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Monday Mailing

Year 23 • Issue 33 22 May 2017

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Floods! Corruption! Radicals! PERS! The Most Momentous Oregon Historical Event of Every Decade 2. Coos County Voters Reject Measure Targeting LNG Facility 3. How Your Suburb Can Make You Thinner 4. Free Webinar: Boosting Your Main Street Program with Community Heart & Soul – Wednesday, May 23rd from 10am – 11am.

5. Building Resilient States: Profiles in Action 6. Making a Case for Community Resilience 7. Has Placemaking Become Cliché?

8. National Trust Preservation Funds: Guidelines & Eligibility 9. Public Art: Project vs. Process 10. Tourism Spending in Oregon Enjoys Seventh Consecutive Year of Strong Growth – Full Report 11. America Has a Water Crisis No One is Talking About 1. Floods! Corruption! Radicals! PERS! The Most Momentous Oregon Historical Event of Every Decade Americans are a forward-looking people, but that doesn’t mean history has no place in our lives. We carry it with us every day. “The past is never dead,” William Faulkner famously said. “It’s not even past.”

Quote of the Week: “Change is the law of life.

And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.” ~John F. Kennedy Oregon Fast Fact: The nation's most photographed lighthouse is the Heceta Head Lighthouse located in Lane County.

That being the case, let’s consider Oregon’s history. It would be impossible to catalog every bygone Beaver State happening that continues to make an impact in one way or another. Instead, we’ve come up with the most momentous or symbolic event for each decade since 1790.

By limiting ourselves to one historical touchstone for every 10 years, we inevitably must leave out many important ones. Did we pick the right ones to take center stage? Read on and decide ...

To access the full story, click here.

2. Coos County Voters Reject Measure Targeting LNG Facility Coos County voters rejected a measure Tuesday designed to prevent a liquefied natural gas plant from being built on Oregon’s coast.

Measure 6-162 would have essentially blocked an LNG export terminal and pipeline proposed by Canadian company Veresen.

The measure failed with 75.91 percent of voters opposed and only 24.09 percent of voters in favor, according to election results released

by Coos County.

To access the full story, click here.

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3. How Your Suburb Can Make You Thinner To appreciate the classic American town, go to Europe. The narrow streets of most European cities and towns meander past a parade of tightly packed homes, cafes, shops, markets and parks, all teeming with people on foot. Today, we think of this buzzing pedestrian existence as the kind of quaint thing you plan a vacation to experience. It used to be daily life for Americans too, says James Sallis, a public-health and behavioral medicine researcher at the University of California, San Diego— right up until the early middle of the 20th century, when we started rebuilding the American community around the automobile. "People liked riding in cars, and so we got the suburbs," he says.

"Now everybody has privacy, quiet and space."

What they also got, Sallis adds, was fat and unhealthy. Suburban Americans came to build their lives around sitting—sitting on the sofa, sitting at an office desk and, most of all, sitting in the car. The car became essential, increasingly so as work shifted from the local factory to offices in the city; as the local butcher, baker and grocer were replaced by more distant supermarkets; as malls three towns over pulled business from local shops. Kids went from meeting up with friends at nearby playgrounds or soda shops to being shepherded in a car from school to math tutoring to tae kwon do to soccer practice. Lost along the way were the daily walking and biking that used to get people from place to place in their self-contained communities.

To access the full story, click here.

4. Free Webinar: Boosting Your Main Street Program with Community Heart & Soul – Wednesday, May 23rd from 10am – 11am.

This FREE interactive webinar gives participants insight into what makes Community Heart & Soul® a powerful, results-oriented and successful community development model.

Researched and field tested for more than a decade, Community Heart & Soul builds stronger, healthier, and more economically vibrant small cities and towns. Hear how this model has created positive change for Main Street communities, and learn what it takes to get started in your town.

Speakers:  Kat McQuade, director of marketing and communications, Orton Family Foundation  Patrick Wright, executive director, Gardiner Main Street and economic development coordinator, City of Gardiner, Maine To register for this webinar, click here.

5. Building Resilient States: Profiles in Action In October 2015, the Governors’ Institute on Community Design, a program run in partnership with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Smart Growth America, released Building Resilient States: A Framework for Agencies, a report intended to introduce and integrate land use and transportation issues into states’ conversations about resilience. The Framework was designed to help disaster preparedness professionals understand how strategic decisions about land use and transportation can make communities more resilient from the ground up. The report also included an appendix of additional resources, including federal, state, and local efforts already using the report’s recommendations.

To access the report, click here.

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6. Making a Case for Community Resilience The safety net of resilience is woven from many different strands of community involvement—local planners, lawmakers, private businesses, residents, finance brokers, insurance companies, and numerous other influencers, large and small.

With so many varying interests and viewpoints at play, it can be easy to miss opportunities to build resilience into community plans and projects. Recently, however, the American Bar Association has stepped in to provide a unifying voice on the issue of resilience.

The Association’s House of Delegates—which represents more than 400,000 members— unanimously passed a resolution urging decision makers to take action to make communities more resilient from hazards, while still recognizing property rights, protecting the environment, and looking out for citizen interests.

“A robust community resilience program represents the interests of the entire community and is contingent upon the ongoing collaboration of civic leaders, key public and private sector stakeholders, and community members,” a [report] (http://bit.ly/2rjhtpd) accompanying the resolution states. “It spans activities ranging from preparing for hazard events, risk mitigation and post-event recovery, and should be proactive, continuous, and integrated into other community planning.”

