Time to get busy to bring community radio to Salem!

Help jump-start a community radio station in Salem!
KMUZ 88.5 FM (“Radio Free Salem”)
needs volunteers to help organize and build a new noncommercial grassroots FM radio station in the Mid-Willamette Valley.
Interested?
You are invited to attend...
RADIO RALLY
June 9, 2009 • 7-8pm
Grand Theater, 187 High St. NE, Salem

for more info about KMUZ 88.5 FM:
www.radiofreesalem.com <====> www.myspace.com/radiofreesalem

unconventional • cultural • diverse • educational
music • ideas • local news • artistic expression • community events

Steve Solomon's Soil & Health Library

Interesting -- Steve Solomon, author of "Growing Vegetables West of the Cascades" and the new "Growing Food When it Counts" has a little project going to make free e-books about soil and health available. An amazing list of titles are available in the Ag section alone!

Get active

As evident from the "Party like it's 1959" transportation bill (if by transportation you mean "highway pork") that seems to have greased enough palms to pass through the Legislature, Oregon is in dire shape when it comes to thinking clearly about the future and sustainability. If you live in Marion County, there's an opportunity to do something about that by getting involved with the Marion County chapter of the Oregon League of Conservation Voters.

Marion County wants you!

OLCV’s Marion County Chapter is rebuilding. Our steering committee is looking for dynamic new members. We have big plans for the 2010 Election and we want you to be a part of it. We need folks on the front lines of our work: electing pro-environment leaders to office and holding them accountable once they’re elected – making sure they are doing what is right to protect Oregon’s environmental legacy.

If you’re interested in campaigning for local candidates who share your values, talking to your local leaders about environmental priorities and helping generate the resources needed to bring about clean air and water victories, email tresa@olcv.org.

A model for Salem: Responding to Hunger with More than Words

Kudos to Multnomah County Commissioner Cogen and all the others involved!

Wonder if there's any fertile city-, county-, and state-owned land that could be similarly turned into food for Salem? Why, yes, yes there is --- acres and acres of it! All that is needed is leadership.

Volunteers to grow organic produce on surplus county land

. . . A blackberry-infested plot of land once farmed by indigent people at the former Multnomah County Poor Farm is being reclaimed to feed the poor again.

Multnomah County Commissioner Jeff Cogen is spearheading a campaign to convert one to two acres of county surplus land north of McMenamins Edgefield Manor in Troutdale into a temporary organic farm to combat hunger. Volunteers will harvest enough fresh produce this growing season to feed 240 people for 24 weeks, Cogen estimated.

Cogen will ask fellow members of the Multnomah County Board of Commissioners on May 28 to approve $22,000 in county funds to buy materials. But he’s already secured commitments for private donors to repay $15,000 of that, and expects the rest of that sum will be raised privately.

“We all know Multnomah County is broke,” Cogen said. “I’m committed to not saying: ‘We can’t handle the problems because we’re broke.’ ” . . .

Cogen’s chief of staff, Marissa Madrigal, came up with the idea for the garden three months ago. The notion came from Victory Gardens that sprouted during World Wars I and II.

Much has happened quickly since then. The county’s alternative community service program provided workers to remove blackberries and perform other manual labor. That program organizes volunteers who agree to do service work after convictions for nonviolent crimes and other low-level offenses.

AmeriCorps has hired someone to coordinate the farm project and earn a stipend from the federal service program. Other community volunteers will be recruited to plant and harvest the produce. Organic mulch and fertilizer were donated by private companies. . . .

Why keeping hens and growing food is becoming even more essential

Deadly Salmonella: Frozen Food's Newest Ingredient

By Jim Hightower

Contamination has become so widespread that major frozen food purveyors admit they can no longer ensure the safety of their products. . . .

The true culprit in such poisonings, however, is not the little deadly bug, but the twin killers of corporate globalization and greed. Giant food corporations, scavenging the globe in a constant search for ever-cheaper ingredients to put in their processed edibles, are resorting to low-wage, high-pollution nations that have practically no food-safety laws, much less any safety enforcement.

Consider the case of ConAgra Foods, a massive conglomerate that sells 100 million pot pies a year under its Banquet label. Each pie contains 25 ingredients sourced from all over the world -- often from subcontractors who don't report their sources. Until the 2007 salmonella contamination of its pies, ConAgra did not even require suppliers to test for pathogens, nor did it do its own tests. Since poisoning one's customers turned out to be a bad strategy for earning repeat business, the conglomerate now runs spot checks -- but even when it detects contamination in a pie, it has not been able to determine which ingredient is the bad one.

In fact, as The New York Times recently reported in an extensive expose, food giants concede that their supply chains are so far-flung that they "do not even know who is supplying their ingredients, let alone if those suppliers are screening items for microbes." Meanwhile, the industry's lobbying front, the Grocery Manufacturers of America, has aggressively fought federal efforts to require a tracking system. "This information is not reasonably needed," the GMA curtly responded when such a rule was proposed. . . .

A path to providing more rides to more people at less cost

This is one of the programs that Cherriots needs to be investigating and figuring out how to incorporate into the planning -- a method of using existing vehicles and cellphone capability to match riders with rides. As oil prices shoot up this summer, we're going to be even more hammered on funds ... we need to be thinking ahead about how to serve people without necessarily having to put them into a bus/Cherrylift. In years to come, public transit will be increasingly stressed, caught in the vise of rising costs, diminished funds, and rising demand.

I'm not saying that this particular system (Avego) is the right way or only way this could be done -- but they have the right idea, that's for sure.

