“The overall goal is to arrive at a more favorable balance between the city and the car, between the erosion of the city by cars and the attrition of automobiles by the city.”
— Alan Webber, in a 1971 memo created for City Commissioner Neil Goldschmidt
This morning a reader tipped us off to a fascinating memo penned by a City Hall staffer in 1971. The memo, titled, Disincentives to the Automobile (PDF), was written by Alan Webber, a staffer to then City Commissioner Neil Goldschmidt. Webber (bio) went on to have a notable career in journalism and is most well-known as being founder of Fast Company magazine. Today he’s an author and speaker considered an, “Expert on change and innovation in the knowledge economy.”
Webber’s six-page memo was created to “stimulate discussion on the role of the automobile” in Portland’s Downtown Plan. At the time the memo was written, cities around the country were being tasked by the Environmental Protection Agency to do something about high levels of urban air pollution (The “Anti-Planner” Randal O’Toole shared more historical context for the memo on his blog in 2008). The tone and content of the memo reveals a deep understanding that car overuse has a negative impact on the creation of a vibrant, livable city. Far from being simply “anti-car,” the memo reads like something you’d hear espoused by an advocate or planner at a modern-day active transportation conference.
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