Must read: Why Recovery Isn't In the Cards

If you only read one thing LOVESalem links to, read this.

The conundrum of transit funding

Nice story on Spokane using federal stimulus money to bus buses, including some diesel-electric hybrids.

The problem with this in, say, Salem, is that we're not short of buses, we're short of operations dollars --- which you have to have to put a driver in the seat of the bus. In countless areas, the strings that the feds tie to federal funding make it worse than useless: you can buy a bus with federal dollars, but you can't use any federal dollars to make the investment pay off. Likewise, you can't use buses bought with federal dollars to start charter bus runs to staunch the flow of red ink in your transit system.

Right now the Legislature is debating letting districts like Cherriots impose a payroll tax to raise more operating funds. It's hard to know if this is the right idea -- transit is melting down, making all the money spent on the buses wasted. And, when gas prices shoot up again, people are going to be very angry when there's only a skeleton bus system waiting for them. On the other hand, there is a fundamental problem with paying for a basic service that should be on a par with sewers, police and fire protection, street lights, and garbage pickup through a payroll tax. Oregon, and Salem in particular, is already way too dependent on income taxes --- adding another dependency on income taxes just worsens the whipsaw we experience when jobs are declining.

Your Salem Early-Spring Bicycling Calendar

The tireless . . . um, no, wait, he's definitely not tireless . . . the energetic and early rising Eric Lundgren of Breakfast on Bikes sends along this calendar of tasty Salem bike-related activities:

Spring is here and bicycling activities are picking up!

Friday, March 27
Got friends and colleagues shut out of the "two-hour shuffle"? Introduce them to bike commuting with a tasty treat at Breakfast on Bikes! B on B will be at 12th & Chemeketa between 7am and 9am. Thanks to Cascade Baking Co., Coffee House Cafe, and LifeSource Natural Foods. For more see -
http://breakfastonbikes.blogspot.com/2009/03/welcome-to-spring-breakfast.html

Tuesday, March 31
Downtown Vision 2020 will hold an Open House. The bike/ped work group
is one of the most active, and they will have much to report on. The MWVBTA will present a draft version of their Top 12 List of projects for better bicycling. Another big draw will be the 3-D model of proposed restriping plans for Commercial street downtown. These plans will use bike lanes and sharrows to make Commercial street safer for bicyclists. Come check it out! For more information see -
http://www.cityofsalem.net/CityCouncil/CityProjects/Vision2020/GetInvolved/Pages/default.aspx

Saturday, April 18
The Union Street Railroad Bridge opens to bicycles and pedestrians!
The gala ribbon-cutting starts at 10am. Bike on down and check out the beautiful views off this historic bridge. The bridge also received over $3.5 million in stimulus funds to plan a path from the bridge to Glen Creek road and to encapsulate the paint in a lead abatement project. Additionally, on the 23rd, City Council voted to move forward on the proposed bridge to Minto Island. See Friends of Two Bridges for more - http://friends2bridges.blogspot.com/

Tuesday - Wednesday, April 21-22
For its fourth year the Oregon Bike Summit comes to Salem. The special focus will be on the legislative agenda. For more information and for registration see - http://oregonbikesummit.com/

Sunday, April 26
The Salem Bicycle Club presents the first major ride of the season, the Monster Cookie! Enjoy the gentle rolling hills of French Prairie from Salem to Champoeg and back on this metric century. And in this Sesquicentennial year, remember: Oregon starts at Champoeg! For more see - http://salembicycleclub.org/content.plx?page=majrides

Both the Salvation Army and St. Vincent de Paul are starting bicycle repair and recycling programs. We'll have more on them as they grow. See the breakfast blog for a story about the Salvation Army -
http://breakfastonbikes.blogspot.com/2009/03/homeless-youth-learn-bike-repair-skills.html

The City of Salem is applying for three Transportation and Growth
Management grants. These applications are to create a district-wide Safe Routes to School program, to create a Downtown Vision 2020 Bike/Ped circulation plan, and to update thoroughly the Bicycle and Pedestrian Elements of the Transportation System Plan. For more see -
http://breakfastonbikes.blogspot.com/search?q=tgm

The legislature is in its 11th week now, and there's lots of activity that involves bicycles. To learn more see the weekly legislative update - http://breakfastonbikes.blogspot.com/search/label/Legislation

Mayor Taylor and the City of Salem won an Alice Award from the BTA for Salem's bicycling progress, especially for the Union Street Railroad Bridge project. There were five winners from a pool of 34 nominations. Well done, Salem! For more see - http://breakfastonbikes.blogspot.com/search?q=alice

Just contemplating the shame should be enough

If proper Yankees in Hartford, Connecticut can have hens but Oregonians in Salem can't.

UPDATE: Meanwhile, in Beaverton, a boy was just mauled by a pit bull. The Salem zoning ordinance happily permits pit bulls. No hens though.

Salem needs to LEARN -- and fast

L E A R N

A one-page acronym to define five actions necessary to avoid societal collapse because of the imminent decline of finite fossil fuels:

LOCALIZE agriculture, energy production, social services, essential manufacturing, etc. All will have to regress to a limited “twenty-mile radius” community. This will not be a choice. The inevitable curtailment of transportation fuel will reduce future travel. Intercity light rail will be impossible without energy. www.postcarbon.org.

EDUCATE yourself and others. We passed peak oil in late 2008. Natural gas, coal, and fissionable uranium are not far behind. Without ever-increasing energy, real growth, including a debt-based financial system based on future principal plus interest, cannot continue. Recognize the fallacies of bogus solutions like: “There’s plenty left”; “The scientists will save us”; “We can efficiency our way out of our dilemma (not if we don’t reduce consumption)”; “Biofuels, including waste, cellulosic ethanol, and grease will suffice” (at the expense of food). The honest facts must reach the public, the media, and decision-makers even in the midst of denial. Start with www.peakoil.net, www.theoildrum.com, www.321energy.com, etc.

