Here are a few of the ideas I intend to flesh out here and continue to develop – both for the betterment of the world and as a way to provide myself with an income stream.
But first, an interesting article (found on 4.2.12) on thinking which seems relevant!
Latest idea – Farmmyyard.org – a way to connect homeowners who’d like to have their yards farmed with neighbors who need space to grow things – via a simple sign and agreement.
0. October 09 is BermPortland – quieting the arterial streets of Portland, Oregon and beyond.
1. I’d like to see citizens have an opportunity to opt-in to receiving telephone books. Looks like it might be as simple as a little legislation plus a website like the cell-phone do not call registry one listed here.
- 2011 – Big updates on this issue here.
- 3/28/09 – just learned that this legislation is being proposed in the Oregon State Legislature this coming Monday by my State Rep. Jules Kopel-Bailey!
2. I learned about DreamingNewMexico.org recently at the Bioneers conference. I intend to help create dreamingoregon.org and have contacted those who built the NM site to see about working together. Open to collaboration on a way to use google earth and other technologies to map out Oregon’s green energy future. This article looks like it might be helpful. Join me!
“The Dreaming New Mexico project seeks to reconcile nature and cultures at the state level. Taking care of nature means taking care of people, and taking care of people means taking care of nature. We seek systemic, collaborative approaches toward a common vision of restoration. Our focus is on both practical and visionary solutions.”
3. Billboard-free Portland. Sao Paolo has done it, so has Iceland. There are plenty of places where there are no billboards and I’d like to help Portland, Oregon, become the first city in the United States to go billboard-free. Billboards are distracting and visual noise that have an awful effect on our lives. Let’s get rid of them and make the world and our personal space ours again.
“As a private person, I have a passion for landscape, and I have never seen one improved by a billboard. Where every prospect pleases, man is at his vilest when he erects a billboard. When I retire from Madison Avenue, I am going to start a secret society of masked vigilantes who will travel around the world on silent motor bicycles, chopping down posters at the dark of the moon. How many juries will convict us when we are caught in these acts of beneficent citizenship”?
David Ogilvy, founder of the Ogilvy & Mather advertising agency. In Confessions of an Advertising Man, 1963
11/11/08
All Things Considered, November 11, 2008 · Hundreds of Los Angeles’ 11,000 billboards are going digital — lighting up neighborhoods with flashing LED ads selling Coke, sitcoms and designer clothing. Some are, however, complaining about light pollution. Now the City Council is considering the billboards’ environmental impact.
1.30.2012: https://www.scenic.org/blog/134-new-study-shows-billboards-hurt-nearby-property-values:
- “Snyder found that in Philadelphia there is a correlation between a home’s value and its proximity to billboards. He found that homes within 500 feet of a billboard are worth $30,826 less on average at the time of sale than those properties further away from billboards. The study also found that each additional billboard within a census tract resulted in a decrease in home values of nearly $1,000.
- Additionally, Snyder performed a survey of billboard controls and economic prosperity in 20 cities across the United States. His report found that cities with stricter billboard controls have greater median incomes, lower poverty rates and lower home vacancy rates than city with less strict billboard controls.”
4. Colwood Golf Course, Portland, Oregon – transition from a golf course to a regional park/urban farmer training institute. There is a 143-acre golf course at the north end of Portland near the airport. There has been a hearing recently where it was decided by the Portland City Council that this land will remain zoned as open space. The next step in this process will be for Metro to buy this land from the Colwood owners. Also thinking about using googleearth to map the area for visioning exercise.
5. Farmmyyard.org: for those with lawns who want them gardened to connect with urban farmers to create CSAs and more opportunities for locally-grown organic food. I’d like to see a system for the Portland area (and beyond) for anyone who would like to take their lawn out – for the purpose of creating a vegetable garden – to be able to connect with the growing number of urban farmers who will gladly farm the land for you. More on this issue to follow. USA Today article about how this is happening in San Francisco
MyFarm in San Francisco
Canadian version, Sharing Backyards!
6. Alldancepdx.com and allyogapdx.com – portals for the Portland area with calendars to show an individual what classes are available each day (and workshops). A way to link all of the yoga and dance offerings in Portland into one system – also could lead to a punch card system for all studios to and participants to make use of all of the offerings in one town or city.
7. A tracking system for use by local goverments and corporations that would include information on all available and active labor – so that we can figure out how to swap and share jobs rather than have people commuting like crazy.
If you have an interest in any of these ideas or would like help in thinking about an idea you have, please get in touch.
