Environmentalists close to the sauna

Sometimes I wish I knew Spanish.  Then again, many Spanish-speaking people are quite literate in English.  Like my sauna compatriot at the gym today.

Both of us pondering how cold its gotten today - 20 degrees colder than yesterday.  Now I love the sauna, but for me its winding down from a workout.  For him, well he seemed dressed in kneepads and a wool cat.  So maybe he did want to warm up.

He was commenting on the lack of rain in Cali - along the freeway the pear trees had been uprooted and were lying for dead.  For lack of water.  It was a sadness to him, since when he came from Mexico he worked the orchards.  Described how in lean water years the tree rings were barely perceptible.  And how rain came in 50 year cycles.

Whoa, new information to me.  But he seemed quite close to the land.  Making me wonder who is the better environmentalist - someone who had worked the land, day in and day out.  Who could see directly the impact of climate change.  Or the local lobbyists - my recent experience at an Environmental Quality Commission hearing - all the forces in opposite lined up to testify - "yes we need alternative fuels" and they create jobs, "yes we need fossil fuels" and they create jobs.

Maybe the metric shouldn't be job creation - but something more objective.  Preservation of the earth - surely that creates jobs.  For without the earth, well, jobs in space are even harder to come by.

Day 1

President Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping - a historic first step.  An agreement on the world stage to combat climate change.  Maybe China and the lungs of its citizens have forced his hand.  Health costs are real (so stop saying its environment or economy).

The agreement they made, and China's promise to reduce emissions from coal plants by 2030 - a strategic direction, and probably the first foray in that direction from China.  Why does this matter?  China is a world power, the U.S. is a world power, and when they set a combined direction for reducing greenhouse gasses, it can only set the stage for other countries to follow suit.

Don't get me wrong, I think it is too late to "stop" climate change.  Like you can't stop that river of lava heading for that village in Hawaii.  When I was in Hawaii in September the road was closed, so you couldn't get close to it.  Even then, the local papers talked about previous attempts to "stop" a flow of lava - douse it, divert it, none of it worked.  Village residents were looking for hard to find dwellings in other Big Island towns.

Ah if it were that simple.  Just find a new dwelling planet.  There would be a market for PlanetBnB, so we could really continue the frontier mentality (even more than we already practice it in Oregon) and just keep moving to new planets.

For now, I am encouraged by President Xi Jinping's commitment to reducing greenhouse gasses.  Kind of a long schedule to get there.  But if our pres and China's pres can strike a chord on this common ground, even build a relationship, then there is hope for solving other problems, come what May.  Like how to accept climate refugees and find a new world order when the tropics are fried, you can swim in the Arctic in just a swimsuit, and we still want to eek out a living.

To Be Neutral, or Not To Be Neutral

I know it is seen as 'equitable' and 'fair' to be in favor of net neutrality, which would regulate internet companies to prevent any kind of two-tiered pricing.

Well tell me a market that does not have tiered pricing.  Does your cable company charge the same for 'basic cable' as for 'premium multi-lingual sports intense cable'?   Does your satellite company?  Despite the fact that the same bits are probably flowing over the same pipes, and clever software throttles what channels you can actually watch.

Even my water bill reflects tiered pricing.  A basic rate for a certain threshold of 'basic' service, then a higher rate for usage beyond that - to keep those zinnias looking colorful, and my chard from wilting and parching.  Oh and the blueberries growing over the season.

Gasoline - tiered pricing.  Food - tiered pricing (I like cheap cuts of meat, still trying to follow my historical $4 per meal per package), so when my husband asks me, as he did tonight - what kind of meat is this?  Um, meat - you know, maybe chuck steak or something?  With a clever recipe like Beef Provencale, you can get by with cheap cuts.  Would he notice if I fed him a strip steak?

So I have to think twice before I go along with every other blue Oregon bubble voter on this thing.  We have all been lucky, I am lucky at this very moment, with internet service available to me.  Not free.  Should people who consume bandwidth for streaming games and movies pay more?  Maybe I am old fashioned, but I pay for streaming internet service from XM.

If companies can't charge more for premium service, but all firms are mandated to abide by the same regulatory pricing scheme - how will this incentivize any firm to offer new services?  Their pricing strategy is already going to be fixed.  So lets take a rational policy view about this.

82nd Ave Town Hall

Hey, what if you got a group of people together ..
That all had a vested interest in seeing 82nd Ave be the Avenue of Roses it was Meant to Be ..

And what if you had money, and elected representatives, and planners and decision makers, and ponies and rainbows and ..

