So says Northwest environmental watchdog group Sightline in a analysis posted on a Vancouver, B.C. website.
Sightline set out to evaluate whether Portland or Seattle is more environmentally-friendly based on stats about a number of criteria. The results are surprising, I think. Not only will a baby born in Seattle live three years longer on average than one born in Portland, but their average greenhouse gas emissions will be lower. AND, most galling, though Portland is more compact than the greater Seattle area thanks in part to the Urban Growth Boundary, within the city limits, Sightline says Seattle is actually denser than Portland:
In Portland, somewhere around 45 per cent of residents live in transit neighborhoods. In Seattle, the comparable figure is 57 per cent… Even more impressive, at the time of the last census, before the surge of residential development in Portland’s Pearl District and around downtown Seattle, some 11 per cent of Seattleites lived in urban neighborhoods with density in the “walking zone” sweet spot above 40 people per acre. Just four per cent of Portlanders lived in such walking neighbourhoods.
Full report here.