[sustran] New Urbanism, Portland and THE ECONOMIST (fwd)

[Wendell Cox]

Eric Bruun wrote:
> 
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> Date: Mon, 19 Jan 1998 14:03:12 +0000
> From: John Pucher <pucher at erebus.rutgers.edu>
> Reply-To: pucher at rci.rutgers.edu
> To: Eric Bruun <ebruun at rci.rutgers.edu>
> Subject: Re: [sustran] New Urbanism, Portland and THE ECONOMIST
> 
> Eric,
> 
> With a total population size only about a tenth of LA, how could you
> possibly expect the Portland density to equal that of LA anyway.  The
> crucial error Cox makes is that he totally fails to control for city
> size.  

Not an error at all. There is no necessity for a larger city to be more
dense (per square mile) than a smaller city. Smaller UAs San Jose,
Sacramento, Norfolk and Fort Lauderdale have higher densities than
Portland --- 10 of 16 UAs with lower densities than Portland have higher
populations.

One should compare Portland with other cities of comparable
> size, or the comparison is quite simply unfair.
> 
Disagree...

> John Pucher