From rmwj@soonernet.com Thu Jan 3 01:49:54 2002 From: rmwj@soonernet.com (Robert Waldrop) Date: Wed, 2 Jan 2002 19:49:54 -0600 Subject: [ok-sus] Oklahoma food-only catering Message-ID: <028e01c193f8$f32d76a0$49aae840@gabriel> Hope everybody survived the holidays OK. I have come across another source for "Oklahoma-only" catering: Oklahoma Suite Catering, Gerald Duke, 405-603-4012. He does a lot of catering at my parish, and I asked him if he could produce an "Oklahoma food only" catered event, and he said "No problem," and has done it already here and there. I can vouch for his cooking. Robert Waldrop, Oklahoma City http://www.bettertimesinfo.org/oklahoma.htm From ecojy@yahoo.com Tue Jan 8 21:53:12 2002 From: ecojy@yahoo.com (eco jy) Date: Tue, 8 Jan 2002 13:53:12 -0800 (PST) Subject: [ok-sus] OSN meeting / parking Message-ID: <20020108215312.63893.qmail@web10408.mail.yahoo.com> You are invited to join the Oklahoma Sustainability Network at a brown bag lunch meeting this Thursday, Jan. 10, from 11:30am to 1:30pm in the "Guest Room" (1st floor) at the ODEQ, 707 N. Robinson. Parking is scarce, so if our visitors' lot (north of building) is full, you can park on the street (or as a last resort, in the church parking lot on the east side of Robinson). If you work downtown, you could take the trolley or walk. Coffee and water will be available in the meeting room. We have a break room with vending machines on the 7th floor. -- jay __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Send FREE video emails in Yahoo! Mail! http://promo.yahoo.com/videomail/ From sshields@telepath.com Sun Jan 6 22:07:02 2002 From: sshields@telepath.com (Susie Shields) Date: Sun, 6 Jan 2002 16:07:02 -0600 Subject: [ok-sus] FW: The Ten Worst Corporations of 2001 Message-ID: Subject: The Ten Worst Corporations of 2001 The Ten Worst Corporations of 2001 By Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman In a year marked not only by the now-standard forms of corporate marauding but also by brazen wartime profiteering, it was no easy chore to identify Multinational Monitor's 10 corporations of 2001. The competition was even tougher than usual. But choices had to be made. And now decisions have been reached. Multinational Monitor has named Abbott Laboratories, Argenbright, Bayer, Coke, Enron, Exxon Mobil, Philip Morris, Sara Lee, Southern Co. and Wal-Mart as the 10 worst corporations of 2001 Appearing in alphabetical order, the 10 worst are: Abbott Laboratories, for its TAP Pharmaceuticals, a joint venture with Japanese Takeda Pharmaceuticals. TAP was forced to pay $875 million to resolve criminal charges and civil liability in connection with allegations of major Medicare reimbursement fraud. Among other alleged fraudulent activities, as a way of hooking doctors on prescribing Lupron, its prostate cancer drug, TAP gave doctors free samples and then encouraged doctors to bill Medicare for the free samples. Argenbright, the security company, for repeat violations of regulations for airport security. Argenbright's appalling record -- including violations of security rules it had been caught breaking just a year earlier -- helped convince Congress to federalize U.S. airport security operations. Bayer, for its overcharge of the government and public for the anti-anthrax drug Cipro, based on a patent monopoly that may well be improperly maintained by virtue of a collusive arrangement with a generic manufacturer. Bayer also secured a place on the 10 worst list for its dangerous peddling of antibiotics for poultry (contributing to antibiotic resistance among humans) and its harassment of a German watchdog group, Coalition Against Bayer Dangers, for maintaining a BayerWatch.com website. Coca Cola, for its sponsorship of the first Harry Potter movie and possible sequels, using a children's favorite to hawks its unhealthy product, and for alleged complicity with death squads in Colombia targeting union leaders there. Enron, for costing many of its employees their life savings by refusing to let them dump company stock from their pension plans, as Enron plunged toward bankruptcy. ExxonMobil, for leading the global warming denial campaign (even O'Dwyer's a leading rag of the public relations industry, has chastised the company for its "stubborn refusal to acknowledge the fact that burning fossil fuels has a role in global warming") and blocking efforts at appropriate remedial action, plus a host of other reckless activities. Philip Morris, for its "we've changed" marketing campaign -- revealed to be a hoax by a Czech study it commissioned alleging cost savings from smoking-related premature deaths, as well as the company's ongoing efforts to addict millions of new smokers. Sara Lee, for a scandal involving its Ball Park Franks hot dogs. Listeria-contaminated Ball Park Franks killed 21 and seriously injured 100 in 1998. In 2001, with civil and criminal litigation around the case heating up, the Detroit