Monday Mailing
Year 22 • Issue 32 02 May 2016 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11.
Four Steps to Enhanced Crowdsourcing ‘Normal America’ Is Not A Small Town Of White People FoodCorps Extends Its Reach in Oregon Front Lines: Klamath Trails Alliance A New Study Looks At Why Bike Share Is So Much Safer Than Regular Biking USDA Unveils New 'Urban Agriculture Toolkit' for Urban Farmers and Agri-business Entrepreneurs 2016 TGM Planning Grant Applications Now Available Cycling Eastern Oregon Plenary Sessions From The True Cost of American Food Conference These Simple Devices Turn Every Sign Post Into A Bike Rack Fundraising Answers Are All Around Us
1. Four Steps to Enhanced Crowdsourcing Over the past decade, crowdsourcing has grown to significance through crowdfunding, crowd collaboration, crowd voting, and crowd labor. The idea behind crowdsourcing is simple: decentralize decision-making by utilizing large groups of people to assist with solving problems, generating ideas, funding, generating data, and making decisions. We have seen crowdsourcing used in both the private and public sectors. In a previous article, "Empowered Design, By 'the Crowd,'" we discuss the significant role crowdsourcing can play in urban planning through citizen engagement.
Quote of the Week: You can't cross the sea merely by standing and staring at the water. ~Rabindranath Tagore
Crowdsourcing in the public sector represents a more inclusive form of governance that incorporates a multi-stakeholder approach; it goes beyond regular forms of community engagement and allows citizens to participate in decision-making. When citizens help inform decisionmaking, new opportunities are created for cities—opportunities that are beginning to unfold for planners. However, despite its obvious utility, planners underutilize crowdsourcing. A key reason for its underuse can be attributed to a lack of credibility and accountability in crowdsourcing endeavors. To access the full story, click here.
Oregon Fast Fact: Hells Canyon is the deepest river-carved gorge in North America. At 7,913 feet, it’s deeper than the Grand Canyon.
2. ‘Normal America’ Is Not A Small Town Of White People Earlier this week, Jim VandeHei, a former executive editor of Politico, wrote an op-ed article for The Wall Street Journal accusing the Washington political establishment of being out of touch with “normal America.” “Normal America is right that Establishment America has grown fat, lazy, conventional and deserving of radical disruption,” he wrote, citing his regular visits to Oshkosh, Wisconsin, and Lincoln, Maine, as his credentials of normality.
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It’s a familiar accusation in a year in which most presidential candidates are trying to pretend they have nothing to do with the coastal elite, and after one — Ted Cruz — spent weeks attacking “New York values.” Even PBS, a standard-bearer of the media elite, recently featured a quiz designed to assess in-touchness with “mainstream American culture” with questions about fishing, pickup trucks and living in a small town. To access the full story, click here. 3. FoodCorps Extends Its Reach in Oregon Boosted by a federal farm to school grant, Oregon’s popular and successful FoodCorps program is adding three new sites, including two serving rural communities. That brings the total of FoodCorps sites in the state to 11 and increases the number of schools and children benefitting from an array of positive activities centered around healthy, local food. “We are excited to be expanding the FoodCorps family,” says Amy Gilroy, manager of the Oregon Department of Agriculture’s Farm to School Program. “We want to be able to bring more school garden education and nutrition classes, and help schools develop relationships with local agricultural producers through FoodCorps programming.” The three new sites, which will come on line in September, include Lakeview, Gold Beach/Port Orford, and Bend. They join existing sites in Multnomah, Tillamook, Marion, Benton, Jackson, Josephine, Lane and Union counties. All sites include FoodCorps service members who work to expand hands-on nutrition education programs, build and tend school gardens, and source healthy, local food for school cafeterias. To access the full story, click here. 4. Front Lines: Klamath Trails Alliance When people talk about mountain biking in Oregon, locations like Bend, Hood River and Mckenzie River will without a doubt be mentioned. These areas offer mountain bikers world class trails and spectacular landscapes. Klamath Falls is another location you’ll definitely start