Monday Mailing
Year 24 • Issue 36 25 June 2018
12.
Quote of the Week: “If the facts don't fit the theory, change the facts.” -Albert Einstein Oregon Fast Fact: The Columbia Gorge National Scenic Area is a spectacular river canyon cutting the only sea-level route through the Cascade Mountain Range.
1. Evolution, Acceptance, and Change: The Main Street Approach as a Catalyst for Revitalization 2. Webinar – Outdoor Water Use and Green Infrastructure – June 26th @ 11:00am 3. Webinar – The Empty House Next Door: The State of Vacancy in the U.S. – June 28 @ 9:00am 4. Webinar – Opportunities for Walkability in Rural Communities and Small Towns – July 11th @ 11:00am 5. How Bike Lanes Benefit Businesses 6. How the Koch Brothers Are Killing Public Transit Projects Around the Country 7. Listen in on the Oregon Coast Bike Plan’s First Sounding Board Webinar 8. How Can You Focus in an Open Office? 9. GMO Grass is Creeping Across Oregon 10. Why Aren't More Girls Riding Bikes? 11. Learn about Community-driven Economic Development in New Video Series 1. Evolution, Acceptance, and Change: The Main Street Approach as a Catalyst for Revitalization The term “Main Street,” has come to mean so much in our society. To some, it’s just the name of a street. To others, it’s the collection of old buildings, maybe that place where people use to go shopping. In some cases, Main Street is used as a synonym for downtown. More recently, the term “Main Street” gets used to represent small business or, more directly, the opposite of big business. No matter how you interpret it, Main Street symbolizes so much of who we are as a people. Main Street is a direct connection to our history, an indicator of a community’s economic health, as well as a representation of an evolution of our culture that is constantly occurring. To access the full story, click here. 2. Webinar – Outdoor Water Use and Green Infrastructure – June 26th @ 11:00am This webinar is cosponsored by EPA’s WaterSense program and the Alliance for Water Efficiency. Speaker Stacey Eriksen, urban watershed revitalization coordinator for US EPA Region 8, will discuss improving the approach to stormwater management by using low impact development and green infrastructure. Topics covered will include viewing stormwater as a resource, managing stormwater on-site, reducing pollutant loads, and supporting multi-functional infrastructure To register for this webinar, click here.
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3. Webinar – The Empty House Next Door: The State of Vacancy in the U.S. – June 28th @ 9:00am Vacant, abandoned properties create health and safety risks, drag down property values, and destabilize neighborhoods. They are found in central cities, suburbs and rural areas. When there are many vacant properties in a neighborhood, it can be difficult to see the way forward. Tackling these properties, however, is a critical aspect of community and economic development. Join this webinar to explore how difference communities are attacking their vacant property challenges. To register for this webinar, click here. 4. Webinar – Opportunities for Walkability in Rural Communities and Small Towns – July 11th @ 11:00am At America Walks, we believe that all communities of all shapes and sizes have the potential to be walkable communities. We have seen inspiring work being done across the US to promote physical activity and improve walkability in small towns and rural communities. This webinar will explore some of that work and the trends of walkability in rural communities. Attendees of this webinar will: • Learn about programs, policies, and projects that support walkability in rural communities and small towns • Hear inspiring stories of communities on the walking path • Explore resources that can help you in your work to create walkable communities To register for this webinar, click here. 5. How Bike Lanes Benefit Businesses Kenmore Boulevard in Akron, Ohio is in the process of a street redesign which may involve the loss of some on-street parking spots in order to create protected bike lanes. This sort of transition is happening all over the country as more and more cities recognize the transformative impact that bike lanes can have on their city, as well as the prosperity that impact can create. But still, there’s no doubt that installing bike lanes can feel like a big change. When you’ve owned a business on the same street for years and suddenly the view outside your window looks different, it makes sense that you might wonder whether the outcome will be positive or negative for your customers and your bottom line. Today I want to share several reasons why business owners can rest easy about the addition of bike lanes—and, even better, celebrate their new infrastructure. In city after city, business owners are seeing more customers come through their doors and more revenue flowing into cash registers when streets are redesigned to be more walk- and bike-friendly. To access the full story, click here. 6. How the Koch Brothers Are Killing Public Transit Projects Around the Country NASHVILLE, Tenn. — A team of political activists huddled at a Hardee’s one rainy Saturday, wolfing down a breakfast of biscuits and gravy. Then they descended on Antioch, a quiet Nashville suburb, armed with iPads full of voter data and a fiery script. The group, the local chapter for Americans for Prosperity, which is financed by the oil billionaires Charles G. and David H. Koch to advance conservative causes, fanned out and began strategically
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knocking on doors. Their targets: voters most likely to oppose a local plan to build light-rail trains, a traffic-easing tunnel and new bus routes. “Do you agree that raising the sales tax to the highest rate in the nation must be stopped?” Samuel Nienow, one of the organizers, asked a startled man who answered the door at his ranch-style home in March. “Can we count on you to vote ‘no’ on the transit plan?” To access the full story, click here. 7. Listen in on the Oregon Coast Bike Plan’s First Sounding Board Webinar – June 28th @ 9:30am The Oregon Coast Bike Route covers 370 scenic miles from Astoria to Brookings, connecting state parks, coastal communities and panoramic viewpoints. Every year 6,000 to 10,000 cyclists ride this route on single or multiday tours. Coastal residents and visitors also use parts of the route to reach school, work, shopping, services and recreation. Most of the route uses the shoulder of US 101. In some communities, there is a striped bike lane. In a few locations, the signed route leaves US 101 and follows a city or county road. ODOT is developing a plan that will inventory and define the Oregon Coast Bike Route, including where it follows US 101 and where it follows adjacent roadways. The plan will identify investments that ODOT or local governments can make that will result in a more comfortable, safe and accessible experience for all users, such as: • • •
