Monday Mailing 111218

Monday Mailing

Year 25 • Issue 10 12 November 2019 1.

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Quote of the Week: The brain is wider than the sky~ Emily Dickinson

Feds Finally Recommend Actions to Better Protect People Walking Some Rural Areas Are Better for Economic Mobility The Dalles Celebrates Travel Oregon Mural This Nonprofit Is Calling out Racism in Unexpected Places Organic Farmers in Southern Oregon Fear the Cannabis Boom may have Poisoned Oregon Lands Forestry carbon offsets create opportunities for rural landowners The Comcast of Transportation 2018 100 Best Non- Profits to Work for in Oregon RESOURCE – Using Arts and Culture to Promote Equity and Inclusion WEBINAR – Lowering Speed Limits to Manage Speeds: Experiences in U.S. Cities (11/14)

1. Feds finally recommend actions to better protect people walking The National Transportation Safety Board released recommendations focused on improving pedestrian safety in light of the alarming and continuing uptick in pedestrian deaths since 2009. The recommendations themselves are targeted at actions other federal agencies can take, but there are still some lessons to take away from the recommendations as a whole.

To access the full story, click here.

Oregon Fast Fact: Nestled in the woods of the Siskiyou National Forest lies a Bigfoot trap, the only one of its kind in the United States. It was built in 1974 by the (now-defunct) North American Wildlife Research Team

2. Some Rural Areas Are Better for Economic Mobility This is the third of a series of posts that explore the myths and realities of America’s urban-rural divide. This one reviews recent research on the economic mobility of children who grow up in rural and urban areas. For an overview of the series and the data and methodology we use, see the first post in this series.

When it comes to economic mobility, the image that comes to mind is one of savvy, ambitious kids from the cities and suburbs of large superstar metro areas like New York, Boston, and San Francisco getting ahead, while children from more isolated, rural areas fall further and further behind.

To access the full story, click here.

3. The Dalles celebrates Travel Oregon mural The Dalles officially dedicated its new “Oregon is Magic” mural, depicting an “only slightly exaggerated” salmon leaping over a raft of visitors, Saturday morning. “The exciting thing about it was, this was not your normal mural that you see in The Dalles, but when the opportunity came to us, we engaged with the mural society and showed them what it was, they got on board,” said City of The Dalles Mayor Steve Lawrence. “Most people that have seen this absolutely love it,

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even the ones who think they just want historical murals. This is a wonderful addition to our town.

To access the full story, click here.

4. This Nonprofit Is Calling out Racism in Unexpected Places Cameron Whitten describes himself as a “queer, low-income, black person in Portland.” In living here for the past nine years, he says, “I’ve gained a really acute awareness around racism and white supremacy.”

Whitten left Northern Virginia at 18 and landed in Oregon as an accident, he says, residing in a homeless youth shelter and transitional housing. His experience of racism dates to his arrival, when a friend’s father wouldn’t let him stay at their house outside of Portland. “He was uncomfortable to have a black man at his house,” Whitten says. “It was the first time in my consciousness that someone looked at me, and had the power to deny something from me.”

To access the full story, click here.

5. Organic Farmers in Southern Oregon Fear the Cannabis Boom May Have Poisoned Oregon Lands Melissa Mathewson interviewed farmers worried about pesticide and rodenticide runoff from inexperienced or careless cannabis grows primarily concerned with profits. “It’s a Silent Spring moment in a sense," one farmer tells her, "because it is killing the entire trophic system in the forest."

The reference to Rachel Carson's iconic indictment of industrial farms and the large-scale deployment of insecticide cuts to the heart of the farmers' concerns: Cannabis farmers may be damaging the environment and harming wildlife.

To access the full story, click here.

6. Forestry carbon offsets create opportunities for rural landowners The 120-acre Raincloud Tree Farm near Oregon City is a member of a new species. The property demonstrates an innovative type of carbon offset project, one that could create opportunity for rural landowners with small parcels to sell the carbon storing effect of their trees if Oregon passes a cap and trade program.

“Up until now there hasn’t been much or any engagement with that demographic in the carbon market,” says Brian Kittler, director of the western regional office at the Pinchot Institute for Conservation and a member of the natural and working lands workgroup in the governor’s Carbon Policy Office.

To access the full story, click here.

7. The Comcast of Transportation At Strong Towns, we’ve been guardedly positive about recent innovations in personal transportation, ranging from ride-hailing services to dockless bike-share and electric scooters. There are some good reasons for optimism about these trends, from the point of view of someone who wants to see our places become productive and fiscally resilient: A combination of services like Uber/Lyft and scooters that address the “last mile” problem can make it feasible and convenient for a far greater number of people to live a car-lite lifestyle. There are huge numbers of people who don’t have the ability, without moving to a whole new city, to arrange their lives such that they Page 2 of 3

never need motorized transport. But could you arrange your life so that you only need it, say, a few times a month? And if you could, would you consider eschewing actual car ownership, or maybe downsize to one car instead of two for your household? If enough people can do this, we can cut way back on parking requirements and reclaim valuable space for productive use.

To access the full story, click here.

8. 2018 100 Best Non-profits to Work for in Oregon This year marks a special anniversary: We are celebrating 10 years of the 100 Best Nonprofits to Work For in Oregon survey. Congratulations to the organizations that made it into the decennial ranking of nonprofit workplaces with the happiest employees. And a special congratulations to Childpeace Montessori School and Ronald McDonald House Charities Oregon & SW Washington, which have been listed every year since we launched a decade ago To access the full article, click here.

9. RESOURCE: Using Arts and Culture to promote equity and inclusion This toolkit highlights successful examples of how arts and culture were utilized in multiple sectors in equity initiatives. Examples from communities both far and near provide a resource for how you could engage the community through arts and culture to make a more welcoming, inclusive community.

To access resource, click here.

10. WEBINAR: Lowering Speed Limits to Manage Speeds: Experiences in U.S. cities Join the Vision Zero Network and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) to learn how cities across the U.S. are managing speed and saving lives. With speed a factor in 27% of traffic fatalities, communities seeking to improve traffic safety will learn effective strategies and useful data from our presenters.

To register for this webinar, click here.

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