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Posts published in “Day: December 7, 2005”

Oregon bloggers, blue and red

December 7, 2005

A good move that nakes for good symmetry: a red blog to match the blue one in Oregon.

Blue Oregon, which has been telling the liberal/Demcratic side for more than a year, has been a solid group blog, one of the best in the Northwest. It has cried out for a counterpart on the Republican right, and now it has one.

Oregon Catalyst bills itself as updating daily (weekdays, at least) and as "Oregon's idea brain trust," has got off to an active start, with entries on government budgeting, education, the Measure 37 ruling and other topics.

Very rural bus

December 7, 2005

Most of us tend to think of bus systems as highly urban creatures; if you live outside an urban area, the only bus you're likely to see is a Greyhound (and fewer of those). Not many small communities have real bus systems; hardly any really rural areas do.

Warm Springs reservation mapNow it appears the Warm Springs Indian reservation in west-central Oregon, located many miles from the nearest city (Bend - which doesn't have a bus system), may get one.

Their reason for moving this way may seem counterintuitive at first, but - it should be obvious - applies to a lot of rural areas around the country. From a news story on the development: "Tribal leaders have been working on the plan for the past two years, spurred by a transit study which found that more than 17 percent of unemployed reservation residents cited lack of transportation as the main reason they couldn't find work. It was the second leading reason given for unemployment, after 'unknown reasons'."

So they'll run it around from point to point: "From 6 a.m. to 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. to 6 p.m., riders could pay a small fee to schedule daily or weekly transportation door-to-door. For the rest of the day, the service would switch to a 'checkpoint' system."

Question: Could it work in other rural areas, even absent a grant?