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Monday Mailing

Year 20 • Issue 01 09 September 2013 1.

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Quote of the Week: “Like water, be gentle and strong. Be gentle enough to follow the natural paths of the earth, and strong enough to rise up and reshape the world.” ~Brenda Peterson

Oregon Fast Fact #8: A 1903 flash flood devastated Heppner, killing 225 people. A rider on horseback raced ahead of the waters to warn the next town downstream, saving many lives.

Park by Swarm Are Food Banks Selling Out to Corporate America?

More Free Books!

GTA Geek Lunch Returns on Sept 17: New Tools For Data Visualization Northern California County Votes to Secede the State Farm Foundation Free Webcast: Delivery of High-Speed Internet Services to Rural America Food Sleuth Radio Show Line-up for September Ashland Builders Find Projects in Medford Oregon Land Use Law Turns 40 Water and Wastewater Infrastructure Workshop Scheduled for October

1. Park by Swarm What if communities formed new parks when they needed them? What if these parks could be formed by swarms of bicycles? If that sounds like something out of a sci-fi novel, get ready because landscape architect John Bela, ASLA, atRebar and artist Tim Wolfer at N55 have created Parkcycle Swarm. While this concept has been explored in a few locations in Europe, the team just created four small mobile parks for the Participate public arts festival in Baku, Azerbaijan.

In DesignBoom, they write Parkcycle Swarm “explores the possibilities of the public sculpture, while at the same time raising awareness of cyclepower and green space through a participatory activity.”

San Francisco-based urban design and public art firm Rebar first tested the Parkcycle concept for one of its famed Park(ing) Days. They describe the system as a “human-powered open space distribution system designed for agile movement within the existing auto-centric urban infrastructure.” In their lingo, “Parkcycle effectively re-programs the urban hardscape by delivering massive quantities of green open space—up to 4,320 square-foot-minutes of park per stop—thus temporarily reframing the right-of-way as green space, not just a car space.”

To access the full story, click here.

2. Are Food Banks Selling Out to Corporate America?

Food banks, once humble distributors of excess food thrown off by supermarkets and manufacturers, have become corporate enablers of the industrial food system, according to one longtime food activist.

Amid a historic recession and food prices rising faster than wages, the number of people served by food banks in America rose by 46 percent between 2006 and 2010. But behind the stacked boxes and eager volunteers is what author Andy Fisher calls an unholy alliance between food banks and corporations, many of whom earn big tax credits and glowing PR for donating money and food to anti-hunger groups.

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It gets worse, he says: The country’s largest food banks are governed by boards dominated by corporations, including Fortune 500 industrial food companies like Walmart, ConAgra, and major grocery chains. As many as a quarter of the board members at major food banks come from Fortune 500 or Global 500 companies, Fisher found.

To access the full story, click here.

3. More Free Books!

In case you haven’t discovered it yet, IDRC (International Development Research Centre – Canada) has a bunch of books free for download or to read online.

For more information, click here.

4. GTA Geek Lunch Returns on Sept 17: New Tools For Data Visualization Join Shannon Vance of GTA Member Greenlight Development as he shares what he did over his summer vacation (from the geek lunches that is). Shannon will explain how to create and manipulate SVG images based on data using declaratory techniques in CSS and d3. D3.js is a JavaScript library for manipulating documents based on data. Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) is an XML-based vector image format for two-dimensional graphics. He will close his talk with a peek into an exciting new technology called Meteor by demonstrating a simple broadcast app. This brief overview will show how Meteor makes it possible to write a single JavaScript file that handles all the methods and objects for both server and client.

Tuesday, Sept. 17, noon China Gorge (2680 Old Columbia River Drive - Hood River) Free for all to attend; no-host lunch.

5. Northern California County Votes to Secede the State The Siskiyou County Board of Supervisors voted 4-1 on Tuesday in favor of seceding from California to form a new state called “Jefferson.” Siskiyou also plans to invite nearby counties in California and southern Oregon to join with them in casting off the bonds that have tied them to their fellow Californians and Oregonians for generations.

Residents attending the supervisors meeting were virtually unanimous in supporting the predominantly Republican county’s secession. According to the Redding Record Searchlight, a local paper, one member of the board of supervisors raised a laundry list of complaints related to “regulation, restriction of rights, lack of representation, regionalism and restoration of limited government.” A staffer from Rep. Doug LaMalfa’s (R-CA) office attended the meeting and claimed that “she and other LaMalfa staff members supported the effort to secede, but she did not know LaMalfa’s thoughts on it.”