UPDATE: Nice op-ed by a local fellow who's asking the right questions. Excerpt:

Now instead of neighborhood circulator buses (an idea that has not worked well in Salem), turn those resources into Super Shuttle-like service from the hubs. Super Shuttles are like coordinated, shared taxis. Riders submit the addresses where they need to go and when a load of people going to the same general area has accumulated, a shuttle van drops them off one by one in the most efficient order. It's not as convenient as regular, frequent bus service, but it is a whole lot better than no service at all — it runs where you need it, when you need it. Unlike a bus system, the vans never run empty.

Would Salem voters support it? I don't know — why don't you ask them?

Clearly asking voters over and over to support more of the same old-fashioned bus system hasn't worked. Now you're asking riders to help you choose between two bus options offering service worse than we have now. Wouldn't it be better to look at a variety of ideas for delivering excellent public transportation?

My vote is for a do over — this time with imagination.

A beautiful day, filled with terrible ideas

How can such a perfect day be so ridden with so many terrible ideas, like the "ram it down their throats" LNG fast-track bill. A truly horrible idea. I'm all for using a lot more natural gas (instead of coal), but this is absolutely the wrong idea. Take action against this bad idea here:

As a constituent, an engineer, and a supporter of increased use of natural gas (to end use of coal), I strongly urge you to oppose HB 3058, which fast-tracks the building of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) pipelines.

The bill allows out-of-state corporations to get wetland fill permits on private land without the permission of landowners. This raises concerns about landowners rights and harms the environment by encouraging LNG projects in Oregon.

LNG terminals and pipelines would bring dirty foreign fossil fuel to Oregon. LNG will emit 30% more global warming pollution than domestic gas, destroy critical salmon nurseries, and create 600 miles of pipelines across hundreds of rivers. These projects need to be fully vetted and not fast tracked.

Fast-tracking LNG undermines the states commitments to building a clean energy economy and our ability to combat the climate crisis.

A wide variety of interests, including landowners, farmers, woodlot owners, and conservationists have come together to fight this bill. Please join them and oppose HB 3058.

Very nice: Reverie Harp -- An instrument to soothe the soul

An instrument to soothe the soul

A small company in Stillwater has given birth to a new musical instrument called the Reverie Harp, which is so easy to play that anyone can make beautiful music. The harp is becoming a hit with therapists, patients and their loved ones, who use it to calm stressful times. (05/20/2009)

Just for fun - High-school dropout invents self-balancing unicycle

A self-balancing unicycle.

On a happier note: Spring bicycling calendar for Salem

"Tireless" bicyclist (ho-ho!) Eric sends this great menu of bike happenings. Enjoy!

Special events

Friday, May 29th
Breakfast on Bikes - North Mall Office Building
Between 7am and 9am enjoy free coffee, fruit, and pastries on your bike commute!
Thanks to Cascade Baking, the Coffee House Cafe, and LifeSource Natural Foods

Wednesday, June 3
The Downtown Vision 2020 Bike & Ped Workgroup meets between noon at 1:30pm in the Pringle Community Hall.

Saturday, June 6th - ongoing
Salem Saturday Market Valet Bike Parking
Ride your bike to the market and leave it with the bike valets while you shop! Friends of Salem Saturday Market kicks off this great service the first Saturday in June.

Wednesday, June 10th
Free Bicycle Legal Clinic
Learn about when it's safe to "take the lane," about "citizen-initiated traffic citations" and all about the law and bikes.

Saturday, June 13th
Bicycle Education: Traffic 101
League Cycling Instructors Robert Fox and Gary Obery teach a day-long course on how to be a better and safer bicyclist in traffic.

Sunday, June 28th
Fairview Circuit Races
Bike racing right here in Salem! There are rumors about extra entertainment options, so be sure to look out for more news later in June!

Advocacy Opportunities

Quarry on Skyline Road
Marion County is holding a hearing this afternoon, 5/27, on conditional use permits for a proposed rock quarry to go in just off Skyline Road. Truck traffic may impact bicyclists on Skyline.

Continuing Saga of Jobs and Transportation Act - HB 2001
Track the week-by-week story of the big transportation package.

Commercial Street Restriping Plan
One of the first fruits of the Downtown Vision 2020 Bike & Ped group is a proposal spearheaded by Kevin Hottman and Gary Obery to restripe Commercial through downtown to make it more bike friendly. As it moves to the wider community, it will need your support in June and July. Watch for more!

Bicycle Parking Regulations at the State
DAS proposed new parking regulations this and at a hearing this month, bicycle advocates argued that one of the best ways the State can effectively support its goal to reduce single-occupancy motor vehicle commuting is to supply a plentiful mix of highly visible short- and long-term bike parking. The deadline for public comment was extended and hopefully this will result in improved bike parking options for employees and visitors to State facilities.

End of June
Bicycle Count Project Training and Kick-off
It's almost time for the second annual bicycle count! More riders are everywhere, and let's document the increase! Look for more information mid-June.

Ongoing

Every Sunday at 1:30pm
Salem Bicycle Club Introductory High Wheeler Rides
Check out Club riding! Every Sunday at 1:30 the Salem Bicycle Club offers "high wheeler" rides of approximately 25 miles and few hills. No rider left behind!

Every Thursday at 6:30pm
Salem Bicycle Club Family Rides
Every Thursday the Salem Bicycle Club offers a short ride of 10-12 miles for families. Bring the kids, the tandem, the tag-along!