12/16/2009 - Online News and Opinion: Rural Oregon
Online News and Opinion: Rural Oregon
Saw this bit of non-news on the OPB website this morning: Rural Communitites HIt Hard By Recession (sic - actually the typos worry me a bit, what with being on OPB and all). It's a very short news blurb that can be summed up by this sentence: "Rural areas are especially vulnerable in this economy." At any rate, no surprises there.
Inspired a quick google search to see what other recent news might be out there.
There's a lay-off in Baker County that happened on Monday at the Ash Grove Cement Company. It's supposed to be temporary, but given recent news and potential EPA rule changes, the lay-off could become permanent. On the other hand, as the article notes, the historic Geiser Grand Hotel has added a few staff members (OK, doesn't quite offset a lay-off of 68, but at least it's active hiring).
Found Loaded Orygun, which appears to be a blog on Oregon politics, culture and advocacy by Oregon's Progressive Community. Oregon's Progressive Community, whatever or whoever that might be, seems to have a soft-spot for rural Oregon - it's nice that it's not Portland-centric. At any rate, they have a few discussion pieces on some rural Oregon issues in their "diary" with links to related articles. First, as a part of a discussion about Oregon's rural/urban economic divide: "16 percent of high school graduates from rural counties attended state universities last year compared to 22 percent from urban counties." Interestingly, La Grande and Klamath Falls, both of which have institutes of higher learning in the community, have rates closer to 25%. Costs, as the blog points out, play a role, but perhaps local access does well - possibly as a component of cost?
There was a very interesting point made about the law, originally titled the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act, which allocates federal funds to counties to replace lost timber revenue. While it is still active, it has been somewhat shanghai-ed from it's original intent by politics. A lot of the money is now going to areas that aren't even connected historically to the timber industry. Discussion in this article.
And speaking of timber, legislation has been recently introduced for thinning woodlands to decrease fire risk and to get jobs into rural areas.
- Monty