Monday Mailing
Year 25 • Issue 16 31 December 2018 1. How Rural America Is Saving Itself (Bayoán Ware) 2. The Best Technology for Fighting Climate Change Isn’t a Technology 3. Portland is Poised to Spend Tourist Dollars to House the Homeless 4. Why Living in a Poor Neighborhood Can Change Your Biology 5. To Share or Not to Share? Tribes Risk Exploitation When Sharing Climate Change Solutions 6. How to Balance Full-Time Work with Creative Projects 7. Wildfire Smoke Continues to Disrupt Southern Oregon Economic Rhythms 8. Oregon Moves on Plan to Repurpose The Elliott State Forest for Research 9. Lyft is Offering $2.50 Rides to Grocery Stores for People Living in ‘Food Deserts’ 10. WEBINAR – Let’s Get Moving: The Power of Physical Activity (Bayoán Ware)
Quote of the Week:
“Every tomorrow is an outcome of what I do today, and the beauty of it all is that today is happening all the time.” -
Craig D. Lounsbrough
Oregon Fast Fact #18 Dorris Ranch in Springfield became the first commercial filbert orchard in the state.
1. How Rural America is Saving Itself Rural regions dominate the American landscape, comprising 97 percent of the country’s land mass. While 20 percent of Americans live in these regions, many still doubt their importance in the 21st century. A new wave of commentary and reports have tackled a question on many urban Americans’ minds: can rural America be “saved”? One of these, a New York Times op-ed by Eduardo Porter, went as far as to say, “one thing seems clear...nobody—not experts or policymakers or people in these communities—seems to know quite how to pick rural America up.” With stagnant or declining populations in many rural counties, and “superstar cities” hogging most of the economic growth, Porter’s view would have us believe that rural life is fading away. To access the full story, click here. 2. The Best Technology for Fighting Climate Change Isn’t a
Technology
The latest IPCC report does not mince words about the state of our planet: we must act now to achieve global change at a scale that has “no documented historical precedent” in order to avoid the climate catastrophe that would result from a 2 degree C rise in average global temperature. Climate change already disproportionately affects the world’s most vulnerable people including poor rural communities that depend on the land for their livelihoods and coastal communities throughout the tropics. Indeed, we have already seen the stark asymmetry of suffering resulting from
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extreme weather events, such as hurricanes, floods, droughts, wildfires and more. So far, advocates and politicians have tended to focus on reducing fossil fuel consumption through technology and/or policy, such as a steep carbon tax, as climate solutions. These proposals are, of course, essential to reducing manmade carbon emissions—71 percent of which are generated by just 100 fossil fuel companies. For this reason, fossil-fuel–related emissions reductions rightly figure heavily in the national climate commitments of the 181 nations that signed the global Paris Agreement. To access the full story, click here.
3. Portland Is Poised to Spend Tourist Dollars to House the Homeless
For years, tourists visiting Portland have gazed at the familiar sights of downtown: Powell's City of Books, Voodoo Doughnut, and people sleeping on the sidewalk. Soon, when those visitors check into their hotel rooms, they will help pay to put roofs over the heads of the most vulnerable Portlanders.
That's thanks to an innovative new tax deal championed by Multnomah County Chairwoman Deborah Kafoury. For the past 17 years, a 2.5 percent tax on rental cars and hotel rooms in the county has been used to fund an expansion of the Oregon Convention Center, to finance a Convention Center hotel, and to provide marketing dollars to Travel Portland, the nonprofit whose job it is to attract tourists. To access the full story, click here.
4. Why Living In a Poor Neighborhood Can Change Your Biology
It was the most ambitious social experiment ever conducted by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development. And one of the most surprising.
In 1994, HUD randomly assigned 4,600 poor, mostly African-American families in Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York to one of three groups. One group received housing vouchers intended to help them move to low-poverty neighborhoods. Another group received vouchers without geographic restrictions. A final control group didn’t receive vouchers at all. Called “Moving to Opportunity,” the study was designed to answer a question that had divided social scientists and policymakers for decades: Did getting people off of welfare and other forms of social assistance depend on changing their social context? To access the full story, click here.
