Petition for President-Elect Obama

Here's a promo for a petition from "Transportation for America" that's probably worth signing just so they can build their list of transportation activists:

I bet you're like me: struggling with our aging transportation system—crumbling bridges, over-crowded subways, infrequent trains, streets that are inadequate and unsafe for walking and biking, and more.

Well, on Election Day America voted for a new direction in Washington, and Barack Obama made a lot of campaign promises about doing something to fix our crumbling infrastructure. But promises are never enough, so I just signed a petition asking him to prioritize investment in a 21st Century transportation system in his first 100 days. If we invest wisely, building clean, green infrastructure will put millions to work and lead us on a pat toward energy independence.

Will you sign the petition too?

We need to make sure that Barack Obama fixes what's broken, preserves existing transit jobs and service, and promotes a clean, sustainable, green infrastructure. If we make it a priority, and invest in good projects, we'll save money in the long run, and help build a future that's free of foreign oil and catches us up with our economic competitors.

So please, sign the petition today. All you have to do is visit http://action.smartgrowthamerica.org/t/3224/petition.jsp?petition_KEY=161

Good Job, Statesman-Journal

The only consolation to this, which stems from THIS:

24-247:SALEM AREA MASS TRANS DIST L.O.T.$0.49 PER $1,000
YES .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .      15,639   47.42
NO  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .      17,338   52.58

24-248:CITY SALEM G.O.B. FOR STREET/BRIDGES $99,800,000
YES .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .      11,342   54.83
NO  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .       9,343   45.17

is knowing that the Statesman-Journal's attitude in opposing the transit levy (24-247) --- the belief that you can have something for nothing --- is the same attitude that will doom the Statesman-Journal in the end, as Craigslist devours its classifieds revenue and readers find an ever-thinner paper with ever-less content increasingly optional.

When people stop caring enough about their community to allow a vital service to be gradually destroyed, they certainly see no need to support institutions like newspapers, the benefits of which are much more subtle and difficult to appreciate.

And (unlike with transit) there's a host of great alternatives to the Statesman-Journal, many of which are free, fast, and full of fantastically diverse perspectives and insights (unlike the Statesman-Journal).

So, Statesman-Journal, Pyrrhic victory is yours. You win this round, but have only hastened your own demise.

Pools, libraries on the chopping block, and a sword hangs over Cherriots

Another story about the city campaign to defund the local public pools, which follows the recent round of budget cuts at the library, which killed the Bookmobile and slashed computer lab hours.

Meanwhile, we will learn tonight whether Salem's bus system, Cherriots, will be able to continue offering Saturday service and continue all its current routes. If the Cherriots operating levy fails, we will lose all Saturday service (just as Sunday service was lost a few years ago) and some routes will be discontinued, and the headway on most runs (the time between buses) will increase. Losing scheduled service means an end to the handicapped service at those times as well.

In other words, we'll see Salem continue to decline in basic services and amenities that serve everyone, including those without a lot of money.

Meanwhile, Salem continues to lavish money on the richest demographic group of all, seniors, replacing a perfectly serviceable Senior Center in NE Salem with a palatial new "50+ Center" located further out in autosprawl hell.

It's probably fitting that the 50+ website says that the center is "located about half of a mile northeast of Salem's city center" and offers no information about how to use Cherriots to get to the center (#3, Capitola) --- the city government mindset in Salem being "of the automobile, by the automobile, and for the automobile." Indeed, any senior who wants to take in an evening program at the 50+ Center had better be prepared to be stuck downtown, because if you take the last bus from the 50+ Center after 9:00 when it closes, you likely won't be able to find a bus to take you home from the Transit Center. And good luck getting to the 50+ Center on Saturday with no Cherriots.

(By the way, Mapquest.com gives the distance to 50+ from Church and Marion -- the place where the center of the city is marked -- as 1.99 miles. Even as the crow flies, it's clearly a mile and a half or more to 50+ from downtown -- too far to walk for most seniors, in other words.)

Chapel Hill, NC addresses peak oil

OK, for all its self-congratulating, Oregon is falling seriously behind when cities in the Confederate States are ahead of Oregon's capital in terms of giving official recognition to the new reality of a converging crises (peak oil and climate chaos).

In Oregon, supposedly one of the best states for energy efficiency and climate awareness, we're now at the point where the absolute most aggressive actions being proposed by the elected and appointeds, the best that is being discussed at the state level -- the "pie in the sky" deepest-green responses to our climate predicament -- all fall abysmally short of what is needed to even have a chance at avoiding the worst consequences.

In other words, we are continuing to dance after hearing the big "thump" and we're telling ourselves that the slight list we're feeling is just our imagination, and besides, this ship is unsinkable, and we can't be expected to leave such a magnificent ship for those tiny little lifeboats, it's just unthikable . . . .

