39 mm 071116

Monday Mailing

Year 22 • Issue 39 11 July 2016 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

11.

Parks Master Plan Passes Muster Call Outback Scenic Bikeway Receives Final Approval Top Polluters in Oregon First New Portland-Area Highway in Nearly 3 Decades to Open in Clackamas Announcing Racial Equity Here 2016 World Food Prize: More Genewashing?

Is America Repeating the Mistakes of 1968?

Sweden's New eHighway Powers Trucks With Overhead Lines Value of Oregon’s Forest More Than Timber What Is A Yimby?

New Poll Numbers Help City Rethink Roots of Homelessness

1. Parks Master Plan Passes Muster The first-ever master plan for Astoria’s parks and recreation sites met mostly with critical acclaim Tuesday, when the Astoria City Council held a first reading on an ordinance to adopt the document as part of the larger comprehensive plan.

Quote of the Week: “Keep your face always toward the sunshine – and the shadows will fall behind you.”

-Walt Whitman 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 plan lays out a vision for the Parks and Recreation Department’s policies and offerings — parks, trails, facilities and programs — using input gathered over many months from city departments, the Parks Advisory Board, a citizen advisory committee and the public.

It also includes recommendations for the coming decade. Among them: hiring more full-time staff and looking into new revenue streams, such as utility fees, system development charges and increased user fees.

“It’s our hope that this plan is heavily utilized in guiding the department into the future, and that it simply isn’t just a plan that sits on a shelf,” Angela Cosby, director of the Parks and Recreation Department, said.

“We’re hoping that it will be very active.”

To access the full story, click here.

2. Call Outback Scenic Bikeway Receives Final Approval Following several years of careful planning, applications and hearings, the Oregon State Parks and Recreation Department formally approved an official declaration of the Oregon Outback Scenic Bikeway as an official designated route.

The decision was announced on Wednesday, June 29 completing an extensive planning process that encompassed multiple public hearings. The designated route, which begins at the Lake County Fairgrounds and travels through Plush and Adel, is the first official state scenic bikeway in southern Oregon east of Grants Pass. The Oregon Outback Scenic Bikeway becomes one of 15 state-sanctioned scenic bikeways in Oregon, the only state to establish scenic bikeways, drawing tourists from around the world to experience Oregon’s open roads and beautiful scenery.

Page 1 of 5

The designation is a potential economic boon, particularly for the hotel and food service industries, for Lake County as a bicycling destination for cycle enthusiasts and tourists. In 2014 alone Travel Oregon published estimates of $400 million in revenue being generated as a result of Oregon’s extensive bicycle tourism program.

To access the full story, click here.

3. Top Polluters in Oregon The amount of toxic pollution emitted into Oregon’s land, air and water is dropping.

Across the state, 280 federally regulated facilities released 16.4 million pounds of toxic chemicals in 2014, according to new data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

That’s the smallest amount since 2009’s post-recession drop to 15.3 million pounds. Emissions rebounded the following three years, peaking in 2012 at 23.2 million pounds.

Manufacturing, metal mining, electric utilities and hazardous waste facilities must report their release of toxic chemicals to the EPA each year.

The EPA then publishes the Toxic Release Inventory, listing information about chemical releases across the country.

To access the full story, click here.

4. First New Portland-Area Highway in Nearly 3 Decades to Open in Clackamas The Portland area's first new highway project in about three decades opens to traffic Friday morning.

The four-lane, 2.5-mile Sunrise Expressway extends the Milwaukie Expressway east to connect to Clackamas Highway and includes no other exits. It will open to drivers at 5 a.m. Friday.

The $130 million project is meant to take traffic off local streets and make a faster connection for freight trucks traveling between the Clackamas Industrial Area and Interstate 205.

Mike French, logistics manager for Fred Meyer, which operates a distribution center in the industrial area, said the company expects to save half a million dollars annual in fuel and labor because of reduced delays.

To access the full story, click here.

5. Announcing Racial Equity Here Racial Equity Here is our new initiative designed to tackle structural racism in U.S. cities.

People of color in U.S. cities disproportionately and historically lack access to opportunities – from education to employment – and many of the issues tied to racial inequality are within the power of city government to change. This face represents a tremendous opportunity that we must grasp, here and now.

Today, Living Cities is launching Racial Equity Here, an initiative that will support five U.S. cities committed to improving racial equity and advancing opportunity for all. Living Cities will work with the [Government Alliance on Race and Equity (GARE)][http://racialequityalliance.org/), a project of the Center for Social Inclusion and the Haas Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society, to provide Page 2 of 5

technical support and coaching to the first cohort of cities – Albuquerque, Austin, Grand Rapids, Louisville and Philadelphia – as they analyze how their operations impact people of color and devise actionable solutions.

For more information, click here.

6. 2016 World Food Prize: More Genewashing?

Yet again, the World Food Prize has lent its global pulpit to the biotech brigade.

On Tuesday, June 28, Drs. Maria Andrade, Robert Mwanga, Jan Low, and Howarth Bouis were crowned the 2016 World Food Prize Laureates during a ceremony at the U.S. State Department.

