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Monday Mailing

Year 23 • Issue 29 24 April 2017 1. Hermiston Action Groups Focused on Getting People to Stay Downtown 2. These Resources Will Help You Host a Pop-Up Traffic Calming Demonstration in Your Town 3. A Green Infrastructure Guidebook for City Planners 4. Immigrant Farm Owners and Farm Workers Help Drive Yakima County’s Diverse Ag 5. Five Communities Recognized for Comprehensive Plans 6. Free Webinar: Making the Most of Main Street: Complete Streets & Walkable Communities – May 17th @ 10:00am – 11:00am 7. FEMA Guide to Coordinating Disaster Recovery Efforts 8. Free Publication: Neighborhoods by Numbers: An Introduction to Finding and Using Small Area Data 9. Free Webinar: Preserving and Supporting Businesses in Historic Neighborhoods – April 27th @ 11:00am – 12:00pm 10. Restoration Renaissance: A New Paradigm in John Day 11. Rural Community & Economic Development Funding Resources 1. Hermiston Action Groups Focused on Getting People to Stay Downtown Action groups created in February to revitalize downtown Hermiston are putting their plans into motion.

Quote of the Week: “There is nothing constant in this world but inconsistency.” ~ Jonathan Swift Oregon Fast Fact: Throughout a year, on average, Timberline Lodge receives about 540 inches of snow. The average peak snowpack in a year is typically over 150 inches, with variation. Some years have had well over 240 inches packed, while others have had less than 100 inches of snowpack.

Main Street coordinator Emma Porricolo said input from the citizens’ committee on parking helped inform an item on Monday’s city council agenda that will change the on-street parking along the east side of Second Street between Main Street and Hurlburt Avenue from parallel parking to diagonal parking and add a new handicapped-accessible spot.

She said the group is also working on plans for wayfinding signs around downtown that would help direct people to public lots.

“We’re looking for funding still,” she said.

The “retail and restaurants” group has focused on increasing the appeal of the Hermiston Downtown Association’s First Thursday events, which offer up special deals, later hours, refreshments and entertainment on the first Thursday of each month to draw people downtown. May’s First Thursday, for example, will include 20 percent off denim at Andee’s Boutique and a free large tote with purchases over $100 at Lucky Endz Gifts.

To access the full story, click here.

2. These Resources Will Help You Host a Pop-Up Traffic Calming Demonstration in Your Town At the Strong Towns Summit in Tulsa, I was lucky to lead a group of enthusiastic Strong Town supporters through a quick traffic calming demonstration. The purpose was to inspire people to use tactical urbanism in their own communities to promote traffic calming by showing how changing the street can change behavior.

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Though there was not much traffic, we did slow the street temporarily with only 26 cones. I hope my partners-in-calming left with a better understanding of how to do demonstrations; I know I got ideas and suggestions to improve my traffic calming work.

After the demonstration, I promised to share a list of my favorite resources for planning and executing popups with everyone who helped, and with the Strong Towns audience in general. The following resources are all available for free online. 

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Slow Your Street- a How-To Guide for Pop Up Traffic Calming by Trailnet is a comprehensive guide to figuring how and why to do a traffic calming demonstration. The guide covers every aspect of the process, from identifying your goals and engaging your community to setting up a demonstration. The section on data even has a sample survey you can use for gathering feedback to analyze the success of your event. (Full disclosure: I helped with this guide and I work for Trailnet).

Intrigue & Uncertainty: Toward New Traffic-Taming Tools by David Engwicht is the ebooklet that first opened my eyes to the potential of temporary traffic calming and the impact of neighborhood activity on driving speeds.

To access the full list of resources, click here.

3. A Green Infrastructure Guidebook for City Planners Ninety-six percent of the country’s population lives in counties where federally declared weather-related disasters have occurred since 2010. Federal programs help mitigate these scenarios: EPA programs study climate change and issue guidelines about combating global warming; FEMA provides disaster assistance to mitigate these effects. But under Trump’s budget plan, these programs stand to lose their funding.

The budget blueprint, which emphasizes military spending at the cost of cuts across other agencies, would hit the EPA hard—the agency would absorb a cut of $2.6 billion, or 31 percent of its budget. In the meantime, U.S. counties are not waiting around to feel the aftermath. Many are—and have already been—heavily investing in natural resources to address concerns on a local level. Now, they’ve got a new online resource that makes it easier to do so. Naturally Resilient Communities is an interactive tool featuring 30 case studies of places that rely on nature-based solutions to protect themselves against climate threats like flooding and coastal erosion.

Developed by the Nature Conservancy, in partnership with the American Planning Association, American Society of Civil Engineers, National Association of Counties, and the Association of State Floodplain Managers, the case studies reveal stories of cities that have rebuilt after devastating storms. Reviewing a range of green infrastructure solutions, the resource works as a one-stop hub for city planners, engineers, and community leaders.