Physical improvements like wider shoulders Operational improvements like signage or signals Programmatic improvements like transit connections or rider information
Although ODOT has not identified funding for improvements, an adopted plan is an important step toward identifying funding opportunities and looking for opportunities to make improvements as other projects are designed and constructed. During the meeting, we want to learn: • What supportive services would most help coastal communities? • Which criteria should guide project selection and investments? What is a Sounding Board? The Sounding Board is a flexible, invited group of people who will provide individual input and advice to ODOT during the Oregon Coast Bike Route planning process. The Sounding Board is charged with helping ODOT to understand plan-related issues from a variety of perspectives and helping ODOT to both think big and make pragmatic recommendations. Who is invited to participate in the Sounding Board? Representatives of cities, counties, transit agencies and other government stakeholders, as well as representatives of economic development, tourism-focused or cycling-focused organizations are invited to participate in the meeting. The meeting will be open for everyone to observe and listen in. Webinar Registration Details Please register for ODOT Oregon Coast Bike Route: Sounding Board Meeting on Jun 28, 2018 9:30 AM PDT at: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/593487081221928962
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After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar. Audio: Participants can use their telephone or computer mic & speakers (VoIP). United States: +1 (213) 929-4232 Audio PIN: Shown after joining the webinar To observe and listen in, use Access Code: 899-214-522 If you have questions, please contact: • Jenna Berman (Region 2) - jenna.berman@odot.state.or.us • Jenna Marmon (Region 3) - jenna.marmon@odot.state.or.us 8. How Can You Focus in an Open Office? An open office is supposed to have many benefits: fostering collaboration, creativity, and reducing unnecessary digital communication. But as many Fast Company readers pointed out, the layout brings a set of problems. “Nonstop distractions. I can hardly ever work uninterrupted for more than a few minutes at a time. It takes me twice as long to do my work than if I were able to work in solace,” one reader wrote. Others cited lack of privacy, having to endure the smells of a coworker’s lunch, and resorting to wearing headphones to “signal” their lack of availability–defeating the purpose of an open office in the first place. To access the full story, click here. 9. GMO Grass is Creeping Across Oregon In the failing light of an unusually warm January day, Jerry Erstrom and I race along a dirt track behind Rod Frahm’s white pickup. Here, near Ontario, Oregon, a stone’s throw from the Idaho border, Frahm grows onions, squash and corn. But today, he wants to show us something he’s growing against his will: a genetically engineered turfgrass designed for golf courses. Frahm slams on the brakes next to a dry irrigation ditch, jumps out and yanks up a clump, winterbrown but laced with new green shoots. Beneath his gray fedora, his dark eyes glint with anger as he holds out the scraggly specimen. “I have it in a lot of my ditches,” he says. To access the full story, click here. 10. Why Aren't More Girls Riding Bikes? When I was a girl growing up in New Jersey, my three-speed Raleigh offered me my first taste of independence. It taught me to navigate our suburban neighborhood and find my way home in time for dinner. It also schooled me in the laws of gravity and natural consequences, like the time I crisscrossed my hands on the handlebars while blitzing down a hill and crashed in a bloody heap on the asphalt. The scar became a badge of honor: proof that I was brave, if occasionally idiotic, and a member of the great two-wheeled tribe of childhood. But times have changed. According to the federal program Safe Routes to School, the number of kids commuting on bike or foot to school has plummeted from 48 percent in 1969 to 13 percent in 2009. (On the upside, child bike fatalities have also dropped, in large part because of the decrease in participation.) In the CDC-funded survey, parents cited distance to school, traffic-related risks, and weather as the biggest barriers to biking and walking. Factor in distracted drivers and kids’ increasingly busy after-school schedules, and it’s no wonder that biking is such a tough sell. Page 4 of 5
Especially for girls. To access the full story, click here. 11. Learn about Community-driven Economic Development in New Video Series WealthWorks is an approach to community-driven economic development that aligns assets around a shared set of values and goals and seeks new business opportunities in response to changing markets. The approach intentionally builds multiple forms of wealth, local ownership, and inclusion. A new four-part WealthWorks in Practice video series is designed to support practitioners as they implement this approach. The four videos include: • • • •
Introduction to WealthWorks Selecting a Sector and Defining a Market Opportunity Mapping and Analyzing a Value Chain Analyzing Market Demand
The videos were produced by Amy Hause and Mallory Rahe through a collaboration between Rural Development Initiatives (RDI) and Oregon State University (OSU) Extension Service. The production of this video series was funded by USDA through a National Institute of Food and Agriculture grant to the University of Idaho, in partnership with RDI and OSU. To access the video series, click here.
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