More like this, please: grow food on idle industrial zoned land

In the story about the latest setback for plans to develop the Mill Creek Site, some commenters at the SJ site hit on the right idea:

(first commenter): Plant food crops there this spring to help people out until this prime property is ready to be developed. There is water available on this property. Canneries are close by. Help out the area food banks. Why let this good farm land just sit when there are hungry people in this area and things will not get better for a while.

(responding): Excellent idea! Why not let those who want space to grow food but don't have room now have a small plot according to family size? They could pay a fee to cover water if needed. Maybe the community college or county extension or someone could offer classes on canning and freezing produce. Let's put that land to good use

For the young to save us, we must first save the young

It's no accident that most of the social dysfunction that imperils us skyrocketed in the last third of the 20th Century, since that is precisely coincident with the period in which television attained dominance as the primary social/recreational activity in the United States. Rather than bringing up children who slowly grew in competence and experience with age, we have kept kids trapped in a permanent adolescence even as their bodies race into adulthood, watching others have lives rather than learning to build one for themselves.

Of all the silver linings to be hoped for from the economic hardship period we are entering, the collapse of 24-hour television and television-as-babysitter is the one most devoutly to be sought. When the cable company reports that subscriptions are plummeting as people realize that they are hurting their kids with TV, that will be cause for hope.

Watching a lot of TV during adolescence, an alarming new study has found, can change a normal brain to a depressive one. The study, which tracked more than 4,000 adolescents as they grew up, found that for every extra hour a teen spends watching TV or playing videogames on an average day, he or she is 8 percent more likely to develop depression as an adult. Study author Dr. Brian Primack says that teens’ experiences help shape their developing brains, and that being parked in front of a screen often replaces positive social, academic, and athletic activities that give kids a sense of mastery and self-respect. Instead, he tells the Los Angeles Times, TV teaches kids to be passive, and to judge themselves against fictional characters whose looks and accomplishments seem out of reach.

Care to Breathe More Toxics?

A Must for your Thursday Night (2/26):

February 26, 2009
6:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
Willamette University School of Law
Paulus Lecture Hall -- Room 201

Covanta/Marion County Waste-to-Energy Facility as an Integrated Part of the County's Waste Management System -- Jeffrey Hahn, Covanta Energy Corporation

Incineration Dangers: From Nanoparticles to Nonsustainability -- Dr. Paul Connett, renowned expert on zero waste and harmful waste incineration by-products.

Sponsored by League of Women Voters of Marion/Polk Counties, Willamette University Center for Sustainable Communities, Salem City Club, Marion County, Friends of Marion County, Oregon Physicians for Social Responsibility, Oregon Toxics Alliance, Oregon Center for Environmental Health, and Health Care Without Harm

[One hopes this will be taped and made available online and through CCTV. Anyone with information about this, please post a comment.]

For more information, see this post about "Waste Incineration: The Self-Inflicted Wound." And there's the always-wonderful "Story of Stuff."

T-1 until Salem Transition Initiative for Relocalization launch

Hope to see you there.

For more information, see here.

Great idea -- statewide prescription drug take-backs

The problem is discussed here. Turns out, there's a bill here in Salem that would attack the problem at the state level. So do what the lady says: write your legislators.

We are forwarding a bill in the Oregon Legislature that would put a statewide drug take back program in place. The bill is SB 598 (copy attached). A short summary of the bill is attached also.

If you support this type of program, a letter to your State Senator and State Representative would be great!

Let me know if you have any questions…

Janet Gillaspie - Executive Director
Oregon Association of Clean Water Agencies (ACWA)
537 SE Ash Suite 12
Portland, OR 97214
Phone: (503)236-6722
Fax: (503)236-6719
www.oracwa.org

Here's the bill summary:

Oregon Drug Take Back Program – SB 598
Product Stewardship Model for Unwanted and Unused Drugs

WHAT IS THE PROBLEM?

Avoidable Poisonings

For the Oregon Poison Center, pharmaceuticals represent the most common category of exposure, resulting in 48% of calls, and represent the most serious poisoning incidents. Between 2000 and 2006, the hospitalization rate for Oregon children from unintended poisonings by drugs, medicines and plants increased 60%;
much can be attributed to prescription medications .

Prescription drug abuse, especially in teens

The number of teens abusing prescription drugs exceeds the number of teens using all other drugs combined, except marijuana and alcohol. Compared to the rest of the nation, Oregon ranks among the top ten states for:

Annual abuse of prescription drugs for all ages (228,000 persons per year);
Past year abuse of prescription drugs by youth 12 to 17 (34,000 persons per year); and,
Past year abuse of prescription stimulants (55,000 persons per year).