ADAPT to a very limited solar-electric future as our only hope of perpetuating any semblance of the brief fossil-fuel age. This vision could be sustainable, clean, and far superior to our ancestor’s harsh existence. A solar-electric sequel could integrate with waning fossil fuels and all other energy sources such as limited hydro or geothermal into a modern electrically-based system and allow individuals to take control of their own production with PV. Also included are wind and concentrated solar.

RATION all fossil fuels starting immediately with gasoline. This is the only way we can reduce consumption on a controlled basis without increasing price-competition and conflict over the remains. Rationing is probably our best chance to buy time for mitigation and give our kids a chance for the remnants of the party.

NEGATIVE population growth. This is the toughest and most critical issue. With peak oil we have passed peak growth. Our short cornucopia of excess resources (including fossil fuels and all natural resources) has ended. We have far too many people in the US and the world for a sustainable civilization. If we don’t get the correct facts out and convince people to begin negative population growth, mother nature will reduce population in her own cruel ways. See www.npg.org, www.optimumpopulation.org, www.worldpopulationbalance.org and others.

We all need to understand and project this acronym.

Source: www.solarcarandtractor.com

I bought and distributed several hundred copies of John Howe's excellent short book, The End of Fossil Energy and the Last Chance for Survival, so I'm already predisposed to like him. He has a gift for cutting through the extraneous and getting to the few crucial items at the root of things. His LEARN acronym is a great advance, offering us the chance to say, in a page, exactly what we must do as a society.

Why Repower Oregon

Global warming? Climate change? Whatever you prefer to call it, it is an urgent issue that we can no longer afford to ignore.

That's why I am inviting you to attend a very special event co-hosted by the Marion County Oregon League of Conservation Voters and the Healthy Climate Partnership.

Please join us for a special presentation on the benefits of taking responsible, immediate action in the fight against global warming vs. the high cost of doing nothing. Details are below.

Why Repower Oregon?

• WHAT: Experts will discuss what steps we can take, right here in Oregon, to minimize the negative impacts of global warming on our economy, our health and our community.

• WHEN: Thursday, April 16, 2009, 6 PM - 8 PM

• WHERE: United First Methodist Chuch, in the Carrier Room, 600 State Street (down the street from the Capitol in Salem).

SPEAKERS:

Representative Jules Bailey, Senior Policy Analyst at ECONorthwest -- Jules works at the intersection of economics, public policy, the environment, and urban development. As a Senior Policy Analyst at ECONorthwest, one of Oregon's oldest and most respected economics consulting firms, Jules has worked on several economic analysis and development projects, including managing the economic analysis for the Alaskan Way Viaduct and Seawall Replacement project, conducting an economic impact projection for the Portland High Performance Green Building Policy, analyzing a state system of carbon taxes for Oregon, and writing a literature review of smart growth policies.

Bob Stacey, Exective Director at 1000 Friends of Oregon -- Bob has a long history with 1000 Friends and with land use and growth management. He was one of 1000 Friends’ first staff attorneys (1975 - 1986), and served on the board of directors (1996 – 2000). His professional career includes work as Director of the City of Portland Planning Bureau; Senior Policy Advisor on Urban Growth Management to Governor Barbara Roberts; attorney in private practice; Executive Director of Policy and Planning at TriMet; and Chief of Staff to Congressman Earl Blumenauer. He is a graduate of Reed College and the University of Oregon, and was a Loeb Fellow at the Harvard Graduate School of Design for the 2000-2001 academic year. In 2008, he became a Fellow of the American Institute of Certified Planners. He is a native Oregonian.

Catherine Thommason, MD, President of Physicians for Social Responsibility

Capacity is limited to 100 people. Please register now to reserve your seat.

Please register to attend.

I hope you can join us at this very special event.

Sincerely,
Tresa Horney
Marion County Organizer, OLCV [Oregon League of Conservation Voters]

And you're invited

Good Afternoon - Please join us for the Vision 2020 Spring Forum, next Tuesday, March 31st, from 5 - 7 pm at the Salem Conference Center. The Vision 2020 Spring Forum will be fun and interactive for all age groups.

A sampling of what you'll see and do at the forum:

- chance to see what the new downtown historic building markers will look like
- help choose the movies for this summer's Movies in the Park series
- test drive a virtual bike in a sharrow on Commercial Street
- be one of the first to experience Salem's new one-stop website for events and activities
- learn about new downtown restaurants and retail shops
- provide input on locations for public art downtown
- and much, much more!

For more information please contact Annie Gorski at 503-588-6178.

(No word on replacing the two kiosks for handbills were removed with a promise that they would be replaced.)

Time to Start Clucking About Your Support for CITY

The Salem City Council needs to hear from you if you (a) want to keep hens or (b) don't mind if others do.

Copy this address list and let 'er rip. Keep it short, keep it polite, keep on the issue. Probably best to send to all nine and note your ward in the text of your note.

jtaylor@cityofsalem.net; crbennett@cityofsalem.net; ltesler@cityofsalem.net; bnanke@cityofsalem.net; tjsullivan@cityofsalem.net; ddickey@cityofsalem.net; brogers@cityofsalem.net; bcannon@cityofsalem.net; dclem@cityofsalem.net

Think of this whenever you start your car or book a flight

Why we fight, updated for the new century.

Winter might be an era, not just a season

Nice slide show here.