To access the full story, click here.

4. Immigrant Farm Owners and Farm Workers Help Drive Yakima County’s Diverse Ag When it comes to the national debate about immigration and agriculture, few counties have more at stake for their local economy than Yakima County, Washington. Yakima’s agricultural productivity — fruit, specialty crops, and dairy — is built on fertile volcanic soils, water infrastructure, and immigrant labor.

According to the most recent USDA Agriculture Census (conducted in 2012), the county produced $1.65 billion of agricultural products. Among counties nationally, Yakima County is first in apple acreage, first in revenue from hops production, first in sweet cherry production, seventh in revenue from milk production and fifteenth in wine grape acreage.

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That kind of production requires a lot of labor. To fill the need, Yakima County has seen a steady rise in immigrants, most of whom are Hispanic or Latino. Currently, 48.3% of the Yakima County population claims Hispanic or Latino heritage, recently eclipsing the white population (44.3%) according to U. S. Census data.

In 1990, only 23.9% of Yakima County was Latino or Hispanic.

To access the full story, click here.

5. Five Communities Recognized for Comprehensive Plans APA's pilot program recognizes comprehensive plans that integrate sustainability elements.

The American Planning Association (APA) has recognized five comprehensive plans through the second round of the organization’s Comprehensive Plan Standards for Sustaining Places Recognition Program Pilot.

A comprehensive plan guides a community’s physical, social, and economic development, which provides guidance on local land use decisions.

APA’s pilot program recognizes plans that advance the principles, processes and attributes of sustainability as detailed in the Comprehensive Plan Standards. The program aims to increase awareness about the importance and value of a comprehensive plan that also addresses a community’s overall sustainability.

To access the full story, click here.

6. Free Webinar: Making the Most of Main Street: Complete Streets & Walkable Communities – May 17th @ 10:00am – 11:00am How do Complete Streets help communities achieve walkable main streets? What steps can advocates and practitioners take to revitalize their downtowns?

Join the National Complete Streets Coalition and co-host America Walks to discuss these questions and more. This webinar will feature speakers from the City of Langley, Washington and Langley Main Street Association as they share their experiences developing and implementing Complete Streets on their downtown corridors. Speakers will explore examples of collaboration between public health and rural economic development, detail their community involvement process, share steps to attain funding, and offer lessons from implementing Complete Streets projects in a small town.

To register for this webinar, click here.

7. FEMA Guide to Coordinating Disaster Recovery Efforts This recovery coordination guide outlines best practices and approaches for states, tribes, and territories to help enable a more effective recovery for local communities after an incident of any size or scale. Building on the principles and concepts outlined in the National Disaster Recovery Framework, this guide will better position recovery stakeholders to lead, coordinate and support impacted communities in a more efficient, effective and equitable manner. It is designed to be applied after an incident, either in concert with existing pre-incident recovery plans or to enhance post-incident planning efforts.

To access the guide, click here.

8. Free Publication: Neighborhoods by Numbers: An Introduction to Finding and Using Small Area Data In the newest publication by Community Progress senior fellow, Alan Mallach, Neighborhoods by Numbers: An Introduction to Finding and Using Small Area Data will help readers navigate how to effectively use data to shape planning and revitalization decisions for their community -- even without a degree in statistics, GIS knowhow, or the budget for a consultant. This easy-to-use, color-coded book walks you through how to find, Page 3 of 6

understand, and use key local and national datasets. It focuses on the use of data for small areas like properties, blocks, and neighborhoods, because understanding the dynamics of small areas is key to developing revitalization strategies tailored to block-by-block needs.

Neighborhoods by Numbers: An Introduction to Finding and Using Small Area Data is designed to benefit both newcomers to data use and experienced hands, with its inclusion of basic tutorials, advanced resources, and more.

To access the free publication, click here.

9. Free Webinar: Preserving and Supporting Businesses in Historic Neighborhoods – April 27th @ 11:00am – 12:00pm In addition to offering essential services, small local businesses serve as community anchors and contribute to a neighborhood’s unique sense of place. Join representatives from San Francisco Heritage and Fifth Ward Community Redevelopment Corporation to learn about efforts in San Francisco, CA and Houston, TX working to preserve and support businesses in historic neighborhoods.

This webinar is brought to you by the National Trust for Historic Preservation's Preservation Leadership Forum and NeighborWorks America.

To register for this webinar, click here.

