Even bankrupting ourselves on roads doesn't solve congestion

Hugely important insight from the Sightline Institute: congestion is much more related to the population of the urban area than it is to how much you spend pouring roads. In other words, spending money to attract businesses and people to your city is what causes congestion -- and no amount of roadbuilding is going to change that.

Perhaps, instead of bankrupting ourselves trying to chase the treadmill of roadbuilding and demands for more and wider roads, we should start focusing more --- lots more --- on giving people alternatives to driving in the congested conditions that are going to be there no matter what we do. The whole article at the Sightline site is well worth reading.

Interesting letter from Olympia

This is a letter from someone involved in Code Compliance for Olympia, our capital neighbor to the north. Note especially the last paragraph:

Subject: chickens in an urban setting

Our city council decided to allow hens in the City of Olympia six or seven years ago. As I said over the phone, it would be difficult to go back and find out exactly how many chicken complaints per year prior to allowing them. I am sure that since hens are allowed we have fewer complaints, I’d say five or less per year. The complaints are mostly about roosters crowing. We’ve had several complaints about someone having too many hens.

I believe that we now receive fewer complaints because the “chicken advocates” were good about educating new owners care of their hens. It seems that we never get complaints about hens out wondering loose anymore. Good fences (pens) do make good neighbors.

I also should mention that we in code enforcement were not keen on the chickens being allowed. However, that attitude has completely changed.

Georgia Sabol
Code Enforcement Officer
Community Planning & Development
360-753-8393

Community Gardens Update/Calendar of Events

Dear Friends,

On April 4th, the first Saturday of the month, the Food Share will be hosting a spring garden fair that will unite the community around a common cause, and that is to develop a system of access for the plentiful garden skill building and growing opportunities made available through the Sustainable Community Gardens Network.

This network, orchestrated by Marion Polk Food Share, consists of community garden coordinators, teachers, farmers, master gardeners, volunteers, businesses, the faith community, government officials, and more, and we will all be gathering this day to meet and greet the community that is interested in learning more about the gardens program.

Our goal is to reach out and engage folks and families that are interested in learning more about how gardening can improve the health, self-reliance and sustainability of our region. With this in mind, our outreach plan includes connecting with the Salem-Keizer School District and WIC participants, among other community partnerships. Our intention is to target the community of Salem-Keizer, and in this first year we hope to have the participation of at least 200 families. We feel positive that we can meet this level of participation, thanks in large part to the necessity and innovation of growing our own food as a community.

This is a request for you to all help spread the word about the first annual spring community garden fair through your personal networks. We invite your participation in this years’ fair, and have high hopes that it will come together successfully as we build a foundation for garden fairs in years to come.

Thank you for your support as we lead the fight to end hunger in our community.

Sincerely,

Jordan Blake – Marion Polk Food Share Garden Project Manager

P.P.S. When you have the time, please check out www.livingcultureonline.com for a peak at a recently televised program on CCTV about the gardens program.

MPFS Community Gardens Program Calendar:

GARDEN PLANNING SESSION + POTLUCK

On Monday, March 16th from 6-8pm we will be meeting at Marion Polk Food Share to discuss garden projects. This is a potluck, and all are welcome.

Rain Water Harvesting Workshop with OSU Extension Sustainable Communities

On Saturday, March 21st from 9:00am to noon, we will be working at the 19th St Neighborhood Garden in SE Salem (between Bellevue and Oak – just off of Mission) to implement a rainwater catchment system off of the garden shed. We will also be working to tidy up and process the lumber for a gazebo project and last but not least, we will plant some seeds.

First Annual Spring Community Garden Fair

Saturday, April 4th 2009, 1 - 5pm at Marion/Polk Food Share, 1660 Salem Industrial Drive NE, Salem 97301

Note: This year, the Fair offers a special morning program open to our program volunteers and partners:

9am – RAW FOOD JUICING SEMINAR

10am—Volunteer Leadership and Community Garden Coordinator Training

12noon—Community Luncheon

Nice SJ article on Corvallis Coop Tour

Pretty good article: Note that the Salem Chickens in the Yard (CITY) proposal forbids free-ranging, requiring the hens to be kept in a complete enclosure. The article starts out talking about chicken tractors, which allow you to move hens about in a protective enclosure so that they debug/degrub and fertilize different sections of lawn as you move the "tractor" about.

. . . Backyard chickens seem to be in the news a lot these days. With our free-falling economy, food-safety issues and a growing local food movement, people are finding comfort in becoming more self-sufficient.

The urban chicken movement is burgeoning — a 2008 Newsweek article claimed that 65 percent of major U.S. cities allow chicken keeping. Some Oregon communities, including Corvallis and Portland, and other cities around the country, including New York City, Los Angeles and Seattle, all permit urban chickens. Ordinances generally limit urban and suburban residents to five or fewer hens, with no roosters

Locally, a cadre of citizens in Salem called Chickens in the Yard is asking the City Council to allow residents to keep as many as five backyard hens — but no roosters. City code currently prohibits keeping livestock and fowl within city limits except for areas zoned residential-agricultural. The Salem City Council postponed action this week on a proposed amendment to city code that would allow chickens in the city.

