Monday Mailing
Year 22 • Issue 17 11 January 2016 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.
Oregon Residents In Packed Town Hall Want Armed Militia To Leave Native Tribes Blast Oregon Takeover Movers Study Data From 2015 Nike To Partner With Portland Bike Share; Launch Set For This Summer Promising Mount Hood Snowpack Could Bring Relief Big Food Makers Launch An Image Makeover For 2016 2016 State Of The Cities Report Now Online From Lab to Table New Gmail Plug-In Highlights Works And Phrases That Undermine Your Message 10. The Best Planning Apps for 2016 11. Landscape Architects Share Sustainable Design Concepts 1. Oregon Residents In Packed Town Hall Want Armed Militia To Leave BURNS, Ore. — A building at the Harney County Fairgrounds in rural Oregon was packed to the seams Wednesday night, as local residents discussed an ongoing occupation at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. Many of the speakers at the meeting said they didn’t agree with the tactics of the armed men who took over the refuge Saturday, led by Ammon Bundy, the son of Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy. But many of those same residents said they did agree with the message. Ranchers and other longtime residents said they felt their concerns, including land use issues and employment after the decline of the timber industry in Oregon, haven’t been talked about on a national scale until the armed men took over the federal building.
Quote of the Week: “We build the road and the road builds us.” ~a Sri Lankan Saying Oregon Fast Fact: The Oregon Legislature designated the Oregon Grape (Mahonia aquifolium) as the Oregon state flower by resolution in 1899.
To register for this free event, click here. 2. Native Tribes Blast Oregon Takeover The leaders of the Burns Paiute tribe have a message for the men and women who have taken over the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge outside Burns, Oregon: "Go home. We don't want you here." The message came from several tribe members whose ancestors fought and died over portions of that land long before the ranchers and farmers had it, long before the federal government even existed. The tribe is still fighting over land use but now works with the federal government's Bureau of Land Management to save its archaeological sites. "We have good relations with the refuge. They protect our cultural rights there," said tribal council Chairwoman Charlotte Rodrique. To access the full story, click here.
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3. Movers Study Data From 2015 Oregon is the most popular moving destination in the world. That according to a new study that says Oregon has had more new residents move into the state than any other state in the union. The study comes from moving company United Van Lines. According to the “United National Movers Study,” Oregon claimed the title for a third straight year. “Oregon is the most popular moving destination of 2015 with 69 percent of moves to and from the state being inbound,” the study reads. “The state has continued to climb the ranks, increasing inbound migration by 10 percent over the past six years.” “For nearly 40 years, we’ve been tracking which states people are moving to and from, and we’ve also recently started surveying our customers to understand why they are making these moves across state lines,” said Melissa Sullivan, director of marketing communications at United Van Lines. “Because of United Van Lines’ position as the nation’s largest household goods mover, our data is reflective of national migration trends.” To access the full story, click here. 4. Nike To Partner With Portland Bike Share; Launch Set For This Summer Portland's Bike Share program just got the last major piece it was waiting for: a "significant new partnership" with Nike. Portland Bureau of Transportation officials announced the development Wednesday afternoon with no further details. PBOT Director Leah Treat and transportation Commissioner Steve Novick are scheduled to formally make the announcement Thursday morning at Nike's Portland Community Store in Northeast Portland. To access the full story, click here. 5. Promising Mount Hood Snowpack Could Bring Relief Just like economic stakeholders on Mount Hood, state snow survey scientists are breathing a sigh of relief after the season’s first manual reading at the Mount Hood snow telemetry site shows snowpack is already more substantial than the peak reading last season. During the quarter-mile hike off of the Timberline Lodge access road, the difference in mood of the Natural Resources Conservation Service Oregon snow survey personnel was like night and day compared to last year’s end-of-season trip. Last April, hydrologists trekked up the mountain to manually measure the season’s snowpack to a symphony of falling snow and melting ice. The end reading of less than 20 inches of water content in the snow dampened spirits. To access the full story, click here. 6. Big Food Makers Launch An Image Makeover For 2016 It’s the new year, and we’re all just a few days into efforts to reframe our lives. That goes for parts of the food industry, too. As 2016 approached, two heavyweight agricultural organizations—the National Chicken Council, representing the poultry industry, and the U.S. Farmers and Ranchers Alliance, an umbrella of 80 producer organizations—quietly launched a transparency initiative intended to reframe consumers’ understanding of where their food comes from. Page 2 of 4