10. Restoration Renaissance: A New Paradigm in John Day “Things are Working Here” The remote rural community of John Day, Oregon, is enjoying a restoration renaissance. The only mill left in the county, Malheur Lumber Co., is humming along with 104 employees working extended hours processing a steady supply of logs from federal forest restoration projects. Restoration work has become an economic engine for the community: Careful thinning of smaller trees increases forest resilience while providing additional material for local industry. And the results are real: Local school enrollment has grown from 570 to 615 students, the highest it’s been in fifteen years. Unemployment has fallen from a high of 14 percent in 2012 to 8.9 percent in 2015. Community leaders hope that more jobs will give the younger generation a reason to stay in, or come back to, the community.

Hit the link for the full story: Restoration Renaissance: A New Paradigm in John Day This story is the first in a three-part series of how rural communities are integrating forest restoration and local economic development. Stay tuned for upcoming stories.

To access the full story, click here.

11. Rural Community & Economic Development Funding Resources The Singing for Change Charitable Foundation — Purpose: Support nonprofit organizations that inspire personal growth, community integration, and the enhanced awareness that collectively people can bring about positive social change through projects that serve children and families, the environment, and disenfranchised groups. Eligibility: Community-based nonprofit organizations that address the root causes of social or environmental problems. Funding: Individual grants of $1,000 to $10,000; priority given to inclusive, grassroots organizations that rely strongly on volunteer efforts. Letters of Interest Deadline: May 1, 2017.

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Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Raising Places: Building Child-Centered Communities — Purpose: Catalyze local momentum for cross-sector collaboration, engaging diverse partners to build healthier communities where all children and their families can thrive. Eligibility: Community (a community with a recognized identity, i.e. neighborhood, business district, etc.); convener (501(c)(3) organizations); design team (include members with perspectives focused on both better childhoods and better communities).

Application Deadline: May 5, 2017.

ED Arts in Education Professional Development for Arts Educators — Purpose: Support the implementation of high-quality professional development programs for arts educators and other instructional staff of schools in which 50% or more of students are from low-income families. Eligibility: Districts in partnership with public and private entities. Funding: Up to $7.1 million is available nationwide. Application Deadline: May 30, 2017.

Nation Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Foundation Learning and Leadership Grants — Purpose: Support the professional development of public education professionals. Eligibility: Public school teachers, public education support professionals, and/or faculty and staff in public institutions of higher education.

Funding: Individual awards of $2,000 for individuals, $5,000 for groups. Application Deadline: June 1, 2017.

The Brookdale Foundation Group Relatives as Parents (RAPP) Seed Grant Initiative — Purpose: Support for the creation or expansion of supportive services for grandparents and other relatives raising children. Eligibility: Organizations with 501(c)(3) or equivalent tax status. Funding: Individual awards of $15,000 ($10,000 and $5,000 respectively), contingent upon progress made during the first year and potential for continuity in the future. Proposal Deadline: June 15, 2017.

Rural Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) Community Facilities Fund — Purpose: Help develop and improve essential community facilities (such as hospitals, healthcare centers, educational facilities, etc.) in rural areas. Eligibility: Nonprofits and public entities; facilities must be located in rural areas with a population under 20,000; preference will be given for high-poverty or persistent poverty areas. Funding: Individual awards of $100,000 to $8 million. Application Deadline: Applications accepted on an ongoing basis.

Rural Community Assistance Corporation (RCAC) Community Facilities Loan Program — Purpose: Help develop and improve essential community facilities (such as public and nonprofit office buildings, treatment centers, emergency and transitional housing, assisted living, human services, public safety, child care, education, and cultural facilities) in the rural West through short-term loans for early property acquisition and pre-development, interim construction costs, and long-term permanent financing. Eligibility: Priority given to loan applications for projects that incorporate significant green methods and materials.

Application Deadline: Applications accepted on an ongoing basis.

Department of Commerce (DOC) Economic Development Administration (EDA) Economic Development Assistance Programs — Purpose: Support economic development, foster job creation, and attract private investment in economically distressed areas of the United States. Eligibility: Native American tribal governments or organizations, state governments, private institutions of higher education, nonprofits (other than institutions of higher education), special district governments, county governments, public and state controlled institutions of higher education, city or township governments, and others that vary by program. Funding: Awards range from $100,000 to $3 million. Application Deadline: Applications accepted on an ongoing basis.

USDA Rural Development Strategic Economic and Community Development (SECD) — Purpose: Incentivize communities to align resources; develop long-term community and economic growth strategies; and engage federal, state, and local partners by prioritizing projects that support the implementation of multijurisdictional plans under the Community Facilities Program, Water and Waste Disposal Program, Business and Industry Loan Guarantee Program, and Rural Business Development Grant Program. Eligibility: Varies by

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program. Funding: Up to 10 percent of each program's annual appropriations can be set aside and made available to eligible SECD applicants. Application Deadline: Varies by program.

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