Rex for Metro

Do you like to eat? What a question! Eating, cooking, growing food is part of being human, a way we relate to each other and to the earth.

Tuesday night, I gathered a group, including farmers, restaurateurs, food activists and people who like to eat and are concerned about where their food comes from to discuss issues of food security, quality and the future of farming in the Metro region. My goal was to develop a regional agenda to ensure that everyone has access to good quality food and to support family farmers.

Here are some of their thoughts (paraphrasing from my notes):

Deborah Kane of Plate and Pitchfork and Food-Hub: What we have isn’t a food desert, but a food mirage. The good food is here—in farmers markets and on the shelves of stores like New Seasons—but many people don’t have the money or the knowledge of how to use unprocessed food. We need education and ways to lower the cost of good food.

Laura Masterson, farmer, 47th Street Farm: In this country we heavily subsidize commodity crops like corn and soybeans that are used in processed foods. Why can’t we subsidize organic farmers? Our costs are higher because we don’t ask the public to bear the costs of soil depletion, pollution of rivers with pesticides and fertilizers or low wages for farm workers.

David West, owner of Nostrana: When I have family over to eat, I say, “these beets came from Laura, and this lamb is from Bob’s farm” and they say do you know where all your food comes from? And I ask them, don’t you?

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Episode 3 of “A Ride with Rex” is rolling!

As we re-join Rex, he’s on his way up SW Broadway to PSU, his alma mater, where he talks about the value of education, and the challenges we face with climate change — and the opportunities for job creation and sustainability, if we’re smart. Using his unique background in science, environmental activism, and creating jobs at Metro, he believes “there are some really positive things that we can do that will also be fighting climate change and helping protect our future generations.”

Find out what Rex has in mind in Episode 3 of A Ride with Rex (it’s a little less than 4 minutes long). And to catch up on previous episodes, visit Rex’s Vimeo channel.

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Thanks to everyone who joined us for a picture-perfect ride this afternoon. On the way through three cities and two counties, we saw a bald eagle presiding over Oaks Bottom, a sun-dappled Johnson Creek babbling through the Springwater Corridor, and spring flowers everywhere. And in excellent company!

Check out more pictures here, then consider shining a little sunshine of your own on Rex’s ride to make even more of Metro like what we saw today.

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What’s it really like to ride with Rex? Find out with just a few mouse clicks in Episode 2 of “A Ride with Rex” — and then try the real thing this Sunday on the Ride with Rex!

On his way from the Rose Quarter to the Steel Bridge, Rex talks about what it takes to be a successful Metro President, the ingenuity of the Esplanade project, and what it was like to be one of just 15 bikers traversing Portland’s bridges.

Rex says,

“I feel very much the duty and responsibility to make sure that every penny we spend is spent wisely and for the things that people care about and that what we do makes lives better for everybody in the region.”

Take a look, and then join us Sunday for a Ride with Rex!

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On Sightline, Roger Valdez logs a thoughtful post in which he “calls me out” about sustainability and the Columbia River Crossing project — the seismic, bike/ped, light rail and tolling components of which I’ve long supported. Roger believes that the project has to be based on political expediency, because “the best policy option would lead to reduced greenhouse gas emissions, better land-use, and healthier communities.”

Reasonable enough. So let’s take this thing apart and see what’s really going on — not in the easy buzzwords lobbed from the sidelines by my opponent, but in actual, real-world, roll-up-your-sleeves-and-work-with-others policy.

First, though, I need to add something to Roger’s list that he’s forgotten: safety. The existing 93 year old span is in dangerous condition (the other is 60 years old and also deteriorating) and environmentally harmful. Putting the region’s people and economy at risk is a failure to acknowledge physical reality–that steel rusts, concrete deteriorates, and the earth quakes. Even my opponent has acknowledged (somewhat grudgingly, I have to say) that the bridges need to be fixed.

The question is, then, how to turn an onerous responsibility -– replacing an expensive piece of critical equipment — into an opportunity. I worked 5 years to ensure this project will provide real transportation alternatives, use tolls to reduce traffic demand and move traffic quickly, and reduce impact on the environment and surrounding communities. The proposal adopted by the Task Force, the Metro Council and the Portland City Council does this. And, compared to doing nothing, reduces pollution, greenhouse gas emissions and encourages denser, more compact development on Hayden Island and in downtown Vancouver. Exactly what Roger calls for!

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