 Portland, Oregon, a city known for its livability, spectacular scenery, and enviable quality of life. Because of these attractive attributes, Portland is looked upon as a model city throughout the country. But the picture painted of Portland hasn't always been this rosy. Just a little over 20 years ago, the New York Times called Portland a city in the act of destroying itself. Harsh words, but an accurate depiction of Portland at the time. The story of our remarkable turnaround into one of the most livable cities in the country is a tale of visionary leadership and active committed citizens, a story worth remembering as we face the challenges of the future. In 1938, Lewis Mumford told the Portland City Club, I have seen a lot of scenery in my life, but I have seen nothing so tempting as a home for man than this Oregon country. The Portland that Mumford praised so strongly changed dramatically after World War II. Like other cities around the country, neighborhoods and streetcars were pushed aside to make way for the automobile. Jobs left the downtown area, and residents moved to the suburbs. It became a familiar pattern of growth promoted on the staple of new households, the television. What with the fine features of the console models? It's a better concept, the best of metropolitan living, combined with the convenience of new expressways, the efficiency of modern shopping centers, and the pleasures of suburban living. It takes all these things to be in tune with the times, all these and something more. The pride of owning a new automobile, the 1958 Rambler. In the 1950s and 60s, construction of the I-5 and Banfield Freeways destroyed hundreds of Portland homes, and the fabric of the proud neighborhoods of which they were apart. If you look in the back of me, you will see 30 years later, a system, a freeway system that divided a community. This was once a viable, lovely community. The spirit of this community was divided, has not come back together, because this freeway system did that. In the minds of traffic engineers, the I-5 and Banfield Freeways were just the beginning. This southeast Portland neighborhood was scheduled to be sacrificed for yet another freeway. But in the early 1970s, the battle over the proposed Mounted Freeway was at the heart of the struggle for the future of the city and the region. If you could identify 25 years ago a city in trouble, Portland would fit that profile. In terms of concerns about deteriorating inner city neighborhoods, we were violating air quality standards one day out of three. Business was fleeing downtown. The best solutions to our transportation and land use problems were to build an urban freeway through the heart of Portland neighborhoods and build more parking in downtown Portland. And in fact, that was not the path that was followed in the course of that short period of time in terms of urban history. The community faced the issue of more freeway construction and made the conclusion it was difficult at the time that that was not the way to go. What was unique in the early 70s in Portland was a combination of some very high quality political leaders, Neil Goldschmidt, Tom Walsh, and others who were young and progressive, but also a strong citizen participation value where people were willing, many times at a moment's notice, to go out and participate in activities that supported causes they believed in. Working together, citizens, business leaders, and elected officials charted a new vision for Portland. A city dedicated to its people, not their cars. A plan to revitalize downtown included a lid on parking spaces. A highway along the Willamette River was torn down and replaced by Waterfront Park. A three-story parking lot was transformed into Pioneer Square. A transit mall was built and downtown became a fearless square where bus rides became free. The Mount Hood Freeway project was stopped and the money that had been approved for the freeway went instead to build a light rail line called MAX. Here's MAX. Portland's light rail transit system was dedicated this morning in Gresham, and the curious have been riding MAX's rails today, most of the day anyway, for free. Including Mark Sanchez, he's with us live from a light rail station at Southwest 3rd and Yam Hill and Mark, but the very few who don't know about light rail, why all the excitement. Today's dedication, light rail, became an official piece of the cityscape, much like the skyline and like Portland's riverfront, and so after more than a decade of talk and consensus building and construction, MAX was ready. All that remained, the coming out party. Ladies and gentlemen, MAX is now part of our present and our future. MAX has become the flagship of a transit system that has pumped new vitality into Portland's downtown. Job growth has skyrocketed, while 40% of downtown commuters take transit to work, and a city that once consistently violated air quality standards now breathes cleaner air. But the MAX success story isn't limited to downtown. Over 1.2 billion dollars of public and private development has occurred along the 15 mile line, much of it in the Lloyd Center area just across the river from downtown. We've seen the investment in light rail occur along the alignment at a rate that's five-fold the investment in the original project itself. So it's paying back rewards every day in terms of the development that's gone along the alignment. What we're standing here right now in the Lloyd Center is a really good example of that. There's been over 716 million dollars worth of new development within walking distance of the stations. Convention centers are always very political where you put them. The decision of having light rail first help move the convention center to the east side. The most interesting thing to me is it's 400,000 foot convention center. It has 800 parking spaces. The parking spaces have no door onto the parking lot, and the front door of the convention center is the new light rail station with a pedestrian