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Monday Mailing

Year 22 • Issue 02 21 September 2015 1.

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Oregon Annual Job Growth Near a 20-Year High Prepping For the Great ShakeOut, Annual Prep Exercise Group Protests Nestlé Water Deal at Capitol Emerging Planning Group Lunch and Learn Series USDA and EPA Join with Private Sector, Charitable Organizations to Set Nation's First Food Waste Reduction Goals Why the “Happiest” Cites are Boring Measuring the Impact of Public Markets and Farmers Markets on Local Economies Northeastern Oregon Bicycle Tourism Studio Great Willamette River Clean-Up Rapid Rural Appraisal (RRA) and PRA (Participatory Rural/Relaxed Appraisal) Toolkit You Are Here: A Snapshot of How We're Growing

1. Oregon Annual Job Growth Near a 20-Year High Oregon’s strong employment numbers continued in August with the economy adding 4,400 jobs, the state Employment Department reported Tuesday.

The numbers continued a trend in Oregon, which has added 60,400 jobs during a 12-month period. Oregon’s 3.5 percent economic growth over that time period is the state’s fastest rate since February 2005.

Quote of the Week: “Adventure is worthwhile in itself” ~ Amelia Earhart

The surge marked another milestone for Oregon. The state hasn’t seen an increase of more than 60,000 jobs since the 12 months ending in May 1997, during the last days of the high-tech boom.

Oregon Fast Fact: Crater Lake is the deepest lake in the United States at 1,943 feet maximum depth.

To access the full story, click here.

Two industries accounted for the bulk of the job expansion: leisure and hospitality, and government, which added 2,100 and 1,600 jobs respectively.

2. Prepping For the Great ShakeOut, Annual Prep Exercise The American Red Cross, Oregon Emergency Management and the Portland Bureau of Emergency Management join forces to encourage people to be earthquake-ready and have fun during the Great ShakeOut, an annual disaster preparedness exercise.

The Red Cross urges people to grab those selfie sticks and get ready for the yearly “selfie” event on Twitter.

The Great ShakeOut is on Oct. 15 at 10:15 a.m., when people will “duck, cover, hold on” and shoot a selfie!

To access the full story, click here.

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3. Group Protests Nestlé Water Deal at Capitol About 100 people gathered at the base of the Oregon State Capitol steps Wednesday to raise awareness in an attempt to keep Switzerland-based Nestlé SA, the world's largest food company, from extracting water from Oxbow Springs, near Cascade Locks in the Columbia Gorge.

Colorful, homemade signs dawning salmon illustrations and witty phrases were sprinkled through the crowd as seven different speakers approached the microphone to talk about the importance of the water at stake.

One sign read "save the fish." Another read "water is for forest, not for profit."

Chief Johnny Jackson of the Confederate Tribe of the Warm Springs Reservation of Oregon addressed the crowd first.

To access the full story, click here.

4. Emerging Planning Group Lunch and Learn Series The Emerging Planners Group is kicking off a series of "Lunch and Learn" events with local planning firms and agencies this fall. Each month a planning firm or agency will host a group of emerging planners for lunch, where they will provide a glimpse into what it's like to work in their organization, describe interesting projects, answer questions, and provide career advice. This is a great professional development opportunity to meet and learn from planners in Portland. Mark your calendars! Details and registration for the event can be found in the eventbrite links below. More information will be sent out on each event as they draw nearer.

September 25, 2015: Maul Foster Alongi- 12:00 to 1:15pm - Click here to register October 14, 2015: Cardno- 11:30am to 1:00pm - Click here to register November 2, 2015: Mackenzie- 12:00 to 1:00pm- Click here to register December 11, 2015: Cogan Owens- Details TBA 5. USDA and EPA Join with Private Sector, Charitable Organizations to Set Nation's First Food Waste Reduction Goals NEW YORK, Sept. 16, 2015 – Today, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and Environmental Protection Agency Deputy Administrator Stan Meiburg announced the United States' first-ever national food waste reduction goal, calling for a 50-percent reduction by 2030. As part of the effort, the federal government will lead a new partnership with charitable organizations, faith-based organizations, the private sector and local, state and tribal governments to reduce food loss and waste in order to improve overall food security and conserve our nation's natural resources. The announcement occurs just one week before world leaders gather at the United Nations General Assembly in New York to address sustainable development practices, including sustainable production and consumption. As the global population continues to grow, so does the need for food waste reduction.

"The United States enjoys the most productive and abundant food supply on earth, but too much of this food goes to waste," said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. "An average family of four leaves more than two million calories, worth nearly $1500, uneaten each year. Our new reduction goal demonstrates America's leadership on a global level in in getting wholesome food to people who need it, protecting our natural resources, cutting environmental pollution and promoting innovative approaches for reducing food loss and waste."

To access the full story, click here.

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6. Why the “Happiest” Cites are Boring Switzerland is the happiest country in the world. That’s official. The UN has published its third World Happiness Report since 2012, and Switzerland is top. You can see why. Switzerland is rich, temperate and has some of the most beautiful landscapes in the world. It has avoided the ravages of two European wars. You feel completely safe in the streets. And yes, the trains run on time. When I recently took a train from Italy to Switzerland, it left Milan decently late — why need driver or passengers hurry to finish lunch in Italy? But the train pulled into Zürich just as the second hand on the clock clicked to the designated arrival time.

Switzerland is closely followed in the happiness stakes by Iceland, Denmark, Norway and, of course, Canada. But there is another word besides happy that springs to mind when these countries are listed. That word is boring. “Canadian boringness isn’t intrinsic,” the (Canadian) journalist Jeet Heer wrote recently. “It’s something we work at, cherish and reward.”

