because they lacked visibility, a comprehensive overview, or the support of responsive public policy. It was only in linking long-range planning with broad- based citizen education and action that a true vision for the community could be developed. As we entered the 1980s, with every indication that they would be as challenging as had been promised, building a common vision for the future of Portland waited on the public agenda. The Sustainable City The Chinese have a fascinating character for the concept of crisis. Actually, it is two characters drawn together, one meaning danger and the other opportunity. In itself, it is a sublime reflection on the paradox of life and potential choice to be found in any situation of great challenge. It could also be seen as a fitting metaphor for the challenge our society faces in 1982. For Americans, it has become a matter of choosing the right opportunities among the many dangers confronting us—and moving with them. For those people who have long sensed that this time of choice is upon City Club to Portland: Look Ma, No Wheels! How times change. Forty some years and innumerable freeway overpasses after the visit of Lewis Mumford to Portland, the thrill of the great postwar auto boom is beginning to wane. Gasoline prices have jumped over 350 percent in the last decade. Federal monies from the abandoned Mt. Hood Freeway project are now being used to build the region's new light rail line. And the City Club has released its Report on a Vision of Portland's Future, detailing in its scenarios how the telecommunications revolution will open up new forms of electronic "mobility" while reducing our needs to travel. Is nothing sacred? "Year 2000. Southeast Portland. . . Jeff Jones is an accountant with a large firm in downtown . . . He works three days a week in the comfort of his den in his Mt. Scott home. He 'communicates' to work at the office downtown using telecommunications. Jeff can do basic bookkeeping and research any tax questions from his home using a microcomputer, as well as hold meetings with staff without having to be in a central location. "The office downtown is not the place it was in 1980. Since Jeff's firm started using telecommunications and offering the home-workplace as an employment option it has benefitted in many ways. By giving people the option of working at home, the office staff was cut to a minimum, requiring less office space and freeing financial resources for other activities . .. "Jeff sets his own hours. He is at home when his son Lee comes home from school and his "childcare” often involves joining his son for a jog in the late afternoon. The reduced number of trips to the office have meant gas and time savings for the Joneses and more family use of the neighborhood business district within walking distance of their home . . ."
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