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Portlanders say street parking is getting worse, but their neighborhoods are getting better

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The people have spoken, and they say that in most of Portland, it’s getting harder to park a car on the street:

street parking bad
(Source: 2011 and 2014 community surveys, Portland auditor’s office)

Since the central-city building boom resumed, residents of every part of the city except East Portland are more likely to say it’s annoying to find a car parking space.

But this is interesting: they say something else, too.

livability very good

Since the central-city building boom resumed, residents of every part of the city except East Portland are more likely to say they’re highly satisfied with their neighborhoods.

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These are just a couple sets of numbers in the massive annual community survey out today from the Portland auditor’s office, and take them with a grain of salt: all of these changes are within the margins of error. (It’s ±4-5 percentage points for neighborhoods, ±1.7 percentage points citywide.)

In any case, as Portland begins a year-long process of trying to find long-term solutions to its street parking situation, it’s pretty clear that open street parking spaces have been getting scarcer. But to the extent that these figures are true, this would be exactly the outcome city planning officials say they’re shooting for: neighborhoods that are getting more crowded because they’re getting, on balance, more awesome.

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