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Monday Mailing

Year 24 • Issue 04 09 October 2017 1.

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Canyon Conversations: Ghosts, Gatherings, Books & Dolls State of Oregon - Regional Solutions America’s New Front Porches: Public Spaces Craft Breweries Pour New Life Into Rural America Creating Opportunity and Prosperity Through Strengthening RuralUrban Connections BLM Backs Out of Sage-Grouse Pact, Possibly Prompting Litigation and Lost Revenue Resource: AARP Livable Communities Tool Kits & Resources Rules For The Uncomfortable Resource: Arts, Culture and Transportation: A Creative Placemaking Field Scan Video: Cormac Russell – Sustainable Community Development: Shifting The focus From What’s Wrong to What’s Strong Travel Oregon Relaunches RideOregonRide.com

1. Canyon Conversations: Ghosts, Gatherings, Books & Dolls Settling into his third week in town, Isaac Kort-Meade acknowledged that he knew little about Stayton prior to moving here.

Originally from Santa Rosa, Calif., Isaac is a recent graduate of University of Oregon’s Planning, Public Policy and Management school. An AmeriCorps-connected program, Resource Assistance for Rural Environments (RARE) lured him to Stayton where he’s applying new knowledge while learning some ropes as an intern.

Quote of the Week: "Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is to not stop questioning” ~Albert Einstein Oregon Fast Fact: The federal government owns more than 50 percent of the land in Oregon.

Earlier this year the city of Stayton partnered with Friends of Old Town Stayton (FOTS) to split costs and services from RARE. Isaac will spend half of his time helping FOTS as a program coordinator and the other half with various city tasks.

To access the full story, click here.

2. State of Oregon - Regional Solutions The Governor’s approach to community and economic development, established by Executive Order and enacted by House Bill 4015, recognizes the unique needs of each Oregon region, and the importance of working locally to identify priorities, solve problems, and seize opportunities to get projects done.

Regional Solutions Centers are located throughout Oregon. Starting at the local level to identify priorities, each center works from the bottom up to solve problems and complete projects. These centers integrate state agency work and funding to ensure that projects are finished as quickly and cost-effectively as possible.

For more information, click here.

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3. America’s New Front Porches: Public Spaces In Meridian, Miss., the town where I grew up, people used to escape the summer heat by sitting on their front porches with a pitcher of lemonade. On those hot afternoons, they chatted with neighbors and strangers who passed by, sometimes inviting them up for a cool drink. They got to know each other that way.

Then air-conditioners showed up and moved everyone indoors.

Across America, we have turned inward to engage more with our televisions, computers, video games and cellphones instead of with each other. This has led to less understanding of people who are "other," less acceptance, less compassion, greater discord -- and sometimes, as recent events illustrate, even violence.

To access the full story, click here.

4. Craft Breweries Pour New Life Into Rural America Chris Hernstrom was brewing in the craft beer mecca of Bend, Ore., when an ad caught his eye: Want to live somewhere gorgeous and make beer for a small community?

"It just seemed like an interesting challenge to come out to basically the exact opposite of Bend, some place where the brewing industry is still in its fledgling stages," Hernstrom says.

That place, Hernstrom's new home, is the cattle ranching hub of Valentine, Neb., population 2,700, tucked into the Niobrara River valley in the Sand Hills.

Hernstrom is head brewer at the Bolo Beer Company. On a recent weeknight he was pouring pints of Aquifer Ale and filling carry-out growlers of Wild West Wheat. With its modern pendant lights and bar made of reclaimed wood, the newly opened taproom looks like it would be more at home in Seattle or Denver than rural Nebraska.

To access the full story, click here.

5. Creating Opportunity and Prosperity Through Strengthening Rural-Urban Connections This issue brief highlights examples in which regional development organizations can benefit from linking rural regions with urban centers. Includes information on broadband development and its implication for improving access to healthcare services.

To access the issue brief, click here.

