Where there's a Will, there's a way

"Portland: A Sense of Place" is the second short film from the e2 series that will screened during the Springfield Environmental Film Festival. You can view a short clip and synopsis at the official website.

Thanks to a progressive public transportation portfolio that includes train, streetcar, bus and aerial tram, Portland has become a global model of transit-oriented development (TOD). For more than 40 years, city planners have uniquely integrated transport decisions into urban growth and development efforts. The result: Portland is consistently ranked as one of the country’s most livable cities, boasting a healthy two percent population growth annually — and the second lowest per capita transportation spending of the 28 largest U.S. metropolitan areas.

Portland - A Sense of Place (30 sec trailer) from Peter Smith on Vimeo.

Springfield has a habit of accepting things as they are and not looking too far beyond the status quo. I picked this movie to encourage discussion of what realistic options are out there besides unrestrained sprawl and designing a city around car traffic rather than humans.

The free showing is Monday, April 19, 6:30 in City Nights Theater at Capital City Bar & Grill. Earth Days is the feature documentary later that night at 7:30. The full schedule is here.