Monday Mailing - July 20, 2020

Monday Mailing

Year 26 • Issue 44 20 July 2020 1.

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Quote of the Week:

“If you’re not hopeful and optimistic, then you just give up. You have to take the long hard look and just believe that if you’re consistent, you will succeed.”

- John Lewis

Oregon Fast Fact

Oregon contains more than 5,900 registered campsites along with 230 state parks and 13 national forests.

Oregon Lawmakers Approve $3.6 Million in Water Aid for Warm Springs Reservation (Katie McFall) Pandemic Reveals Itself as a Threat to Rural and Urban Oregonians, Alike Think Land Use Policy is Unrelated to Racial Injustice? Think Again.

Federal Agency Throws Curveball at Klamath Dams Demolition Plan Radically Rural: Keeping Rural Businesses Open Across Generations ‘We’re Not an Island’: Rural Outbreaks Challenge Oregon’s Virus Success Farm Fresh: A Tech-Driven Renaissance in Local-Food Production is Underway as the Coronavirus Pandemic Exposes Gaps in the Global Supply System Workplace Inclusion Study Highlights Need for Change RESOURCE – Design for Distancing: Ideas Guidebook RESOURCE – Death by 1000 Cuts: A 10-Point Plan to Protect Oregon’s Farmland

1. Oregon Lawmakers Approve $3.6 Million in Water Aid for

Warm Springs Reservation

As a lack of safe running water on the Warm Springs reservation stretches into a fourth week, Oregon state lawmakers on Tuesday approved millions in emergency funding for repairs.

The Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs issued a boil water notice on June 25, after drinking water system failures left some residents with no running water at all. The reservation has issued more than a dozen such notices in the last year alone. And, as of July 8, the COVID-19 infection rate on the reservation was 16 times the state average for white Oregonians and more than four times the average for other American Indian and Alaska Native groups across the state.

Oregon’s emergency board unanimously approved $3.58 million from state reserves to start addressing the issue. The money will pass through the Oregon Business Development Department to the tribal government. Due to state budget rules, it must be spent by the end of the year. The aid request originated with Rep. Daniel Bonham, R-The Dalles, whose district encompasses the reservation.

To access the full story, click here.

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2. Pandemic Reveals Itself as a Threat to Rural and Urban Oregonians, Alike

For the first months of the pandemic, the mayor of La Grande, Oregon, governed a city whose residents regarded COVID-19 as somebody else’s problem; something for big cities to worry about.

Then, suddenly, it was La Grande’s problem.

“They got used to the belief that the virus wasn’t going to get us here. Even though I wore a mask, I was very relaxed about this whole thing,” Mayor Stephen Clements told OPB in June, shortly after over a hundred COVID-19 cases in his county were linked to a church service. La Grande is in the rural Northeast corner of Oregon, hours from the nearest major metropolitan center.

Sometimes Oregonians talk about the eastern and western halves of the state like two different entities: one urban, one rural; one white collar and one blue collar, one dominated by liberal cities and one populated almost entirely by conservatives. In the first few months of the COVID19 pandemic, it seemed like an urban disease. Rural Oregonians balked at the strict lock-down measures that limited movement, kept them in their homes and shuttered businesses.

But as the coronavirus pandemic rages on, it’s revealing that however divided Oregon may seem, the state is very interconnected. Rural areas face their own unique challenges fighting this virus — and some that mirror those in big cities.

To access the full story, click here.

3. Think Land Use Policy is Unrelated to Racial Injustice? Think Again.

In the depths of the Great Depression, with the housing market in shambles and roughly half of America’s home mortgages in default, the U.S. Congress stepped in to provide massive emergency relief. From 1933 to 1936, the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC) refinanced more than $3 billion in mortgages—equivalent to roughly $1 trillion as a share of the economy today. The HOLC pioneered the self-amortizing mortgage, allowing families to own their homes outright in 25 years.

