The Latest

This Old House

David Brooks
New York Times columnist
December 9, 2008

The 1980s and 1990s made up the era of the great dispersal. Forty-three million people moved every year, and basically they moved outward — from inner-ring suburbs to far-flung exurbs on the metro fringe. For example, the population of metropolitan Pittsburgh declined by 8 percent in those years, but the developed land area of the Pittsburgh area sprawled outward by 43 percent.

Read More

New Ridership Record Shows U.S. Still Lured to Mass Transit

Lena H. Sun
Washington Post Staff Writer
December 8, 2008

Americans rode subways, buses and commuter railroads in record numbers in the third quarter of this year, even as gas prices dropped and unemployment rose. The 6.5 percent jump in transit ridership over the same period last year marks the largest quarterly increase in public transportation ridership in 25 years, according to a survey to be released today by the American Public Transportation Association.

Read More

Citizen Advocacy Training in Hood River on December 11th

You've watched over the past months, even years, as politicians have bombarded the airwaves and pounded the pavement for your vote. Now that the election is over it is time to start making tough policy decisions about how we should spend limited money on our highest priorities. Will you be involved?

Elected leaders will be in Salem every day creating new policies and new directions for Oregon. And your involvement can have a huge impact on the decisions they make.

Read More

Fall Landmark now available online

The latest edition of Landmark, the journal of 1000 Friends of Oregon, is now available on our web site.

This edition includes several excellent articles from guest authors, including:

- How to design a cap and trade system to reduce global warming in a way that doesn't unfairly burden working families. Authored by Chuck Sheketoff, Executive Director of the Oregon Center for Public Policy.

Read More

A huge win -- for lawyers

The Oregonian Editorial
November 24, 2008

Sometimes a judicial opinion, for all its repercussions on the ground, seems to float on another plane entirely. It cruises almost at an altitude of its own making.

So it is with U.S. District Judge Owen M. Panner's recent revival of property-rights monster Measure 37. Also known as The Bad Neighbor Law or the Bulldozer's Best Friend, the law was scaled back in 2007.

Read More

Seizing our chance in the midst of crisis

Angus Duncan
Guest opinion, The Oregonian
November 24, 2008

The country's ongoing financial meltdown is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. We shouldn't waste it.

Begin with the emerging recognition that federal stimulus strategies under discussion are focusing on infrastructure investment, not just sending cash to consumers. That's good news.

Read More

President-elect Obama responds to Transportation For America

Before the last presidential debate Oct. 15, Transportation For America asked our supporters to sign a petition urging Sen. McCain and then Sen. Obama to tell us their plans for keeping America moving and creating new jobs by investing in our critical transportation system and infrastructure.

Read More

Americans, Oregonians continued to drive less in September

Dylan Rivera
The Oregonian
November 19, 2008

Even as gas prices declined from record highs in July, motorists in September continued to drive less than they did a year ago, a report by the Federal Highway Administration said today.

Americans drove 4.4 percent less, or 10.7 billion fewer vehicle miles traveled (VMT), in September 2008 than September 2007, the eleventh-straight month of declining driving.

Read More

Governor Kulongoski Announces Jobs & Transportation Act of 2009

(Salem) – Governor Ted Kulongoski today presented his transportation plan called “The Jobs and Transportation Act of 2009” to the Oregon House and Senate Transportation Committees. The Governor’s comprehensive transportation plan will create thousands of jobs, establish sustainable long-term funding for Oregon’s statewide transportation system and address greenhouse gas emissions in transportation construction and planning.  

Read More

Oregon's 'Big Look' task force finds need for land-use reform

Eric Mortenson
The Oregonian

November 03, 2008
 

After two years of study, a high-profile group of land-use advisers believes there should be more local control over how Oregon shelters farms, timber and wildlife habitat from the advance of houses, malls and factories.

Read More

 Governor Announces Climate Change Agenda for 2009

Legislation will combat climate change through renewable energy and energy efficiency efforts, green buildings and electric cars

Read More

Destination resort hearings heat up central Oregon

Destination resorts were the subject of two standing-room only hearings in Prineville last Wednesday.

Oregon's Land Conservation and Development Commission and a subcommittee of the House Interim Agriculture Committee held a joint informational hearing on destination resorts. The state is considering proposed changes to destination resort siting laws in the 2009 legislature.

Central Oregon residents testified for hours about the negative impacts that resorts have created in central Oregon. Among their concerns:

Read More

Sign A Petition to Limit New Destination Resort Construction in Oregon

The original mission of destination resorts was to promote tourism and provide an economic boost to struggling rural areas. But the explosion of destination resorts particularly in central Oregon demonstrates that we have strayed from that original mission.

To read or sign the complete petition please click here

Read More

David Lett: Pinot pioneer

The Oregonian Editorial Board
October 14, 2008

When David and Diana Lett were married, six weeks after meeting, the bride didn't get a honeymoon. She got a shovel.

On a 1965 patch of Yamhill County dirt that David had bought for $450 an acre, the couple planted some pinot grapes. Few people noticed. Especially not the French.

Read More

In Memoriam - David Lett, 1939-2008

[Note: David Lett was a long time member of 1000 Friends of Oregon's Board of Directors. We are proud of his dedication and support of our work. We will miss him deeply. The following is from Eyrie Vineyards web site.]

Read More

Pioneering winemaker, Eyrie founder David Lett dies at Dundee home

Known as 'Papa Pinot,' he planted the roots for Oregon's wine industry
October 12, 2008
DANA TIMS
The Oregonian

When David Lett spent his honeymoon planting wine-grape cuttings near Dundee in 1966, he knew at least two things to be true.

Read More

A success story worth protecting

Gary Rhinhart & Eric Stachon
The Oregonian op ed
October 8, 2008

Buried amid the daily stories of national economic calamity, failing financial institutions and a plunging stock market is some genuinely positive economic news, a success story here in our own backyard.

Read More

Cut the Sprawl, Cut the Warming

New York Times editorial

 October 7, 2008 

For years, while Washington slept, most of the serious work on climate change has occurred in the states, and no state has worked harder than California. The latest example of California's originality is a new law - the nation's first - intended to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by curbing urban sprawl and cutting back the time people have to spend in their automobiles.

Read More

Report says Oregon land-use plan is working

October 3, 2008
Daily Journal of Commerce

A new report by the Institute of Natural Resources at Oregon State University says Oregon is on track in regard to effectively protecting farm and forest lands and controlling urban sprawl.

Read More

‘Big Look' at land use gets locals heated up

Scott Hammers / The Bulletin
October 03. 2008

Crook County farmer Gary Eder is no fan of destination resorts, but he could soon be a neighbor to one, the 580-acre Crossing Trails.

Read More