The cattle-hog-produce side of the initiative is housed in a set of videos produced by USFRA’s Food Dialogues in a collaboration with the cooking site Food52. To access the full story, click here. 7. 2016 State Of The Cities Report Now Online According to the League’s 2016 “State of the Cities” report, cities in Oregon continue to face fiscal challenges from cost increases and revenue restrictions beyond their control. Because of prudent management of budgets and resources, along with reductions in prior years, the outlook for the next 12 months is that cities will maintain their current, albeit reduced, service levels. The League’s fourth annual report examines the fiscal health of Oregon’s 242 cities, combining survey data from 139 cities with an in-depth analysis of five years of annual financial data from 50 cities located throughout the state. To access the full report, click here. 8. From Lab to Table "Fifty years hence, we shall escape the absurdity of growing a whole chicken in order to eat the breast or wing by growing these parts separately under a suitable medium." In a 1931 essay titled "Fifty Years Hence," Winston Churchill predicted that future scientists would eventually grow meat in labs instead of farms. But as Gilonne D'Origny reminds me "timing is everything." It's taken the field more than 80 years, but time has come. She is the chief development officer at New Harvest, a New York-based NGO working to accelerate "breakthroughs in animal products made without animals." IRENE PEDRUELO: Your plan is to produce animal products without animals. GILONNE D'ORIGNY: Yes. We start from the premise that humans love meat. It's an evolutionary thing. It's probably one of the factors that have allowed us to migrate the distances that we did and populate the whole planet. We're wired to like animal proteins and there are reward systems put in our bodies to respond positively to their stimuli. Yes it would be fantastic if everybody ate less meat, but there are many more ex-vegetarians than there are vegetarians. Meat consumption in India is increasing even though India is a country with a large population of people who are vegetarian. To access the full story, click here. 9. New Gmail Plug-In Highlights Works And Phrases That Undermine Your Message Look back at the last few emails you sent. Do you see phrases like "I'm no expert" or "does that make sense?" or words like "actually" or "sorry?" If so you might want to download a new Chrome extension called Just Not Sorry, a free plug-in that taps into Gmail and warns you when you are using words and phrases that undermine your message. The app was created by Tami Reiss, CEO of Cyrus Innovation, a software development agency. Reiss put a call to arms out on Medium late last month, hoping to get at least 10,000 people (women in particular) to pledge to stop diminishing their voices in the coming year. As of 4:00 p.m. ET on December 31, Just Not Sorry was up to 30,000 downloads, she tells Fast Company. To access the full story, click here.
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10. The Best Planning Apps for 2016 Mobile apps can enhance civic engagement and advocacy in local governance and planning, make more efficient use of time in data collection and analysis for planners, and a slew of other functions. Edgar Ables, a Master’s of City and Regional Planning Student at Ohio State University, and myself have been collecting and evaluating mobile apps looking to share what we see as most useful. Every year, I survey a cross-section of planners to develop a comprehensive list of some of the most unique, useful, and the most ubiquitous mobile apps for planners. Over the course of this year we have surveyed planners about their professional use of mobile apps, what would they like to see in the future, and what apps either they themselves or their office is developing. I invite you to participate. We heard from many planners from across the United States and a few abroad as well. Of the respondents 100% own either a smartphone or a tablet, up from 96% last year. Planners who responded were asked about various types of apps that they use and the frequency of their use. Around ninety percent of all planners surveyed stated that they active utilize their mobile device for work purposes. To access the full story, click here. 11. Landscape Architects Share Sustainable Design Concepts The American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) has made sustainable landscape design even more accessible with its new mobile-friendly version of Designing Our Future: Sustainable Landscapes. The site focuses on displaying case studies about sustainable landscape design and highlighting the environmental, social and economic benefits they provide. There are currently 40 case studies, which are broken down by location. Visitors can also watch animations on sustainable design concepts, such as how to transform industrial wastelands into public community spaces through bioremediation. Under the education tab, these sustainability concepts can be perused for more in-depth information. New case studies also have been added recently. To access the full story, click here.
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