Monday Mailing 092418

Monday Mailing

Year 25 • Issue 03

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The Divides Within, and Between, Urban and Rural America Rural Childhood Contributes to Later Economic Success Chamber Chatter: Tackling the Housing Crisis City Focus Podcast Series How the Yurok Tribe is Reclaiming the Klamath River Sustainable Food Systems Sourcebook Webinar: Federal Broadband Funding: Policies and Programs to Connect America, October 17th @ 2pm Does the Public Really Want Dramatic Change?

3 Ways to Create More Resilient Communities USDA Publishes Notice of Solicitation for FY19 REAP Applications (Rural Energy for America Program) Speak Your Peace Civility Project

1. The Divides Within, and Between, Urban and Rural America The notion of a deep and enduring divide between thriving, affluent, progressive urban areas and declining, impoverished, conservative rural areas has become a central trope—if not the central trope—in American culture today. In May 2017, the Wall Street Journal proclaimed, “Rural America Is the New Inner City.” And ever since Donald Trump was elected president, the narrative of urban revitalization and rural decline has only gained steam.

But the reality is that this narrative fails to capture the full complexity of economic life in America. In fact, parts of rural America are thriving, even as other parts decline; just as parts of urban America continue to lose population and face economic decline as other parts make a comeback.

Quote of the Week: "The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others" ~Gandhi Oregon Fast Fact: Oregon grows 98 percent of the hazelnuts in the United States. There are more than 3,755,000 hazelnut trees in Oregon, worth $49.5 million, grown on 30,000 acres, mostly in western Oregon.

To access the full story, click here.

2. Rural Childhood Contributes to Later Economic Success The farther away from a city a person is raised, the more likely they are to climb the economic ladder, according to economists, who also found that community characteristics associated with upward mobility have different effects in rural and urban locations.

The researchers looked at intergenerational economic mobility in lowincome children at the U.S. county level, which also allowed them to examine the effects of distance from metropolitan counties — those having populations of 50,000 or more. They found that being far removed from an urban area is beneficial to low-income children’s upward mobility, all other things being equal.

To access the full story, click here.

3. Chamber Chatter: Tackling the Housing Crisis Last week our newest employee Alexander Jonas arrived from Tallahassee, Fla. He traded in 88-degrees, sunshine and restaurants where alligator is a common menu item, for the Tillamook Coast where he will serve as our Housing Policy and Development Coordinator.

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Alexander is a recent graduate from Florida State where he studied political science and international affairs with a focus on economics. During his last year, he was introduced to the RARE program and decided to jump on board as a way to fine tune the skills and expertise he learned in college, and help a community in need.

To access the full story, click here.

4. City Focus Podcast Series Welcome to our first episode of City Focus - the podcast from The League of Oregon Cities. Our goal is to provide timely, relevant information to cities, legislators, media and the public by highlighting and focusing on specific topics in quick-paced 10 to 20-minute segments. We will discuss policy, legal issues and advocacy matters in a relaxed, conversational style designed to inform and educate while doing so in an interesting and entertaining way.

To access the City Focus Podcast Series, click here.

5. How the Yurok Tribe is Reclaiming the Klamath River On a warm September Saturday in 2002, Amy Cordalis stood in a Yurok Tribal Fisheries Department boat on the Klamath River, in response to reports from fishermen that something was amiss on the river. On this stretch of the Yurok Reservation, the river was wide and deep, having wound its way from its headwaters at the Upper Klamath Lake, through arid south-central Oregon to the California coast. Cordalis, then 22, was a summer fish technician intern, whose job was to record the tribe’s daily catch. A college student in Oregon, she’d found a way to spend time with her family and be on the river she’d grown up with — its forested banks and family fishing hole drawing her back year after year.

But that morning, something was wrong. Cordalis watched as adult salmon, one after the other, jumped out of the water, mouths gaping, before plunging back into the river. Her father, Bill Bowers, who was gillnetting farther downriver, looked up to see a raft of salmon corpses floating around the bend. The carcasses piled up on the banks and floated in eddies, as seagulls swept inland to pick at the remains.

To access the full story, click here.