friendly plaza. When the Portland Trailblazers basketball team went shopping for a site for a new 20,000 seat arena they chose to build near MAX. Well we had two choices. There were suburban choices and urban choices and really when you looked at those choices there's kind of the suburban way of doing it which is an arena surrounded by a sea of parking probably would have taken 12,000 parking spaces to make this viable. On the other hand there was the urban alternative where we end up with the same 2,500 on-site spaces that were here in the first place. We simply rebuild them into structures and the real reason that was viable is because of two things. We were one able to take advantage of the parking resources already in the district, but most important was the fact that light rail and the MAX station sits right over there. Light rail made it viable and possible to build this arena at this location. It's the reason it's here today. MAX has also had an impact in suburban areas where a new way of thinking about the relationship between land use and transportation has emerged. It definitely has had an impact on our city for the good. The other thing I think it's done is make us think about our land use and I think that's why we're about five years ahead I'm told of other cities in the region because having this large public investment makes you look at how you're doing your land use and so I think for example we're ready to have more compact dense growth along light rail our citizens have told us that's the way they want us to develop our city and then have more open space which they voted to buy and I think it's been a definite definite asset in helping us manage our growth. Growth management, it's a familiar term here in Oregon because of the state's historic land use planning law and urban growth boundaries been drawn around the Portland metro area to prevent urban sprawl but some people worry that the boundary itself isn't enough if what's being built inside the line is still just more sprawl. The region is using light rail as a tool to help manage and shape future growth. A voter-approved 18-mile extension of MAX into suburban Washington County is under construction and scheduled to open in 1998. TriMet and local governments have been working in partnership to ensure that land use patterns around light rail stations are transit supportive. The west side light rail project in a in a way is a billion dollar development gamble. We built it literally out into the middle of vacant fields there's more vacant land around two stations on the west side than all the land there was vacant on the east side so it's it's as much of a a development strategy a growth shaping strategy it's really tied to what this region's trying to do in terms of controlling its density, shaping growth and so from that perspective the west side light rail project is as much a land use project as it is a transportation project. As construction of west side MAX continues the region faces its biggest challenge yet more and more residents move in and the pressure's on to expand the urban growth boundary. Metro the only elected regional government in the country has adopted an ambitious plan for how the region should grow in the next 50 years. Region 2040 calls for more compact development, greater transportation options, new development focused along transit corridors and preservation of open spaces in natural areas. Residents are expressing their strong support for these concepts at the ballot box. Boaters recently approved bond measures for protection of natural areas and a third light rail line a 25 mile extension known as south north. Despite max's success and strong public support approval for the state's share of light rail funding faced stiff opposition in the 1995 legislature after a long bitter battle light rail funding was approved in part because of broad based citizen support from around the state. There's expectations on all of us that we are going to act in a prescribed manner that those of us in rural communities are going to be hostile to the urban areas and that we are going to be protective and we are not going to enter into dialogue and we are not going to communicate and we are not going to jointly try to solve all of our problems and as long as we do that future generations aren't going to benefit at all. We're not going to end up with communities that we like or we can live in. We are asked regularly why our region is different why are we making the decisions that we are and many of the explanations that people give I don't accept people say well you live in a beautiful area you're hemmed in by mountains on both sides so you have a sense of limitations I don't think that's why we're different there's lots of places in the United States that are beautiful that have topographic constraints. I think we're different because we spent 25 years as a community both in metropolitan area and statewide arguing over what our future is and people have come to understand and accept the role of planning in the development of their community and many of the most critical decisions were made not by the politicians but by the citizens forcing the politicians to make them. Here in Portland what we've attempted to do is weave together the elements that we can control the land use and zoning where we locate new businesses and residences our transportation system whether it's the bus mall or light rail or how we manage parking it's that interplay of forces that have given us the opportunity to not be sort of captive to events that have paralyzed and led to the deterioration in other communities but it's given us a chance to push back and help shape our future according to a vision that we in our community have defined for ourselves. As the Portland metro area races to keep up with growth it will need all the tools it has used in the past to maintain its quality of life but it won't be easy it takes pride vision and commitment to stay on the right track