Sustainable Skateparks
Posted by: kmikeym
This is so perfectly Portland! The Unpaid Intern over at Blogtown, PDX writes about sitting in on a community meeting about the Ed Benedict Skate Plaza.
New Line Skate Parks is building the plaza and has taken into consideration crime prevention and feedback from the local skaters who’ve shown up at the meetings, and incorporated environmentally sustaining guidelines.
The Ed Benedict Skate Plaza is one of 19 skateboarding sites to be built in Portland and construction should start next spring and be finished by late May. Construction on a second skate plaza in Gabriel Park in SW Portland should be finished in July.
More info at SkatePortland.org.
City unveils carbon tax plan
Posted by: Matt McCormick
Commissioner Dan Saltzman and the city unveil plan to make Portland greener and even more awesome!
from the Oregonian: "In a bold move to curb the growth of greenhouse gas emissions from the Portland area, city officials plan to charge builders hundreds of dollars for each new home that is not extremely energy efficient. And it would require, as part of every existing home sale, that an energy efficiency report be done by home inspectors.
Believed to be the first of its kind in the nation, the carbon fee and inspection requirement would levy taxes upon builders who merely comply with the energy efficiency requirements of the Oregon building code, already one of the most stringent in the nation. It would then pay cash rewards to developers who make buildings that save at least 45 percent more energy than the code requires. "
(*it is things like this, and the passing of measure 49 earlier this week, that make me proud to be a resident of this city/state!!!!!!!)
NY Times: Portland is a bike town
Posted by: Matt McCormick
there is a nice video today on the New York Times website about how awesome Portland is for biking:
The Business of Biking
along with a full article here
the NY Times luv for PDX just doesn't stop!!!
