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Region: Oregon

Voters in Southwest Portland Neighborhoods Have More Influence on City Council Elections than Those East of 82nd Avenue

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Image of Portland's Burnside Bridge in the daylight.

This article is part of the series Fairer Elections in Portland Takeaways The city’s winner-take-all elections lock certain voters out of political power. Whiter and more Democratic areas repeatedly elect preferred candidates, while areas with racially diverse and nonaffiliated voters go underrepresented. When voters east of 82nd Avenue support candidates that close-in neighborhoods dislike, they … Read more

Environmental Justice Advocates Lead Oregon to 100 Percent Clean Electricity Future

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Photo of solar panels in the foreground with the rising sun behind, and a transmission line and wind turbines in silhouette.

Takeaways After two failed attempts at cap and trade, utilities and advocates united to decarbonize the electricity sector. Emissions will be slashed by 80 percent by the end of the decade, mainly by swapping coal for cheaper renewable power. New fossil fuel facilities are banned, but a fight in Washington state previews that what fuel … Read more

Everything You Wanted to Know about Portland Charter Review but Were Afraid to Ask

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Portland city flag against a blue sky with cloud wisps

This article is part of the series Fairer Elections in Portland Takeaways Portlanders have an opportunity to change the way that City Hall functions. Portland’s Charter Commission is currently evaluating the city’s governing charter, looking for possible amendments and reforms. Their main focus is assessing the commission form of government and at-large method of elections. … Read more

Eight Ingredients for a State-Level Zoning Reform

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Row of tan townhouses with a green manicured lawn in the foreground, Mt. Hood in the background to the right

This article is part of the series Legalizing Inexpensive Housing In 2019, Oregon passed a first-of-its-kind state law that ordered larger cities and the Portland metro area to rapidly legalize duplexes on all residential lots and fourplexes, triplexes, townhomes, and cottage clusters on more than half of lots. This is a short, reported history of … Read more

How to Tear Down the Invisible Walls in Your City’s Zoning Code

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A group of more than 30 people listen to a woman on a city street in a tree-lined neighborhood

This article is part of the series Legalizing Inexpensive Housing This is a sidebar to Sightline’s history of the passage of Portland’s residential infill project. In August 2021, Oregon’s largest city legalized duplexes, triplexes, fourplexes and mixed-income sixplexes on the vast majority of residential lots for the first time since 1959, while making on-site parking … Read more

The Eight Deaths of Portland’s Residential Infill Project

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Collage of profile photos from this article

This article is part of the series Legalizing Inexpensive Housing In 2021, Portland became the largest modern U.S. city to end so-called “single-family zoning.” What follows here is a history of how the residential infill project could have died but didn’t. This history was developed in partnership with Lincoln Institute of Land Policy. See also … Read more

Northwest Climate Goals Are at Odds with a Few State Energy Efficiency Rules

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A close-up view of the blue flame from a gas stove burner.

To slash carbon emissions, states in the Pacific Northwest need to move directly to electrification, leapfrogging natural gas technologies. But among the barriers to climate success is a surprising obstacle: a small set of energy efficiency laws written by the states themselves. As it turns out, both Oregon and Washington states mandate millions of dollars … Read more

Automatic Voter Registration Continues to Kick Ass in Oregon

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Person with an "I voted" sticker on their shirt and an Oregon-specific face mask

Takeaways Oregon was the first state to implement Automatic Voter Registration (AVR) and it is going great! Nearly all eligible and interested voters are now registered to vote. Registered voters’ information is automatically kept up-to-date so their ballot comes to the right address. Advocacy and get-out-the-vote groups can turn their attention to voter engagement efforts … Read more

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