Open Letter: Create a place in Aloha

So if you don’t know, ‘Aloha’ is the name of an area in unincorporated Washington County (in Oregon). It isn’t even a town yet, but the Metro regional government says it should be one of the Metro Town Centers. Below is a letter asking that the County plans for the Aloha Town Center and rebuilds 185th Avenue as part of that.

Dear Commissioner Schouten,

I’m ecstatic to read in the paper that the County will have an open house this Thursday to talk about the 185th project between the highway and the high school. I can’t wait until it is finally safe to walk or ride a bike along what is now a nasty stretch of asphalt.

I’m very excited, but at the same time I’m worried.

Drive Safely PSAs

Dat from Portland’s SHIFT bike advocacy/fun group is hoping to get a safety video shown as a PSA in Portland. On the SHIFT mailing list, Dat says:

Been doing a lot of research on PSA on what works and what does not. I came across this PSA that aired in 2005 in the UK. The Images are some what disturbing. I was thinking of adapting that PSA and other for U.S. taste. I even talked to some TV people and they said a PSA like this would even pass U.S. Censors.

Here’s the video he’s talking about:

Other people pointed out more videos. Below are a couple I thought were good. (WARNING: these images may also disturb you.)

This one shows how much difference 5mph makes in stopping distance:

This last one shows how important paying close attention is:

Buy Nothing Year

This year I’m going to try to be more environmentally friendly and do more to support the local economy.  How?  By buying nothing(*).  Read more about it at buynothing.wordpress.com. 

 *: OK, not ‘nothing’, but a lot less than usual.  Read the details.