Great news not so great after all -- staff proposes to make hens for the elites only

Well, here at LOVESalem we've never been one to bash government or to join the chorus who insist that government folks can't be trusted to run even something as simple as a two-car parade without screwing it up.

That's why it's so disconcerting to find how the proposed ordinance to allow some urban hens in Salem has been disfigured by the staff recommendation:

The city staff has recommended that chickens be allowed only on single-family residential lots larger than 10,000 square feet, or about 0.23 acres. No roosters would be allowed, and coops would have to be kept in back and side yards at least 20 feet from the property line.

In other words, in the close-in neighborhoods where hens were kept for decades without a problem, few homeowners will be allowed to have hens, because of the arbitrary lot-size and setback restriction. Thus, under this proposal, high-income McMansion owners in Sprawlville sections of South and West Salem will all be allowed to have hens, but many people in modest, working-class neighborhoods of NE Salem will not.

How about this? Instead of trying to micromanage urban hens, why doesn't Salem just go back to the status quo ante of 1970? There was no ban on hens then, and I can't find a single person who recalls a problem.

UPDATE: Here are the key items in the staff recommendation:

Staff's Recommendation – Staff has revised our original proposal somewhat. Here's what it currently says:

1. No roosters
2. Up to three hens allowed
3. Minimum lot size 10,000 square feet
4. Coops must be 20' away from any property line
5. Chickens must remain in an enclosure at all times (your yard is not an enclosure)
6. Chickens allowed as a special use in single family residential zones
7. Chickens must be maintained in a sanitary condition

Obviously 3 and 4 are the killers that basically make urban hens only possible for suburban sprawl development areas. The core of Salem, where chickens were allowed without incident until the 1970s, would be excluded.

Great news! Public Hearing On Allowing Urban Hens in Salem May 26!

Plan to come back from your long Memorial Day weekend by late afternoon on Tuesday, May 26, because that will be the date for the long-awaited, long-overdue

Public Hearing on Urban Hens in Salem!

This is it! Come one, come all! If you have any interest whatsoever in sustainability, local food, home economy, better gardening, and relocalization, please attend --- and, if you live in Salem, plan to testify in support of Chickens in the Yard (CITY).

New books of note at Tea Party Bookshop

Bookseller and STIR member JoAnne notes some interesting new titles at Tea Party:

Gaia's Garden - Revised Edition - A Guide to Home Scale Permaculture - very well done, beautiful illustrations

A Nation of Farmers - Sharon Astyk - written by the same lady who wrote Depletion & Abundance. How growing food, raising chickens, etc. can overthrow industrial agriculture

Presidential Energy Policy - Michael Ruppert - author of Crossing the Rubicon, heard recently on KBOO. More on the end of oil, from a political/economic/military perspective

End of Money & the Future of Civilization - Thomas Greco - more on the economy and how to re-humanize it.

And some more practical books as well, home energy efficiency, cooking green, gardening.

We have seen the future --- and it has pedals

Europe considers car-free future. As must we.

Excellence in Punditry award for week of May 11, 2009

James Howard Kunstler:

We've digested the so-called "stress tests" for now with nary a burp and in a few weeks General Motors will step into the dark cave of bankruptcy. All the ancillary businesses linked to the US car-makers face contraction and annihilation. A couple of things occur to me which have not even entered the national debate on these matters:

1.) the US will still need to manufacture engines and chassis for military vehicles. Do we intend to send out to Mitsubishi for those things in the years ahead?

2.) the US will need rolling stock (i.e. choo-choo cars and engines) for a revived passenger railroad system. Do we intend to buy all that from the quaint peoples of other lands? (While the US workforce instead focuses on updated releases of Grand Theft Auto.)

At the moment, there is tremendous hoopla and jubilation over the start-up of so many "shovel-ready" highway projects around America -- as if what we need most are additional circumferential freeways to enhance the Happy Motoring lifestyle. How insane are we? Is this the only thing we know how to do?

Once more into the breach! CITY @ City Hall this Monday!

Update: SJ story on tonight's meeting.

