Bicycling

Streetfilms: The Defeat of the Mt. Hood Freeway

In the midst of his reign has New York City's master-builder, Robert Moses proposed building a network of massive expressways through the middle of Portland, Oregon's inner-city core. One part of Moses' plan was to replace a stretch of vibrant, healthy neighborhoods with a 40-foot-deep trench that would have been called the Mount Hood Freeway.

By Aaron Naparstek

12:15 PM EDT on July 5, 2006

The Defeat of the Mt. Hood Freeway
A Clarence Eckerson Streetfilm
Running time: 11:42, 28.21 MB, QuickTime

In the midst of his reign has New York City’s master-builder, Robert Moses proposed building a network of massive expressways through the middle of Portland, Oregon’s inner-city core. One part of Moses’ plan was to replace a stretch of vibrant, healthy neighborhoods with a 40-foot-deep trench that would have been called the Mount Hood Freeway.

Almost identical in design to the entrenched section of the Brooklyn Queens Expressway running through filmmaker Eckerson’s Brooklyn neighborhood, construction of the Mount Hood Freeway would have eliminated one percent of all of the housing units in the entire city of Portland.

The plan had the blessings of everyone who was important in Portland politics and was considered a “done deal” until Portland’s neighborhoods organized to stop it. The defeat of the Mount Hood Freeway, “radically altered the city of Portland forever,” Eckerson says and set Portland on an entirely different trajectory. The story gives us a hint of how New York City could have been and could still be if we begin to prioritize neighborhood life ahead of the goal of moving motor vehicle traffic.

Today, many of the Mt. Hood Freeway’s “ghost ramps” lead to bike paths and parks.

Portland’s transit systems go out of their way to help commuters leave their cars at home.

Portland’s growing lightrail system was built with money that would have been poured into freeways.

Aaron Naparstek

Aaron Naparstek is the founder and former editor-in-chief of Streetsblog. Based in Brooklyn, New York, Naparstek's journalism, advocacy and community organizing work has been instrumental in growing the bicycle network, removing motor vehicles from parks, and developing new public plazas, car-free streets and life-saving traffic-calming measures across all five boroughs. He was also one of the original cast members of the "War on Cars" podcast. You can find more of his work on his website.

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