To offer additional opportunities for homeownership, the National Housing Act of 1934 created the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), which insured new mortgages and made them more widely available. By the 1940s, millions of families had purchased or retained homes using the two programs. Homeownership provided stable shelter and built wealth. Thus, out of the ashes of the Great Depression, the great American middle class was born. But the government did not extend new opportunities to all.

In their frenzied attempt to save the U.S. economy, New Dealers had to navigate difficult political waters. Deficit hawks, nativists, and racists in Congress opposed any programs that risked increasing the federal debt or offering “handouts” to immigrants or people of color. For no particularly good reason, fiscal prudence also dictated that public lending must minimize financial risk. Mortgages could only be extended to those with the best prospects of repaying or possessing collateral that would maintain its value. HOLC agents traveled the country, meeting Page 2 of 6

with local real estate and banking professionals to determine where and to whom home refinancing would be offered.

To access the full story, click here.

4. Federal Agency Throws Curveball at Klamath Dams Demolition Plan

Federal regulators on Thursday threw a significant curveball at a coalition that has been planning for years to demolish four massive hydroelectric dams on a river along the OregonCalifornia border to save salmon populations that have dwindled to almost nothing.

The deal, which would be the largest dam demolition project in U.S. history, relies on a delicate calculus: The power company that operates the Klamath River dams will transfer its hydroelectric license and contribute $250 million in order to sever itself from the removal project and avoid any further liability or unanticipated costs.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, however, on Thursday approved the license transfer on the condition that PacifiCorp remain a co-licensee along with the Klamath River Renewal Corporation, the non-profit coalition assembled to oversee the dams’ demolition.

That stipulation could kill or drastically alter the deal because removing PacifiCorp from the deal entirely better protects the utility’s ratepayers — an element that was necessary to gain the support from public utility commissions in both Oregon and California.

To access the full story, click here.

5. Radically Rural: Keeping Rural Businesses Open Across Generations

Founded in 1864 and in its fifth generation of family ownership, W.J. Wheeler Insurance Agency has been serving the insurance needs of families in rural Western Maine for a very long time.

But the family had no clear ownership succession plan for the company beyond the current generation.

So they chose a path that is uncommon but growing in popularity: selling the company to their employees. Now, those who know the company best own the company together, are mutually responsible for its success and will benefit from that success into the future.

When we think about economic development in our rural communities, sometimes, we get so focused on startups that we forget about our many established, successful small businesses.

What happens when the owners of these existing businesses are ready to sell or retire?

According to national surveys, 79% of business owners want to retire within 10 years — 33% in less than 3 years. Those are big numbers. However, only 15% of businesses successfully transition to the next generation in the family, and only 20% of commercial listings actually sell.

So, assuming that the kids will take over, or someone else will buy your business is a risky proposition.

To access the full story, click here.

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6. ‘We’re Not an Island’: Rural Outbreaks Challenge Oregon’s Virus Success

Jose Garcia reached into the bed of his pickup truck and gingerly withdrew a sealed plastic bag.

Inside was a homemade mask Mr. Garcia had been given by a worker in one of the sprawling agricultural fields that surround his home in northeastern Oregon. The mask was made of a single, neatly folded paper towel with a rubber band stapled to each end.

“When I saw this, I kind of cried,” Mr. Garcia said.

In an effort to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, Mr. Garcia, an addiction counselor, spends his days off volunteering to deliver masks from the local health department to field workers.

Like many residents of rural Oregon, Mr. Garcia is bracing for a spike in coronavirus cases that feels all but inevitable as local farms and food processing facilities transition into harvest season.

To access the full story, click here.

7. Farm Fresh: A Tech-Driven Renaissance in Local-Food Production is Underway as the Coronavirus Pandemic Exposes Gaps in the Global Supply System In the small city of Florence, a farmers market has thrown a lifeline to the predominantly elderly population of this Central Oregon coastal community.