6. Sustainable Food Systems Sourcebook The Sustainable Food Systems Sourcebook is a free database of degree programs, consultants, scholarships, funding, conferences, and other education and training resources for professionals and students focused on food systems work. It is published by the Thomas A. Lyson Center for Civic Agriculture and Food Systems.

To access the Sustainable Food Systems Sourcebook, click here.

7. Webinar: Federal Broadband Funding: Policies and Programs to Connect America, October 17th @ 2pm Join BroadbandUSA for an overview of federal funding options to support increasing broadband access in communities across the United States. Learn about recent program and policy updates from officials representing the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration (EDA).

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Speakers: Barrett L. Haga, Ph.D., Senior Administrator for Economic Engagement, Economic Development Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce Shawn Arner, Deputy Assistant Administrator, Loan Origination and Approval Division, RUS Telecommunications Program, U.S. Department of Agriculture Kate Dumouchel, Attorney Advisor, Telecommunications Access Policy Division, Wireline Competition Bureau, Federal Communications Commission.

To register for this event, click here.

8. Does the Public Really Want Dramatic Change?

Last week, someone who I have a lot of respect for — one of the country’s top municipal planners and government-level thinkers — published an article on the American Conservative as part of AC’s New Urbs conversation.

My assertion was: People want dramatic change, we’ve just designed our bureaucratic systems to shield us from their direct feedback, to amplify the vested voices that resist changes. Planners and others in the system do this because it’s more comfortable for them, outcomes be damned.

And the response was: I’m not buying the “dramatic change” part. If people really wanted dramatic change, we’d already have it. That’s not reality talking, that’s your ideology talking.

I just attended a public meeting Tuesday night. There were 160 people there. They were ready to string all of us city officials up for removing two car lanes on a street that is far under-capacity, and replacing them with bike lanes. It was the ugliest public meeting that I’ve seen in 21 years of public service. The average resident likes the urban development status-quo.

To access the full story, click here.

9. 3 Ways to Create More Resilient Communities Natural disasters test the seams of our cities and health systems. During hurricanes like Sandy, Harvey and Maria, community infrastructure buckled under the pressure of torrential rain, gusting winds and prevention measures designed for a bygone era.

When we see areas of the country devastated by a natural disaster, we often blame nature. But the storm is only half the story. While we tend to think of a natural disaster as a single event, a disaster’s worst effects often emerge weeks, months or even years after the initial emergency, as the devastation is amplified by an already flawed environment. Disasters happen when cities are unprepared for the stress an event like a hurricane can cause. They happen when cities are not designed with resilience in mind.

To access the full story, click here.

10. USDA Publishes Notice of Solicitation for FY19 REAP Applications (Rural Energy for America Program) USDA’s Rural Business-Cooperative Service is soliciting applications for financial assistance under Rural Energy for America Program (REAP) for Federal Fiscal Year (FY) 2019. The REAP offers funding assistance through grants and guaranteed loans to agricultural producers and rural small businesses to purchase and install renewable energy systems and make energy efficiency Page 3 of 4

improvements to their operations. REAP also provides grants to programs that assist agricultural producers and rural small businesses.

For more information about this funding opportunity, click here.

11. Speak Your Peace Civility Project The best way to determine what a community wants is to listen to what its people have to say. This is a fundamental principle of democracy. Disagreements can lead to healthy debate, which brings new information and ideas to light.

When a particular issue strikes at the fundamental beliefs of a group or individual, the debate can be especially fierce. In these situations, it becomes more important than ever to practice civility.

The purpose of the Speak Your Peace Civility Project is to urge the citizens of the Duluth/Superior area to communicate in a more respectful and effective way. This is not a campaign to end disagreements. It is a campaign to improve public discourse by simply reminding ourselves of the very basic principles of respect.

By elevating our level of communication and avoiding personal attacks and general stubbornness, we can avoid unhealthy debate. This will lead to a more effective democracy, and help maintain our sense of community by increasing civic participation. We hope to reach not only elected officials and political groups but also regular people, like neighborhood organizations, church groups and even the parents on the sidelines of youth athletic contests. We are not just targeting those who are uncivil, but those who allow uncivilized behavior to happen.

Our key message is to promote nine simple tools for practicing civility, taken from P. M. Forni's book Choosing Civility For more information about the Speak Your Peace Civility Project, click here.

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