Media Release from BDS Portland: Local Leaders, Homeowners Unite to “Change the Climate in Cully”

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for immediate release
Thursday, July 29, 2010

CONTACT:

Jaclyn Macek Houser
(202) 942-2264

 
Local Leaders, Homeowners Unite to “Change the Climate in Cully”
MACG organizes 100 Cully homes for the Clean Energy Works Portland pilot program, to provide energy efficiency retrofits, spur local job creation
Portland, OR – Over 300 residents from Portland’s Cully neighborhood gathered at Rigler School today to learn about the “Changing the Climate in Cully” initiative. As part of the Clean Energy Works Portland residential weatherization retrofit program, eligible homeowners who choose to participate in the Cully neighborhood project will improve the comfort and value of their homes, save energy, and create family-supporting jobs in the community.
 
Sponsored by Metropolitan Alliance for Common Good (MACG) and a coalition of other community partners, the event – which also featured free ice cream, music, games and family entertainment – marked the kick-off of the neighborhood-led initiative.  Homeowners in attendance learned more about home weatherization and many signed up on-the-spot for an energy assessment.  Through outreach and volunteer activities such as door-knocking, phonebanks and house parties, MACG’s “Changing the Climate in Cully” effort will organize 100 Cully homes by September for retrofits this year.
 
Beyond energy efficiency, “Changing the Climate in Cully” is concerned with creating family-supporting jobs and growing the area’s economy.  As a start, the program will create 17 new jobs, while sustaining another 16.   In order to provide the highest quality work to the Cully customers, while ensuring the highest quality job creation, six small, local construction contractors and workers from LIUNA – the Laborers International Union of North America – have teamed up to perform the weatherization retrofit work guaranteeing living wage jobs and health care benefits for all workers employed on the  project. With a new breakthrough weatherization training program, LIUNA has been providing training and credentials in highly-skilled jobs as weatherization installers and supervisors.  In addition, subcontractors representing three trade union locals – Sheet Metal Workers Local 16, Electrical Workers Local 48, and Plumbers & Pipefitters Local 290 – will be performing specialty work on the project.
 
Earlier this year, the U.S. Department of Energy awarded the City of Portland Bureau of Planning and Sustainability a $20 million “Retrofit Ramp-Up” award to weatherize thousands of homes and commercial buildings statewide through an expansion of the pilot program called Clean Energy Works Portland (CEWP).  “Changing the Climate in Cully” is part of that larger CEWP Program, which has already retrofitted 158 homes in Portland and has another 228 homes in progress.
 
In the coming weeks, MACG’s Cully neighborhood volunteers will talk to their neighbors about the project, organizing house parties and community events to bring Cully neighbors together around this exciting opportunity.  Outreach activities will wind down at the end of September, with the 100 home retrofit goal to be reached by December 2010.
 
For more information please visit: http://macg.org/and http://www.cleanenergyworksportland.org/community.php
 
STATEMENTS OF SUPPORT
 
“This is a success story in the making.  Our members are walking the streets of Cully talking with residents about the program, helping to build this innovative organizing model, and most importantly to us, will perform this work under a union contract,” said Greg Held, LIUNA Oregon and Southern Idaho District Council Business Manager. ”Thanks to the efforts of MACG and its partner organizations, workers on this green energy efficiency project will all be making living wages and receiving health care.”
 
“With MACG and the Cully neighborhood leading the way, we are going to show that grassroots efforts make a difference,” said Multnomah County Chair Jeff Cogen.  “It’s a win-win.  Together we will create jobs, lower energy use and protect the environment.”
 
“The key to confronting our climate crisis is a community-based strategy that creates good jobs for all Oregonians,” said Representative Jules Bailey, a chief sponsor of state legislation that supported the energy efficiency pilot program. “This is a campaign that really connects the dots: local homes, local jobs, a greener community, a stronger economy.”
 
“Our church is proud to be part of this wonderful opportunity for the Cully neighborhood,” said Joan Winchester, Pastoral Associate with the parish. “Through this effort we can reduce energy bills, foster economic security, and increase home comfort and value for our parishioners and Cully families. Best of all, neighbors are uniting here today to improve their community.” 
 
“‘Changing the Climate in Cully’ is all about neighbors and groups working together to bridge the green divide,” remarked Alan Hipólito Executive Director of Verde, a sponsoring non-profit group that aims to connect low-income people to the economic benefits of a new green economy. “We’re here today because we see this as an opportunity to protect the environment, create jobs, and build a pathway out of poverty.”
 
“While this is first and foremost about improving homes in Cully, a lot of people around the country are paying attention to this project to see if this neighborhood-based approach will be a successful model that can be replicated in other cities,” said Bev Logan St. Andrew Catholic Church, a MACG member institution.
 
” ‘Changing the Climate in Cully’ and Clean Energy Works Portland are demonstrating what can be achieved when diverse groups work together for the common goals of energy efficiency, creating quality green jobs, and protecting the environment,” said Ivan Maluski, with the Oregon Chapter Sierra Club. “The weatherization work taking place this summer in the Cully neighborhood is providing a model of sustainability that should be replicated across the state and the entire country.”

“Portland is known for our dynamic and livable neighborhoods. Thanks to the organizing efforts of groups like MACG, homeowners in neighborhoods like Cully, Lents and Interstate are getting involved and taking advantage of programs like Clean Energy Works Portland. This program helps homeowners reduce their energy use, puts Portlanders to work at clean-tech jobs, and helps our city meet our Climate Action Goal of reducing carbon emissions 80 percent by 2050. This kind of grassroots activism exemplifies the best spirit of Portland,” said Portland Mayor Sam Adams.