5. To Share or Not to Share? Tribes Risk Exploitation When Sharing Climate Change Solutions
The Saint Regis Mohawk Reservation stretches for 25 square miles along the United States’ border with Canada. Akwesasne, as the land in Upstate New York is also known, translates roughly to “land where the partridge drums.” Nestled at the confluence of the Saint Lawrence River and several small tributaries, including the St. Regis and Raquette rivers, this ecologically rich environment consists of more than 3,000 acres of wetlands along riverbanks, islands, and inlets. Page 2 of 4
But the landscape can’t escape the encroachment of nearby pollution. Tribal members live downstream from several major industrial facilities, hydro dams, and aluminum smelters. The Saint Lawrence has become an international shipping channel, and its sediments mix with heavy metals from old ship batteries and toxic chemicals from nearby Superfund sites. These pollutants have leached into the Saint Regis Mohawk way of life, shifting the range of flora and fauna on which many of their traditional practices rely. To access the full story, click here.
6. How to Balance Full-Time Work with Creative Projects
“Teacher burnout” refers to a state of chronic physical and emotional exhaustion brought on by prolonged periods of stress. Combined with low wages, inadequate funding, and disheartening educational policy, burnout has resulted in eight percent of teachers in America throwing in the towel over the past decade. As a teacher myself, it’s been interesting to reflect on what keeps me coming back to the classroom, five years into this difficult yet ultimately rewarding job. What it comes down to, I think, is that teaching is not the only thing that keeps me going. In my opinion, relying solely on a day job or career to fulfill your ambitions and keep you mentally stimulated is risky business. Instead, I like to incorporate a smattering of fulfilling creative projects within my day-to-day life to help me keep my teaching job in perspective. And while it isn’t always easy to do it all, there are ways to balance things out. To access the full story, click here.
7. Wildfire Smoke Continues To Disrupt Southern Oregon Economic Rhythms
You know the end is near when a business starts selling off its shelves, clothes racks and displays — and that’s what’s been happening for the past couple weeks at the Ashland Outdoor Store. The store has been around for about 25 years and word of its impending closure has spread quickly through this town of about 20,000 people at the base of the Cascade-Siskiyou Mountains. On a busy Tuesday afternoon, most people are coming in to buy discounted headlamps, sleeping pads and climbing gear. And when they get to the check out, many ask store clerk Megan O’Melia: “What happened?” “When there’s so much smoke, no one wants to be outside, so no one buys outdoor gear. And when no tourists come to town, and they don’t buy stuff, so it’s like a snowball,” she said. To access the full story, click here.
8. Oregon Moves On Plan To Repurpose The Elliott State Forest For Research
After years of struggling to figure out what to do with the Elliott State Forest, Oregon officials now have a proposal they like. Members of the State Land Board voted Tuesday to start work on a plan to transfer the 80,000-acre forest near Coos Bay to Oregon State University. Page 3 of 4
The university’s idea is to create the “Elliott State Research Forest.” OSU President Ed Ray told Land Board members that the university’s “unmatched” experts would be available to assist with the Elliott regardless of who was tapped to own the forest. “The question is, Do you want to stop there, or do you want to go further?” Ray added. “Do you want or do you aspire for Oregon, the nation and the world to have a leading research capability that helps all of us understand around this globe how to manage forest resources going forward?” To access the full story, click here.
9. Lyft is offering $2.50 rides to grocery stores for people living in ‘food deserts’ Lyft is leading a food drive for families in need.
The ride-sharing app announced a new initiative this week to help low-income households who live far from grocery stores and who don’t have cars to get a lift to the store. Lyft’s Grocery Access Program will kick off in Washington, D.C. next year in partnership with Martha’s Table, a D.C.-based nonprofit that provides families with access to healthy food, education and clothing. Qualified families can use up to 50 rides and pay just $2.50 both ways to and from the nearest supermarket in their neighborhood, such as Safeway (322 40th St. NE) or Giant (1535 Alabama Ave. SE). Only full-service grocery stores were chosen for this list, so that shoppers have greater access to fresh fruits and veggies rather than junk food at the nearest convenience store. The discount can’t be used on rides going anywhere other than one of the nearby stores in the program; however, passengers could in theory get out and go elsewhere once they were dropped off at the store To access this resource, click here.
10. WEBINAR – Let’s Get Moving: The Power of Physical Activity (Jan. 9 @ 11am PST)
In November 2018, new HHS Physical Activity Guidelines were released. They confirmed what we at America Walks already know- that when people move more, they are healthy, active, and engaged. Explore the guidelines and how communities are promoting physical activity with this webinar. This webinar is intended for those just starting out on the walking path as well as those interested in learning more about the topic. To learn more, click here.
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