sprawl and the CLC

I posted this on Bike portland, it could have used some fleshing out, but, you know.

I've lived in Portland for 12 years. The only time I get frustrated by the seeming lack of infrastructure planning is when I get in my car.
I tend to think that people know what they're doing when they moved to Beaverton or Vancouver or Clackamas, I knew a guy who built a house in LaCenter and commuted to Sellwood each day because the lot was $40k cheaper. To me that seemed ridiculous.

At the same time a 5 acre pastural spread in Battleground looks pretty nice to me sometimes, so long as I could work from home - but I can't, so I stay in Portland and I live as close to the center as I can afford. There's no farmland, but there are empty lots and drug dealing on the street. I occasionally get spare-changed when I step out my front door. There are also families living on my street and they feel safe enough, as I do. It's not terrible pretty but we live in a community here. I'm also near bike lanes and downtown, and If I do get in my car it's in the opposite direction of traffic.

Portland infrastructure can't handle more cars. The Chokepoints of I-5 and 26 might not have been planned, but they suit me just fine. The only new ways into the city should be rail and ped/bike and if they're attached to a new roadway I think we can live without them. Vancouver can do what it wants, but if it's their intention to build low density bedroom communities and send everyone to work in Portland, one person per car, I'd say that's a plan that Portland should fight. Portland's not an office park or an industrial zone. It's a city full of people and families and more cars and trucks make it worse. Our lives shouldn't be degraded so that someone choosing to live in a cute little subdivision 20 miles away doesn't have a hard commute.