Oregon is on the verge of losing its way. And that's being charitable. We may already have sunk into mediocrity among the 50 states, having lost our once well-deserved reputation for environmental trail-blazing.
Yesterday I was bemoaning with some friends the sprouting of subdivisions in south Salem. That's just a taste of the California-izing that is to come if Measure 37 isn't fixed, pronto.
You can kiss much of Oregon's charm and rural character goodbye if the asphalt and concrete-lovers are able to convince the legislature that the trashing of our land use laws should continue unabated.
We reminisced about the good old days of Gov. Tom McCall, famous for his "Visit, but don't stay" sentiment. Tom, you're missed. Now we've got a Ted (Kulongoski) who says he admires you, but unfortunately doesn't act much like you.
Ted is standing up for the environment in some ways. Yet Measure 37 is causing Oregon to move backward. That calls for a McCall who will do more than stand up—we need a battler who will fight his way forward.
Even better, millions of them. I sense that our citizens are fed up with organizations like Oregonians in Action who don't give a damn about the livability of this state, being mostly interested in lining the pockets of developers by turning farmland and forestland into tract homes.
It's sad that someone can say, with an absolutely straight face, "Don't Oregonize California." How far we've sunk.
This week I came home to a beautiful moon and Venus rising over a just-set sun. It was a classic Oregon scene, minus the clouds and rain, that had me racing for my camera and tripod. Our lighted dogwood provided a nice contrast to the darkening night sky.
Imagine that scene with Measure 37-approved twin billboards smack in the middle of it. That's the Oregon "property rights" zealots lust for. Artificiality replacing nature from the coast to the deserts.
Here's my simple response: you don't have the right to do that. This land is our land, not your land. You didn't make it. It comes from another hand—call it God, Tao, Buddha nature, Allah, Big Bang, whatever you like.
I don't know what Tom McCall's philosophy of life was, but I strongly suspect he'd agree. Clearly, though, he'd be aghast at what Measure 37 has wrought. Here's what McCall said in 1973:
But there is a shameless threat in our environment and to the whole quality of our life and that is the unfettered despoiling of our land. Coastal condomania, sagebrush subdivisions and the ravenous rampage of suburbia, here in the Willamette Valley, all threaten to mock Oregon's status as the environmental model of this nation.
Sadly, those words could just as well have been spoken in 2007. McCall's legacy deserves better.
How big is the property you live on? How is it zoned? Is your property part of a subdivision? When did you move here?
Just curious.
Posted by: Anonymous | March 23, 2007 at 08:37 AM
"Here's my simple response: you don't have the right to do that. This land is our land, not your land. You didn't make it. It comes from another hand—call it God, Tao, Buddha nature, Allah, Big Bang, whatever you like."
So now anti-M37 property-rights haters speak for "God, Tao, Buddha nature, Allah, Big Bang, whatever you like"? We always knew land-use planning authoritarians suffered from chronic hubris, but who could have guessed just how profound that character defects truly was?!
At any rate, it sounds more like you guys are pining for a Mao, Lenin, Guevara, Castro or Ceauşescu than a pro-war Republican like McCall (altho there might indeed be some similarities there). Remember? Major Tom was a passionate advocate and apologist for the bloody debacle in Vietnam -- and he despised outspoken antiwar politicians like Wayne Morse. (Care to explain how napalm conflagrations and Agent Orange showers improved Southeast Asian village livability and furthered tropical rain forest preservation efforts?)
Posted by: Alex Davies | March 23, 2007 at 11:01 AM
Alex, talk about hubris: so you are saying that Measure 37 claimants did indeed create the property they say they have a "right" to do what they want with?
Please, show us proof of your cosmic knowledge. A Nobel prize awaits you. What I said is undeniable truth. Humans did not create the natural world. Yet Measure 37 assumes a right for an individual to control what he or she had no involvement in producing.
When you show me a person who created their property, I'll grant that person a "property right." Until then, I'll continue to argue that no such absolute right exists.
That isn't socialistic, Maoistic, or any other perjorative term you choose to give it. It's just common sense.
Posted by: Brian | March 23, 2007 at 01:31 PM
Anonymous, we live on a five acre lot. It is zoned AR (acreage residential). We also own an adjoining five acre AR lot that we plan to leave natural.
Our property is part of Spring Lake Estates, a subdivision. It came into being about the time SB 100 did, the inception of Oregon's pioneering land use laws.
Spring Lake Estates sits on land deemed unsuitable for agriculture. It's hilly, with poor soils and lots of ravines.
We're fighting a proposed Measure 37 subdivision next to us with a clear conscience. That property is zoned EFU (exclusive farm use)and would make a great winery or Christmas tree farm.
We're pleased to comply with Oregon's land use laws, because we consider ourselves part of a larger community. Measure 37 ignores the fact that "no man/woman is an island." It elevates selfish individuality to an excessive degree.
The world is interconnected. Science knows that. Religion knows that. Philosophy knows that. Measure 37 will be substantially revised soon, I'm pretty confident, because it is so out of touch with reality.
Posted by: Brian | March 23, 2007 at 01:39 PM
If it were revised to allow your neighbor to do the exact thing you are doing, would that satisfy you? I assume then that your new neighbors would also be "pleased to comply with Oregon's land use laws," once they got their home on their 5 acre subdivision lot.
Posted by: Anonymous | March 23, 2007 at 03:54 PM
I want to see Oregon fix Measure 37 but the idea of anybody who didn't get here by a certain date is not welcome, that I don't agree with and didn't when McCall said it. I was born in this state as was my mother and my grandfather but I understand how it is to want to go somewhere for a better life and think we have been enriched by those who have come here as well as those who were born here. What we have to have is good land use planning but everywhere you go in the West, you see homes sprouting up. This is that exponential growth everyone talked about when I was having my babies and why my husband and I limited our family to two children instead of the four we had originally intended. We are going to see growth everywhere in the country unless there are catastrophic events which we all should hope don't happen. We just need planned growth but trying to keep things as they were when I was growing up here, well it ain't gonna happen.
Posted by: Rain | March 23, 2007 at 07:54 PM