Urgent - Please attend City Council

Mon., May 11, 6:30-8:30 pm

City Hall, 555 Liberty St SE, Rm 240
(Room 240 extends over the parking lot)

Let’s fill the City Council Chambers with C.I.T.Y. supporters!

C.I.T.Y. and other supporters of hens in Salem will be giving presentations. Supporters of this cause will be asked to stand and we want to show City Council that our support is growing and we are stronger and more determined than ever!

Bring your family, friends, neighbors, co-workers . . . anyone you know who supports our cause. We're on the City Council agenda, so we need a good showing to remind City Council that there are plenty of voters who want the opportunity to keep a few hens for eggs and as pets.

Unsolicited Plug 3 -- the most delicious one yet

Willamette Valley Fruit Company has a new store just far enough out in Marion Co. from Salem to make it a terrific bike ride where you can reward yourself with an amazingly delicious scone or other treat, while you pick up a pie or two to bring back home (bring an insulated bag or cooler on your bike). Riding out Sunnyview is also quite beautiful, although there is no bikelane for much of it :^(

The wonderful WVFCo. not-yet-baked frozen pies are also available at the Fresh Start Market on Center St, which gives you an outstanding way to support a worthwhile effort and get your pie jones satisfied too.

But no matter where you get them, they make a dessert that is out of this world.

Informative series

The Association of Oregon Counties and the League of Oregon Cities have prepared a series of informative fact sheets on road funding. Here's an OAC chart on the cost of a ton of asphalt that bears careful pondering -- keep in mind that we're now on the peak oil downslope (meaning that, while there will be a lot of price volatility, the overall trend for asphalt costs -- like all oil-derived products -- is going to keep climbing sharply).

We've stretched auto dependency to the point that it's going to snap and hurt us badly--everything we do to try to prop up the road system is going to take more and more money, meaning people are going to limit driving and spending even more.

Wouldn't it be nice if the Willamette Valley had the same level of streetcar service today as it had in 1909?

Transit saves ... if you have a functioning system

Nice article about how much money you can save by taking transit. Only one problem -- you have to have a transit system that supports riders with enough service to make it possible to be car free or car lite (which Salem definitely does not -- yet).

Many of you may not realize that there are another round of service reductions in the works for Salem's bus system, Salem-Keizer Transit (a/k/a Cherriots). Given the defeat of the last three operating levies, the staff has developed a plan to live within the current funding (about 10% fares, with the rest of the money coming from property tax of 76 mills, supplemented by millions of payments in lieu of payroll tax from the State of Oregon).

Four seats on the Transit Board will be decided in the upcoming election (ballots must be received by the Elections office by May 19). If you want to see the League of Women Voters interview with candidates for one of the races, look for it on Channel 21 (station CCTV) at these times:

Thursday, May 7, 9:30 p.m. . . . Monday, May 11, 3:30 p.m.
Friday, May 8, 10:00 p.m. . . . Thursday, May 14, 8:00 p.m.
Saturday, May 9, 4:00 p.m. . . . Saturday, May 16, 10:00 p.m.
Sunday, May 10, 10:00 p.m. . . . Monday, May 18, 2:00 p.m.

You can also stream the program in on your home PC or Mac .

Thurs. May 14: The Accidental Advocate

The Salem Progressive Film Series offering for May is an especially good one:

May 14 , 2009, 7 PM, at the Grand Theatre (191 High St NE).

When Claude Gerstle, a surgeon and athlete, suffers a tragic bicycle accident that leaves him paralyzed from the neck down, he and his daughter, Jessica, discover hope in the politicized area of science called stem cells. "The Accidental Advocate" is a wheelchair odyssey of a father and daughter who track down the thinkers, the politicians, the crusaders and the naysayers in an effort to understand the potential of the science and why a political quagmire is stalling a cure. The film sorts the hope from the hype, the ideas from the ideology. The promise of stem cell research has united diverse patients and families — rich and poor, Democrat and Republican, religious and secular, a group of millions of Americans — creating a very vocal national movement to reverse limits on the federal funding of the research.

This is a film about science. This is a film about politics. This film is about ethics. But, finally, this is a film about a family. It tells the intricate, delicate, personal story of how one family deals with the life-changing impact of this kind of injury.