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.