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December 27, 2007 Opinions |
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Guest Opinion
Planning and Zoning Our Way to DisasterBy Steve Culley The Monday Dec. 10, 2007 edition of The Oregonian had a front page article “Contrarian Unabashedly Bashes Portland.” It was about a talk that Randal O’Toole gave about Portland’s land use system. More decades ago than I want to think about I heard O’Toole give a talk about forest economics and to be sure I can’t remember if I agreed or disagreed with his assessment. I do agree with the premise of his theme about land use planning in Portland and by extension Oregon. He called it a smart growth apocalypse. Portland, he says, and I say, that Oregon’s land use laws have made it impossible for the middle class, what’s left of it, to live in this state. O’Toole’s Power Point presentation features a big house in Houston Texas, 2,300 square feet with a large yard for $170,000. Then it goes to a skinny little Portland house, 1,200 square feet, with no yard for $260,000. The result of Oregon’s build up not out mantra of the planners and zoners.
The Oregonian is the number one cheerleader for land use planning in Oregon, serving as the mouth piece for Thousand Friends of Oregon while churning out tons of favorable copy for Oregon’s land use watch dogs, as the paper refers to them. But even the Oregonian acknowledged in the article that “Some of O’Tolle’s concerns are the same ones that keep city planners up at night: Portland is becoming too expensive for working class families.”
I hate to break the news to you, but Oregon is becoming too expensive for working class families and the blame can be laid at the feet of the planners and zoners. Restricting the supply of land drives up costs. Earl Blumenauer, the Portland liberal Congressman bragged in Congress that Oregon had “saved” 97 percent of its land from development. The Oregonian itself says 95 percent is zoned untouchable and Oregonians in Action says 98 percent. You arrive at figures like these by deducting the federal and State lands that are not open to private people to build on, then go to the zoning laws. Oregon requires almost all land outside of an urban growth boundary to be zoned into large blocks, say one house on 80 acres or in the case of Baker County 320 acres for forest and farm land. Where it might be possible to pay for a few acres most find it impossible to come up with the hundreds of thousands it takes to buy a large block.
Keeping in mind that Oregon’s land use laws only apply to private land, not federal or state, that means the large majority is unaffordable. We have a forced urbanization law in this state. All poor people who can’t afford a large block live in town, like it or not. But if you have the bucks and just blew in from say Portland or New York City, then build your ridge top castle on your spread, buy a horse or a cow and pretend you are a rancher. You can even be a terrorist from a foreign country and buy yourself a training ground, as the Bly, Ore., case shows. There are no laws that would stop communist China from spending that $1,000,000,000,000 they have from our trade imbalance on Oregon farm land.
The Oregonian, last year, did run an article about Wallowa County, “A Fat Wallet Runs Through It,” and in there you find that Wallowa County has much more federal land than Baker County and that 62 percent of the private land is owned by absentee land owners. Another article on the Bend area was much the same, except that it covered the fate of soldiers who went off to war in Iraq and came home to find that they couldn’t afford a home or even rent because land prices and the resulting home prices had squeezed them out. They were living in their cars. Deschutes and Wallowa Counties had more people vote for Measure 49 than 37, the reason being that as people move from Portland or California and escape those well planned urban utopias they bring their voting habits with them. It’s what I call the colonization of rural Oregon. Long established farmers and ranchers sometimes vote with the urban liberal because they are afraid that one might move in next door to them and complain about the smell or mistreatment of calves at branding time. Thousand Friends asserts it’s only greedy developers who want rural homesteads and forget that there are people who were country boys before Tom McCall civilized us all. Baker County has failed to do its required land use plan review and if they ever get around to it we should investigate just who it is that now own the land we saved from those greedy developers. It would complement the Big Look.
We just got done with another urban/rural land use fight, Measure 49 and as I predicted the “fix” that the democratic legislature sent us fixed nothing. The lawsuits have started and even the Farm Bureau is suffering defections because the leadership endorsed it. And as could be expected Thousand Friends are up to their old tricks. On their Web site they have a guide on how to make sure somebody is really “vested” under the old Measure 37, assuring us that the majority of people who filed 37 claims are not vested and go on about how to cause them all kinds of pain in stopping people from escaping the urban growth boundary. We have a land use Gestapo spying on each other now. When it becomes illegal to own land and a gun I guess our progressives will have created utopia, for a few.