hearing more about in the very near future. Located in the southern region of Oregon, you’ll find The City of Klamath Falls. The city and the local trail association, Klamath Trails Alliance have ambitious plans that when complete will surely elevate Klamath Falls to one of the top rated mountain bike destinations in Oregon. Back in 2009 a small group of trail users started informal meetings to discuss how they could expand and improve existing trail systems around the area. At the time, their main focus was Moore Park. The park already had an existing network of multi-use trails, but improvements were needed. Working together with Friends of Moore Park they presented a plan to City Parks to take over maintenance of Moore Park along with the creation of the Klamath Ridgeview Trail. The Klamath Ridgeview Trail will be a new 4 mile multi-use trail that would connect Moore Park with the Running Y Ranch Resort. To access the full story, click here. 5. A New Study Looks At Why Bike Share Is So Much Safer Than Regular Biking Here's a remarkable fact: Not a single person has died using bike share in the United States. Bike sharing has seen explosive growth since 2007, with systems in at least 94 cities and more than 35 million trips taken. There have been some serious injuries, yes. But — knock on wood — we've Page 2 of 5
seen zero US deaths from bike sharing so far1. Contrast this with the overall estimated cycling fatality rate of 21 deaths per 100 million trips. And that's not necessarily a fluke: Researchers have found that bike-share riders tend to get into far fewer crashes than other cyclists. A new report from the Mineta Transportation Institute sifts through data from bike-share systems in Washington, DC, San Francisco, and Minneapolis. They found that bike-share bikes had lower collision and injury rates than personal bikes in all three cities. In DC, the collision rate for bike share was 35 percent lower. For more information, click here. 6. USDA Unveils New 'Urban Agriculture Toolkit' for Urban Farmers and Agri-business Entrepreneurs From neighborhood gardens grown on repurposed lots, to innovative mobile markets and intensive hydroponic and aquaculture operations, urban food production is rapidly growing into a mature business sector in cities across the country. "Urban agriculture helps strengthen the health and social fabric of communities while creating economic opportunities for farmers and neighborhoods," Vilsack said. "USDA's Urban Agriculture Toolkit compiles guidance from our Know Your Farmer team and many private partners into one comprehensive resource to help small-scale producers manage all aspects of their business. From protecting soil health to marketing to schools and grocery store chains, USDA has tools to meet the needs of this new breed of innovative urban farmer and small business owner." Industry estimates show U.S. local food sales totaled at least $12 billion in 2014, up from $5 billion in 2008, and experts anticipate that value to hit $20 billion by 2019. The numbers also show that these opportunities are helping to drive job growth in agriculture, increase entrepreneurship and expand food access and choice. USDA's Toolkit is an electronic document that helps urban and small farms navigate more than 70 helpful resources, including technical assistance and financing opportunities. It focuses on some of the most pressing challenges confronting urban producers such as land access, soil quality, water resources, capital and financing, infrastructure, market development, production strategies, and applying for federal, state or private foundation grants. University extension service partners in Chicago and Indianapolis helped develop cost estimates for starting urban farms and the toolkit includes information on best practices and check lists for start-ups and early-stage producers planning outdoor or indoor operations. Some of the USDA resources featured in the Toolkit include: * Natural Resources Conservation Service technical and financial assistance for drip irrigation and seasonal high tunnels to extend the growing season. * Farm Services Agency microloans that provide up to $50,000 in financing for equipment, working capital or other expenses. * Food and Nutrition Service assistance to help urban farmers become authorized to accept SNAP, WIC and Senior Farmers Market Nutrition Program benefit cards. * Agricultural Marketing Service Farmers Market Promotion Program grants that support directto-consumer marketing activities in cities, and Local Food Promotion Program grants that support food hubs, farm-to-retail, and related projects.
