More housing isn't always the answer. Cities should just let market forces work, and get out of the way with rent control etc. More housing creates more congestion, rent control causes a flood of prospective tenants for fewer vacancies. It's all mad.
So in my local paper, the city announced a plan to build some housing mixed in with civic buildings on city land, and will allow it to be up to 120 feet tall. Our homes are a mix of 1-story to 3-story residential homes. We're already dealing with traffic congestion that quadrupled after a bunch of commercial buildings that went up on vacant land. And rents and home prices have skyrocketed. More people, more traffic, more agony for old-time residents and grief for landlords. Crazy. Good luck Portland, you're going to ruin it for everyone.
I don’t know when it happened, but now every city and town has an economic development department that is staffed with people who think they know how to run everything. Mainly what they do is take taxpayer funded trips to bribe businesses to come to town in exchange for empty promises that the business will hire “x” number of employees if they get enough taxpayer money. It’s a total scam and everything they plan is wrong.
Nobody trusts the free market any more.
Market forces will cause more houses to be built since the price increases are due to excess demand.
I’ve never been to Portland, but as I understand it so much of the land around it can’t be developed so in the finite space they have costs will inevitably rise (the very market forces you mention). Kinda like the island of Manhattan, I guess.