The land use wars are not over. The fight will go on. The next step will be getting the Big Look refunded after the last legislature jerked the funds to help Measure 49 pass. It’s at that time when the real Oregon needs to be exposed. We have created a feudal state where only the well-to-do can ever hope to escape the city and all the extra expenses and permits it takes just to have an affordable house and maybe a little space between you and your neighbor and maybe an extra or two like a beef cow or even a horse or pony for the kids. It’s an old concept we used to call freedom. We now have a privileged royal class on their estates while the serfs struggle to pay for their overpriced serf houses.
After 30 odd years of this fight I no longer just want to escape the Metro iron hand on land use. I would like to see some eastern Oregon autonomy, even if that means a new state. It’s more than the weatherman standing in front of eastern Oregon when he shows the Doppler, or Portland deciding that elk are better off in the stomach of a cougar than our own bellies, or the constant gun control laws that seem to come from those who don’t own one. It’s more to do with those who make the urban dollar, like the governors, who spend most of their careers sticking it to us from their urban ivory castles, then move out here to enjoy the good life with their pensions we pay as a reward for gouging us. I might settle for land use laws being returned to the county level and a good Supreme Court decision in June on the second amendment, but maybe not. I’m still waiting for a government that doesn’t make “bipartisan decisions” that leave me feeling like I just bought a used car with a knocking sound. I want to elect people who will represent rural Oregon and stand their ground.
Let’s not forget that all environmental laws, from land use planning to restricting use of ATVs, to limiting the number of elk tags has to do with trying to mitigate the effect that numbers of people have on the environment. Then consider the fact that when we passed these draconian land use laws we had 200 million people. Since then we added a 100 million more, 90 percent immigration driven, and the population is headed straight up because of it. If we ended immigration now we will still grow to 450 million and all of those new comers compete for scarce land, water, gasoline. living space and open space. The only conclusion you can make is that more regulations will come and with regulation freedom is lost. The time to do it different was a long time ago. You can’t have a national policy of constant population growth because business wants cheap labor, customers and poor people joining the army to protect the empire and the environmental class believing you can mitigate the effects by controlling people. Like lemmings off a cliff we are headed for disaster.
Letters
Best Friends Of Baker Has A Wish ListTo The Record-Courier:As I drive around Baker City, I see many portable doghouses sitting in people’s yards. If these doghouses are not being used, Best Friends of Baker, Inc. would love to have them. Perhaps you would like to donate them so that we can provide shelter and protection for needy animals this winter.
Best Friends of Baker, Inc. also has a Wish List for this Christmas Season, cold winter weather and 2008: New and used portable dog houses – all sizes; New and used electric water dishes; New and used dog beds; Used sleeping bags and blankets; New and used dog kennels – all sizes; Sponsors for our weekly advertisements in the paper; Monthly or annual donations to provide for medical care for our animals; Spay/neuter, vaccinations, worming, medical care, etc.; Monthly or annual donations to provide food and litter for our animals; TEMPORARY FOSTER HOMES to provide a family atmosphere for our rescued animals; PERMANENT ADOPTIVE HOMES for our rescued animals; Pop cans and bottles – deliver to 2650 17th Street ; and Members and Volunteers.
Best Friends of Baker, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation. Please consider Best Friends of Baker, Inc. when making a decision about your end of the year tax deductions.
Your donations will make a difference in the care of rescued animals in Baker County and help Best Friends of Baker, Inc. continue with the same success in 2008 as they had this past year.
We invite you to attend our regular monthly meeting, which is held the 2nd Tuesday of each month. Learn more about Best Friends of Baker, Inc. Get involved and work with others to take care of the abandoned and unwanted animals of Baker County. Please call Best Friends of Baker, Inc. at 541-519-7387 (PETS) and volunteer.