Titled “Biofortification Pioneers”, their combined efforts have been heralded as potentially impacting over 10 million rural poor across Africa, Asia and Latin America through biofortification, the process of scientifically breeding vitamins and nutrients into staple crops.

The significance of two African World Food Prize Laureates cannot be understated. They are, as the website states, “working on solutions to tackle malnutrition in Africa, for Africa”.

To access the full story, click here.

7. Is America Repeating the Mistakes of 1968?

“All of us, as Americans, should be troubled by these shootings, because these are not isolated incidents,” said President Barack Obama following the horrific shootings of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile. “They’re symptomatic of a broader set of racial disparities that exist in our criminaljustice system.” In an American tragedy of the nation’s own making, Obama will end his historic presidency with racial turmoil rocking the nation. The person whose election brought so much hope about the trajectory of race relations in the United States, a country that has perpetually suffered from the original sin of slavery, is spending these days desperately trying to calm the anger over police killings of African Americans and the protests and violence that have ensued.

Today, America has a president who understands the urgent need to address the problems of institutional racism that have been broadcast to the entire world through smartphones and exposés of a racialized criminal-justice system. But this conflict is taking shape right in the middle of a heated election season—one that includes a candidate who has made draconian proposals for national security and who appeals to the “Silent Majority.” Following the events in Dallas, Donald Trump released a statement that read: “We must restore law and order. We must restore the confidence of our people to be safe and secure in their homes and on the street.”."

To access the full story, click here.

8. Sweden's New eHighway Powers Trucks With Overhead Lines Sweden has just opened its first "eHighway," a 1.2 mile stretch of public road that has been equipped with overhead power lines.

The eHighway is part of a two-year trial from Siemens and Scania to test the practicality of overhead power on highways used for trucks. The trucks themselves can run on electricity or diesel and can connect or disconnect form the overhead cables at speeds of up to 56mph. Energy is also recovered from them when braking. A single 60-ton truck running on electricity is supposed to save $83,000 for every 124,000 miles driven, and its efficiency is twice that of an internal combustion engine.

Page 3 of 5

The main hurdle is infrastructure. Kitting out highways with overhead lines is expensive, although it makes more sense when you consider the alternative: batteries.

To access the full story, click here.

9. Value of Oregon’s Forest More Than Timber Born and raised in Cres-well, I grew up reading The Register-Guard. Based on the newspaper’s June 12, 2016, editorial, “Congress must act on O&C lands,” I misread the date as 1986.

Both the paper’s news coverage and its editorial opinions in the 1970s and ’80s were unquestionably supportive of liquidating old-growth forests. After all, it was Oregon’s own peculiar institution.

In 1989, the northern spotted owl hit the fan. This canary in the coal mine told us that clearcutting three square miles of old-growth forest on federal public lands in Oregon each week wasn’t sustainable.

The news coverage improved, first by reporting on the consequences of such unrestrained logging.

Eventually, the editorials started to acknowledge the importance of forests, watersheds, species and scenery, and not just timber.

To access the full story, click here.

10. What Is A Yimby?

The term “Yimby” won’t make much sense to someone unless they are familiar with the idea of Nimbyism. And if they’ve been following urban land use debates for the last decade, they know all too well about that latter term.

Nimbyism, which is an acronym for “not in my backyard,” has become the routine resistance against new construction in America, even by those who are sometimes remotely effected. In his 2015 article “Nimby Nation: The High Cost To America Of Saying No To Everything,” fellow Forbes writer Christopher Helman described Nimbyism as a political phenomenon that prevents or increases costs of practically every new public and private infrastructure project, from high speed rail to interstate expansion to oil pipeline growth.

But the phenomenon is best known as an impediment to new housing. In recent decades, destination cities like New York, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington, DC, have become safer and more prosperous, causing an influx of wealthy residents into their cores. This has elevated the price of housing, compelling developers to build more. Certain forward-thinking activists and officials support such construction, viewing it as necessary to keep living costs down and increase the number of people who can access some of America’s strongest job markets. But they have been outweighed by anti-growth activists who will counter with an entire kitchen sink of reasons not to build. New development, the Nimbys claim, will block sunlight, inhibit views, damage air and water quality, increase traffic, strain social services, and hurt neighborhood character. These activists use zoning and other land use regulations to stop projects.

To access the full story, click here.

Page 4 of 5

11. New Poll Numbers Help City Rethink Roots of Homelessness Is a lack of affordable housing the root cause of homelessness?

Some local affordable housing advocates are making that argument as they press Portland and Multnomah County leaders to spend millions of dollars to create more affordable housing.

But most people in Oregon and the Portland area don’t agree with that premise, according to a recent survey by DHM Research. Although the vast majority of respondents believe the state and region is facing a housing crisis, most believe homelessness is best viewed as a separate issue that requires other solutions.

When asked why people end up on the streets, Oregonians are much more likely to cite a lack of jobs and social services than a scarcity of affordable housing.

To access the full story, click here.

Page 5 of 5