Monday Mailing 042919

Monday Mailing

Year 25 • Issue 32 29 April 2019 1.

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A Closer Look At Washington’s Superb New 100% Clean Electricity Bill (Michael Hoch) Largest E-Recycling Fraud In U.S. History Sends Owners Of Firm To Prison (Gabriel Leon) Research: When Airbnb Listings In A City Increase, So Do Rent Prices Community For The Health Of It: 2019 Cohousing Conference & Post Conference Open Houses (Ariel Kane) Female Farmers Are Coming Into Their Own – And Networking Is Key To Their Success How Linda Garcia Risked Everything To Keep Big Oil Out Of Her Community (Michael Hoch) What The Market Can Bear: Defining Limits To Inclusive Housing Requirements RESOURCE FOR PLANNING ASSISTANCE – Recreation Economy For Rural Communities WEBINAR – Moving Past Triage – Real Solutions To The Opioid Epidemic In Rural America (Sarah Moehrke) WEBINAR – Geodesign: Using Data Transparency And Community Voices For Enhanced Land-Use Planning

1. A Closer Look At Washington’s Superb New 100% Clean

Electricity Bill

Quote of the Week:

“The sun, with all those planets revolving around it and dependent on it, can still ripen a bunch of grapes as if it had nothing else in the universe to do.”

- Galileo Galilei

Oregon Fast Fact #21

The nation's most photographed lighthouse is the Heceta Head Lighthouse located in Lane County.

The trend of states targeting 100 percent clean electricity has gone viral.

Last month, New Mexico targeted 100 percent clean by 2045. The Maryland legislature recently passed a bill targeting 50 percent renewable by 2030 and looking into the viability of 100 percent by 2040. Illinois might pass a 100 percent target soon. Of course California and Hawaii already have, to say nothing of more than 100 US cities (most recently Chicago).

It’s a lot to track. So it’s understandable that there hasn’t been much coverage of the 100 percent clean energy bill that is on the verge of passing in Washington (SB 5116), the one Washington governor and presidential candidate Jay Inslee has been pushing.

But it is the best of the bunch. And I’m not just saying that because I live here.

It is not just a clean energy bill. It also contains a raft of thoughtful, in some cases genuinely groundbreaking, structural changes to the way the state’s utilities do business.

That’s right, I’m talking utility business model reform. Sexy stuff!

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But for some reason, as far as I can tell, none of the stories about this bill so much as mention that side of it. So unless you’re a Washington state political obsessive, you’re hearing it here first.

This is a very, very cool bill, with lots of juicy details. Let’s start with what’s in the name first: clean energy.

To access the full story, click here.

2. Largest E-Recycling Fraud In U.S. History Sends Owners Of Firm To Prison SEATTLE — For years, environmentally conscious residents across the Pacific Northwest have dutifully dropped off their broken LCD TVs and computer screens at special e-recycling centers for proper handling and disposal. For good reason: Tubes inside the flat-screen monitors contain mercury, a chemical that can cause organ damage and mental impairment if the fragile tubes shatter.

The Northwest’s largest recycler of the screens, however, was not disposing of them safely at all — it was secretly sending them to Hong Kong where workers, reportedly oblivious to the dangers and not wearing masks, were smashing them, releasing the toxins into the ecosystem.

All the while, the two co-founders of the recycling company — Kent, Wash.-based Total Reclaim — earned about $7.8 million each from the business while telling the public the company was a “friend of the Earth,” prosecutors say.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office says Total Reclaim shipped 8.3 million pounds of mercury-containing flat-screen monitors from a storage facility on Harbor Island to Hong Kong — enough to fill 430 shipping containers — over at least seven years, starting in 2008. The company’s customers, among them the city of Seattle and the University of Washington, spanned Washington, Oregon and Alaska.

To access the full story, click here.

3. Research: When Airbnb Listings In A City Increase, So Do Rent Prices

Only a few years ago, most travelers stayed in hotels. Airbnb changed that. As of 2018, the company offers over 5 million properties, in over 85,000 cities across the world, and its market valuation exceeds $30 billion. In 2017 alone, Airbnb users booked over 100 million nights.