To access the full story, click here.

7. Has Placemaking Become Cliché?

There’s very little that differentiates proposals by four distinguished planning and design firms to better connect my university to its immediate neighborhood and the wider city. Why is that, and does it have to be that way?

The question of my title is the one I'm asking myself after attending public presentations by four planning and design firms invited to the University of Denver (DU) as finalists for a project to improve physical and social connections between the campus and neighborhood. All are global firms, and all specialize in master plans for higher education. The finalists were presented to us by our administration as "some of the greatest urban design thinkers on the planet." There’s no reason to dispute that assessment. Thus, this was an interesting opportunity to see what happens when world class design firms pitch to a prospective client. I should note that my perspective is limited. I attended all four hours of public meetings. However, our Urban Studies faculty weren't represented on the firm selection committee, so we didn't have access to formal written proposals or other application materials.

To access the full story, click here.

8. National Trust Preservation Funds: Guidelines & Eligibility Grants from National Trust Preservation Funds (NTPF) are intended to encourage preservation at the local level by providing seed money for preservation projects. These grants help stimulate public discussion, enable local groups to gain the technical expertise needed for particular projects, introduce the public to preservation concepts and techniques, and encourage financial participation by the private sector.

A small grant at the right time can go a long way and is often the catalyst that inspires a community to take action on a preservation project. Grants generally start at $2,500 and range up to $5,000. The selection process is very competitive.

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The review process is generally completed within eight weeks of the application deadline, and applicants are notified via email once the review process is complete.

Application deadlines are February 1, June 1 and October 1. If the first of the month falls on a weekend, applications will be due on the following Monday.

For more information, click here.

9. Public Art: Project vs. Process Should public art be above the scrutiny of “return on investment”?

When procured by the city, I think public art is as worthy of debate and investigation as any line item in the budget. Its “return” is difficult to evaluate if you believe, as I do, that art has intrinsic and immeasurable value. Nevertheless, you can still ask if an investment in public art is achieving what you set out to accomplish.

Just as Strong Towns does not advocate growth, but productive growth, I believe there is a way to advocate effective art. And just as we do not have a formula or solution for productive growth, but rather an approach to development, I believe that effective art is more about process than project.

To access the full story, click here.

10. Tourism Spending in Oregon Enjoys Seventh Consecutive Year of Strong Growth – Full Report Governor Kate Brown announced at the Oregon Governor's Conference on Tourism that 2016 was the travel industry’s seventh consecutive year of increasing growth and economic impact, with travelrelated spending generating record revenues for the state. Independent findings by Dean Runyan Associates indicate that travel-related spending throughout the state increased by nearly $500 million last year, reaching a record $11.3 billion, while the number of Oregonians directly employed in the industry rose to more than 109,000.

"The travel and tourism industry continues to be a bright spot for Oregon's economy," said Governor Kate Brown. "Not only are travel-related spending, employment and earnings vital components to the state's healthy economy, but also, traveling and connecting with the outdoors are good for Oregonians' health and well-being."

The report, which provides detailed estimates of statewide, regional and county travel impact, includes the following findings: 

     

Visitors to Oregon generated $11.3 billion in revenue for the state in 2016. This represents a 4.3 percent increase in spending in real dollars compared to the previous year and marked the seventh consecutive year of growth.

Last year Oregon destinations hosted 28.4 million overnight visitors, with hotel room revenue throughout the state increasing by 8 percent.

Domestic visitor air arrivals to Oregon grew 10.5 percent over the previous year.

The travel industry added more than 4,000 new jobs in 2016, a 3.5 percent increase over the prior year, bringing total statewide travel industry jobs to 109,500.

Secondary impacts from the re-spending of travel-generated revenues by businesses and employees were equivalent to 56,900 jobs in 2016, with earnings of $2.6 billion.

The travel industry’s gross domestic product was $4.7 billion in 2016.

The travel industry is one of the top three export-oriented industries in rural Oregon counties.

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"Everything we do at Travel Oregon is aimed at improving the lives of all Oregonians through travel and tourism," said Todd Davidson, Travel Oregon CEO. "This report, indicating the strong economic impact and jobs numbers the industry brings to the state, shows us that we are on track to achieve our mission of inspiring travel that drives economic development, enhancing communities, both large and small, in every corner of the state."

To access the report, click here.

11. America Has a Water Crisis No One is Talking About Access to clean water is a basic human right. Yet for 14 million US households, or 12 percent of homes, water bills are too expensive. And as the cost of water rises, even more Americans are at risk of not being able to pay their monthly water bill.

According to a paper from researchers at Michigan State University, water prices will have to increase by 41 percent in the next five years to cover the costs of replacing aging water infrastructure and adapting to climate change. That will mean that nearly 41 million households — or a staggering third of all US households — may not be able to afford water for drinking, bathing, and cooking by 2020.

There is no law that guarantees water access for poor Americans. And most financial assistance is left to the discretion of individual water utilities. So customers who have fallen behind in payments can have their water services abruptly shut off.

More than 50,000 households in Detroit have lost water services since 2014 because they couldn’t pay their bills. Flint, Michigan, which is still in the throes of a lead poisoning crisis, is now threatening to terminate water services for more than 8,000 people who haven’t paid their bill.

To access the full story, click here.

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