Monday Mailing - 091718

Monday Mailing

Year 25 • Issue 02

17 September 2018 1.

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The Rural Data Portal A New Use for Google Maps: Calculating A City’s Carbon Footprint The Trouble With TIF Utilities Have A Problem: The Public Wants 100% Renewable Energy, And Quick League of Oregon Cities – Small Cities Regional Meetings.

Data-Driven Park Planning Historic Preservation & Energy Efficiency – A Guide for Historic Commercial Buildings Gender Diversity on The Fire Line Tools for The Wannabe Western Weather Prognosticator Online Tool Provides State & Local Energy Data at Your Fingertips Call for Applications: Local Foods, Local Places 2018-2019

1. The Rural Data Portal The RURAL DATA PORTAL is a simple, easy to use, on-line resource that provides essential information on the social, economic, and housing characteristics of communities in the United States. The RURAL DATA PORTAL is targeted toward rural communities, but a wide range of information is presented for the nation, states, and counties for rural, suburban and urban areas.

Quote of the Week: “Walk with the dreamers, the believers, the courageous, the cheerful, the planners, the doers, the successful people with their heads in the clouds and their feet on the ground.

Let their spirit ignite a fire within you, to leave this world better than when you found it.”

-- Wilfred Peterson.

Oregon Fast Fact: Oregon is the only state to prohibit self-serve gasoline.

Most of the information provided in the RURAL DATA PORTAL comes from Housing Assistance Council (HAC) tabulations of various public use data sets such as the 2010 Census of Population and Housing, the American Community Survey (ACS) and Home Mortgage Disclosure Act Data.

To access the full story, click here.

2. A New Use for Google Maps: Calculating A City’s Carbon Footprint Looking at a city’s Google Maps data, in combination with other data, a new tool from Google can estimate the carbon footprint of all of its buildings–and the carbon footprint of all the car trips, bus and subway rides, and other transportation used by the people living there.

The Environmental Insights Explorer, an online tool that launched in beta on September 10 and is still in development, is designed to help cities deal with the first step of a plan to reduce emissions: knowing what their current carbon footprint is. More than 9,000 cities have already committed to cut emissions in line with the goals of the Paris Agreement, but more than a third of those cities haven’t yet built an inventory of emissions. The process can take months or even years, and cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, making it particularly challenging for smaller cities.

To access the full story, click here.

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3. The Trouble With TIF Local governments often hail this tool as a way to revitalize investment-deprived neighborhoods, fix dilapidated roads, clean up polluted waters, revamp blighted property, and foster commercial activity and job creation. It’s often poorly understood by city taxpayers, but it affects them in very real ways.

I’m talking about Tax Increment Financing (TIF), a popular mechanism meant to boost economic development. Its usage is widespread: Every state but one employs it, and it’s a go-to move for many cities trying to revive struggling neighborhoods, especially in the Midwest. But how effective is it, really?

To access the full story, click here.

4. Utilities Have A Problem: The Public Wants 100% Renewable Energy, And Quick Renewable energy is hot. It has incredible momentum, not only in terms of deployment and costs but in terms of public opinion and cultural cachet. To put it simply: Everyone loves renewable energy. It’s cleaner, it’s high-tech, it’s new jobs, it’s the future.

And so more and more big energy customers are demanding the full meal deal: 100 percent renewable energy.

The Sierra Club notes that so far in the US, more than 80 cities, five counties, and two states have committed to 100 percent renewables. Six cities have already hit the target.

To access the full story, click here.

5. League of Oregon Cities – Small Cities Regional Meetings.

The LOC Small Cities program is a forum for members to learn from and network with each other.

Agendas include a topic selected by the particular region and a round table discussion about issues facing cities in attendance. The League does not solicit or accept ideas for topics other than from member cities or state agencies.

