The subtitle of the article, “City planners hope for more investment in urban renewal district,” is buried under the heading “Beaverton auto sales drive city economy.”
Full disclosure: I love bikes. I love riding them, talking about them, taking pictures of them, and just about anything else that involves them.
I live in the suburbs but my primary mode of transportation is a bicycle. I ride my bicycle nearly everywhere I go with only a few exceptions.
My love of bicycles probably makes me at least a little biased towards bikes and against cars, but I still drive on occasion. My wife and I use our car to visit family in rural areas of Oregon, and she has a 40-mile commute that would be impractical on a bike.
Beaverton Valley Times article.
It’s hard to say how much my bike bias plays into my perception, but a recent article from the Beaverton Valley Times (owned by Pamplin Media Group) seemed a little strange to me.
The subtitle of the article, “City planners hope for more investment in urban renewal district,” is buried under the heading “Beaverton auto sales drive city economy.”
That bold claim made me raise an eyebrow. How exactly are auto sales going to drive a city economy?
(Photo: Will Vanlue)
To start with, I’m not aware of any automobile manufacturers in Beaverton. There are plenty of dealerships, of course, which employ a hand full of people but a sizable chunk of the profits from car sales are sent away from Oregon (and sometimes out of the United States) to vehicle manufacturers.
Furthermore, after someone buys a car they have to pay for fuel and regular maintenance. There are a few local jobs involved in administering the maintenance on a car but a lot of money gets funneled to Saudi Arabia, Canada, and other countries where we get our oil and gasoline.
Every dollar that gets sucked out of our local economy is one less dollar families can spend on food, services, and entertainment from locally owned small businesses.
The small slice of car sale money that stays in local jobs may start to dry up in the future too as more and more teenagers are waiting longer to get their drivers licenses and are driving less when they eventually get behind the wheel.
Going back to the “urban renewal” theme hidden in the subtitle of the article, it is true that Beaverton is working on rebuilding its downtown to boost economic activity by making it friendlier to people on foot and on bikes.
The article in the Beaverton Valley Times tries to make the case that car dealerships fit into that vision of a healthy, active Beaverton. They put forth the idea that “[car] dealership concentrations can be welcoming and walkable, attracting both shoppers who want to compare different vehicles and residents running errands or out for a stroll.”
This is probably my pro-bike bias talking but the thought of strolling along acres of asphalt, next to cars with neon windshield signs, while the smell of tire polish wafts through the air doesn’t seem especially welcoming.
Other pieces of the article seem to agree with that sentiment too.
Southwest Canyon Road, current home to many car dealerships, is described as a “four-lane thoroughfare that clogs with traffic most of the day.” Is congestion on the road supposed to improve as car sales increase?
I started to wonder how car dealerships stole the headline in a story about Beaverton residents’ desire for better access for walking and biking.
Tucked away on the second page of the article, it’s finally revealed (emphasis mine):
“The planning is happening as area dealerships get ready for the 2012 Portland International Auto Show…presented by the Portland Metro New Car Dealers Association and co-sponsored by the Pamplin Media Group, which owns the Beaverton Valley Times, Portland Tribune and Community Newspapers.”
That might not have come as too big of a surprise if I had paid a bit more attention to the paid advertisements framing the article. Two of the largest ads encourage readers to enter to win a new car at the auto show (a car provided by “Community Newspapers and the Portland Tribune.”)
Pamplin Media Group’s logo also features prominently on the website for the Portland International Autoshow, nearly as large as the logo for the auto show itself.
Am I alone in thinking this is a little strange? Is my pro-bike bias skewing my perspective on this article?
In some ways, I hope so. I hope that I’m way off base and my love for bicycles is causing me to be overly critical of a car-centric story. It’s either that or the demand for bicycle and pedestrian facilities is being spun into an advertisements for car dealers and an auto show.
You’re free to read the original article and judge for yourself.