The terribly rude thing to bring up

Image via WikipediaThe NYTimes ran a big story about the University of Oregon's sustainable city project that has picked Salem as its project for the year. In the story, they lavish the kind of love on Willamette University that gets PR folks promotions:

Karen Arabas, a professor of environmental science at Willamette University in downtown Salem, said private schools such as hers share that mission. She points to the 168-year-old institution's motto: "Not unto ourselves alone are we born."

"We have a strong sense of service on campus, and sustainability transcends every field," Arabas added. "When students graduate, these are some of the skills and knowledge they'll need in the world, whether they go into law, business or medicine."

Willamette -- which topped a 2008 National Wildlife Federation ranking of U.S. schools that engage in sustainability activities -- uses its Center for Sustainable Communities to foster campus-community collaboration. The 2,600-student university began hosting regular sustainability retreats for students, faculty and administrators in 2005 and is now working with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to restore habitat in a 300-acre research forest west of Salem.

The school looks at everything from how much locally harvested, organic food it serves to how many tons of greenhouse gases it emits.

Having a small environmental footprint is a big bragging right in these parts.

The Princeton Review and U.S. Green Building Council ranked Willamette, the University of Oregon and four other Oregon universities among the top 286 "green" colleges for 2011, based on the schools' practices, policies and curricula. The mere existence of such a list is evidence that universities, students and prospective employers are paying increasing attention to sustainability issues, said David Soto, the Princeton Review's director of college ratings.

The publisher surveyed 12,000 college applicants and parents earlier this year, and 64 percent of respondents said they would value having information about a school's environmental commitment. Almost a fifth of those respondents said such information would "very much" influence which school they choose.

"A lot of schools are starting to give guidance on green jobs -- what a green job is and how to secure one," Soto added.

Of course what they didn't mention is the never-mentioned-secret at Willamette: its President, M. Lee Pelton, sits on the board and collects handsome checks from Portland General Electric, owners of the single biggest polluter in Oregon, the Boardman coal plant, the single largest source of CO2 and (now that the Durkee cement plant is down) toxic mercury emissions.

In other words, everything that Willamette students do right for the environment in their entire careers is wiped out in an hour or two of operations at President Pelton's power plant at Boardman:

As Oregon works to brand the state as a clean-energy trailblazer, an inescapable irony hangs over the Gorge: PGE’s coal-fired power plant in Boardman, the state’s largest source of air pollution, is emitting carbon dioxide, mercury, soot, smog and haze-causing pollutants into a National Scenic Area.

PGE’s Boardman plant pollutes more than 10 protected National Parks, Scenic Areas and Wilderness Areas, including the Columbia River Gorge. Pollution from the plant causes acid rain and fog in the Gorge and is a major source of haze. A study released last year by the Yakama Nation revealed that PGE Boardman is responsible for up to 50% of the air pollution in the Columbia Gorge during times when air quality in the Gorge is at its worst.

Here's what is still the best short video treatment -- made several years ago -- of why this oh-so-impolite point needs to be raised. Every single point about positive feedback loops is coming true with a vengeance -- we've recently seen that phytoplankton is collapsing worldwide, massive, continent scale fires in Asia, drought and flooding in mid-continental regions, intense heat waves, and disappearing sea-ice in the Arctic.

All because utilities -- utilities like PGE, led by President Pelton and his fellow directors -- choose to continue burning coal, and even fighting for the "right" to continue burning coal for decades longer than is sane.

Jus' saying.

What we need to do.

Sharrows: The inferior non-solution

Cycle-tracks -- putting bikes at the curb, protected from traffic by parked cars -- are much better. Why should bikes be put between the cars moving at speed and doors flying open on the drivers' side of parked cars?

Sharrows are a sham solution for bike lanes

These faux-lanes for bikes are ambiguous and do little more than enable politicians to claim more bike miles. Here's a better solution.

Worth your time: How the Criminal Justice Systems Gets it Wrong, Again and Again

Image via WikipediaLeave aside the human toll if you like -- the lost decades stolen from innocent people, the fact that the real perpetrator is hidden behind the perfect shield (the fact that someone else has already been convicted of the crime) -- and just focus on the staggering fiscal costs to Oregon caused by imprisoning people for serious crimes that they didn't do.

As the layoffs roll out through Salem, one might ask: are we spending enough on making sure we're not spending way-too-much on incarceration of innocent people?

WORD

Image via WikipediaA perfect description of our ongoing highway-building folly:

Everywhere along the route, shovel-ready highway improvement projects from the late stimulus crusade were now underway, and you wondered exactly what kind of future they were intended to serve -- or was it all a kind of weird national potlatch ceremony in which we were literally throwing away our wealth to memorialize what seemed normal the day before yesterday and never will be again.