Teens get their drugs from friends and family –
not the street corner and not the Internet.

Water quality issues

US Geological Survey and Oregon DEQ water quality sampling indicates that trace amounts of various pharmaceuticals are found in Oregon’s surface water; focused studies have found pharmaceuticals in groundwater. The majority of drugs reach water through excretion.

However, a 2007 study by the Teleosis Institute in California reported that consumers did not use nearly 45 percent of what they were prescribed. Standard wastewater treatment methods are not designed to remove pharmaceuticals or other emerging compounds.

About one-third of the unwanted drugs are from hospice and long term care; these facilities generally flush unwanted medicines since no effective alternatives exist.

WHAT IS BEING PROPOSED?

Drug manufacturers and distributors that serve Oregon would be required to plan, implement, and pay for a convenient way for Oregonians to dispose of unwanted and unused medicines in an environmentally safe manner.

WHO DEVELOPED THE PROPOSAL?

A broad stakeholder group: started meeting in the fall of 2006 to examine the problem, including: State agencies (DEQ, Health Division, Oregon State Police, Board of Pharmacy), pharmacy owners, hospital pharmacists, local health officials, environmental public interest groups, local governments, pharmaceutical manufacturers, chain drug store owners, drinking water and wastewater utilities
Convening meeting: held in June, 2008 – over 125 attendees; product stewardship concept endorsed.

Recommendations:

• No additional cost to consumers.
  
  
• Use a product stewardship model: manufacturers and distributors that supply drugs in Oregon craft system to recover and properly dispose of unwanted and unused drugs - consistent with past actions by Oregon Legislature.
  
  
• Continues product stewardship type model similar to electronic waste recycling requirements of SB 737.
  
  
• Drug take back programs are specifically mentioned as one toxic reduction tool that local governments should evaluate
  
  
• Need a convenient system for both rural and urban Oregon.

Hear the C.I.T.Y. presentations to City Council

If you couldn't make the meeting last night, you can still make a HUGE contribution to the cause of making Salem a better place with your support for the Chickens in the Yard proposal.

First, you can hear the presentations by selecting Feb. 23, 2009 recording here. (You don't have to listen to the whole thing --- once you start the session playing, it offers you the option of skipping to any agenda item, in this case Public Comment, item 10).

Next, drop a postcard or letter to your city council member asking that the C.I.T.Y. proposal be turned into action. Someone stopped me at the meeting last night and said that they didn't know who their council member was -- if that's you too, you can find out here. A phone call works well too.

The C.I.T.Y. folks did a fine job --- now it's up to us to get the council to overcome the forces of inertia and help bring hens back into Salem.

Two new chances to weigh in on bus service changes

Salem — Cherriots has added two new public forums to be held in downtown Salem where residents can offer input on how the bus service can better meet the needs of the community.

The two new open houses are 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Feb. 27 and April 24 at Courthouse Square, 555 Court St. NE. (Served by all routes terminating downtown.)

Cherriots' plan to redesign its bus service includes forums where members of the public can offer their suggestions.

The other upcoming open houses, which will be 6:30 to 8:30 p.m., include:

• Feb. 25: Marion County Fire Station, 300 Cordon Road NE

• March 2: Leslie Middle School, 3850 Pringle Road SE (Cherriots Route 22)

• March 3: McNary High School, 595 Chemawa Road N (Cherriots Route 18)

• April 27: South Salem High School, 1910 Church St. SE (Cherriots Routes 15, 22)

• April 28: Marion County Fire Station, 300 Cordon Road NE

• April 30: West Salem Roth's, 1130 Wallace Road NW (Cherriots Routes 10, 12, 19, 23, 24 and 25)

• May 7: Keizer Fire Station, 661 Chemawa Road N (Cherriots Route 18)

People who are unable to attend a meeting can offer input by completing an online questionnaire.

People who need translations or sign language should contact Michelle Ambrosek at (503) 588-2424, Ext. 2066.

[Note the nice addition of Cherriots routes to the information on the meeting locations! Today Cherriots, eventually all public agencies and local governments will be so thoughtful!]

See you at 7:45 tonight or thereabouts!

Chickens in the Yard (CITY) is rounding up people to come to the Salem City Council meeting this Monday, February 23, to speak during the open public comment period (i.e., not limited to agenda topics) that follows the scheduled business on the agenda. (See item 10 here.) A C.I.T.Y. leader sends:

. . . Re: the agenda for the City Council Meeting on Monday. Unfortunately, it is really long (5 pages). We can't speak until item #10; see the very last page. But I spoke with the City Recorder about this and she said some of the items will go very quickly. Her best estimate is that we will be able to start between 8:00 and 8:30. If we are not finished by 10:00, the council will vote to either stay late and keep going, or continue at another time.

