Well, the dream of the Nineties is alive...

Uh, can someone tell me which freeway Portland removed that's mentioned in this article?

Kinda like how an government spending increase that is smaller than the Democrats want is called a spending cut, putting the kibosh on a freeway that hasn't been built is called taking out a freeway.

Gag.

"Uh, can someone tell me which freeway Portland removed that's mentioned in this article?"

This is what is dangerous about the Portland planning "story". It's a bunch of anecdotes spread around word of mouth, with no follow up on actual costs or results. All that people from elsewhere understand is that we have a train. They don't know anything about the extremely expensive debacle of S. Waterfront for instance.

Didn't they move I-5 frin the waterfront park area?

That would be Harbor Drive, built along the west bank, (Tom McCall Park) in the 40's and ripped up in 1974 when the Marquam bridge and Eastbank Freeway (I-5) were completed.

So it comes down to either a mistake or a lie. Ah, the power of modern media to propagate misinformation...

Perhaps related to Jack being blocked by the Mayor's Office for being a threat to information management?

There is a story related to this subject on today's Talk of the Nation on NPR...

Harbor Drive was not a freeway but part of US Route 99W which came up Barbur Blvd, crossed at the Steele Bridge (earlier at the Broadway), and went north up Interstate Avenue to join Route 99E at Marine Drive. As Shannon mentions above, the Harbor Drive section was turned into Waterfront Park when the East Bank and Baldock freeways were connected via the Marquam Bridge, completing Portland's section of I-5.

We killed the Mt. Hood Freeway. The property had been condemned, houses destroyed and construction was about to begin. See there, killing Milwaukee light rail is possible.

I wasn't aware the Mt Hood freeway ever got off the ground. Out of curiosity, what areas were actually demolished to prepare for it? I assume these have been backfilled since with newer structures?

I don't think Minneapolis really caried the show in the case of Mary Tyler Moore. As for this new show with Portland as a background, it doesn't seem to be exactly a household hit.

I also think the city of Portland is vastly distinct from much of the rest of Oregon. If it weren't for Multnomah county and the city of Portland, the state would be painted red and not deep blue. Even folks in state government, living in Marion county, despise Multnomah county and Portland city because of its big government voting record.

The strange parking lots on the south side of Powell above 52nd to near 82nd street are remnants of the Mt. Hood Freeway buiding activity.

"But one more clearly positive thing it has earned the city, which really can’t be separated from the state,....."

Really? Tell that to the people east of the Cascades, or South of Wilsonville! Or the Oregon Coast.

Shannon: thanks for the clarification... I've occassionally wondered what had happened along that stretch of Powell... never put the two together...

If it weren't for Multnomah county and the city of Portland, the state would be painted red and not deep blue.

Yeah, dang our system of proportional representation, anyway! Cities, which have lots of people, exert more influence than rural areas that are larger but have more cows than humans. Ain't that a historical oddity!

Uh, can someone tell me which freeway Portland removed that's mentioned in this article?

Yes, Harbor Drive, a.k.a. U.S. 99W.

It was removed in the 1970s after the Stadium Freeway, a.k.a. I-405, was built and opened (with the completion of the Fremont Bridge). I-5 had already largely replaced 99W (and 99E) as the main north-south drag through Washington and Oregon, but I-405 gave downtown its freeway as I-5 crossed onto the east side of the river south of downtown. With I-405, Harbor Drive was largely redundant.

You can still see remnants of Harbor Drive outside of downtown - Naito Parkway south of I-405 to the connection with Barbur Boulevard, and Interstate Avenue underneath and just north of the Broadway Bridge (although MAX has obliverated the old freeway feeling of the road). The eastern edge of the Steel Bridge still has the original ramps but several of them have been blocked off or repurposed for MAX - now cars are sent off to the east to a traffic light and must turn north to continue on old 99W.

The urbanists like to proclaim how great and wonderful Portland was for removing a freeway...when...it was nothing more than removing a redundant road. Yes, it was replaced with a park (which is a good thing) but there simply was no need for three north-south freeways in downtown. Even to this day, the freeway system in downtown rarely backs up (it's usually just outside the I-5/I-405 loop) - and ironically, MAX has nothing to do with it. But I-84 is gridlocked all the time - despite MAX. Same with I-5 to the north, and U.S. 26 to the west.

I wasn't aware the Mt Hood freeway ever got off the ground

It did - just look at U.S. 26 between Gresham and Sandy.

However, it was killed before the urban construction (Portland-Gresham) took off. That's why Powell Boulevard got lots of parking lots west of I-205, and Powell east of I-205 is a deplorable road substandard in every way (in fact until recently the off-ramp signs on I-205 advised motorists that U.S. 26 was really on Division Street; today the signs have been changed to reflect that U.S. 26 is still routed on Powell, but that to get to Gresham you should take Division. And Powell Boulevard within Gresham city limits is no longer considered a state highway.) Officially, ODOT wants to re-route U.S. 26 to connect to I-84 somewhere in Gresham or Troutdale (or Wood Village or Fairview) and get it off of Powell altogether...but it's a very low priority with no immediate plan of action.

Personally, I wouldn't have ever called 99W or 99E past or present a 'freeway' but instead a 'highway' since they were always crossed by intersections, but that's just my interpretation. I still believe and agree it's an exageration for some to make the claim that the beneficent and powerful CoP removed a freeway.

I guess we're splitting hairs here and I do stand educated regarding the defunct MH freeway.

"More prosperous"?

Personally, I wouldn't have ever called 99W or 99E past or present a 'freeway' but instead a 'highway'

99W from Barbur Boulevard north up Harbor Drive, across the Steel Bridge, up Broadway to the top of the bluff (near where Kaiser Interstate is now) was definitely a freeway, albeit a crude freeway by modern standards.

Of course, most of the "freeway" is gone, except for the small portions I noted. Before Interstate MAX was installed north of the Steel Bridge, North Interstate was definitely very similar to a freeway as it then had no traffic lights, few if any true intersections and a raised center median. Same with Naito Parkway from I-405 to Barbur - no intersections, no traffic lights. However ODOT/CoP has reduced the speed limit to 35 (although traffic routinely moves at 55 - it's an old freeway - until you get to the end and to the next traffic light).

99E has some freeway-like segments - the Union Pacific overpass to Milwaukie (it'd be more appropriately classified as an "expressway" due to the traffic signals), and from Columbia Boulevard north to Marine Drive.

I still believe and agree it's an exageration for some to make the claim that the beneficent and powerful CoP removed a freeway.

Totally agree. While it is technically correct in that the City did remove the old Harbor Drive freeway...it wasn't to make some massive environmental point. It was because it was an obsolete roadway that did not meet even then-current standards for road construction, and was duplicated by both Interstate 5 and Interstate 405.

Besides...99W used the Steel Bridge -- even then, without MAX, it was most definitely not suitable for an actual freeway (not to mention the bridge itself isn't even publicly owned - it's a privately owned bridge, owned by the Union Pacific Railroad!)

'Obliverated' can easilty be refudiated.

However, 'easilty' voids its own truthiness.
(See how that karma thing works, kids? The best one may hope for is to get the shortest delay between one's 'doing' and one's 'done coming back to'-ing. About a split second in this case getting to me, between knocking it around and it coming around knocking the back of my head ... split-second karma symptom-atizes I lead a charmed existence, yet still trying for instant karma.)