“Volunteering for Best Friends of Baker, Inc. is not just a job. It is an adventure.” Cheryl Thayer President, Best Friends of Baker, Inc. Heap Of TroubleTo The Record-Courier:Baker City is heading for a heap or trouble.Dr. Fouty, of the Mollie Atwater and Friends feral cat project, has stated that the feral cats fixed this season will prevent 300 kittens from being born next spring. Fouty’s formula calculates three kittens per female.
Last year the feral cat population in Baker City was estimated to be 800. Using the Fouty formula, that means the feral cat population has increased to 2,000 this season.
According to the Fouty formula, Baker City’s feral cat population will grow to 100,000+ feral cats in five years.
In 2012 if each feral cat produces 4 oz. of waste, 12 tons of feral cat feces will be produced daily.
Baker City is heading for a heap of trouble.Darby DunkakBaker CityPlenty To Do In December In Baker CityTo The Record-Courier:December has been such a great time in Baker City, Vespers last Sunday was so impressive. We are so fortunate to have Tom Isaacson and Jeff Sizer as directors. The performance was beautifully organized — one of the most outstanding we have attended. The 2 p.m. performance was a full house and I understand that it was at 4 p.m. also.
The Historic Baker City Home tour was just wonderful. Eleven beautifully restored and livable homes built from 1881 to 1912. We are grateful to HBC manager, Ann Mehaffy, and all the home owners who made this 23rd annual tour possible.The Festival of Trees was also a great success. The parade and the lighting of the beautiful Christmas tree in the center of town opened the Christmas Season with good cheer.
The first grade music program at South Baker School was also a joyous occasion. Music teacher, Judy Trohkimoinen incorporated Hanukkah, Kwanza and other ethnic music in the performance.
Aren’t we fortunate to live in Historic Baker City where we have such a rich architectural and cultural history?Frances BurgessBaker City Thank You For Supporting Our TroopsTo The Record-Courier:This Holiday season saw a lot of activity for the Military Family Support Group. We were able to give out food boxes to military families and we were also able to add some extra gifts under their Christmas trees.
A big thank you to the local National Guard and Calvin Henshaw for the help we received. He saw that the boxes of food were distributed for Thanksgiving, and him and his wife also came to help make sure the gifts were wrapped and given to local military families in time for Christmas.
We were able to give the gifts because Baker Garage donated a vehicle and challenged locals to fill it up with toys for the families. Thank you Baker Garage for thinking of our military families and making their lives a little happier this Christmas. Thank you for supporting our troops — you did a great job and I know it means a lot to a lot of families.
Hoping you all have health and happiness in 2008, Laurel Olmsted Military Family Support GroupBaker CityBe Grateful For What God Gave YouTo The Record-Courier:Not too long ago, I had a customer while having coffee approach me if I had anything to say on worldwide events, wars, elections, etc. I had to think long and hard and serious on how I was going to approach this subject because I can think of better things to do than harbor on these issues. Most prefer not to talk about politics truth be known.
So I amused myself, with some humor on this subject. So many people think they’re right, and some like to think that the other is wrong...no in between, for a happy balance and so nothing really gets settled and new discoveries are made each and every day. It doesn’t seem to stop.
Growing up as a kid I know it seemed like there were the big bullies versus the little bullies, stomping out the little guys, and that brought on enough in itself...and of course nobody knew who did what they did to irritate the situation. A teacher once told me it was usually the first one who said I didn’t do it. He did it...so goes the course of history itself.
Various degrees of communication somehow get overplayed by what really happens to begin with...everybody wants to get ahead and oust the other guy. So it is with politics, etc., these days and all the issues our world faces, it will always be on-going and not much achievement made to bring peace about, we might see some but not as much as we should be seeing.
We can truly be thankful for the surroundings we have here, and that we are truly protected. I would hate to think what we would have to face here in retrospect of what our world faces. In the Bible it says that there will be wars and rumor of wars...so we may have crisis at times in our lives but this can be a season of truly grateful for what God has given us. Happy Holidays!Eggnog anyone?Brenda DickisonBaker City
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