John Charles Presentation now available online

Recently, John Charles visited Albuquerque and presented on the drawbacks of Portland’s transportation and land use model. His powerpoint presentation is available here. As if to validate the timeliness of this presentation and the fact that many policymakers consider Portland to be the model for the rest of America, columnist George Will, writing in Newsweek recently, discussed Obama’s transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and the Administration’s emphasis on Portland-style rail and land-use planning.
Will writes, in a passage that backs-up Charles’ belief that the Portland model is really about controlling the rest of us:

For many generations—before automobiles were common, but trolleys ran to the edges of towns—Americans by the scores of millions have been happily trading distance for space, living farther from their jobs in order to enjoy ample backyards and other aspects of low-density living. And long before climate change became another excuse for disparaging America’s “automobile culture,” many liberal intellectuals were bothered by the automobile. It subverted their agenda of expanding government—meaning their—supervision of other people’s lives. Drivers moving around where and when they please? Without government supervision? Depriving themselves and others of communitarian moments on mass transit? No good could come of this.

Hopefully, Albuquerque residents will keep Will and Charles’ admonitions in mind when they head to the polls in the city election this October.