Walking is good. When the days lengthen and the weather gets nicer, it's lots easier to get out there for five minutes or for hours. Can you go out your front door for a reasonably pleasant walk, or is your neighborhood designed for cars and not people? My neighborhood is a little on the hilly side for me, and there are too many no-shoulder thoroughfares and dead-end cul de sacs. But I've found a couple of routes that work even for a short walk.

They say its the best exercise for everything from mental health to preventing osteoporosis. I love seeing pedestrians in Washington County. I dream of walkers controlling the streets instead of cars!

Poverty in the Suburbs

I read an interesting article about suburban poverty the other day.

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20070423/press.

In Washington County, 2003 census figures say we had 8.7% of persons living below the poverty line, which is over 42,000 people. The median household income was around $54,000. I don't know if there is a trend here one way or the other.

http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/41/41067.html

Keep in mind that the "poverty line" is very low. As an example, the poverty threshold is $10,160 for a person under 65 years of age with no related children under 18 years of age. For a three-person household, it's between $14,000-15,000.

What always strikes me about the suburbs is how shielded many of us are from "how the other half lives."

The News - a newsletter, a report, a new park

Cedar Mill residents are lucky to have a monthly newsletter that provides all kinds of local news. You can sign up for it at http://www.cedarmill.org.

Who knew that there is a "State of the County" report for Washington County? I found out about it through the Cedar Mill newsletter. You can find it here: http://www.co.washington.or.us/deptmts/cao/st_cty07.htm. It worth reading, if you like to know what's going on around you.

The most surprising thing in the report is that Washington County is getting a huge new state park this summer. It's called Stewart Memorial State Park. The Park is on the east side of Highway 47 between Highway 26 and Vernonia, four miles north of the U.S. 26-Hwy. 47 junction. So that's pretty nice. I've been meaning to check out the long trailway they've been developing out there, too.

Geography

Do you know where you are? I've been trying to find a good watershed map showing the streams in the Beaverton area and what they drain into. Beaverton is in the Tualatin River watershed. Major creeks flowing through Beaverton include Fanno Creek and Beaverton Creek. The hills throughout the area are lined with smaller creeks that feed into larger ones. The maps I've been able to find are unreadable.

However, I did find a good page on Beaverton at Answers.com. I'm adding it to the links.

Reducing consumption and carbon emissions

Given the choice, I think more and more people would like to reduce their consumption, make purchasing decisions that support local businesses, and reduce their impact on the environment.

But we are all time-starved, and there is a lot of confusing information out there. On this site, I hope to present suggestions that people can actually use. Some of the collected links are a start.

Most of us could make the biggest difference by reducing our trips that use gasoline and jet fuel. As for plane travel, we can question the need to fly to that business meeting, and we can consider a vacation closer to home. If we still need -- or want -- to fly, there are several programs selling carbon offsets that will purportedly make our travel "carbon neutral".

For example, my round-trip flight from Portland to Bend will apparently create 435 lbs of greenhouse gases. For a few dollars, I can purchase a "green tag" from Bonneville Environmental Foundation (the local option, see link at left), which will invest the money in renewable energy sources. Or I can buy a "ski green tag" at Mt. Bachelor.