Note to Speakers: If you happen to be speaking when/if they decide to wrap things up and cut us off, be sure to immediately request that we be placed ON THE AGENDA for the next meeting. Hopefully, this won't happen, but I wanted to have a plan just in case.

SEE YOU ALL MONDAY NIGHT - City Hall, 555 Liberty, Room 240!

So you probably don't have to be there right at 6:30 p.m. -- 7:45 p.m. is probably fine.

But please do come, and come early enough to make sure you're there to let the city council members know that it's important to you and that, even if you don't plan to keep any laying hens yourself, you want other people in resedential zones to be able to do so, for the benefit of themselves and of the community as a whole.

Note the map of Salem neighborhood associations that have endorsed the C.I.T.Y. campaign! And also note that just because other neighborhoods haven't doesn't mean that they don't have a lot of residents who would love to keep some laying hens -- each neighborhood has its own politics and personalities.

The Great God Auto Threatens Your Children

This is what building a society around cars produces --- note that the typically bureaucratic response suggests that the problem is caused by parents or not giving enough money to the medical-industrial complex. The Sprawl Machine doesn't just produce ugly places that will be impossible to use as energy becomes scarce and expensive -- it also hurts children, who are becoming crippled and debilitated by our development patterns that make walking and biking rare activities instead of everyday acts of a healthy young person.

Initiative Takes Aim At Obesity In Children

A coalition of health groups and insurance companies yesterday unveiled an initiative, billed as the first of its kind, to help battle one of the nation's biggest health problems: childhood obesity.

Officials of the Alliance for a Healthier Generation, a joint effort of the American Heart Association and the William J. Clinton Foundation, said the initiative is designed to give children better access to health care to fight obesity. Participating insurance companies would pay for at least four visits to a dietitian and four visits to a physician each year to provide guidance to children and their parents on how to eat better and take other steps to reduce and control their weight.

More than one-third of children in the United States are overweight or obese, raising fears that they could constitute the first generation in recent history to have shorter life spans than their parents. One of the biggest problems many families face in fighting obesity is getting insurance companies to pay for doctor visits and other care to help deal with the problem. . . .

And to this we say "Amen, brother, Aaaaaamen."

Post-Carbon Oregon has a great post talking about the weird inversion of priorities that makes us do more to guarantee a place for cars in Salem than people.

As an example, in Salem residential zones, you are mandated, by law, to maintain two off-street parking spaces for cars --- even if you don't have a car. This can include garage spaces or driveway spaces, or both. Think about what this says about our priorities and the way that cars have dominated our thinking for the past 60 years:

• You're not required to have a garden, even though it's a certainty that residents must eat. In fact, you are prohibited by law from tearing up your driveway and growing food to feed your family in that space, even if it's the best spot you have for growing food.
  
  
• And no matter how much southern exposure you have, you're not required to have a solar hot water heater, even though it's a certainty that you use hot water.
  
  
• You're not required to have a bike, even though most trips we take are easily walked or biked.
  

Nope, one of the few things you MUST have is two cars full of parking, because the mindset reflected in our city code is that the Great God Auto Must Be Served.

So we're in a situation where the global economy is melting down and hunger is rising all across the state, but if you put a chicken coop on your driveway and an enclosure on the unpaved area next to the driveway to give the hens some room to roam, you are not only going to be fined for the heinous crime of trying to provide your family with safe, affordable food, you're also going to be ordered to remove the coop because you have infringed on Great God Auto's privileged position in Salem society.

Estimates are that, for every car kept overnight in the typical American community, there are fully seven parking spaces distributed around town to serve that car. If anything, that's probably low: Look at the sea of asphalt next to every big box building and strip mall, then add the two spaces per residence, then add the oceans of parking next to most newer churches, then add the acres of parking surrounding our high schools, then add the parking ramps and the big lots for office complexes, and the vast lots designed to serve auto commuters, then add all the on-street parking . . . .

No wonder our economy is so tattered --- we've taken a huge amount of Willamette Valley soil --- some of the finest in the world, in one of the best growing areas in the world --- and paved it over to serve autos. Providing all that parking makes things spread so far apart that people feel that they have to use a car, thus powering the cycle further down the drain.

In return for this weird act of auto worship, we get to deal with the pollution and runoff issues, and we get a distorted tax system because speculators holding valuable prime land off the market pay artificially low taxes on that land because it's not "developed" -- in other words, they throw down some gravel and use the land for parking because we assess property based on current use rather than on the land value if developed appropriately.

This means that people who do develop their land further pay more in taxes, while those who keep land right in the heart of town as parking lots pay very little.