My Page: Dan Richardson

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Measure 37 and its Progeny

Sheesh. The quality of help these days. I mean, you spread around a few million dollars to fuel 20 or 30 political initiatives, you expect your hired help to get the job done right. Then, you have a bunch of the initiatives thrown out because your hired signature-gatherers faked, gamed and defrauded the system.

Man, what a month.

It was only a week or two ago that the machine of libertarian political initiatives was rolling swiftly around the West. We recently wrote about the “Kelo-plus” property rights initiatives funded by a New York real estate developer and longtime Libertarian Party activist, Howard Rich. Rich and his allies have pushed those and also parallel initiatives to limit government spending and institute term limits in states from Oregon to Arizona.

But the hired help has fouled up the works. Courts in Montana, Nevada, Oklahoma, Michigan and Missouri have disqualified part or entire initiatives that otherwise would have gone to voters. The decisions come in reaction to complaints about petition-circulators’ problematic, or illegal, signature-gathering tactics.... [more]

Gorge Politics

The White Salmon community has put itself through some rather dramatic times lately — though you’d hardly know it if you read only the other Columbia Gorge newspapers. A quick primer for everyone who doesn’t live in that most beautiful of gorge towns:

This winter, the mayor fired the new police chief. (He did say something to the effect that “it’s not you, it’s me.”)

That didn’t sit well with voters, who, last month, fired the mayor in a recall election.

Now, the city has offered to rehire the ex-police chief.

But the ex-chief, burned by the mayor, is being coy, and now the community has neither. A month from now, who knows who will be eliminated, or reinstated?

In searching for, hiring, or electing citizens to both positions again, White Salmon residents might do well to remember ol’ Ed Burke’s thought: “Your representative owes you, not his industry only, but his judgment; and he betrays instead of serving you if he sacrifices it to your opinion.” [more]

Planning in the West

Editor's Note: This is the second of a three-part series on the fallout from Oregon's landmark rollback of land-use planning, Measure 37. Click here to read the first installment. This project was underwritten by the Orton Family Foundation in conjunction with the PLACEMATTERS06 conference to be held Oct. 19-21 in Denver.

Measure 37 is implemented differently in each of the state's 36 counties. Hood River County receives high marks for efficiency, meeting the law's 180-day action deadline for claims and seeking answers to questions that arise, says Steven Andersen, a Columbia Gorge-area property consultant. Nearly all the Measure 37 claimants in the county have hired Andersen to shepherd their claims through the detail-intensive process.

On the other hand, says Andersen, the county has followed the state Attorney General's position by holding narrow, pro-planning positions on some unresolved legal questions that limit some claimants' desired land uses. Like, for example, transferability of Measure 37 development rights to new buyers. It is, Anderson says, "a very hard line against restoration of property rights."

The county, for another example, attempts to channel proposed development into maximum density, he says, often clearing Measure 37 claimants for developments but making them outline their specific desires and follow existing zoning rules. "Hood River County is effectively rezoning every property that goes through the process when it rolls back regulations based on specific development scenarios." [more]

Northwest Elections 2006

Oregon residents value self-government more than Washingtonians.

That might be stretching things a little bit, but consider this quote from Chris Vance, a former Washington state Republican Party chair: “In large parts of the state we are effectively a single-party democracy.”

Vance was quoted in a Seattle Times article that says that 39 of the state’s legislative races this year are uncontested. That’s almost a third of the state Legislature that will go to the capitol without opposition; without having to address hard questions from people who disagree with them.

The thought of hefty blocs of lawmakers strolling into office without opposition got me wondering about Oregon. Oregon has 65 state legislative races this year, 15 for state senate and 60 state representatives... [more]

Exotic Invaders

More bad news on the alien invader front: This time, biologists have found a tiny Asian fish,the Amur goby, in the Columbia River, reports the Vancouver Columbian. The goby isn’t the first Northwest transplant, and scientists aren’t sure what its eventual impact will be on the river’s ecosystem — but another competitor or possible preditor for endangered salmon can’t be a good thing.

How the goby got here will remain a mystery. The two likely scenarios are by getting sucked into a ship’s ballast water in Asia then dumped out over here; or, being released wild by some goof with an aquarium. In addition to the Columbia, the goby was found in the East Fork of the Lewis River, north of Vancouver, Wash. [more]

Agriculture and Ecology

Frankenstein’s monster appalls us at first glance for the way his head was sewn onto a mismatched torso, an arm here, a leg there, bolts sticking out of his neck. The hideous appearance was not a reflection of the monster, though, but of the man who created it: A scientist who flouted moral law by playing God, then failed in an utterly pragmatic way by letting the monster escape to play havoc in the world.

It makes for great fiction — but terrible reality.