To access the full story, click here.

6. Farm Foundation Free Webcast: Delivery of High-Speed Internet Services to Rural AmericaSept. 11.

On Sept. 11, the Farm Foundation Forum will examine issues on the delivery of high-speed internet services to rural America. This Forum will be 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. EDT at the National Press Club. A free webcast will also be offered, which means you can participate in the discussion live regardless of your location.

From the comfort of your home or office, or via a gathering of leadership in your offices, you can hear the live speakers and ask questions of them as part of the discussion session.

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To participate in this free webcast, all you need to do is register. To register, click here.

7. Food Sleuth Radio Show Line-up for September To listen, tune in on line on Thursdays at 5:00 p.m. Central at www.kopn.org. Shows also air on assorted Pacifica stations nationwide the week after the posted air dates below.

All shows are also archived and available for individual listening and public radio programming at Public Radio Exchange: http://www.prx.org/series/32432-food-sleuth-radio September 12th: Anna Lappe, Project Director, Food MythBusters, talks about predatory marketing to kids, and her new short movie (release date Sept. 25th) which exposes how Big Food aggressively targets children and teens, and ways parents and communities can fight back for real food: www.foodmyths.org September 19th: Ricardo Salvador, Ph.D., Senior Scientist and Director of the Food & Environment Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists, explains the hidden costs in our current “food system. “ He connects agriculture policy to human health and shares key points from the new UCS report, “The $11 Trillion Reward: How Simple Dietary Changes Can Save Lives

and Money, and How We Get There.”

http://www.ucsusa.org/food_and_agriculture/solutions/expand-healthy-food-access/11-trillionreward.html September 26th: Jennifer Harris, Ph.D. MBA, Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity, Yale University, describes her research into the extent and psychological impact of children’s exposure to food advertising and encourages parent advocacy. www.ruddrootsparents.org 8. Ashland Builders Find Projects in Medford A recent flurry of interest in Medford from Ashland developers underscores some of the limited growth potential in the city famous for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.

Medford's downtown is attempting to go through a revival, while Ashland's bustles with a tourist economy and a limited supply of available properties.

"It's hard for people doing large projects anywhere in Ashland," said Allan Sandler, an Ashland developer who is preparing plans for an elevated residential complex above a parking lot in downtown Medford. "The real reason for the interest in Medford is there's nowhere else to go (in Ashland)."

Sandler has undertaken many projects in Ashland over the years, disputing the impression that the city is anti-growth.

To access the full story, click here.

9. Oregon Land Use Law Turns 40 From the outdoor patio at Cooper Mountain Vineyards on the outskirts of Beaverton, one can look west at grapevines and, in the distance beyond, miles of fertile Willamette Valley farmland. But a few feet in the other direction is the edge of a housing subdivision. And with this property officially designated as future urban land within the growth boundary of Beaverton, the winery will eventually have to give up its namesake property and plant vineyards elsewhere.

“We just have to accept the path of progress,” says Cooper Mountain owner Robert Gross, who not only doubles as a physician but also served on Washington County’s planning commission in the Page 3 of 4

early 1980s. “Having urban or rural reserves makes sense. If you’re an owner in this group, particularly if you’re in urban reserves, you’re kind of locked in to somebody else’s plans. And yet I think there are good reasons for that, so the land doesn’t get subdivided in a way that would not meet the overall goals of land-use planning.” Cooper Mountain already owns two parcels far outside Portland’s urban-growth boundary and is looking for more.

The winery’s move comes amid this year’s 40th anniversary of Senate Bill 100, the 1973 legislation spearheaded by legendary governor Tom McCall that established Oregon’s first statewide land-use laws. Along the way, the system has continued to evolve, be it through ballot measures, the legislature or the courts.

To access the full story, click here.

10. Water and Wastewater Infrastructure Workshop Scheduled for October A workshop on water and wastewater infrastructure financing will be held October 7 at the Oregon Garden in Silverton. The program is designed for small and rural communities considering water or wastewater infrastructure improvements. Information presented will include: project development and finance; best management practices including asset management, public education on water and wastewater rates; and case studies highlighting successful projects. The training will also provide attendees with an opportunity to meet with state agency representatives to discuss individual projects and ask questions.

For more information, contact Chris Marko of Rural Community Assistance Corporation: (503) 2281780 or cmarko@rcac.org.

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