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Monday Mailing

Year 20 • Issue 39 30 June 2014 1. Portland Street Fee: How Oregon Became the Nation's Biggest User of Street Fees 2. Edible Gardens Go to the Ballpark 3. Agora Highlight 4. Rural Oregon, Meet Portland 5. Maps Show Planned Recreational Trail Through Coast Range 6. A Brilliantly Restored 19th Century Visualization of U.S. City Population Shifts 7. How the Bicycle Paved the Way for Women's Rights 8. New Maps Compare Travel Times by Mode 9. JPL Releases Billion Pixel-Panorama of Mars: Take a Tour 10. Mass Bee Die-Offs Continuing in Oregon 11. NPS Applications for Assistance Accepted until Aug. 1st 1. 'Portland Street Fee: How Oregon Became the Nation's Biggest User of Street Fees Although every U.S. city is grappling with how to pay for its streets, sidewalks and transit system, only 32 are raising the money through fees tacked onto utility bills paid by homeowners, businesses or both.

Oregon is home to 28.

Quote of the Week: "People are just as happy as they make up their minds to be." ~Abraham Lincoln Oregon Fast Fact: The northern Oregon Coast Range can receive up to 200 inches of precipitation per year, versus as little as 8 inches in the eastern deserts.

Also, the Willamette Valley typically receives between 30 and 50 inches of precipitation yearly, while the Cascade Range can get well over 100 inches of total precipitation, which includes snowmelt.

The state's unusually widespread adoption of the street fee follows largely from Oregon's lack of a sales tax and its relatively limited use of gas taxes by local governments, according to transportation experts. Cities in other states rely heavily on these sources of revenue for road repair.

Cities in Washington, Wisconsin and Florida previously used street fees, but they've since been discontinued or overturned in the courts, according to a 2012 study by the University of Minnesota.

To access the full story, click here.

2. Edible Gardens Go to the Ballpark San Francisco is not the first place to do this. Groundskeepers at the San Diego’s Padres Petco Park planted edibles in 2012 behind the home team’s bullpen and the head chef uses the peppers in salsa and some of the other veggies for garnish. But the garden at the AT&T Park is making more of a splash. It may not be the first, but it’s the most ambitious to date.

Just under the scoreboard behind center field, artichokes and lavender, blueberries and avocados are growing in raised bed planters. Of course, home team vegetables with Giants’ colors are prominent: orange chard and cauliflower mixed in with the dark violets and kale.

Leafy greens and spindly herbs grow on aeroponic towers, a lightweight, water-wise alternative to planters. This collaboration between The San Francisco Giants and their food service partner, Bon Appétit Management Company,with designs by Blasen Landscape Architecture and EDG, are helping fans get more roughage into their game-day diet. The produce will Page 1 of 4

be used in the restaurants on-site, and to power-up Giants’ players with kale salads and smoothies.

To access the full story, click here.

3. Agora Highlight The Agora Platform not only supports community and economic development projects from local, state, and federal jurisdictions, but also has the opportunity to highlight projects from the region's Tribal entities as well. The Museum At Warm Springs is located in a rural area of central Oregon on the reservation of The Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs and is utilizing the Agora Platform to enhance their current fundraising efforts. The Museum is currently working to upgrade a failing 21-year-old HVAC system. The system was designed to use Shitike Creek as a water source, though this is no longer possible. As a stop-gap measure the Museum is using domestic water, in excessive amounts, which is unsustainable in the high desert area. The Museum is seeking support to implement a cost and energy efficient solution and HVAC upgrade.

For assistance with the Agora Platform, contact Maggie Hanna, Investment Platform Coordinator at Mid-Columbia Economic Development District at 541-296-2266 or maggie@mcedd.org.

4. Rural Oregon, Meet Portland Can Portland and Rural Oregon ever get along? Maybe they need a proper introduction.

Rural Oregon, meet Portland.

You may think you already know it: A big, know-it-all place that leans hard left, drives a Subaru and decides every election. Filled to the brim with activists and annoying, dismissive hipsters. Wants to restrict, regulate and label everything, it seems, and tell the rest of the state what to do.

Throw in Portland’s traffic, crowds, high prices and its vaguely-threatening street people — it’s no wonder many of Oregon’s farmers and ranchers want no part of it.

And that’s a mistake.

Katy Coba, director of the Oregon Department of Agriculture, was talking about that the other day.

She said a Willamette Valley grower told her he doesn’t even like to visit Portland.

To access the full story, click here.

5. Maps Show Planned Recreational Trail Through Coast Range A proposed 86-mile trail from Washington County to Tillamook has reached the master plan stage, with public meetings coming this week.