Free Press reported that Sara Lee stopped performing tests for bacteria after it started recording too many positives. The U.S. attorney, which handled prosecution of the criminal case, insists Sara Lee did not know about the presence of listeria in its hot dogs. In an extraordinary move, the U.S. attorney issued a joint press release with Sara Lee announcing settlement of the case. The final tally: 21 dead. A misdemeanor plea. A $200,000 fine. Southern Co., the largest electric utility in the United States, for its efforts to defeat sensible air pollution regulations. Southern is a heavy user of coal, and leads the fight to maintain a ridiculous "grandfather" clause in the U.S. Clean Air Act, which exempts power plants built before 1970 from Clean Air Act standards. Wal-Mart, for continuing to source products from overseas sweatshops, for viciously battling efforts to unionize any fraction of its workforce (the largest in the United States, among private employers), and for contributing to the sprawl that blights the U.S. landscape. For a complete version of Multinational Monitor's article naming the 10 worst corporations of 2001, see www.essential.org/monitor. Russell Mokhiber is editor of the Washington, D.C.-based Corporate Crime Reporter. Robert Weissman is editor of the Washington, D.C.-based Multinational Monitor. They are co-authors of Corporate Predators: The Hunt for MegaProfits and the Attack on Democracy (Monroe, Maine: Common Courage Press, 1999; http://www.corporatepredators.org) (c) Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman From rmwj@soonernet.com Thu Jan 10 21:58:27 2002 From: rmwj@soonernet.com (Robert Waldrop) Date: Thu, 10 Jan 2002 15:58:27 -0600 Subject: [ok-sus] OSN meeting / parking Message-ID: <019701c19a21$f0616ec0$70aae840@gabriel> Some ideas for a sustainable Oklahoma City. To think about in view of the upcoming mayor's race. Robert Waldrop, Oklahoma City http://www.bettertimesinfo.org/oklahoma.htm 10 Sustainable Ideas for City Government 1. Tree Planting Program. OKC's urban heat island effect may be attracting more violent storms to the area. One of way countering this is to plant a lot of trees. By planting fruit and nut trees, the city gets a valuable second benefit from the local production of home grown food. 2. City composting program Oklahoma City currently sends garden waste to the landfill, and this is like throwing away money. Since people already put their yard waste out for a separate pickup, instead of hauling it to the dump, haul it to a city composting operation, with the product then free for the taking. 3. Historic displays in parks. Place a small traditional homestead with a water pumping windmill, a garden growing traditional Oklahoma pioneer and Native American heirloom varieties, an outdoor bread oven, and an aquaculture fishing pond in each city park. Plant berry patches in every park, and maybe even have a corner of each park designed as a "forest garden". 4. Forgive city property taxes on vacant lots used as community gardens. 5. Establish a "sustainable OKC" department, whose employees would be trained to help local residents implement grey water recycling, insulate and weatherize their homes, install solar hot water and air heaters, start gardens, do backyard aquaculture. Several canning kitchens could be opened in parks. (Note: in Europe there is an extensive "self-building" movement that puts up rooftop solar water and air heaters. A central staff provides teams that go into neighborhoods, explain the process, recruit a dozen families that want to try it, then they supervise the materials acquisition and building process, the entire group working together to put everybody's system together. The central group provides some specialized tools. This could be replicated here.) Less money spent on energy means more money circulating in the local economy for other uses, so using city resources for this can also be looked at as an economic development issue.. 6. Establish a city fund to collect donations for weatherizing/insulating poor people's homes. This already goes on to some extent, but it needs to be ramped up as both cold winter and hot summer are a problem. 7. Use the city's purchasing power to make mass purchases of components for PV systems, and then sell them at the city's cost to residents. 8. Find a dedicated funding source for a local mass transit system. Defend the rail links of Union Station against the proposed I-40 crosstown freeway re-routing that threatens those connections. 