City Limits: Walking Portland's Boundary

by David Oates

Reflections on the politics and culture of place, inspired by the author's walk along the entirety of Portland, Oregon's 260+ mile Urban Growth Boundary, through neighborhoods, forests, mountain trails, vineyards, and wide-open wheat fields.

Genres: Nonfiction

125 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2006

About the author

David Oates was a British archaeologist and academic specializing in the Ancient Near East.

Reviews

[Noah · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was hoping this book would provide some practical info on Portland's Urban Growth Boundary (the government-controlled boundary that determines what land can be developed and what land must remain undeveloped as agricultural land or forest), but instead the author spends most of the book taking potshots at individualism and Republicans. Basically, he hates suburbia, with all its fat, stupid, religious Republicans (seriously, his words), and therefore supports the UGB because he claims UGB gets rid of this suburban sprawl. Full of the usual rhetoric that when government acts, it's evidence of community and living together (except of course when government doesn't act the way he wants it to, for example by subsidizing suburbs), but when individuals make private agreements, it's hoarding or profit-making or extreme individualism that ignores the community.

[Tracy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Delightful and thought-provoking essays and anecdotes by a guy who walked the length of the Portland Urban Growth Boundary, and those who walked stretches with him. At just 100 pages of compelling reading, it's short enough to devour in a day or two.

I study this stuff, and I live in Oregon, so I may find it more interesting than most people would. Regardless, it's an interesting contemplation of what has worked, what hasn't, and what the UGB actually means, with some interesting conclusions. The epilogue is a consideration of Measure 37, which passed shortly after Oates finished his trek.

[Michael · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is not the way to approach the UGB debate. Being an extremist and mocking the opposition's values is not going to get us anywhere. I'm on Oates' side, but I wish he had handled the issue more diplomatically.