Eugene shows Salem and other Oregon cities how it's done

Eugene City Council last week adopted two recommendations from its sustainability commission to move the city of Eugene toward carbon neutrality.

The adopted goal says that all city-owned facilities and city operations will reduce net carbon emissions to zero by 2020.

If that proves to be impossible, the city will need to cancel its remaining emissions through local carbon offsets.

An annual work plan will also be developed by city staff to reach the zero emissions goal.

The commission also directed the city to work with community partners to develop a community climate action plan within 18 months.

Go to One Town Square

One of our favorite Oregon blogs, One Town Square, a project of the Goal One Coalition, has this disturbing -- if not frightening -- article today.

Alas, Salem and Marion County officials insist on keeping their heads firmly in the sand on this. Pursuing roadway expansions, multi-hundred-million-dollar bridges, throwing millions (literally) away on an airport AFTER the sole resident airline has departed, continuing to allow the school districts to grow ever more dependent on diesel oil-powered buses, etc. etc. etc.

Marion Co. waste incineration plant -- a bad idea for climate too?

Marion Co. (which includes most of Salem) has a waste incineration plant in Brooks, Oregon. A number of organizations oppose waste incineration on a variety of grounds, particularly the toxics emitted. (See the excellent short video, The Story of Stuff, for an example.)

A discussion of waste incineration (vs. recycling) on the "Fostering Sustainable Behavior" listserv included this post concerning greenhouse gas emissions:

Look at the WARM model from the U.S. EPA. (pdf warning)

There is also a Canadian version produced with funding from Natural Resources Canada, and Environment Canada.

Both studies clearly shows that greenhouse gases from incineration are much higher than those produced from reuse, recycling, composting, etc.

GHG's are also a proxy for 'energy use' in most cases. In other words, the energy extracted from incinerating waste, is much, much less than the 'embedded energy' inherent in the item.

The studies are not simple to understand; if you need help in finding the relevant tables, contact me and I'll be glad to help you navigate the study(ies).

Norm Ruttan

iWasteNot Systems

www.iwastenotsystems.com

More great news! Our famous refusal to learn from experience continues unabated!!

Gas prices fall, driving climbs!

Great news for Salem -- preserving access to undeveloped land

Wonderful idea. Huzzah for Mr. Gehlar and the Audubon Society:

. . . a recent $1.35 million bequest to Salem Audubon Society has launched the small nonprofit into just the organization to help reverse the trend. . . . But when longtime audubon member Mark Gehlar left the society a donation in his will, the 1,600-member nonprofit had the opportunity to expand its education role in Salem. The way? By building an easy-to-access nature center. The society has its sights set on a sliver of land on the former Boise Cascade site. The area is next to the Eco-earth globe in Salem's Riverfront Park. It's the perfect location because a proposed footbridge across the Willamette Slough would connect the nature center with 22 acres of Salem Audubon Society property, said Sue Johnston, executive director of Salem Audubon Society. "To have a really successful nature center, you need a diversity of habitats," said David Harrison, a Salem Audubon Society board member. "This area is centrally located, it would have the footbridge to Minto Island and it would have access to acres and acres of public land along the waterfront." A decision about whether the center could be located on the Boise Cascade site is at least six months away, said Tim Gerling, who is a project manager with the group developing the property. Another possibility is locating the center in Riverfront Park. Either way, the land needs to be donated or at bargain prices. "Our chief obstacle is getting a piece of property," said board member Harrison. "So we are trying to build public support ... because we see it as a nature center for the entire community."

UPDATE: Salem Monthly story on the Audubon Society plan.

If your "low flow" toilet needs multiple flushes

Jack Bog has a post mentioning how bad "low-flow" toilets are, and someone posted a reply noting that there are actually really good low-flow toilets out there because they finally figured out a way to have a good, standardized engineering test that will separate the contenders from pretenders in terms of performance.

This is a huge issue in Salem (and everywhere else) -- we've got hundreds of thousands of toilets being flushed multiple times because inferior design means that the first wave of 6 liter flushers don't do the job. Not only is it an immoral waste of pure potable water, it's a tremendous waste of energy (pumping all that water to the tanks, and then all that energy to treat the waste on the way out).

Salem should set develop a "pay as you save" program for the Water/Sewer Bureau, where anyone in Salem who installs one of the top-rated low-flow models -- the ones that actually DO reduce water consumption -- can charge the cost of the toilet and the installation to their water and sewer account with the city and pay it off @ $5 a month. For many people, the savings from the better performance would pay the bill, and the city would see a huge drop in wasted water and energy.

Read the article about the testing, it's funny and important at the same time.