July 30, 2010 by ·

Community Listening Session on the City’s 2011 State Legislative Agenda

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Community Listening Session on the City’s 2011 State Legislative Agenda 
 VR-Legislative Forum.jpg
Monday, August 2, 2010
6:30 PM – 9 PM
City Hall, Council Chambers
1221 SW 4th Ave. at Jefferson Dear friends,

You are invited to participate in a Community Listening Session regarding the upcoming 2011 State of Oregon Legislative Session. This event will inform community representatives about the City’s process for developing the legislative agenda and provide you with an opportunity to tell your City leaders and staff about your neighborhood and community priorities. We are looking forward to seeing you at this event and thank you for the hard work you do for building a better Portland together.

Best regards,

Mayor Sam Adams and Commissioner Amanda Fritz

AGENDA:

  • • An overview of the City’s legislative process and agenda development calendar

  • • Status report on the development of City’s 2011 State Legislative Agenda
  • • A facilitated discussion to provide the opportunity for you to identify legislative issues

RSVP:

Please RSVP to the Office of Neighborhood Involvement at www.portlandonline.com/oni. You need to have a Portlandonline account. You can also register by emailing Brian Hoop at brian.hoop@portlandoregon.gov or calling 503-823-3075.

Accomodation Requests:

To help ensure equal access to City programs, services and activities, the City of Portland will reasonably modify policies/ procedures and provide auxiliary aids/services to persons with disabilities. Call 503-823-3075 or TTY 503-823-6868 five days in advance to request assistance for any accessibility accomodations and/or language interpretation.

Providing input online:

You can submit your ideas online at www.portlandonline.com/oni. Deadline for submitting comments is Monday, August 16.

Follow-up events this fall:

We will also provide information at the community listening session about two additional community events to be held this fall:

2nd Town Hall: Preview of draft legislative agenda (OCTOBER DATE TBD)

Your chance to preview the City’s draft State Legislative Agenda before the October City Council legislative agenda work session. The listening session is an opportunity to learn more about and discuss expectations for the 2011 State Legislative Session.

Lobbying 101 Workshop (NOVEMBER DATE TBD)

Learn how to be a more effective advocate for issues you care about during the legislative session.

Sponsored by: City of Portland Office of Government Relations, Office of Neighborhood Involvement, Office of Commissioner Fritz, Office of Mayor Adams.

For more info: Brian Hoop, 503-823-3075, brian.hoop@portlandoregon.gov

If you no longer wish to receive these emails, please reply to this message with “Unsubscribe” in the subject line or simply click on the following link: Unsubscribe
Mayor Sam Adams
1221 SW Fourth Ave
Room 340
Portland, Oregon 97204

July 29, 2010 by ·

What’s your view on banning plastic bags? See the Mayor’s here

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Dear Portlanders,

When the city of Portland banned polystyrene foam (Styrofoam) in January 1990, it drew immediate attention from the environmental community and the business world. In response, businesses and customers had to learn a new behavior and they did, adapting to the new policy as cities around the nation took notice.

According to a poll conducted last week, two-thirds of Portlanders surveyed support banning single-use, carry-out plastic bags and a 5-cent charge on paper bags.

Today, I’m introducing for public comment a draft ordinance to ban single-use plastic bags in the City of Portland. The ordinance spells out all the important details – which industries are included, when it will go into effect, and what we’re doing to make sure the transition is smooth and successful.

The four key pillars of the ordinance are:

1. Banning plastic bags, prohibiting large grocery stores and retail pharmacies from distributing single-use plastic carryout bags to their customers at point of sale;

2. Setting a mandatory 5-cent charge on paper/compostable plastic bags, regulating the distribution of paper bags and compostable plastic bags to encourage consumers to use reusable bags, and helping defray the cost to stores;

3. Requiring stores to make reusable bags available, either for purchase or at no cost;

4. Calling for an outreach campaign that includes a public-private partnership to provide reusable carryout bags to interested Portland residents; and working with service providers to distribute information and reusable carryout bags to interested senior and low-income households.

The policy is a smart, pragmatic approach to a real and seemingly insurmountable problem. It’s an approach shaped by a coalition of businesses, environmental groups and city staff and informed by lessons from cities and nations that have already taken action. Efforts are underway to ban plastic bags statewide in the next legislative session. I support those efforts. Portlanders are prepared to lead the way to a statewide solution.

In Portland, and in all of Oregon, single-use plastic bags are an eyesore, getting into our waterways and our storm drains. Plastic bags are a nuisance, jamming up recycling facility machines and costing those facilities tens of thousands of dollars a month in maintenance and labor to fix the mess. And plastic bags are an indicator – of an old way of thinking where an item is designed to be used once and live on in a landfill forever.

But globally, plastic bags are far more than a nuisance or an eyesore. They are part of an environmental crisis – from the oil needed to manufacture and transport bags around the planet – to the massive plastic islands of trash destroying our oceans and intoxicating our marine food web. 

Banning the bag in Portland will not solve all these problems. But failing to ban the bag will only perpetuate the status quo, where Portland is not part of the pollution solution, but part of the problem.

Portland and Oregon have always led the nation on smart environmental policy. Portland’s economic prosperity is being built on our creativity, our innovation, our expertise in sustainability, and our heritage of great manufacturing. By taking action now, we’re continuing our city’s leadership in sustainable urban living and making an investment in our city’s future.

We want your thoughts on this important issue. To read the ordinance, download a set of frequently asked questions, and watch a video on the topic, go to www.mayorsamadams.com/bagban. 

Sincerely,
Sam AdamsMayor, City of Portland

P.S. A special thanks to Surfrider Foundation and Environment Oregon for their grassroots advocacy on this issue, and a sincere thanks to State Senator Mark Hass for his leadership on a State-wide ban.

July 18, 2010 by ·