9. Establish a series of neighborhood farmer's markets. Use block grant economic development funds to provide seed money for market farmers close, or even within, the city. 10. Use the "bully pulpit" of city government to get every church, synagogue, temple, and mosque in town to start a garden to grow food for the metropolitan food bank. Encourage them to make involvement with the garden a part of their children's religious education programs. From rmwj@soonernet.com Thu Jan 10 22:09:45 2002 From: rmwj@soonernet.com (Robert Waldrop) Date: Thu, 10 Jan 2002 16:09:45 -0600 Subject: [ok-sus] OSN meeting / parking Message-ID: <019e01c19a23$8822cf00$70aae840@gabriel> Here is the url of the group I mentioned in my previous email, which is organizing do-it-yourself teams to build solar water heaters in Austria. http://www.aee.at/indexeng.html Here's a page of info about their do-it-yourself projects, which have installed more than 42,000 units with 400,000 square meters of solar water heater panels. http://www.aee.at/verz/english/self01.html "Through the development of an assembly procedure for solar devices, based upon the use of components available, it was possible to install 42.000 solar devices with total collector surface area of about 400.000 m2. Lively interest in this assembly-system lead to the formation of groups, which enabled bulk purchasing of materials and collective assembly of the collectors, using specially designed tools. " And also, they are looking at solar air conditioning http://www.aee.at/verz/english/solarac.html Is there some way we could bring these folks here to get something like this started in Oklahoma? Robert Waldrop, OKC From rmwj@soonernet.com Sat Jan 12 04:53:28 2002 From: rmwj@soonernet.com (Robert Waldrop) Date: Fri, 11 Jan 2002 22:53:28 -0600 Subject: [ok-sus] OKC's urban heat island effect Message-ID: <036e01c19b26$4d728d60$66aae840@gabriel> I asked the "weather experts" at KWTV about the possible connection between the urban heat island effect and storms, and here is Gary England's response. Curiouser and curiouser, cried Alice. I've also included my original email to them. It will be interesting to see what he comes out with, but a "Call for a Study" about the effect of the OKC's urban heat island on stormy weather could be an interesting idea for a press release activity for this new Sustainable Oklahoma group that's coming together and putting on the conference later this year. Might as well start trying to get noticed now. Also, since Normanis downwind from Oklahoma City, note the relevance of the St. Louis experience. Robert Waldrop, OKC Several years ago a very exhaustive study was done on the St. Louis metro area. Unfotunately, I don't remember many details except that city heat islands exist. At St. Louis they found something like a 180% increase in severe weather downwind from the city, not over the city. Here in OKC it seems the heat island effect is more obvious during the nightime hours wind when the winds are usually light. Our winds during the day are usually strong enough the some of the heat island effect is mixed out. Now on days when we have an unstable atmosphere and fairly light surface winds, I have noticed that storms will form over the metro before the occur in the rural areas. I can't prove it but I suspect those events are impacted by an OKC definite heat island. Thanks for bringing the studies to my attention. I may use then in one of my future columns. Regards, Gary -----Original Message----- From: rmwj@soonernet.com Sent: 1/10/02 10:24 PM Subject: KWTV Ask The Experts Weather Question Below is the result of your feedback form. It was submitted by (rmwj@soonernet.com) on Thursday, January 10, 2002 at 22:24:14 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- -- name: Robert Waldrop question: Is Oklahoma City's "urban heat island" effect a problem that could attract additional storms to the metro area? Here's a study that suggests this may be true for Atlanta, Georgia. http://science.nasa.gov/newhome/headlines/essd26apr99_1.htm Here's a NASA study of 3 cities' urban heat island effect, with suggestions for reducing it. More greenery seems to be the basic prescription. http://science.msfc.nasa.gov/newhome/headlines/essd20nov98_1.htm Anyway, your thoughts about this? From rex_w@hotmail.com Sun Jan 13 21:15:48 2002 From: rex_w@hotmail.com (Rex Wycherley) Date: Sun, 13 Jan 2002 21:15:48 Subject: [ok-sus] Second World Social Forum(fwd) Message-ID: From January 31 to February 5, 2002, those who seek to dictate the course of the world’s economy are to meet in New York at the World Economic Forum. On the same dates, the Second World Social Forum will take place in Porto Alegre, Brazil. This year 50,000 people are expected, more than twice that of last year. Already 19,180 official delegates have paid for pre- registration, representing 3,507 organizations and 108 different countries, and they will give 800 workshops (all these numbers are double that of last year!). Last year there were 1,870 accredited journalists, of which 1,484 were Brazilian and 386 international. Some of the confirmed speakers are: João Pedro Stédile (Brazilian Landless People’s Movement); Leonardo Boff, Brazilian theologian; Noam Chomsky, North American professor and writer; Perez Esquivel, Argentina Nobel Peace Prize winner in 1980; Naomi