  transportation-planning  rule

and profits for

exclusive right of way. The term light rail had

endorsed the 1000 Friends' ideas. The rule

been coined in 1972; light referred not to weight

directed planners in all of Oregon's major

local contractors.

of the vehicles or the rails but to the smaller

urban areas to change "land-use patterns and

numbers of people carried by these rail vehicles

transportation systems" so as to reduce per-

relative to the large numbers carried by the

capita driving by 10 percent in 20 years and 20

percent in 30 years.9 To reach those goals, the

New York City subway or other heavy-rail lines

such as Washington's Metro.

rule specified that planners must increase resi-

For Goldschmidt, the big advantage of

dential densities, promote mixed-use develop-

light rail was that it was expensive, easily cost-

ments, mandate pedestrian-friendly design

ing enough to absorb most of the federal

(meaning, among other things, that retail

funds that had been allocated to the Mt.

shops should front on sidewalks and not be

Hood Freeway and (as it turned out) much

separated from streets by large parking lots),

and various related policies.10 In 1996, Maryland

more. Rail construction also provided lots of

jobs and profits for local contractors.

governor Parris Glendenning applied the term

smart growth to this planning philosophy.11

At the time, few observers noted the irony

that an urban transit technology was selected

The transportation rule effectively killed

3