There’s a reason why the statistics published in the Portland Business Alliance’s 2014 Economic Impacts of Transportation study are attention-grabbing: The possibility of spending 69 hours per year in traffic and congestion by 2040 is enough to persuade even the most ardent public transit advocate to support the construction of massive superhighways. After all, who wouldn’t want an additional $928 million in annual economic output and sales or 8,300 new jobs as a result of an improved system? These statistics were reported in the Portland Tribune’s Jan. 6 article,...

The 1000 Friends of Oregon legislative and programmatic agendas for 2015 are proactive. Here’s an overview of what we hope to accomplish this year.

Legislative Priorities:

1. The first priority is passing a natural hazards bill to address the seventh of the 19 statewide planning goals are the core of Oregon’s land use program. We are working with Representative Ann Lininger. This bill would require the Department of Land Conservation and Development to work with local governments to...

If you live in Bend, you’ve probably heard pros and cons about the development of the OSU-Cascades campus. If you haven’t been following the issue, the University is planning to build on a 10-acre site to accommodate more students and then potentially expand onto an adjacent 46-acre site in the future. This has raised concerns about increased traffic, increased stress on the already stressed housing market, and the location of the campus itself - whether or not the 46-acre site is even safe or desirable to build on. Recently, after the project was approved by the City Council...