Ok well we did have most of these things (xc the ponies and rainbows), as well as new people who were drawn to the event on November 6.  Some actual ideas I heard from actual citizens, points of light, points of
pavement:
* 82nd Ave is an 'orphan highway' - owned by the state, but most of it within the city.  As a result, lack of investment from any government -- which is why it looks the way it does - take a comparison trip down 122nd Ave sometime (city owned) - nicely paved, bike lanes, wheelchair accessible, bus shelters.
* How about a bike tax (a few people expressed this idea) - let them help pay for the roadways they use (um, they probably don't use 82nd Ave, but what if you instituted a bike tax with the promise of bike lanes?)  Maybe an 82nd Ave tax - on each each vehicle sold, each McRib sold, each serving of Walla Walla onion rings at Burgerville?
* Public private partnerships, median plantings like over on Glisan (ok that was me, I thought I was signing in, as did other people, but then they rattled off our names as if we signed up to testify; so I did).  Others also were interested in incentivizing businesses to invest.
* Social dynamics - a professor talking about all the voices that were not in the room, the true melting pot of ethnicities that is Southeast Portland.  The public square - where can we build this?  One of the bike riders asked about 'pocket parks' and even has some potential ones mapped out (thank you Terry Dublinski!)
* One pothole.  The investors of 'Cartlandia' (a real place) decried the mismatch between city planning rules (the food cart area) and the state highway that is 82nd Ave (follows street rules).  As a result of this lack of coherence in the jurisdictional universe, there is a 'gap' (as she called it, a pothole big enough to eat a bit of your car should you attempt to traverse it).  help please!
* An actual government lobbyist spoke about the transportation bill that is likely to be presented to the legislator.  Showing us that these things really are decided before they are decided.

What is exciting is not the official positions, official money - what is truly exciting about this was hearing from citizens who care about the shape of their community.  I hope we have more of these town halls, and I invite you to invite 10 of your neighbors next time.  I promise nothing bad will happen to you if you don't, but isn't this how change happens!

82nd Avenue of Roses

Not that I have ever seen any roses along this road, either living, or memorialized in plastic, but I guess it is a vision thing.

Vision for 82nd Ave - walkable, accessible, family friendly.  Purple alhambra flowers growing along a median strip, like in Silicon Valley.  Telephone poles that currently hover near the roadway within millimeters, are gone - power lines are underground, and no one needs actual phone lines since everyone wants a cell tower.

Maybe a book store, you know, an independent bookstore, one that doesn't sell anything but books (maybe an espresso machine), no toys no games no calendars (except by local artists).

Even in front of used car lots, and there are many, there are benches with planter boxes (alhambra, or maybe flowering dogwood - maybe donated by local nurseries).  Encouraging people to sit and watch the buses go by I guess, or maybe wait for connections to trek to that book shop.

I am waiting for this vision.  If you are too:  next stop 82nd Ave Town Hall - November 6, 2014: 6:30pm, Portland Community College, SE Campus (@ SE 82nd and Division).  Be there, aloha.

Day 2 - Adapting to Climate Change

Internet of Things.  The Cloud.  Having sensors do the work that humans used to, transmitting information, big data, to the cloud, can this enforce the Clean Water Act?

I am excited to (finally) be working for an environmental agency.  At this juncture in time, it is really like the 1980s (lets write all our software in house and debug it ourselves) and the 21st century (sensors, cloud, new technology), we have a chance to be like those African nations that have more cell phones than land line phones.

Oregon, as it turns out, has more stringent rules for gathering water quality compliance data than the federal EPA requires.  However, possibly because we require so much data gathering, we have a hard time keeping up.

That is where the internet of things comes in (IOT, as it is affectionately known).  Drop sentient and waterproof sensors in the "waters of the state", and collect "all" possible data about them.  The data is transmitted to the computers in the cloud-sky, and available for us to see if the waters are getting better, or have noxious things in them that someone must pay
to clean up.  Maybe it could even detect the forensic fingerprint of who dumped the noxious stuff.

Day 2 of my blog on climate change adaptation.  Instead of lamenting the state of our rivers, lakes, ocean, waterfalls, forest ponds, car wash puddles, we get real-time data streams and can take enforcement action.  Maybe the ocean has dead zones and we can encourage those fish to move along to someplace nicer.  Or at least we could post temperature signs, like those smart highway signs, that notify the fish the water is 2degrees warmer than last week - they can decide 'Stay?  Migrate?  See what the other fish are doing?'

Reflections on Adapting to Global Climate Change - Day 1

My new topic, Day 1
Some observations..  A large and old birch tree, at my church had to be taken down (damaged in a storm I believe).  The City now requires my Church to plant a new tree in its place.  Not just any tree, but one of 4 specifically approved trees.

Apparently the Church is considered a Commercial Property.  How about that.  What does this have to do with climate change?  Birch trees are no longer favored, and are falling down and dying off.  I have seen a former 'birch meadow' deteriorate due to beetles that love to nestle in the bark and then worm their way inside and eat away at the tree.  I believe this weakness to beetles is a global warming thing, and the birch trees cannot migrate.

Another observation..  Nomadic sheep herders in the Altay region of China - they migrate with their big-tailed sheep, as they have for 1000 years, down to lower altitudes for the winter.  The sheep are skinny due to drought conditions, so they can't fetch as much money.  Yet migrate they must. (courtesy NY Times today)

Another observation.. Fish migrating from the equator areas north and south towards the poles.  Maybe good news for those areas (what new predators or food will they find?), but bad news for those whose lives have depended on fishing and cannot migrate with their wooden boats and families along with the fish.