Trail designers often call the proposed path through the Coast Range the “Salmonberry Corridor” after the Salmonberry River. That’s considered the most picturesque part of the trail, but also the toughest to build, because of the steep slopes.

Much of the trail would follow railroad lines - some of which are still being used.

To access the full story, click here.

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6.

A Brilliantly Restored 19th Century Visualization of U.S. City Population Shifts If reading up on 19th century U.S. city population rankings sounds like a fun way to spend an afternoon, have we found the charts for you.

Originally published in the Statistical Atlas of the United States in 1898, Larry Gormley of HistoryShots (a company that designs and restores data visualizations) first came across this old census visualization over at David Rumsey's online map database. Compelled by its restrained use of shapes, colors, and lines, Gormley, who scours map and book fairs in his native New England, eventually tracked down a printed copy to restore.

Originating from a 30 by 20-inch, nearly 120 year-old atlas, the two-page spread was restored by Gormley over the course of a month using Photoshop, removing any trace of blemishes and most notably, the original page fold.

Its design manages to neatly display over 450 data points using only 10 colors to differentiate dozens of cities. Once the viewer adjusts their eyes to the right-to-left timeline, one can see just how much the U.S. had grown in its first full century.

To access the full story, click here.

7. How the Bicycle Paved the Way for Women's Rights The bicycle, when it was still new technology, went through a series of rapid iterations in the 19th century before it really went mainstream. Designers toyed with different-sized front and back wheels, the addition of chains and cranks and pedals, and tested a slew of braking mechanisms.

By the 1890s, America was totally obsessed with the bicycle—which by then looked pretty much like the ones we ride today. There were millions of bikes on the roads and a new culture built around the technology. People started "wheelmen" clubs and competed in races. They toured the country and compared tricks and stunts.

The craze was meaningful, especially, for women. Both Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton are credited with declaring that "woman is riding to suffrage on the bicycle," a line that was printed and reprinted in newspapers at the turn of the century. The bicycle took "old-fashioned, slow-going notions of the gentler sex," as The Courier (Nebraska) reported in 1895, and replaced them with "some new woman, mounted on her steed of steel."

To access the full story, click here.

8. New Maps Compare Travel Times by Mode Want to know the fastest way to get where you're going? You Are Here has created a new visualization tool that shows you the fastest mode for your trip in 11 cities.

Here's how the maps work, as explained by You Are Here: "The maps is activated by selecting a specific departure point. Once the departure point is selected, the rest of the city will be colored based on the fastest mode of transportation. The point to which it's fastest to get to by bicycle are colored yellow, by public transit: blue, by walking: green, and by driving: red."

Cities mapped in the series include Manhattan, Portland, Santa Monica, Salt Lake City, and more.

For more information, click here.

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9. JPL Releases Billion Pixel-Panorama of Mars: Take a Tour Sit back, relax, and get ready to explore the red planet in incredible clarity. JPL has just released a billion pixel panorama view of the surface of Mars, and it is awesome.

Nearly 900 images were stitched together to create the panorama view--all of them taken by a suite of cameras aboard the Mars Curiosity Rover.

The images were taken at Rocknest--a windblown, rocky area of Mars where Curioisty did its first digging in the sand just a few months after it landed on the planet. Off in the distance--five miles away--you will see Mt. Sharp, which is where the rover is headed next.

10. Mass Bee Die-Offs Continuing in Oregon Two more mass bee die-offs have been reported in northwest Oregon.

A beekeeper's entire colony has died suddenly in the Sandy area. It's the fourth unexplained hive dieoff in Clackamas County in less than a week.

And for the second time in a week – this time in Beaverton –bees were found dead under flowering linden trees.

Linden trees sprayed with a class of pesticides called neonicotinoids can harm bees if sprayed improperly.

To access the full story, click here.

11. NPS Applications for Assistance Accepted until Aug. 1st The National Park Service Rivers, Trails, and Conservation Assistance program extends and expands the benefits of the National Park Service throughout the nation. We help connect all Americans to their parks, trails, rivers, and other special places.

When a community asks for assistance with a project, National Park Service staff provide free, onlocation facilitation and planning expertise. We help guide a project from conception to completion.

We draw from project experiences across the country and adapt best practices to a community's specific needs.

We Can Help You:         

Define project vision and goals Inventory and map community resources Identify and analyze key issues and opportunities Engage collaborative partners and stakeholders Design community outreach and participation strategies Develop concept plans for trails, parks, and natural areas Set priorities and build consensus Identify funding sources Develop a sustainable organizational framework to support the project

For more information on how to apply, click here.

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