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Note: This is part of a series. Here’s how Measure 37—the progenitor of a new wave of more aggressive initiatives, such as I-933 in Washington—is affecting Oregon’s farm economy. In windswept northeastern Oregon, the farmers of rural Union County are feeling the sting of Measure 37. A landowner-turned-speculator there recently made a claim to subdivide more than 1,400 acres of rural land into hundreds of 5-acre buildable lots. Farmers nearby...

Note: This is part of a series. I’ve been writing a lot about Washington’s I-933 lately; here’s what’s happening in the rest of Cascadia. California: Napa County voters handily defeated Measure A, another cookie-cutter “pay-or-waive” initiative. Idaho: Proponents just announced that they have enough signatures to put “This House Is My Home” on the ballot in November. A silly ballot title, yes, but the initiative is much better written than,...

In my ongoing analysis of Initiative 933, another story from fast-growing Kitsap County. Today’s question: should a community have a say over where heavy industry belongs?(Also see the full series of posts.) The Kitsap County Association of Realtors is opposing the “industrialization of Hood Canal.” The Kitsap Sun reports that the realtors are likely motivated by a large-scale gravel mining and shipping operation under consideration. As might be expected, they...

Note: This is part of a series. When Measure 37 passed in Oregon, it triggered an avalanche of imitation. It sparked I-933 in Washington, a ballot measure that would fundamentally re-define how property uses can be regulated. Because the authors of I-933 studied Oregon’s law, it’s often thought that I-933 is simply an Evergreen State version of 37. But that’s not right. The truth is that I-933 is not a clone of 37 so much as it’s a steroid-pumped version...

Here at Sightline, we’re enamored of good visuals–especially maps that tell stories. So I was pleased to find a terrific interactive map published by Save Our Wild Salmon. Scrolling across features in the Columbia-Snake River basin, users learn the story of salmon conservation. I’m not just talking about pop-up windows that describe the dams and wilderness areas (it has those too). I’m talking about clickable icons that activate movie clips....

Note: This is part of a series. Washington’s Initiative 933. Montana’s Initiative 154. Idaho’s “Property Rights Protection.” All three 2006 ballot initiatives are modeled on Oregon’s Measure 37—a prototype pay-or-waive scheme aimed to eliminate most land-use laws. Last week, I wrote about claims made in Oregon under Measure 37. The claims are often pricey, sometimes absurdly so, and governments simply waive land-use restrictions for claimants because there’s no (taxpayer) money...

Note: This is part of a series. As I mentioned last week, I’ll be writing a series of posts about the struggle over property rights that is perhaps the single biggest environmental controversy in the Northwest. I was planning to build on last week’s question when I was sidetracked by every researcher’s best friend and worst enemy: data! Data, specifically, from Oregon, where property owners are currently making claims under...

Finally, just the kind of article I’ve been waiting to read about economic trends: “Why Does a Good Economy Not Feel That Way?” But first, I do have a beef with the article, or at least the headline writer. In the face of so much economic bad news (as we’ll see in a moment), how is it accurate to write that a “good economy” doesn’t “feel good”? Language matters, I...

Note: This is part of a series. The defining environmental controversy of the early 21st century in the Northwest states may well turn out to be the debate over property rights. What should property owners be allowed to do on their land? When is regulation appropriate? And how much is too much? Should property owners be compensated when regulations affect them? And what about compensation for neighbors and community when...

Splashed alloverpageone today: the US economy shows strong growth. (And by “economy”, of course, the media actually mean GDP plain and simple.) But do the GDP numbers lie? Readers of this blog probably know we’re abittouchy on this subject. Today, I’ll spare you my ranting and pull a quote from Ezra Klein at Tapped: ,,,macro data tells you very little about the economic experience of most folks, which accounts for...