FEATURE PRESENTATIONS

The Whole Communities Radio Project has provided training for many KBOO Community Radio (90.7 FM) volunteer news and public affairs producers. As part of the training program each trainee produced a short feature that was aired before one of the Whole Community Radio panel discussions on KBOO. You can listen to the best of these features by clicking here.

2005

April 27

What design features promote active living vs. auto living? Featuring Jennifer Dill with Portland State University's School of Urban Studies and Planning and Stephanie Faquhar with PSU's School of Community Health

May 25

How to transform car-oriented communities of sprawl into walkable communities.

June 29

Preserving natural spaces in urban areas for human and wildlife health. Featuring Bob Sallinger and Jim Labbe, urban conservationists with Audubon Society of Portland, Steve Johnson with the Johnson Creek Watershed Council, Sue Marshall with Tualatin Riverkeepers and Mike Houck with Urban Greenspaces Institute.

July 13

A preview of the Coalition for A Livable Future's forum: Damascus and the Region: Planning for a Healthy Future

July 27

Healthy urban design and environmental justice: Which neighborhoods are the most polluted or have the fewest livable amenities and why. With Mike Burton, former Metro director and Sylvia Evans and Jeri Sundvall with Environmental Justice Action Group.

August 31

How urban design affects what we eat, where we eat and where our food is grown. What role can community gardens play in encouraging healthy, active living? Guests include Marilee Dea with the Reed College Community Garden, Suzanne Briggs with Oregon Farmer Market Association, Eamon Molloy with the Hillsdale Farmers Market and Portland State University graduate student Paul Rosenbloom.

October 26

Getting young people active early in life through walk to school programs. Robert Ping - Safe Routes To School Program Director with the Bicycle Transportation Alliance, Bruce Appleyard - SERA Architects and Dakota Inyoswan with the City of Portland Office of Transportation talk about programs that encourage school children to walk and bike to school.

November 30

Aging Oregonian: Remaining Active and Involved in Our Community. Portland City Commissioner Sam Adams and and Yvonne Michael, Assistant Professor at OHSU's school of Public Health and Preventive Medicine discuss types of community design that encourage or discourage seniors citizens to remain active.

December 28

Designing a healthy community from scratch: The Damascus Concept Plan. The recent inclusion of the rural community of Damascus inside Portland's urban growth boundary is creating an opportunity to plan and create a new urban center that incorporates healthy design principles and preserves and protects natural spaces and watersheds. With Damascus residents Diana Lobo and Dean Apostl and consultant Stephen Metzler, an urban planner working with the Metro Council, the Portland area's regional government.

2006

January 18

How does cultural development foster healthy, sustainable communities, and create the kinds of neighborhood places to which people want to walk? With Arts Development Consultant Bill Bulick, Portland Parks Concert Producer Kristan Knapp and Portland State University School of Urban Planning instructor Steve Johnson.

February 22

Why does access to nature matter? What disparities exist within and between the region's cities and neighborhoods and how can we work to ensure everyone has adequate access to nature?

Jim Labbe, Urban Conservationist at the Audubon Society of Portland, Kim Dixon-McLeary, co-director of the Environmental Justice Action Group and Jill Fuglister, executive director of the Coalition for a Livable Future share results of the Coalition for a Livable Future's Regional Equity Atlas Project that seeks to answer these questions.

April 12

An interview with Michael Pollan, author of several books about the politics and social culture of gardening and food has just released a new book The Omnivores' Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals. This is a personal investigative adventure as Pollan tries to follow the paths of the foods we eat, from seed to stomach.

April 26

HEALTHY & SUSTAINABLE BURIALS. How do end of life choices impact the environment and livability of our communities. Guests include hospice worker Sabra Larson and funeral director Elizabeth Fournier?

June 28

DISAPPEARING STREAMS. More than 350 creeks and streams flow through pipes under the city of Portland. This program looks at how we can become more connected to the streams in our community, both above and below the ground. Panelists include Mike Houck with the Urban Greenspaces Institute, Bob Sallinger with the Audubon Society of Portland and Michele Bussard with the Johnson Creek Watershed Council.

