By Midge Pierce
RIP Gets Red Carpet
It’s all over but the shouting.
The passage of HB 2001, the nation’s first statewide ban on single family zoning, makes Council approval of Portland’s potentially more onerous Residential Infill Project (RIP) a given.
City planners are regrouping on modifications to the RIP proposal that has been in the works for several years. When it presents RIP to Council this fall, The Bureau of Planning and Sustainability says it plans to bring an Anti-Displacement Strategy draft along with a Housing Opportunities Initiative.
While stunned cities of 25,000 or more process what the state law means for them, those like Eugene that opposed the bill are contemplating how to come into compliance – or whether to fight against implementation.
Even Students get the Blues
Oregon is making national news for legislation allowing students to take excused absences for “stress days.”
While the nation laughs at this “cookies and milk” solution, soaring student depression and suicide rates are strong rationales for treating mental health like physical ailments, according to psychologist Robin Henderson, PsyD.
Henderson told an OPB radio audience that student members of Oregon’s Association of Student Councils championed her Be Well campaign to bring depression out of the shadows.
Teens who lobbied for the state legislation say school shootings, social media, cyber-bullying, global warming and competition to be the best make growing up an increasingly traumatic challenge.
SMILE Joins Initiative
Given recent construction, the Sellwood-Moreland business district is scarcely recognizable.
Now, in an effort to have influence over new builds, SMILE has adopted a design initiative called PDX Main St. Guidelines. The guidelines have been adopted by other growth-intensive areas like the Division Neighborhood and Hawthorne Business District.
While the guidelines have no codified teeth, they provide tools to clarify community goals and vision. PDX Main Street says the challenge is not “if” we grow but how.
