Originally Posted by onesnowyowl

There is a general emphasis here on the idea of "smart growth". Compare metro Portland to metro Seattle. Both areas have seen a lot of growth in the last ten years, but the key difference is that Portland has something called the Urban Growth Boundary. They also have a regional governing board called Metro which oversees the entire Portland metropolitan area (which covers three counties) and makes sure that transportation and service needs are being met within the urban growth boundary before attempting additional expansion. The UGB encourages reuse and revitalization of older neighborhoods, and the supervision of Metro means that the region is looking at a bigger picture that includes mass transit (like the Portland streetcar, MAX light rail line and the extensive bus system). Seattle is trying to play catch-up with Portland when it comes to mass transit, and they have no UGB, so the suburbs keep pushing further and further outward--which equals sprawl. Meanwhile, in Portland, we are redeveloping older areas into higher density housing and commercial districts.