Copenhagen Wheel

I'm always skeptical of high-tech solutions as they assume a lot more years of business as usual . . . but still, you have to admire this effort. It would sure be better for the Salem to put money into this than into electric vehicle charging stations.

Silverton, ho!

Image via WikipediaLOVESalem normally doesn't look too far afield for fun but we do have a soft spot for Silverton, home of the amazing and wonderful Oregon Garden. And now there's a special locavore breakfast coming up, with pancakes and even options for us non-carnivores! Yum.

So, Saturday after tomorrow (August 28) we'll be having breakfast in Silverton at the Grange and then enjoying the Oregon Garden, one of the best things around Salem that isn't in Salem. Then a stop at Willamette Fruit Company's lovely newish store on the way home to round out the perfect "Last Saturday of Summer."

Silverton Grange 50 Mile Breakfast

Aug 28, 2010 -- 8 a.m. to 11 a.m.

Produced by Silverton People for Peace

Once again, the Silverton Grange is hosting our “localvore” Breakfast. Originally our breakfast featured foods made from scratch with ingredients grown or produced within 100 miles of Silverton. This year we have decided to shrink our reach and to focus on those items within a 50 mile radius. The event is intended to encourage people to consume foods from their local area. There is a $7 suggested donation. Everyone is welcome.

The menu will include buckwheat pancakes, Silverton's own vegan SortaSausage, vegetable frittata, fresh fruit, fruit compotes, sausage, and beverages.

Information and resources will be available at the event to show people the benefits of eating local food and where they can buy local products.

Founded in 1867, the Grange is the nation’s oldest farm organization. The Silverton Grange Hall is located at 201 Division Street, off of South Water Street, in Silverton. For more information about the event or the Silverton Grange, visit us on the Web.

Whoops, almost forgot! Later that day will also be the KMUZ benefit gourmet dinner with high-class acoustic music from Austin, Texas! Shaping up to be an amazing day!

Word: Appoint Elizabeth Warren now!

Random thought for reviving Post Office revenues

Image by Jeremy Burgin via FlickrYou know how, whenever you order something, you get reminded that the Post Office won't let UPS and other private package services deliver items sent to PO Boxes?

Now that the revenue plunge at the Post Office is so bad that they're thinking of killing Saturday deliveries, maybe there's an opportunity there . . .

Why doesn't the Post Office simply accept all deliveries from UPS et al. slated for PO Boxes for a 10% surcharge on the shipping? It would end up being fed back to the PO Box customers, who would then find their PO Box address even more valuable (and create a revenue boost for the Post Office).

Wouldn't be huge -- but wouldn't every little bit help?

Celebrate Community Gardens!

Community gardens celebration set Aug. 22-28

Marion-Polk Food Share will kick off World Kitchen Garden Day and Community Garden Tour Week with a community barbecue from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 22, at Trinity United Methodist Church, 590 Elma Ave. SE, Salem.

The event is held in keeping with the tradition of Kitchen Garden Day, where people gather in their gardens with friends, family, and members of their local community to celebrate the pleasures and benefits of home-grown, hand-made foods. In addition to food and fellowship, there will be a walking tour of Julie’s Garden, a 10,000 square-foot learning garden partnership between Trinity United Methodist, Four Corners Elementary School and Marion-Polk Food Share.

The days following the free kick-off celebration will feature two sets of lunch-hour and evening tours of model community gardens in Salem and Keizer. Each Wednesday and Friday tour covers four gardens. The noon to 1 p.m. tour starts at the Marion-Polk Food Share Edible Landscape Project, 1660 Salem Industrial Drive NE. The 6 to 8 p.m. tour starts at St. Timothy’s Episcopal Church Garden, 3295 Ladd Ave. Participants will caravan to the remaining sites. The public is encouraged to attend.

“Our desire is to raise awareness about our Sustainable Community Gardens program and to show folks what great things are possible when people build relationships, help one another and work side by side growing food for themselves and to share with others,” said gardens program manager Jordan Blake. The complete tour schedule is attached.

# # #
Community Garden Tours – Aug. 25 and Aug. 27

LUNCH-HOUR TOURS
Wednesday, Aug.25 and Friday, Aug. 27, noon – 1 p.m.
· Marion Polk Food Share, 1660 Salem Industrial Drive, NE Salem
· Oregon School for the Deaf, 999 Locust St., NE Salem
· Highland Neighborhood Garden, corner of Hazel and Columbia streets, NE Salem
· Salvation Army Garden and Food Box Site

This tour begins at noon with the Marion-Polk Food Share’s Edible Landscape Project that is in its preliminary phase. The next three gardens on the tour route are located within 1.5 miles of Marion-Polk Food Share. They are the 1-acre Food Share Garden located on Oregon School for the Deaf grounds; a garden located on a vacant lot in the Highland Neighborhood; and the Salvation Army Garden coordinated by Sunnyside Organics, a partner of Marion-Polk Food Share. This lunch-hour garden tour will also include a short tour of the Salvation Army Food Bank.