6. BLM Backs Out of Sage-Grouse Pact, Possibly Prompting Litigation and Lost Revenue When federal land-management agencies pulled out of an inter-agency agreement to protect sagegrouse habitat in Utah in September, the federal Treasury picked up an additional $15,000 from energy companies for public-land leases.

The federal government may have to spend many times that amount on legal actions related to the dissolution of the land management agreement, say conservationists. And outdoor-business industry leaders say the decision to abandon the agreement will also take money out of the pockets of local businesses that cater to hunters and other outdoor enthusiasts.

To access the full story, click here.

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7. Resource: AARP Livable Communities Tool Kits & Resources AARP Livable Communities works with AARP state offices and local leaders and residents to help ensure that towns, cities and communities nationwide are livable for people of all ages. Toward achieving that goal, we create and manage programs, tool kits, how-to guides and a collection of easy-to-use and understand printed and online materials.

To access this resource, click here.

8. Rules For The Uncomfortable I'm a licensed civil engineer. That means I have a four year education in civil engineering from a certified university, I passed a day-long exam on the fundamentals of the profession, I worked under the supervision of a licensed engineer for four years, passed a rigorous engineering examination and now pay a bi-annual fee as well as take continuing education.

That process excludes all but a handful of people from practicing municipal engineering. Even those who would unquestionably be competent at it — say, those who have an engineering degree, just in a different field — are barred from doing so. Earlier this year, we shared with you the story of Mats Järlström, an electrical engineer living in Beaverton, Oregon who was fined $500 by the state licensing board for calling himself an engineer (he actually is an engineer, just not a civil engineer) and for providing a critique of the timing of yellow lights in an antiquated signalized intersection.

According to the state of Oregon, he was not allowed to do this even though his observations and calculations suggested more competence than those licensed to do them.

To access the full story, click here.

9. Resource: Arts, Culture and Transportation: A Creative Placemaking Field Scan Transportation systems can and should be a powerful tool to help people access opportunity, drive economic development, improve health and safety, and build the civic and social capital that binds communities together. Unfortunately, a historic, top-down, technocratic approach to transportation planning and design has failed to achieve these goals for everyone. This has resulted in transportation systems that do not equitably serve communities of color, low-income people, and other disadvantaged communities.

But there’s reason for optimism.

Eager to find a better way, scores of communities are collaborating with artists for new, creative approaches to planning and building new projects and solving pressing transportation challenges.

This process known as creative placemaking is unfolding in communities across the country and transportation professionals are eager to know: what are the key trends and best practices?

Arts, Culture and Transportation: A Creative Placemaking Field Scan is a rigorous national examination of creative placemaking in the transportation planning process. Released in partnership with ArtPlace America, this new resource identifies ways that transportation professionals can integrate artists to deliver transportation projects more smoothly, improve safety, and build community support.

To access this resource, click here.

10. Video: Cormac Russell – Sustainable Community Development: Shifting The focus From What’s Wrong to What’s Strong Cormac Russell is Managing Director of Nurture Development, the leading Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) organisation in Europe, and faculty member of the ABCD Institute at Northwestern University, Illinois.

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He works with local communities, NGOs and governments on asset-based community development and other strengths-based approaches, in four continents.

Cormac served on the UK Government’s Expert Reference Group on Community Organising and Communities First during its term in 2011-12. His book “Asset Based Community Development (ABCD): Looking Back to Look Forward” was published in 2015.

To access Cormac Russell’s talk at TEDxExeter, click here.

11. Travel Oregon Relaunches RideOregonRide.com As part of the launch of its new website in September, Travel Oregon built RideOregonRide.com into TravelOregon.com. The new RideOregonRide.com is powered through a partnership with Ride With GPS and curated by local bike proponents to showcase the best cycling their destination has to offer. Routes are organized by riding type and skill level. Travel Oregon is seeking partners to continue to develop routes on the new RideOregonRide.com.

Contact Andrew Grossmann, Andrew@TravelOregon.com, to submit the “best of the best” bike routes in Oregon.

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