If you are interested in seeing well-kept backyard chicken coops in action, come to Corvallis from noon to 4 p.m. Sunday to the "Cooped Up in Corvallis" self-guided chicken and duck coop tour.

On the tour, you'll get a chance to visit eight chicken and duck coop sites in the Corvallis community and talk with backyard fowl keepers who can give you first-hand tips for integrating poultry into your backyard.

The tour is a fundraiser for the Corvallis Environmental Center Edible Corvallis Initiative, a local community gardening project. Tickets cost $8 or $14 per family. Tickets and maps are available at the First Alternative Co-op (North & South Stores) or at the Corvallis Environmental Center, 214 SW Monroe Street, from 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Mondays through Fridays. For more information, contact Leslie Van Allen at youthgardenproject@live.com.

Next meeting of Salem Transition Initiative for Relocalization (STIR)

STIR will hold its second meeting on Tuesday, March 17, at 7 p.m. at Tea Party Books (corner of Liberty and Ferry) in the second-floor meeting space.

There are stairs inside Tea Party Books, and there is an elevator on the Liberty Street entrance to the building for those who cannot negotiate stairs.

If you were not at the first meeting and would like to know more about STIR, visit the STIR group webpage on google.

So Not Change We Can Believe In: The End of Farmers Markets !

http://is.gd/mvjG

Should this idea fly? Or at least go to the airport?

Image by Bill Liao via Flickr

Thinking about countries like Holland (and Japan) today, and how they make maximal use of every square inch of land, which they have fought to reclaim from the North Sea for so many centuries. One image that always stays in my mind is the picture of Dutch airports and highways, which seem to be commonly used for agriculture.

Then I thought about the huge footprint of the Salem (McNary) Airport, much of which is essentially idle land right now.

Is there anyone interested in making a run at the airport folks about establishing community gardens and maybe even some small animal husbandry at the airport? It seems like (pending soil testing to ensure pollutants are not an issue) that it would be a great location -- close enough central location so that plenty of people could bike/walk/bus or drive to it, plenty of room for garden sheds/tool storage, lots of sun, etc. No problems with noise, obviously; few close-by neighbors; and a nice way to make productive use of currently not-too-well-used land.

With land being the critical issue for would-be farmers and small growers, what about making better use of land we already have?

The future of local transport in Salem

Great stuff. And MORE great stuff. Like this serious work bike. Lots more at the links.

Addicted to plastic

One more reminder.

PDX congestion dropped 1/3 in 2008 -- bigger bridge desperately needed!

If they don't build that 12-lane monstrosity, how will they ever get the congestion back to where it should be??? (Meaning the level that justifies endless paving for the Road Gang.)

Of course, the same is true for Salem: Congestion is dropping fast. But we're just too small to measure. But Salem blowing $600M on an unneeded third auto bridge is at least as stupid as Portland blowing $4.2B on unneeded expansion of a bi-state bridge.

Speaking of why these bridges are totally the wrong direction, here's this insightful article on how ODOT is going to have to do a fast about-face once we admit that CO2 is a pollutant:

But if the Obama Administration moves forward to regulate greenhouse gases, that could all change -- whether or not EPA institutes cap-and-trade or any other new sort of climate policy.

How? The key lies in one of the wonkiest of all policy areas: "transportation conformity." The Clean Air Act says that the regional bodies that spend federal transportation dollars must write plans that "conform" to a state's clean air implementation plan (known by the cognoscenti as a "SIP"). So when these regional bodies dole out federal dollars, they must certify that these plans will ensure that the plans won't harm air quality (DOT must sign off after consulting with EPA). Building transportation projects means pollutants, but usually the transportation plans can adopt Transportation Control Measures ("TCM"s) to reduce these pollutants.

So what does that have to do with land use? So far, nothing. But that is only because the pollutants that federal law cares about are so-called "criteria" pollutants: particulates, ozone, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, etc.

If, however, EPA decides that carbon dioxide is also a criteria pollutant -- which it probably will -- then that means transportation plans must also fit in under state limits on carbon dioxide emissions. And that might transform federal transportation policy, because reducing carbon dioxide, far more than any other pollutant, means reducing Vehicle Miles Traveled. And reducing Vehicle Miles Traveled means changing land use patterns.

This is all complex and contingent, and the reason why lawyers (some, at least) get paid the big bucks. But to go through the motions again:

1. If EPA regulates carbon dioxide, then state implementation plans will have to show how they will reduce carbon emissions.

2. If state plans aim to reduce carbon emissions, then transportation plans will have to "conform" to them.

3. If transportation plans must conform to them, then these plans will have to show how they will reduce vehicle miles traveled.

4. In order to reduce vehicle miles traveled, land use patterns are going to have to change: they will have to be more compact, and rely more on transit.

What about those local governments that control land use? Why should they care? Because if they don't, then they won't get federal money for their transportation projects. And that will mean a lot to them.