The world is entering new territory.  People are entering new territories.  Fish are entering new territories.  Those forging ahead are driven by survival.  And how will we-who-are-not-migrating treat our newcomers - ?

Waning summer moon

I have been thinking about the word 'waning' lately.  Maybe its something I read in 'Bleak House' by Charles Dickens, that I am trying to work my way through.

Or maybe its something I heard on BBC.  But I feel that summer is waning right before my eyes, and I have got to maximize what days are left.  The fountain, in the Capitol Park in Salem.  Kids playing in the other fountain joyfully.  Or I suppose walking the long stretch of concrete with sun reflected off of concrete buildings, no doubt increasing the sun's impact on my skin.

Summer is the time to read fiction, hence Bleak House.  It is written in a style of language from mid 1800s, and the bleakness so far reminds me of Lemony Snicket (that I only read a little of).

I am so out of the habit of blogging, but I am going to start today.  What else is waning?  I always think my organization is waning, or that my days there are waning, but as I told one of the many many people who have been ushered out, I am still there, kind of like a cockroach after a nuclear winter.

But I have another large government organization to research, they want to interview me.  I promise my next blog will be more pithy and not boring as this one w-a-n-e-s a-w-a-y.

Save My Mount Tabor

Tonight, a public outreach meeting, a chance for the City Water Bureau to hear from representatives of the Mt Tabor Neighborhood Association, and interested neighbors.

Why the City Council decided, without asking anyone, that they could go forth, tear out 14 old growth trees, dig a huge 10' wide trench, and a bypass pipe that would no longer supply the reservoirs with our drinking water (or any water).  Well, thank you to City Commissioner Amanda Fritz for making this meeting possible.

Now, as she points out, there will be bureaucracy to follow - a historic landmarks review commission, the Bureau of Development Services.  A formal process, and if it is referred to the City Council, 4 of 5 members have to say 'no' to this large and destructive process for it to not go forward.

An outcome of citizen involvement is that the City has now put forward alternatives to the 'base' approach, some of which cost money, but do not involve tearing out 14 old growth trees.  There is apparently a "tree mitigation" process, where 1" diameter of removed tree has to be replaced by 1" of planted tree.  Well, I'm sorry, but 496 1" trees do not make up for a 400 year old Douglas fir.

I am less convinced about needing to drink water from the reservoir, but I do want to save the trees, the historic structures, and the park as public property.  See www.mttaborpdx.org for more on all this.  By July they will probably make a decision.

A Day on the East Side

Yes, walking east of I-205, not very pretty.  But walking from here to the Post Office is one way to see every house, every building, every flowering tree, every storefront..

pic 1 - the Clock Shop.  This one in the window shows the earth, all its continents, and attempts to show the present time for each spot on the planet.

 

pic 2 - Plasma center parking lot is crowded today.  I can only guess that people need cash, and here is a place they are guaranteed to get it - selling their blood. 

 

 

 

pic 3 - several 'dancer' studios like this one.  Some gentlemen were leaving as I snapped this picture - they didn't seem to care, its not like I'm going to tell their wives or anything.

 

pic 4 - finally something beautiful.  Several antique stores crammed with consumer items. This one, on the opposite side of the street, always catches my eye when I drive by.  Walking, I can see the beauty of colored glass from days of old.  The pink sugar bowl reminds me of the green one I had from my grandma.

 Also, little houses which have retained their gravel driveways.  Houses turned into business storefronts, but were "updated" in the 70s with stonework-of-the-time (nothing uglier than that).  A few empty storefronts - like the Asian import/export shop on Stark Street - so new opportunities will occupy them.

Snow day!

Has it really been 7 months since my last post?!  That is alarming, I almost (almost) feel I should go to confession.  Father Ben would like that.

Today is Day 2 of the Snow Day Treks to different coffee shops in the neighborhood.  Yesterday was Songbird, and today, PastryGirl.  Pretty amazing that I can visit a different shop 2 days in a row and haven't even mentioned Bipartisan Cafe.

#pastrygirl on SE Stark in Montavilla

PastryGirl, I have discovered, makes a mean French Press.  3 minutes then the other patrons will advise you to slowly push the plunger down, so it makes a perfect brew (it does!).  Paired with a chocolate caramel creme pastry, whoa.  I can do this - even without my espresso I am ready for the afternoon!

someone has been sledding!

They have old issues of Martha Stewart there, and I could almost want to be domestic.  There are names for the different types of lamps (who knew?) and all about organizing those drawers (not interesting when you've been living out of laundry baskets for 5 months).  In fact I don't even see the need for a dresser at all.  Just those cute baskets I got at Ikea.  If Ikea has it, then I need it.

Anyhow the magazine of Martha was from Sept 2007 - I had to wonder - before or after prison?  She looked so confident.  Then I hope she still does.  Some amazing recipes in there, I almost want to ditch my Fred Meyer habits and visit a New Seasons.  Well there is not one within walking distance, yet, but I'm sure that will change.