From the Core to the Fringe: Out and About with University of Victoria, BC

It was a great couple of days. This delegation of 30 students and faculty from University of Victoria, BC, visited Portland as part of a nine city tour of the Pacific Northwest (Cascadia) Region. (No, Portland was not their "First Stop.") Their goal was to examine the constraints and opportunities for and within resilient and sustainable cities. Their study tour focused on comparing implementation of best practices across the city--exploring places where Portland really works as well as places where it struggles. Touching on a range of themes, their study tour explored the story of displacement and re-emplacement in both the African-American and Asian communities in Portland.

The study tour was developed by First Stop's student ambassadors: Sindre Fredsvik, Seth Lowe, Audra Cody, and Yelena Sasin. They did a bang-up job and many thanks to them for their efforts on this tour. (And on behalf of First Stop all year long!)

Their first day of programming, called "Transportation, Arts & Community: Development in the Interstate Urban Renewal Corridor," took the delegation from Expo Center to N. Williams, with stops in the Kenton and Mississippi neighborhoods along the way. Their second day, called "A City Divided: The Story of Division Street from City Center to the Urban Fringe," had them in the Pearl District, Old Town/China Town, Cartopia (Se 12th & Hawthorne), Clinton/Division Neighborhood, Cafe Au Play, PCC's Southeast Center, and Fubonn Shopping Mall on SE 82nd Ave.

The students--from PSU and U-Vic--are preparing their reports now, which we'll share with you when they're completed. Meantime, enjoy these pictures from their study tour.

A Visit from Sejong, South Korea, "Asia's Green Metropolis of the Future"

A smattering of images from our study tour with delegates from MACCA, Sejong, South Korea's administrative agency.

SPECIAL REPORT FROM MALAYSIA: From Black Clad Pirates to Green Urban Growth

Submitted by:
Rex Burkholder,
Metro Councilor, District 5







Malaysia. The Spice Islands. The Straits of Malacca. Tropical seas and jungles. Pirates? So yesteryear!

Today, Malaysia is in the center of the most dynamic economy in the world--Chindia. With over 3 billion people and a growing middle class, Chindia is wrestling with reconciling the twin objectives of raising average incomes while protecting and restoring the environment. Penang itself is a bustling center of international high technology companies and high rises alongside the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Georgetown (where Jimmy Choo got his start!).

Through First Stop Portland, I was invited by the World Bank Institute to join a forum on Greening Urban Growth in Penang, Malaysia with 50 or so other participants from around the globe.

Jackson County, Missouri: Visting Portland is a "Smart Move"

This week an article in the Independence, MO daily newspaper with the headline County Keeps Rail Plan on Track, informed readers that “officials are trying to figure out which ideas from cities across the country are the best to borrow.” The same week, transportation authorities in Jackson County, Missouri, convened a series of workshops to get a sense of what locals think about the land use and economic development potential related to a proposed commuter rail line along the region's highly trafficked and increasingly congested interstate highways. Meanwhile, one of the municipalities in the corridor allocated $18,000 to a region-wide outreach program intended to educate and engage the regions’s auto-centric populace in the transit planning process.

It would appear that transit has found some traction in Missouri once again.

When Differences Make the Difference: Stockholm visits Portland

submitted by Sindre Fredsvik, First Stop Student Ambassador

What can two leading cities in sustainability potentially learn from each other? How transferable are successful practices from European cities to the American context and vice versa?

Bob Packard, ZGF (left) with Pers Ankersjö, Stockholm Vice-Mayor for the Environment

While these questions are highly pertinent and should be asked, perhaps the more valuable lessons come from examining their differences. What became apparent during recent conversations between Stockholm’s leaders and Portland’s experts are the differences in each city’s commitments to sustainability as well as the forces behind them.

Sharing Portland with the Philippines

First Stop Portland Presents at the 3rd League of Philippines Mayors Global Conference Manila, November 17 – 19, 2011 Submitted by: Nancy Hales, Program Director

The weather was sunny, 83⁰F with a warm breeze - delicious by Portland’s standards. Thursday’s Philippine Star announced that US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton was also in town, promising increased US economic aid. President Obama was also in the neighborhood (Bali), meeting with Philippine President Aquino to affirm our strategic alliance. Connection between the two countries was obvious.

A guest speaker invited by the World Bank Institute, I arrived in Manila anxious to understand more about local realities before I presented the next day. As advocates for livable cities, yet grounded in very different civic realities, what can we really learn from one another?

Toyama Leadership Rocks Down to Electric Avenue

Submitted by: Calvin Mesman, 
First Stop Portland Student Ambassador 

Even before the earthquake of spring 2011 rocked Japan's confidence in nuclear energy, leaders in the Toyama prefecture were actively promoting a low-carbon "Eco-Town" model based on compact development, renewable energy sources, increasing citizen participation, and expanding light rail transit. During a recent visit celebrating the 20-year anniversary of the Toyama prefecture's sister state relationship with Oregon, Toyama Vice Governor Koichi Uede spent the morning learning about the new Electric Avenue test site on the Portland State University campus.

Vice-Governor Koichi Uede checks out PSU's Electric Avenue

The delegation toured Electric Avenue's charging stations and learned about current and future plans for Electric Vehicles (EV) in the region from Katja Dillmann, Transportation Policy Advisor for the Mayor’s office, and Amy Hillman, Oregon Sales Manager for ECOtality, a clean electric transportation and storage technologies company. Each gave a brief introduction to electric vehicles and their importance within the Portland Metro region.

Sounds like a great idea, the delegation observed, but will it work?