The farmers market used to open every Tuesday, when up to 300 people would shop for local produce. Because of COVID-19 and social-distancing policies, the market went completely virtual in May, taking online orders only through a new app, WhatsGood.

Now on Tuesdays, vendors line up in the parking lot and customers drive by to pick up their preordered food. Volunteers put the food straight into the customers’ vehicles. Older residents are especially grateful for the service. Many are afraid to go to the supermarket because they are more susceptible to falling ill from infection.

Lia Roussett, manager of the Florence Farmers Market, says that although the market feels much less like a social event in this time of COVID-19, its ability to stay open and provide fresh produce has proved critical to the local community.

To access the full story, click here.

8. Workplace Inclusion Study Highlights Need for Change

Last year Partners in Diversity, an organization dedicated to attracting and retaining diverse talent, commissioned the Workforce Diversity Retention Project, a scientific study on the experiences and outcomes of people of color at Oregon companies.

The study, conducted by Martinez Organizational Consulting, surveyed nearly 300 professionals of color from across the state, 45% of whom held management positions. It also conducted 30 in-depth qualitative interviews.

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While the study was conducted before the national protests over the death of George Floyd on May 25, the report found widespread racial prejudice in the workplace, a lack of broad diversity and a culture of isolation that punishes employees of color who spoke up to management.

To access this resource, click here.

9. RESOURCE – Design for Distancing: Ideas Guidebook

The coronavirus recovery in America’s cities is going to require more than just al fresco dining.

As the current resurgence of Covid-19 in several states shows, there’s a broad need to reimagine public space and devise socially distanced ways to navigate the urban landscape over a longer term. In the pandemic’s early days, scores of cities closed streets to vehicle traffic to make room for pedestrians and allow restaurants to claim more sidewalk space. Now that the perils of reopening indoor activities are becoming tragically clear, outdoor space will need to work even harder — hosting stores, performances, and all manner of public services.

A new effort focused on Baltimore is offering a set of solutions to public space challenges during the pandemic. The “Design for Distancing Ideas Guidebook” — a free document from the city of Baltimore, the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, the Baltimore Development Corporation, and the city’s nonprofit Neighborhood Design Center — collects 10 plans for creating temporary, low-cost spaces that permit physically distant social interaction in urban environments such as streets, alleys, vacant land and parking lots. The selected concepts were drawn from a pool of 162 submissions from architecture and design firms; the plans were conceived around the needs of Baltimore’s neighborhoods, but could be adapted to cities anywhere.

To access this resource, click here.

10. RESOURCE – Death by 1000 Cuts: A 10-Point Plan to Protect Oregon’s Farmland

1000 Friends of Oregon’s new report demonstrates the strength of Oregon’s statewide land use system in protecting farmland and identifies key factors putting farmland at risk.

Oregon’s unique statewide land use planning system continues to protect Oregon, including our state's 16 million acres of exclusive farm use (EFU) zoned land. Since implementation began almost 50 years ago, the system has slowed the annual loss of agricultural and range land by 60%.

However, urban expansion, rural rezoning, and nonfarm uses on farmland continue to take land out of farm use despite Oregon’s land use protections. Death by 1000 Cuts: A 10-Point Plan to Protect Oregon’s Farmland — 1000 Friend’s most-recent report — details the rise of nonfarm uses proliferating on EFU land and their cumulative impact. Nonfarm uses on farmland harm agriculture by creating land value inflation that prices out new and diverse farmers; numerous conflicts such as trespass, traffic, theft; and an overall breakdown of agricultural communities.

“The results are clear: Oregon’s land use planning program has protected millions of acres of farmland since its inception, but an ongoing obligation to preserve Oregon’s productive resource land remains,” according to Scott Hilgenberg, Rural Lands Legislative Attorney at 1000 Friends of Oregon. “The findings in our report detail nearly every nonfarm use allowed on Page 5 of 6

Oregon’s farmland and the impacts they have for both neighboring farmers and agricultural communities throughout the state.�

To access this resource, click here.

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