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* National Institute of Food and Agriculture's Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) program support for field trials in urban settings and urban farm planning and marketing guides. To access the Toolkit, click here. 7. 2016 TGM Planning Grant Applications Now Available Local governments seeking to improve their transportation systems, including walking, biking and transit – The 2016 Transportation and Growth Management (TGM) Program Planning Grant Application packet is now available: http://www.oregon.gov/LCD/TGM/pages/grants.aspx Applications are due at 4 pm on June 10, 2016. TGM grants provide planning resources to help Oregon communities respond to pressing transportation, land use, and growth management issues. Award amounts generally range between $75,000 and $200,000. Grantees must provide a match of 12% or more of the total project cost, in the form of cash, staff time, monetized volunteer time, and direct project expenses. Proposed projects may be submitted for one of two grant categories. Category 1 grants relate to transportation system planning (TSPs), either complete TSPs, TSP updates, TSP refinement plans, individual TSP elements (such as bike and pedestrian or transit plans), and safe routes to schoolrelated infrastructure plans. Category 2 grants are to carry out integrated land use and transportation planning, including area plans, downtown plans, and concept plans for areas being brought into an urban growth boundary. Eligible applicants include cities, counties, councils of government on behalf of a city or county, and tribal governments. Certain special districts are eligible, such as transportation districts, metropolitan planning organizations, ports, mass transit districts, park and recreation districts, and metropolitan service districts. School districts may be eligible as part of a joint application with a local government for an otherwise eligible project. Eligible applicants may join together to propose a project, such as a multi-county TSP or multi-city or city-county corridor plan. For questions about the TGM grant program, contact Cindy Lesmeister at 503-986-4349 or cindy.l.lesmeister@odot.state.or.us TGM’s Quick Response, Education and Outreach, and Code Assistance services also continue to be available. There is no application deadline for these services, and they are free to local governments. For more, visit http://www.oregon.gov/LCD/TGM/pages/index.aspx TGM is a joint effort of two state agencies: the Oregon Department of Transportation and the Oregon Department of Land Conservation and Development. TGM grants are awarded on an annual basis. 8. Cycling Eastern Oregon Eastern Oregon isn’t just one of the most breath-taking places for biking in the nation, it’s also one of the most bike friendly. Here traffic-free roads meet the region’s spectacular natural beauty and famed hospitality. Eastern Oregon is a haven for bicyclists in the know; a place where two-wheel is spoken…fluently. That’s one of the reasons we are home to four of Oregon’s Scenic Bikeways: OLD WEST SCENIC BIKEWAY
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One of the most beautiful and challenging routes in Oregon, The 174-mile loop begins in John Day and passes through some of Eastern Oregon’s friendliest small towns and most breathtaking scenery. It includes views of the spectacular Strawberry Mountains and the winding John Day River, as well as the world-famous John Day Fossil Beds National Monument. Along the route, be sure to look for the ‘Two Wheels Spoken Here” signs, which indicate bike-friendly businesses. To access the full story, click here. 9. Plenary Sessions From The True Cost of American Food Conference We’re delighted to share with you the plenary sessions from our True Cost of American Food conference, beginning with the opening sessions featuring our Chief Executive Patrick Holden, Wendy Schmidt, Jonathan Foley, Tyler Norris and HRH the Prince of Wales. We’ll be adding more footage over the coming weeks so make sure to stay tuned! To access these videos, click here. 10. These Simple Devices Turn Every Sign Post Into A Bike Rack Americans believe that climate change is making weather worse, that they’ve experienced it One of the challenges of urban cycling is finding a place to park your bike. A simple design from U.K.-based Smartstreets might help: The Cyclepark, made of two metal loops, hooks around existing lampposts and street signs to provide extra bike parking on every block. “By making use of what’s already there, you’re not adding obstacles on the pavement for pedestrians,” says Andrew Farish, one of the designers of the Cyclepark. “And the less stuff you have on the street, the better the street looks.” To access the full story, click here. 11. Fundraising Answers Are All Around Us “Let’s find an outside expert who can help.” It’s a natural impulse in the search for answers to the chronic fundraising challenges facing so many nonprofit organizations. But what if the real answers were already all around us? And what can we learn from those nonprofits that are uniquely successful in their fundraising? These are the questions behind a new report, Fundraising Bright Spots, by Klein & Roth Consulting and CompassPoint. Commissioned by the Haas, Jr. Fund, the report explores common strategies, practices and mindsets across a group of social change organizations that are beating the odds to achieve breakthrough success in individual giving. Among the key insights from the report: Fundraising is core to the identity of these organizations. It’s an integral and connected part of their overall work, and it’s something everyone has a role in — including all staff, board and volunteers. In the 2013 study, UnderDeveloped, the Haas, Jr. Fund teamed up with CompassPoint to document the key fundraising challenges facing nonprofits. Now, we are working with a group of distinguished leaders in the field to move the conversation from problems to solutions. To access the full story, click here.
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