But what does the company’s growth and popularity mean for the cities and municipalities it operates in? According to Airbnb, it brings more money to these cities, in the form of both rental fees and the money that renters spend during their stays. The company also notes that roughly three-quarters of its listings aren’t in traditional tourist neighborhoods, which means that money is going to communities typically ignored by the hospitality industry.

Critics, on the other hand, have argued that home-sharing platforms like Airbnb raise the cost of living for local renters. There is not much evidence to support this claim one way or the other, though a study focused on Boston found that an increase in Airbnb listings there was associated Page 2 of 6

with an increase in rents. It is not difficult to see why the idea could be true more widely: By making short-term rentals easier, Airbnb could cause some landlords to switch their properties from long-term rentals, which are aimed at local residents, to short-term rentals, which are aimed at visitors. Cities and towns have a finite supply of housing, so this process would drive up rental rates over time.

To access the full story, click here.

4. Community For The Health Of It: 2019 Cohousing Conference & Post Conference

Open Houses (May 30-June 2, 2019 at the Downtown Portland Hilton)

Learn how living in community can be healthier by combating loneliness. Whether you’re just starting to explore living in cohousing or have been for decades, this conference offers something for you. Courtney Martin author of The New Better Off: Reinventing the American Dream explores how people are redefining the American dream (think more fulfillment, community, and fun, less debt, status, and stuff). She draws from her personal experience living in cohousing with her family.

What is Cohousing?

Cohousing provides the community we need to thrive while ensuring the privacy we enjoy.

Cohousing is an intentional community of private homes clustered around shared space. You can learn more on the CohousingUS website.

Why is it important?

Loneliness is epidemic in the U.S. Living in an intentional community can be the antidote! Watch architect and cohousing expert Grace Kim’s TED Talk to learn more. Then join us at the conference. You can register for the conference here.

To register for the conference, click here.

To learn more about the Post Conference Cohousing Open Houses, click here.

5. Female Farmers Are Coming Into Their Own – And Networking Is Key To Their Success

On a recent March morning following a rainstorm, Wisconsin farmers woke up to find their farms covered in sheets of ice. Cattle rancher Sylvia Burgos Toftness was soon out in the thick of it, tending fences; the grass-fed, certified organic cows on her 72-acre ranch, Bull Brook Keep, weren’t going to wait for the sun to melt the ice.

When you’re a woman committed to managed grazing—which involves rotating cattle around to a different paddock or section of pasture every day or two—getting up in the morning to move fences and cattle is part of the job. But for Toftness, a Baby Boomer who bought her ranch in 2009, learning how to do that job may have been impossible without the help, support, and education of other farmers—especially other women farmers.

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A broadcast journalist formerly from New York, Toftness says she and her husband “entered farming when most people are retiring.” But she also joined the ranks of women farmers amid a relative boom: between 1997 and 2017, the number of women serving as the principal producers on U.S. farms grew from 209,700 to 766,500, according to the latest U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) 2017 Census of Agriculture.

To access the full story, click here.

6. How Linda Garcia Risked Everything To Keep Big Oil Out Of Her Community

Every time Linda Garcia’s cellphone pings, she wonders if it will be another death threat. The environmental activist has been targeted by anonymous callers for five years since taking on Big Oil to save her community from environmental devastation.

Garcia lives in Fruit Valley, the kind of close-knit place where everybody knows everybody. The low-income community in Vancouver, Washington, sits just across the river from Portland, Oregon, and is home to a thousand households. It also has a severe air pollution problem. In 2013, when Garcia, 51, first heard of a plan to put a massive fossil fuel transportation hub on the edge of her neighborhood, Fruit Valley was suffering the worst air quality in the city. Parents were regularly warned to keep children indoors to protect them from the dark industrial smog that descended across the river.

Concerned about how the new development might exacerbate the problems, Garcia, who was secretary of the Fruit Valley Neighborhood Association, started asking questions. She was skeptical of dubious claims being made by executives from Texas-headquartered oil company Tesoro (as it was then called) and elected officials about impressive job creation and minimal environmental risks.

To access the full story, click here.