EVENING TOURS
Wednesday, Aug. 25 and Friday, Aug. 27, 6 - 8 p.m.
· St. Timothy’s Episcopal Church Garden, 3295 Ladd Ave., NE Salem
· Northgate Peace and Forgiveness Garden, 455 Biller Ave., NE Salem
· Redeemer Lutheran Community Garden, 4663 Lancaster Drive, NE Salem
· Whittam Community Garden, 5402 Ridge Drive N., Keizer

This tour is designed to highlight four gardens that have started within the last two years: the St. Timothy’s community garden in partnership with Hoover Elementary; the Northgate Peace and Forgiveness Garden, started last fall at Northgate Park in memory of Montez Bailey; and the Redeemer Lutheran Community Garden and Whittam Community Garden, both begun in 2010.

For information, contact Jordan Blake at 503-581-3855, ext. 329.

Beaverton shames Salem City Council's Ponderous Plan for Urban Hens

Terrifying, eh?? Image via WikipediaYou know it's bad when a place that is the most literal "Geography of Nowhere" hell of a noplace -- a town that's little more than a stark warning to other towns about why auto sprawl is so awful -- gracefully passes a code improvement to allow urban hens that's about 100 times better than the absurdly complex, overpriced, overly bureaucratic, passive-aggressive and sullen proposal that the Salem City Council is straining mightily to pass:

The Beaverton City Council on Monday gave its final approval for a new "urban chicken" ordinance that allows residents to keep up to four hens at most single-family houses in the city. The quickly tallied 5-0 vote came near the end of a 96-minute meeting, prompting a round of applause from Sathler and three other chicken champions -- once they finally realized the new city code had been approved.

"It's exciting," Sathler said later, crediting city leaders for responding to residents' requests for chickens. "For me, this is very much about food security. ... I want people to get local food; I want it to be as close as possible."

The ordinance becomes effective in mid-September. Although it allows residents to raise hens, it prohibits roosters. Other poultry, such as ducks and geese, are not allowed as pets within the city.

A couple of other basics about the new ordinance: Chickens and their respective coops aren't allowed in front yards, and the coops can't be closer than 20 feet to a neighbor's house. Supervised chickens can have the run of a fenced backyard during daytime hours, but at night they're to roost.

The city first began considering urban chickens in April 2009 and the Planning Commission held a well-attended public hearing in November. But the topic stalled politically until after the May primary election, when it was pushed back into the spotlight by community members who gathered signatures endorsing the concept.

Even so, citizen response leading to Monday's vote had been mixed. Some questioned whether allowing chickens in an urban area could be a public health concern, while others pointed to the benefits of local food sources (eggs, not the chickens themselves -- slaughtering is prohibited).

Meanwhile, here in Salem -- new motto "Somehow Managing to Make Beaverton Look Good" -- the City Council is still limping along, trying to pass a passive-aggressive ordinance that's been engineered to be so hostile to would-be henkeepers that it seems more intended to discourage the practice than permit it.

The Public Hearing is Set! – Thanks to all the people who came to Monday night's city council meeting and raised their hands. This big show of support for the proposed chicken ordinance resulted in the councilors voting 7 to 1 to hold a public hearing. I was not permitted to argue for revisions to the ordinance as I had planned, but they assured me I would be able to do so at the public hearing that is set for Monday, SEPTEMBER 20 (SEE UPDATE BELOW) at 6:30 pm. This will be the single most important meeting of the entire process, so please mark your calendars and plan on coming.

UPDATE: The public hearing for the chicken ordinance has been moved to September 20. The time and place remain the same, but the city has decided to hold a “special meeting” on this date (instead of holding the public hearing during the next normally scheduled city council meeting).

I will let you know if anything changes and I will most definitely be sending a reminder as the date gets closer.

Look for an article about the public hearing in the next issue of Salem Weekly (www.willamettelive.com)

UPDATE 2: Meanwhile, those store-bought eggs produced by battery hens in reeking concentrated feeding operations that give new meaning to the word "hellish" sure are yummy ... Mmmmmm, sweet, sweet salmonella.

Wright County Egg, which distributes nationwide under 16 brand names, has sold the American public 380 million eggs with a high risk of salmonella contamination.

But, because food recalls are entirely voluntary, people have been getting sick from these eggs since May. This recall is in response to an FDA investigation, but the FDA can't actually order Wright County to recall the eggs, regardless of the threat to public health. . . .