Monday, 15 Nov 2004

Welcome to the Measure Dome

Oregon voters lash out against land-use planning

For more than three decades, Oregon's comprehensive anti-sprawl land-use planning rules have funneled development into urban cores and preserved vast swaths of land covered by farms and forests. Sixty percent of Oregon voters apparently found this state of affairs intolerable. On Nov. 2, despite opposition from current and former governors and state officials from both major parties, labor unions, enviro groups, farm bureaus, and utilities, they approved Measure 37 by a 20 percent margin. The measure takes Oregon further than any other state in protecting individual property rights, requiring full compensation for any so-called "down-zoning" -- compensation that cash-strapped local governments are unlikely to be able to pay out. The measure's supporters say the state's land-use planning program had become too complicated and burdensome on landowners. Opponents counter that Measure 37 will produce planning chaos, inequitable enforcement of zoning laws, massive sprawl, and worst of all, similar efforts in other states.

A Mandate for All Seasons

Umbra revisits her mandate, via soy

When a reader asked about the health effects of soy consumption, Umbra in turn asked readers: Should she be answering health questions at all? Well holy tofu, readers had a lot to say! Our basement-bound eco-advice columnist got heaps of letters in response to her query. Find out the opinion breakdown and read Umbra's conclusions about her mandate -- in Ask Umbra, today on the Grist Magazine website.

Bela-ruse

Poor Belarusians returning to areas contaminated by Chernobyl

It's been 18 years since the Chernobyl nuclear reactor in the Ukraine exploded and spewed forth a cloud of radiation that contaminated some 22 percent of neighboring Belarus. Now many poor Belarusian residents are returning to normal life there, foraging for mushrooms and planting crops in areas that critics say remain contaminated. Yuri Kuzmich, head of Belarus' Chernobyl exclusion and monitoring zone, offers this benign explanation: "The passage of time and economic necessity take their toll. Human memory is short." Critics, however, accuse the government of Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko of deliberately encouraging repatriation of contaminated areas in order to boost agricultural production. They say he has struck many cities from the danger list prematurely, cut Chernobyl-related welfare funding, and censored alarming health statistics, all of which will lead to another generation burdened with the lingering health problems that are Chernobyl's ugly legacy.

Oh Say, Can You Sze?

Environmental-justice scholar Julie Sze InterActivates

Julie Sze, professor in American Studies at U.C.-Davis, is a born-and-bred New Yorker, despite her current residence in Sacramento -- she's at work on a book about the history of the environmental-justice movement in New York City. She answers our questions, discussing her childhood in Chinatown, her environmental awakening in college, and her route from community activism through graduate school and into academe, in InterActivist -- today on the Grist Magazine website.

What Would Jesus Ride?

Raging Cyclists push for bike-friendly reforms in Santiago

Inspired by Critical Mass, the cycling activist group formed in San Francisco in 1992, the Furiosos Ciclistas -- or Raging Cyclists -- of Santiago, Chile, are inspiring real reform in that polluted city. The group is one of more than 200 inspired by Critical Mass in cities across the world. Santiago is one of the most polluted cities in the world, with frequent air-quality alerts, but bike usage is on the rise: Some 5 percent of residents now use bikes as their primary means of transport. Founded in 1996 and spread mostly by word of mouth and word of mouse, the group now boasts more than 3,000 participants. Their constant pressure for "ciclovias," or bike paths, is paying off, with plans in the works for a $500,000 path down Santiago's central avenue. Says Raging Cyclist Jesus Montealegre, "This is changing the way cycling is seen, from being a lower-class necessity to a classless means of transportation and recreation."

The Frame Game

Do enviros need to pay more attention to the way they talk?

Republican pollster Frank Luntz is famous for his memo to party bosses warning them about their vulnerability on the environment and coaching them on the proper way to frame their positions. Enviros tend to scorn this sort of message massaging, but then again, enviros tend to get whooped. Maybe it's time they listened to U.C.-Berkeley prof George Lakoff and took framing seriously. Tell us what you think, in the Gristmill -- today on the Grist Magazine website.