Klein, Canadian author and journalist; Piedad Cordoba, Colombian senator; Vandana Shiva, Indian researcher and activist defense of natural resources and biodiversity; Frei Betto, Brazilian activist and author; Tariq Ali, Pakistan, editor of New Left Review; Bernard Cassen ­ Attac, France; Nicola Boullard ­ Focus, Thailand; Walden Bello ­ Focus, Philippines; François Houtart ­ Centre Tricontinental, Belgium; Victorio Agnoletto ­ Genoa Social Forum, Italy; Emilio Taddei ­ Clacso, Argentina; Boaventura dos Santos Souza, Portuguese Sociologist; Dita Sari, human rights activist from Indonesia; Irène Fernandez, activist, Malaysia; Eric Toussaint, Belgium, Director of the Committee for the Annulment of Third World Debt; Ignácio Ramonet, France. Director of Le Monde Diplomatique. General information on this event and its aims can be found at the website http://www.forumsocialmundial.org.br in the event’s four official languages (English, French, Portuguese and Spanish). _________________________________________________________________ Send and receive Hotmail on your mobile device: http://mobile.msn.com From emma@desert.as Thu Jan 17 06:44:42 2002 From: emma@desert.as (emma@desert.as) Date: 17 Jan 2002 06:44:42 -0000 Subject: [ok-sus] Fwd: Sustainable Agriculture info...help shape policy Message-ID: <20020117064442.32412.qmail@www3.nameplanet.com> ---- Forwarded message HELP BUILD A NATIONAL POLICY AGENDA FOR SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE At the National Campaign's 5th Annual Meeting February 24-26, 2002 in Washington, D.C. This event convenes a diverse group of leaders to promote a national policy agenda for advancing sustainable and family-scale agriculture, through the Farm Bill and other initiatives. If you are interested in promoting sustainable agriculture, building a strong movement, and changing national policy, this is the place to be! Meeting participants will have the opportunity to: Share information, priority initiatives and strategies with diverse groups and constituents from across the country ·Network with a diverse group of grassroots, state, regional and national leaders ·Educate people about and solicit support for their work ·Hone skills for influencing public policy ·Help inform the National Campaign's ongoing policy initiatives and advocacy strategies ·Meet with elected officials and persuade them to support sustainable agriculture ·Connect with a dynamic national movement ·Be inspired and have fun! Over the last seven years, the National Campaign has played a leading role in coordinating policy development and advocacy on a broad range of food and farm policy issues. The National Campaign is known for its success in building cooperation and grassroots strength among diverse constituencies, including farmers, consumers, environmentalists, farmworkers, community food security advocates, social justice groups, faith communities, rural community groups, and livestock and animal interests. We want your organization to be part of this diverse and powerful network! The Annual Meeting will further the National Campaign's work on the 2002 Farm Bill. The gathering will also provide an opportunities to consider future directions for the National Campaign and to review our partners’ priority issues and initiatives beyond the Farm Bill. Our awards dinner on Sunday evening in recognition of sustainable agriculture leaders will feature regional, seasonal, sustainably produced foods and will be a great opportunity for networking! The meeting site will be the Radisson Barcelo Hotel Washington, 2121 P Street, NW, Washington, DC 20037, 202 293-3100. Please Note: This year, participants will be responsible for making their own room reservations. We have secured a block of rooms for the conference at the cost of $119 per night (plus tax), single or double occupancy. Please let the reservations clerk know that you are reserving from the block of rooms for the meeting of the National Campaign for Sustainable Agriculture. This rate is guaranteed until February 1, 2002, so make your reservations ASAP! Meeting registrations and payment are due by January 25th. Please use the form that can be found at: http://www.sustainableagriculture.net/meeting.html For more information on the National Campaign, visit our web site at www.SustainableAgriculture.net, or call BECKY CROOKER (845) 744-8448 or email her at becky@sustainableagriculture.net ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Becky Crooker National Campaign for Sustainable Agriculture P.O. Box 396 Pine Bush, NY 12566 P: 845-744-8448; F: 845-744-8477 becky@sustainableagriculture.net www.SustainableAgriculture.net ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ===== Myke Bybee Director, Sierra Student Coalition 1 888-JOIN-SSC www.ssc.org __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Send FREE video emails in Yahoo! Mail! http://promo.yahoo.com/videomail/ - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - For SC email list T-and-C, send: GET TERMS-AND-CONDITIONS.CURRENT to listserv@lists.sierraclub.org -- Get your firstname@lastname email at http://Nameplanet.com/?su From rmwj@soonernet.com Wed Jan 23 04:58:51 2002 From: rmwj@soonernet.com (Robert Waldrop) Date: Tue, 22 Jan 2002 22:58:51 -0600 Subject: [ok-sus] Emergency action needed on I 40 crosstown freeway Message-ID: <00a001c1a3cb$0bfcf3e0$13aae840@gabriel> I received the email below from Tom Elmore, the leading critic of the proposed routing for the I 40 crosstown freeway, which will destroy Union Station's rail links. This is a tragic loss of a perfectly functional existing infrastructure that could be the seed of a local commuter rail system. Yet, ODOT plans to throw it all away, and incidently also demolish a bunch of houses in the Riverside neighborhood, center of the Latin American community in OKC. He suggests phone calling and written letters immediately: City council, state legislature, the governor, congressional representatives. And then, contacting your friends and asking them to do the same. Please pass Tom's alert on to anyone else you know who may be interested in this. Robert Waldrop, OKC http://www.bettertimesinfo.org/oklahoma.htm Tonight's 6:00 PM news on KOCO TV, Channel 5 included a report from Terri Watkins - standing in the middle of the Union Station rail yard - about how the FHWA's I-40 Crosstown plan is going on to Washington for approval. David Streb of ODOT was interviewed, saying purchases of land will begin within a year and the project should be completed by 2008 to 2010. Watkins' cameraman shot up and down the rail line as she said, in effect, "all of this will soon be gone." The camera scrupulously avoided showing how close she was standing to the Union Station building itself. The Federal Highway Administration is working hand in glove with the Oklahoma Department of Transportation to ram this thing through at all costs. They have NOT responded to the letters and protests we have all made now for several years - and are now making it clear that they never had any intention of doing so. It is clear that they ran entirely through their book of tricks to throw Oklahomans off the track of what they were doing. They thought they could bore us into apathy with long periods of seeming inactivity on the project. They thought they could feed us misinformation which would throw us off their trail. The threw "meeting after meeting" in which - far from receiving and responding to public concern - they tried to diffuse and dismember it. They didn't succeed - so now, they're simply "ignoring us" - acting like we're all "not really here" and moving on with the whole business anyway. Our public officials - from the least to the greatest - should now be deluged with very direct and forthright letters of protest about not only the project itself, but the unresponsive nature of the "public input process." If they refuse to listen, they should be taken out of office. Like the project itself, ODOT and FHWA's claimed attempts at "public involvement" have all been a well orchestrated sham. This is where the aphoristic "rubber" meets the proverbial "road." Now that it's absolutely clear the government folks never had any intention of listening to the taxpayers on this deal, the gauntlet has been thrown down. The people of central Oklahoma will either stand up and fight - or allow big money and big politics to prevail. How about it? Tom Elmore Gtelmore@aol.com From ecojy@yahoo.com Wed Jan 23 15:15:06 2002 From: ecojy@yahoo.com (eco jy) Date: Wed, 23 Jan 2002 07:15:06 -0800 (PST) Subject: [ok-sus] Fwd: UPDATE Message-ID: <20020123151506.80274.qmail@web10403.mail.yahoo.com> i apologize for any duplicate messages. I have to send to the OSN from a different address and to the oksust through this address. - jay --- Jay Yowell wrote: > Subject: UPDATE > Date: Wed, 23 Jan 2002 07:36:30 -0600 > Organization: Elliott + Associates Architects > > Hello all, > > We had a wonderful turn out for our January OSN > meeting. WOW! > > It was mainly a planning session for our conference > on May 10th. While this was very productive, I > would like to see the lunch time meetings as more of > an educational / networking platform. Speakers will > be invited to talk about various sustainable topics. > This will also give us the flexibility of holding > meetings in Tulsa, Norman, etc. to connect with a > wider audience. We will be holding planning > sessions separately and give quick updates at the > lunch meetings. > > Having the OSN become a non-profit was also > discussed. This makes the most sense and the steps > to achieve this going forward as such. A first step > was to establish a Board of Directors for the OSN. > The following individuals have agreed (with no > pressure from me, I promise) to serve: > > Lee Within, Francis Kubier, Ilda Hershey, Laura > Tribble, Susie Shields, Vicki