Unfortunately, the Frankenstein tale threatens to retell itself in Oregon, with news this week that a genetically modified strain of bent grass is on the loose. The grass is an abomination - a genetically modified (GM) strain produced by Monsanto and the Scotts Miracle-Gro Co. to resist the herbicide Roundup, which is also made by Monsanto. The idea was to grow anherbicide-resistant turf for golf courses and similar lawn operations; the courses could plant the GM bent grass, then soak the area in Roundup, killing weeds without having to get their hands dirty or harming the (now-resistant) grass.

So Monsanto and Scotts planted a test crop of the bent grass near Madras, Ore., harvested it and then killed it off — with non-Roundup herbicide. But, like Frankenstein’s monster, the grass refused to die so easily, and escaped. The grass sent pollen more than a dozen miles, which is three miles outside a buffer zone. Two of the handful of escaped grass plants were growing in the Crooked River National Grassland, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, as reported in the Oregonian... [more]

Fire Season

The storm that rushed over Mt. Hood last week lashed the forested slopes with hammer-blows of lightning, igniting a dozen wildfires, then swept east to dissapate. In its wake, though, those fires have grown, feeding on dry and beetle-killed trees, and now the Mt. Hood complex of fires spans more than 700 acres.

The fires include blazes that have threatened historic buildings at Cloud Cap and Tilly Jane, and the popular Sherwood and Nottingham campgrounds along Highway 35. That road remains closed between Parkdale and White River as of this writing, Tuesday evening, and officials say they’ve only partially contained the fires. Also potentially impacted by the fires: The Dalles' municipal watershed.

Fire authorities have not been idle. Last Thursday, there were about 390 people fighting the Mt. Hood fires; currently, there are about 600, including those flying three helicopters that have dumped hundreds of thousands of gallons of water.

For a current fire map (a large image file), click here. [more]

Oregon Governor's Race

Ben Westlund, independent Oregonian, today:

"At the beginning of this campaign, I made a commitment to the people of Oregon, and that was: I was in it to win it…  And that I absolutely would not play a spoiler role. Therefore, today, with no regrets (but some sadness) I am here to honor that commitment. I am proud to keep that promise to the people of Oregon ... despite the fact that I unquestionably could qualify for the ballot... by announcing my withdrawal from the race for Governor."

Odd, this, coming after the apparently successful signature-gathering from the Westlund campaign. I don't recall this vaunted promise to avoid being a spoiler at all costs, either — a rather silly promise from an independent candidate, anyway. But alright. Here's some scuttlebutt about what may have influenced Westlund to run away from the fray.

Perhaps Westlund was too scared to talk to us about land use and took the easy way out instead? (I kid, I kid!) But it does occur to me that Westlund had an obligation to see this thing through, at least a bit further, to put the fear of God into the Tweedle Dee-and-Dum candidates from the Democrats and Republicans. If Westlund had hoped to shake things up, fighting to get into a debate and eventually acting as a spoiler would actually have been effective. At least next time, the major parties would have had to think and worry about another independent candidate, and been forced to address his issues in a campaign. By dropping out, Westlund may be sort of innoculating the powers-that-be against the idea of a vital centrist candidate. 'Oh, he'll never make it - just wait a few months and he'll drop out.'

Sigh. [more]

Dan's Rant O' The Week

I have seen the chalk.

It was plastered all over the boulder problems at my local climbing area, a modest trad crag at a state park where by long tradition climbers make do without bolts and with minimal chalk. Also, there are signs saying "Limit chalk use."

The problems were smeared white. Some boulder-dolt had, probably in one visit, smeared chalk on every crimper on the wall, and several more problems around the far side. A classic crack was greasy and whitened with chalk from bottom to top.

It�s damn well about time that climbers collectively grow up. The miscreants who ruined my day didn�t set out to break some chalking records; they were following the herd instinct of many climbers, for whom slapping on great powdery handfuls of white courage is simply what you do after you put on your shoes.

Thing is, other recreationists act like adults. Hikers and backpackers, what�s their motto? Leave no trace. Climbers should do the same. It doesn�t matter if your friends chalk up. It doesn�t matter if your hands get sweaty. It doesn�t matter what whiny excuse you come up with � leave no trace. LEAVE. NO. TRACE...
[more]

Property Rights and Development

When Oregonians passed Measure 37 two years ago, they thought to strike a blow for fairness, a defense of the little guy against big government. And perhaps, by jump-starting the land-use conversation, they did.

They also raised a number of thorny questions. One of Measure 37’s central unanswered questions, as I wrote previously, is transferability. There are three cases on this issue — one each in Oregon’s Crook, Jackson and Columbia counties — in the courts now, awaiting resolution. The point at issue in these cases, and no doubt dozens or hundreds of other M37 claims, is whether a property owner can sell his development rights secured under M37.

Meanwhile, the Oregon Court of Appeals is expected to soon hear another, perhaps even more far-reaching case: Does Measure 37 trump the gorge's National Scenic Area?... [more]

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