Out with the Old
Voters in the Pacific Northwest made loud statements on Tuesday in support of reducing the region’s car dependency. In Oregon, Measure 49, the ballot initiative restoring sanity to land use regulations, won by a wide margin. Measure 49 was designed to be the antidote to Measure 37, the 2004 initiative that allows property owners to bypass state and local land use controls. The legal chaos that resulted shortly after the passage of Measure 37 and the impending destruction of hundreds of thousands of acres of Oregon farmland and forests caused voters to do an abrupt about-face in just three years. Property rights advocates claim the battle isn’t over, but Oregonians have been given a glimpse of life without any restraints on property rights and are not likely to be fooled again.

It’s been a few weeks since my last post, and while I had legitimate reasons to be distracted, I have discovered how difficult it can be to flip the writing switch on after some time off.
Oil has been hovering around $80 a barrel for a few months now.
Sprawl and car dependence go hand in hand.