Category Archives: sustainability

Urban Farm Collective Seeks Donations

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From Kickstarter.com:

The Urban Farm Collective began in 2009, educating, growing and sharing food in inner NE Portland, Oregon and exchanging produce exclusively via a barter system. The first year we grew on just one lot; by the next year we’d grown to four sites.

This year, we have been accepted as a project of Oregon Sustainable Agriculture Land Trust and have the opportunity to take on five new plots, bringing our total garden space up to more than 1/2 acre.

If we are able to transform these new lots into gardens, this would create something that as far as we know exists nowhere else in the country: a non-profit urban farm, exchanging produce to participants via barter and donating significant amounts of fresh, local produce to the community at large.

Volunteer gardeners and land owners are already on board; all we need is the money to transform the lots. The money will go toward purchasing irrigation systems, tools, greenhouse supplies, path and fence building materials, water catchment systems and harvesting supplies.

Urban Farm Collective video/contribution website
Urban Farm Collective site

U of P Conference on Food Issues

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After hosting a wonderfully successful conference on water in the spring of 2010, the University of Portland is back this year with Food for Thought, a conference on food issues from April 14-16.

The conference will be keynoted by best-selling author Michael Pollan and features an impressive array of both national and local leaders, including Kevin Concannon, Undersecretary for Food, Nutrition, and Consumer Services for the United States Department of Agriculture, and University of Portland alumnus Fedele Bauccio, founder and owner of Bon Appétit Management Co. and member of the Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production.

This will be an excellent opportunity for anyone interested in the many issues surrounding food and food production, from nutrition and genetic modification to justice and sustainability.

All events of the conference – including the Thursday evening meat tasting and lecture on meat production, the Friday evening screening of the film “Fresh,” and the four day-time plenary sessions on Saturday – are free and open to the public. Michael Pollan’s lecture, taking place at 7 p.m. on April 16 in the Chiles Center on campus, 5000 N. Willamette Blvd., requires tickets, which are available online at TicketMaster or in person at the Chiles Center box office.

For more information and a complete schedule of events: https://pilots.up.edu/web/foodforthought

More Changes on N. Williams, Open House April 16th

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Come take a look at potential N. Williams transportation improvements – to the bike lane, auto lanes, bus stops and crosswalks – on Saturday, April 16th, from 1:30 – 4:00 pm, 2910 N Williams Ave. The City wants to know which changes will and won’t work for you.

This will be a drop-in open house meeting, with:

  • Real live traffic engineers
  • Big colorful maps and drawings
  • Snacks
  • Childcare and playground
  • Handouts and feedback forms to take for others who can’t attend

From the PBoT website:

The City of Portland wants to make N Williams a safer and more comfortable place to bike, drive, ride transit and walk. With the advice of a Stakeholder Advisory Committee formed for this project, City staff have prepared some alternative designs for your consideration. Come take a look and tell us what you think.
The current traffic operations/bikeway project is just the most recent change for the North Williams corridor in inner North Portland. This project builds on the work done beginning in 2006 as part of the Vancouver-Williams Transportation Project that recommended pedestrian safety improvements (many of which have since been constructed with funding from the Portland Development Commission).

Historically, this area includes one of Portland’s oldest commercial districts and was a main street for Portland’s African-American community. With its distinguished history, emerging bicycle-oriented business community and more than 3,000 bicycle riders every day, the North Williams Bikeway project area has many stakeholders who should be involved in discussions about the future cross-section of the street. A Stakeholder Advisory Committee (SAC) has been formed and met for the first time on February 1, 2011.

For more information on the North Williams project, or to be added to the interest list to receive updates, contact project manager Ellen Vanderslice: ellen.vanderslice@portlandoregon.gov, or call 503-823-4638.

Immaculate Heart Church, 2910 N Williams Ave
Come by #4 TriMet bus; bike via Williams/Vancouver; or drive and park in the church lot off of NE Stanton.
Licensed childcare and on-site playground
Translation services available upon request at least 3 days prior to the meeting
Light snacks will be provided

Bikes and Culture

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I stumbled on this link to an interesting article on the resurgence of the bicycle, bike culture and how it intersects with race. We live in a very diverse neighborhood in a city that tirelessly touts itself as the bicycle paradise. It would be great to see this environmental, economical, healthy, adaptable transportation form embraced in continually more creative ways.

[vimeo http://vimeo.com/12470499]

Community Budget Forum on March 8

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Join us for the rescheduled Community Budget Forum on March 8

Share your budget priorities with Mayor Adams, Commissioners, and City staff. Attend the rescheduled Community Budget Forum at David Douglas High School, 1001 SE 135th St., on Tuesday, March 8, 2011. A community resource fair begins at 6:00 p.m., and the Forum runs from 6:30-8:30 p.m.
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