July 5

MORELAND FARMERS' MARKET. One of the newest farmers' markets in Portland is happening each Wednesday afternoon in the Moreland Business Parking Lot one block north of the intersection of SE Milwaukie and Bybee. This segment of Locus Focus presents the market manager Laura Wendel and board chair Jaque DeVore, Oregon Farmers' Market Association board member Suzanne Briggs, and Leslie Pohl-Kosbau, who runs the Portland Community Gardens program.

August 16

OPEN SPACES, PARKS AND STREAMS. This November Portland Metro voters will have a chance to vote for a bond measure that will provide the funding to buy several thousands acres of natural areas in and around the Portland Metro area. Protecting these special places will help preserve the Oregon that we know and love for future generations.

December 20

AFFORDABLE HOUSING IN OREGON. Despite its renowned natural beauty and vibrant livable cities, Oregon is one of the least affordable places to live in the United States. In this panel Chris Bonner (with Real Estate Professionals Building Community) and Janet Byrd and Amy Fauver (with the Housing Alliance) discuss how they are working with the state legislature to make Oregon more affordable again.

2007

January 24

MEASURE 37 UPDATE. In this segment of Locus Focus, Sid Friedman with 1,000 Friends of Oregon gives us an update on what is happening with efforts to stop, suspend or enhance Measure 37 as it now stands, threatening to undo Oregon's notable land use laws.

July 18, 2007

ROSS ISLAND UPDATE. Mike Houck with the Urban Greenspaces Institute, Bob Sallinger with the Audubon Society of Portland and landscape designer Christina Frank discuss "Envisioning Ross Island." They explore the history of Ross Island, current restoration plans, and possible future scenarios for Ross Island as the region's premier Willamette River nature park.

January 9, 2008

GREY TO GREEN. For over 100 years Portland has relied on engineered solutions to deal with our abundance of rain water run off. But in the past decade environmental advocates within and without city government have helped to shape a new vision that values this watery abundance as an asset that enhances our city rather than a problem that needs to be piped underground.

Lisa Libby works with Portland City Commissioner Sam Adams on environmental policy issues. Dean Marriot is the director of Portland's Bureau of Environmental Services. They join Locus Focus host Barbara Bernstein for a discussion on turning Portland's systems for stormwater management from grey to green.

2007

March 5

PORTLAND SUSTAINABILITY

When it comes to planning for a sustainable future, the city of Portland is way ahead of the curve. The state of Oregon and the city of Portland have been planning for growth on a limited environmental footprint for 35 years. The city of Portland created a plan to curb greenhouse gas emissions in 1997. It's been said that if you grade on a curve, Portland would get an A+ for taking concrete steps to lower our carbon emissions and creating a sustainable community. But if you take away the curve, Portland, like the rest of the world, would flunk. So there's lots of hard work left to do.

Michael Armstrong, deputy director of Portland's Office of Sustainable Development, joins Locus Focus host Barbara Bernstein for an indepth discussion of what Portland is doing right, and what still needs to be done. Originally broadcast on March 5, 2008.

March 12

LANDTRUSTS AND OTHER TOOLS

Oregon's land use laws may have been rescued by the passage of Measure 49 in November 2007, but that doesn't mean that the state's system of protecting open spaces can't be improved. Glenn Lamb with the Columbia Landtrust joins Locus Focus host Barbara Bernstein to talk about some other tools in his kit to save our natural spaces: landtrusts, conservation easements and some other innovative ideas.

March 19

OAKS BOTTOM

Portland is a city of parks and natural resources. But perhaps its most amazing blessing is Oaks Bottom, nearly 200 acres of wetland wildlife habitat on the east bank of the Willamette River, just a couple miles south of downtown Portlands. Mike Houck, urban naturalist with the Urban Greenspaces Institute, was one of several people instrumental in saving Oaks Bottom in the 1970s from a wide range of development schemes, including draining the wetland, filling it and turning it into a race track. Mark Wilson, an ecologist with Portland Parks and Recreation, and Anne Nelson with Portland's Bureau of Environmental Services, continue the work that Mike began, now with city-institutionalized support.

Mike, Mark and Ann joins Locus Focus host Barbara Bernstein to discuss the successes and continuing challenges of protecting Oaks Bottom as a unique urban wildlife refuge.