7. What The Market Can Bear: Defining Limits To Inclusive Housing Requirements

Many jurisdictions apply inclusivity policies that require developers to sell or rent a portion of units at prices that are affordable to low-income households. The profitable, market-priced units subsidize below-market housing.

These subsidies are considered a community contribution that developers pay for the privilege of doing business in an area. Where land prices are escalating due to market trends or public improvements such as a new transit station or upzoning, affordability mandates can capture some of the profit that would otherwise go to property owners and developers, an economic transfer from wealthy to poor households.

Research indicates that inclusionary policies can increase affordable housing supply and social integration, but if applied to less profitable projects they may reduce desirable development, particularly moderate-priced housing. As a result, affordability mandates must be carefully designed to avoid causing unintended harms.

To access the full story, click here.

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8. Resource for Planning Assistance: Recreation Economy For Rural Communities (Application Deadline 11:59 p.m. Eastern time on May 31, 2019)

Recreation Economy for Rural Communities is a new planning assistance program to help communities develop strategies and an action plan to revitalize their Main Streets through outdoor recreation.

Outdoor activities are increasingly popular across the United States. Communities can take advantage of this trend to revitalize Main Streets. By conserving forests and other natural lands and making them available for outdoor recreation, small towns can boost air quality and water quality and focus development downtown. Promoting outdoor recreation can also create jobs and offer new opportunities for people to connect with the natural world. For more information on the outdoor economy, read the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s 2016 report Federal Outdoor Recreation Trends: Effects on Economic Opportunities.

Activities that can foster environmentally friendly community development and Main Street revitalization through conservation and sustainable use of public or private forests or other natural resources include: •

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Ensuring local residents, including young people, have connections and opportunities related to nearby outdoor assets to foster community pride, good stewardship, and local economic benefits.

Developing or expanding trail networks to attract overnight visitors and new businesses and foster use by local residents.

Developing in-town amenities, such as broadband service; housing; or shops, restaurants, or breweries, to serve residents and attract new visitors and residents with an interest in nearby outdoor assets.

Marketing Main Street as a gateway to nearby natural lands to capture and amplify outdoor recreation dollars.

Developing a community consensus on the management of outdoor assets to reduce potential conflicts and ensure sustainable use of resources.

To apply for planning assistance, click here.

9. Webinar: Moving Past Triage – Real Solutions To The Opioid Epidemic In Rural

America (Thursday, May 2nd, 2019 from 10am to 11am PST)

On average, 130 Americans die every day from an opioid overdose. And rural America is harder hit by the epidemic, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. So what’s being done right now to reverse this devastating trend? We talk to three leaders with different vantage points who share the same goal—stop this epidemic. Our guests on this free webinar are: Anne Hazlett, senior adviser for rural affairs White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP); Lisa Roberts, a public health nurse who watched the epidemic unfold in Ohio, ground zero in the epidemic; and Tina Stride who channeled grief and loss into action, starting a nonprofit in West Virginia that gets people into treatment.

To register for the webinar, click here.

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10. WEBINAR – Geodesign: Using Data Transparency And Community Voices For

Enhanced Land-Use Planning (Tuesday, May 14 9:30am-11am PST)

As land use planning evolves, planners must embrace the latest technologies and tools to help stakeholders make land use decisions without being overwhelmed. Recent changes in geospatial tools and technologies are enabling this shift from data overload to data sensibility.

Join the Smart Growth Network to learn how geodesign can help to guide stakeholders to consensus through a process of collaboration and negotiation enhanced by geospatial technologies that visualize scenario alternatives in real time. This webinar will feature Kelleann Foster, RLA, ASLA and David Goldberg, ASLA, of Penn State University, and Jesse Suders of Tetra Tech.

Geodesign is a place-based planning process that combines creative problem-solving with geospatial data. Admittedly, the geodesign process is more labor intensive than traditional land planning practices; however, the ability to shorten the typical planning process, plus geodesign’s track record of success, can outweigh concerns about adopting this new tool.

Stakeholders react well to being able to see – through real time mapping and “dashboards”— the consequences of their land use choices.

To register for the webinar, click here.

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