To access the full story, click here.

7. Measuring the Impact of Public Markets and Farmers Markets on Local Economies We know that public markets can become the heart and soul of a community, its common ground, a place where people easily interact, alive with social and economic activity. But how can markets provide tangible evidence of their valuable direct and indirect economic impact?

One way is to conduct economic impact studies, which are often used to secure additional funding or support for many different types of organizations and businesses. For markets, these studies can measure economic impacts on local communities in quantifiable terms and make the case for greater support.

The potential economic impacts of public markets and farmers markets include direct benefits (e.g. profits to business owners in the market, job creation, sales and real estate tax revenues, etc.) and indirect benefits (e.g. stimulating development downtown, enhancing the park and waterfront as a place, farmland preservation, etc.). This section is specifically intended to provide a resource to markets wishing to measure their economic impact on the local economy. We provide two tools– one developed for PPS by Econsult, an economic research firm in Philadelphia, based on expenditures made by vendors (i.e., to produce the product sold) and management, and a second tool developed by Marketumbrella.org in New Orleans which relies on customer purchasing information.

To access the full story and toolkit, click here.

8. Northeastern Oregon Bicycle Tourism Studio Bicycle travelers in Oregon contribute $400 million annually to the state’s economy – approximately $1.1 million per day. Bicycle tourists in Oregon also tend to spend $124 more per trip – 20% higher than the average visitor. Is your business reaping the benefits of bicycle tourism? How can we work together to make Eastern Oregon “THE” place to pedal?

The Northeastern Oregon Bicycle Tourism Studio is a community planning program designed to make northeastern Oregon a premier bicycling destination and to help local businesses benefit from visiting bicyclists.

Anyone in Union, Baker and Wallowa County that is interested in capitalizing on the growing travel trend and looking to increase this market in northeastern Oregon, is invited to participate!

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Registration is required. Cost is free!

Region-Wide Bicycle Tourism Workshop: Thursday, October 22, 2015 | 9:00AM-4:30PM Cook Memorial Library | 2006 Fourth St, La Grande, OR 97850 Follow-Up Action Planning Meetings: Union County Tuesday, November 17, 2015 | 8:00AM-12:00PM Cook Memorial Library | 2006 Fourth St La Grande, OR 97850 Wallowa County Wednesday, November 18, 2015 | 8:00AM-12:00PM Wallowa County Chamber | 309 S River St, Enterprise, OR 97828 Baker County Thursday, November 19, 2015 | 8:00AM-12:00PM Always Welcome Inn | 175 Campbell St, Baker City, OR 97814 For more information, click here.

9. Great Willamette River Clean Up This year, on October 3rd, volunteers from across Oregon will be cleaning up sites along the Willamette River from Oakridge to Portland.

To find your local event, click here.

10. Rapid Rural Appraisal (RRA) and PRA (Participatory Rural/Relaxed Appraisal) Toolkit Rapid Rural Appraisal - RRA is a social science approach that emerged in the late 1970s. The basic idea of RRA is to rather quickly collect, analyse and evaluate information on rural conditions and local knowledge. This information is generated in close co-operation with the local population in rural areas. Therefore, the research methods had to be adjusted to local conditions, i.e. they had to meet the communication needs of illiterate people or people who are not used to communicating in scientific terms.

Tools like mapping, diagramming and ranking were developed or improved in order to gather information for decision-makers in development agencies. One of the key principles of RRA is the visualisation of questions and results by using locally comprehensible symbols. A main reason for developing RRA was to find shortcuts in the search for relevant information on rural development issues in order to avoid costly and time consuming research procedures.

In most of the cases RRA is carried out by a small team of researchers or trained professional in one to three days in a kind of workshop. The role of the local population in RRA is to provide relevant local knowledge for research purposes and development planning. The RRA team manages the process and maintains the power to decide on how to utilise this information.

Participatory Rural/Relaxed Appraisal - During the 1980s, PRA was firstly developed in India and Kenya, mainly supported by NGOs operating at grass-roots level. Until today PRA evolved so fast in terms of the methodology, the creation of new tools and specifically in the different ways it is applied.

Compared to RRA which mainly aims at extracting information, PRA places emphasis on empowering local people to assume an active role in analysing their own living conditions, problems and potentials in order to seek for a change of their situation. This changes are supposed to be achieved by collective action and the local communities are invited to assume responsibilities for Page 4 of 5

implementing respective activities. The members of the PRA team act as facilitators. Here it is no longer the external experts but rather the local people themselves who “own� the results of a PRA Workshop. Consequently an important principle of PRA is to share the results of the analysis between the PRA team and the community members by visualisation, public presentations and discussions during meetings.

Most PRA workshops last from 3 to 5 days and the planning of the workshop and the facilitation of tools is done in a multidisciplinary team of insiders and outsiders which is gender balanced.

To access the full toolkit, click here.

11. You Are Here: A Snapshot of How We're Growing Welcome to the first installment of Metro's new Regional Snapshots, a quarterly check-in on how the region is changing and why it matters for issues we all care about. Each Snapshot will feature data, explorations of key issues and personal interviews with people whose lives are directly affected. The first Snapshot focuses on where we live. Future Snapshots will feature topics like where we're working and how we get around.

To understand where we are with housing the region today, it's helpful to have a few basic stats in mind.

We're a big region, but not huge.

According to U.S. Census estimates, the 7-county Portland metropolitan area had approximately 2.35 million people in 2014, living in 710,000 housing units, including houses, apartments and condos.

The average household had 2.6 people, which might be a family or roommates.

To access the full story, click here.

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