VanStavern, and Emma > McCauley (Honorary member). I will serve on the > Board and be the OSN Coordinator. This Board will > act as the planning committee with support from all > interested parties. If you know of any potential > sponsors, exhibitors or speakers let us know. > > Our next meeting is scheduled for Feb. 7th at the EE > Expo at the Metro Tech (4:30 ?). I'll send more > details on time, etc. soon. Maura McDermott with > the Kerr Center and Mike Bergey with Bergey > Windpower will give presentations on their > interesting work. > > It is exciting to see such a growing interest in > Oklahoma on this crucial topic of sustainability! > > Thank you, > > Jay Yowell, AIA > Elliott + Associates Architects > 35 Harrison Ave. > Oklahoma City, OK > 73104 USA > 405.232.9554 > jyowell@e-a-a.com > www.e-a-a.com > __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Send FREE video emails in Yahoo! Mail! http://promo.yahoo.com/videomail/ From rmwj@soonernet.com Mon Jan 28 23:30:17 2002 From: rmwj@soonernet.com (Robert Waldrop) Date: Mon, 28 Jan 2002 17:30:17 -0600 Subject: [ok-sus] Latest local food find Message-ID: <001e01c1a853$c265fbe0$98aae840@gabriel> Here's the latest local food find: http://www.nuyakacreek.com/ Nuyaja Creek Winery, located in southern Creek county. They seem to have a nice variety of wines made from local and native varieties of grapes and elderberries and other fruits/berries. I haven't tasted any of them, just found them on the web, but perhaps local wines could be featured at the upcoming sustainable Oklahoma conference. As the website says, "When there is plenty of wine, sorrow and worry take wing."- Ovid, "The Art of Love". Also, http://www.biosurvey.ou.edu/ is a great site with information about plants native to Oklahoma. In particular, visit http://www.biosurvey.ou.edu/shrub/cover.htm , "Catalog of woody plants in Oklahoma", which has a page of info about each species, including maps of their prevalence in the wild, rare and endangered species, notes about edibility/inedibility/poisonous/medicinal/native american usage, etc. Several troves of treasure there. I went through it and bookmarked about 40 pages for further review (for edible permaculture possibilities). Robert Waldrop, OKC http://www.bettertimesinfo.org/oklahoma.htm From rmwj@soonernet.com Wed Jan 30 03:30:54 2002 From: rmwj@soonernet.com (Robert Waldrop) Date: Tue, 29 Jan 2002 21:30:54 -0600 Subject: [ok-sus] Heads up on I 40 crosstown freeway development Message-ID: <010401c1a93f$59eca7c0$3baae840@gabriel> Please pass the message on to others who may be interested, it originates from Tom Elmore, the primary local critic of the proposed routing for the I 40 crosstown freeway that would destroy Union Station's railway links. ODOT is putting out some deliberate misinformation on this issue, it sounds like to me. I know everybody has a lot on their plate right now, but this is one of those fundamental decisions that will have serious consequences as time passes for Oklahoma City's sustainability as an urban settlement. We should all clear some space to make some noise about this with local, state, and federal representatives. Robert Waldrop, OKC http://www.bettertimesinfo.org/oklahoma.htm Subj: union station Date: 1/29/2002 4:49:26 PM Central Standard Time From: TLindley@Oklahoman.com (Tom Lindley) To: Gtelmore@aol.com ('Gtelmore@aol.com') Our reporter, John Greiner, reports that Union Station is NOT scheduled for demolition as part of the Crosstown Expressway project. _________________________________________________________________ Reply to Tom Lindley from Tom Elmore: You'll note, Tom, that I never said Union Station was scheduled for demolition. It's much, much more insidious than that. Union Station will be effectively rendered useless because its RAIL FACILITY and the passage ways out to them will be destroyed by the project. As I asked one reporter once - why don't we park the U.S.S. Iowa down on Sheridan Avenue? Because a battleship without an ocean "may still be a battleship," but it is certainly so at that point in name only. Union Station was built as an integrated development which included all new railway corridors, a new yard, and the station building itself. What the highways-only crowd that controls ODOT knows is that if they destroy the critically important rail lines and the design features that made them directly accessible to streets on one hand - and allowed the arterial streets to flow under them for another (the Walker and Robinson underpasses), they "don't have to worry about competitive forms of transportation becoming available at low cost in central Oklahoma." With all due respect, I would urge all of you in the news business to look a little deeper. (Please see the post below.) Tom Elmore Tel: 794-7163 ______________________________________________________________________ This was a response sent earlier this evening to members of the