Elected and appointed officials from cities with populations of 7,500 or less are encouraged to attend these meetings. Representatives from cities of all sizes are welcome. Agencies, non-profits or private sector firms may attend these meetings to listen to the information put forth and discussed by cities and state agencies, however League ask that they not participate in the round table discussion or in the selection of topics for future meetings.

For a printable list of cities by region click here.

For more information, click here.

6. Data-Driven Park Planning Where are new parks most needed? What types of park amenities does a community need more of?

Which sports are most popular in a city or neighborhood? How many residents are within a halfmile of a park? If a new park is built at a certain location, how many more youths would be served?

These are the types of questions that decision-makers are increasingly asking so that they can make informed-decisions to better allocate limited resources for parks and recreation. In order to answer such inquiries, park planners must turn to and be familiar with a variety of data sources that are at their disposal.

To access the full story, click here.

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7. Historic Preservation & Energy Efficiency – A Guide for Historic Commercial Buildings Pacific Power, in collaboration with the Oregon Main Street Program and Energy Trust of Oregon, recognized a need for a resource guide to assist small commercial property owners and businesspeople with energy efficiency in historic buildings.

The 44-page guide, Historic Preservation & Energy Efficiency: A Guide For Historic Commercial Buildings (PDF)offers details on how to retain existing energy-efficient features and implement new technologies while maintaining the building’s character.

To access the guide, click here.

8. Gender Diversity on The Fire Line It’s still unknown what sparked the Donnell Fire in the Stanislaus National Forest in California on Aug. 1. Since then, more than 36,000 acres have burned, and fire crews have worked relentlessly to achieve 90 percent containment as of Sept. 10. Many of the 188 personnel staffing the seven hand crews, two helicopters, five fire engines and four water tenders fighting the blaze are local women.

The U.S. Forest Service has a documented problem of accountability when it comes to a safe environment for the women who make up roughly 13 percent of its workforce. (In March, Forest Service Chief Tony Tooke resigned over claims of sexual harassment.) But women have a long history in the Forest Service, from the first all-woman wildland firefighting crew assembled in 1942 in California, to the first female smoke jumper in 1981. In August, photographer Tracy Barbutes accompanied some of the women and men fighting the Donnell Fire. Here are a few of their stories.

To access the full story, click here.

9. Tools for The Wannabe Western Weather Prognosticator Weather has taken a turn for the inclement all across the West. In early January, stormy weather crossed the continent from the Pacific Northwest to New England. Then another storm system froze Portland, forcing drivers to abandon hundreds of cars on impassable streets; swirled blizzards through the Sierras; and glazed the Great Plains in ice. Rain has drenched southern Arizona, and winter is not done with the West yet.

As High Country News readers know, it’s hard to obsess about the West without also obsessing about the weather. Here’s a rundown of some of the most useful weather and climate websites and why they deserve a spot on this list. Happy prognosticating!

To access the full story, click here.

10. Online Tool Provides State & Local Energy Data at Your Fingertips The U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, in partnership with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, has a website that provides state and local decision makers easy access to a wealth of energy data specific to their location. The resources and data can be used to support strategic energy planning processes and deployment of clean energy projects. By entering a city and state or zip code into the State and Local Energy Data (SLED) online tool, users can see how their current electricity prices compare with the state and national averages, learn about applicable policies and incentives that could affect energy projects in their state, find available renewable energy resources, get details on alternative transportation fuel costs, and much more – all in one location. The tool also includes a video that provides an overview of how to use the tool and examples of how you may find it useful in your community.

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11. Call for Applications: Local Foods, Local Places 2018-2019 The U.S. Department of Agriculture, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Delta Regional Authority, and the Northern Border Regional Commission invite communities to apply for technical assistance to help revitalize their economy, improve health, and protect the environment. Local Foods, Local Places helps communities revitalize neighborhoods through development of local food systems. To date, 94 communities have benefited from assistance with support from these federal agencies. Deadline- 11:59 p.m. Eastern on October 22, 2018.

For more information, click here.

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