ONE TOWN SQUARE: at the intersection of peak oil, climate change, and land use

Has Oregon’s planning program prevented sprawl?

December 31st, 2007 by Jim Just

A few days ago I posted a piece arguing that our smug self-satisfaction at the supposed success of Oregon‘s planning program in preventing sprawl was unjustified. A quick look at population densities of world cities and even other U.S. cities drives home the point. Oregon cities – including even the Portland we so proudly flaunt – are all near the bottom of the rankings of population density. The first link to U.S. cities lumps Portland in with Vancouver WA, but this link shows that Portland on its own isn’t all that much better. Here are a couple of highlights just to give some idea of where Oregon‘s cities fall on the density scale:

City

Population/km²

Northwest cities

Portland

1,503

Portland-Van. metro

1,290

Eugene

1,263

Seattle

2,563

Seattle metro

1,098

Vancouver BC metro

1,650

U.S. – selected cities

Atlanta

1,425

Atlanta metro

688

Boston

4,697

Boston metro

897

Chicago

4,866

Chicago metro

1,511

Houston

1,287

Las Vegas

1,775

Los Angeles

3,078

LA Metro

2,729

NY city limits

10,173

NY metro area

2,050

Philadelphia

4,190

Philly metro

1,104

Salt Lake City

1,503

San Francisco

6,349

SF/Oak. metro

2,367

World cities (inc. metropolitan areas)

Baghdad

9,250

Barcelona

4,850

Beijing

11,500

Berlin

3,750

Bogotá

13,500

Cairo

9,400

Delhi

11,050

Jakarta

10,500

Lagos

18,150

London

5,100

Manila

10,550

Mexico City

9,400

Mumbai

29,650

Paris

3,550

Sao Paulo

9,000

St. Petersburg

9,550

Tokyo

4,750

Taipei

15,200

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