Making Sense of Place, Portland

Oregon voters approved a ballot measure in 2004 that effectively paralyzed the land use planning system put in place nearly 30 years before. The measure threatened the urban growth boundary that had been established to prohibit development from sprawling into designated farmland and to encourage density and transit within the metropolitan region of Portland. Citizens took stock and examined issues of fairness and sustainability in Portland’s bold ambitions to be the city of the future. This 57-minute film tells the story of this journey through interviews and live footage of the election referendum on land use planning in 2007.

This documentary is a part of the Making Sense of Place series. Other titles in the series include Phoenix: The Urban Desert and Cleveland: Confronting Decline in an American City.