design-okc@yahoogroups.com discussion list. The plan to destroy the elegant rail plant at OKC Union Station in favor of a half-billion dollar, 3.96 mile "new I-40 Crosstown" is serious business with serious repercussions against prospects for reasonable growth and regional competitive position for central Oklahoma. Denver has just purchased its historic Union Station for redevelopment as a regional multimodal transport center. Modern rail transit has already revolutionized mobility and quality of life there, just as in other western cities - and more service is now demanded by that area's citizens. Modern transit WORKS. Neighboring western cities with whom Oklahoma City has to compete for jobs, population and quality of life are now proving it every day. There's no longer any controversy about it. Why - especially in the wake of 9-11-01 - would OKC leadership allow the needless destruction of the BEST Union Station rail plant in the West (the one at OUR Union Station - at 300 SW 7th - already owned by OKC METRO TRANSIT!)? Tom Elmore _____________________________________________________________ Allow me to reply to the idea that the "victims" of the "new I-40 Crosstown" plan might somehow just be the poor unfortunates who have to "move over for progress." We'll ALL be "victims" if we let the heedless big shots get away with this deal. That includes our children and grandchildren. There's been a lot of deliberate propaganda spread about the structural state of the current I-40 Crosstown for a number of years. In fact, even the "worst" segments of the elevated roadway have plenty of fatigue life left. This was told to me some years ago by ODOT's then longtime chief bridge engineer. The Crosstown could be effectively redecked at relatively low cost with modern upgrades which would make it serviceable for many years to come. The real problem with the Crosstown IS the deck - which gets lots of holes punched in it by hordes of heavy trucks operating at weights which no portion of the interstate highway system was ever designed to bear. Another problem is the chronically poor maintenance it has always received. The "chief problem" claimed by the proponents of replacing it is the claimed "lack of traffic volume capacity." In fact, simply taking through trucks off the Crosstown using existing bypass capacity would significantly reduce the current volume as well as tremendous wear and tear on the bridge portions of the structure. This, alone, would significantly lengthen its service life. As to the trouble with the displacement of Riverside residents, it's been my observation that there are a lot of absentee owners renting property to those who actually live there. Vague promises of a massive "mitigation plan" have been made in presentations including "pretty" architectural renderings - but there's NO FUNDING. It's a time-honored tactic meant to successfully brush off those with real concerns - and it's apparently working. ODOT's closely calculated concoction of the "citizen advisory panel" for the Crosstown project included very few "real citizens." Instead, it was populated - as such panels always are - with high-powered trucking and highway-interest lobbyists and bosses - along with selected "stakeholders" from the affected neighborhoods and business areas. No one with an independent voice to speak up for the Union Station rail plant was included. This did not happen by mistake. The Union Station rail plant was built as an all-new, integrated development just prior to 1930-31. It is as fine a multimodal center as could be imagined. From Union Station, existing rail lines radiate out to strategic points all over the region. Farmers' Market, The Stockyards, Will Rogers Airport, Wheatland, Mustang and Chickasha are along one line; the fairgrounds, OSU Tech, I-40 Meridian, Lucent Technologies, Yukon and El Reno along another; Bricktown, the near northeast neighborhoods south of the 13th and Lincoln medical centers, OKC Schools Warehouse, Lincoln Park and the Zoo/Omniplex/Remington Park area along another. Then, to the East, there's a line directly through Midwest City to the North side of the state's largest single employer - Tinker AFB and another via Harrah and Dale to Shawnee and Seminole. All these connect to the north-south Santa Fe line now used by the HEARTLAND FLYER and the direct, state-owned line to Tulsa via Chandler, Stroud and Bristow. I'm not talking about lines that would have to be "built." I'm talking about EXISTING corridors and railway, much of which is already owned by the state or the city - and other corridors that could be had WITHOUT the destruction and displacement threatened by the highway project. Union Station itself was built to allow trains and road-borne modes to meet "at grade" - on Hudson and Harvey streets - while allowing arterial street traffic to flow freely and unimpeded UNDER the rail lines at the Robinson and Walker underpasses. The underpasses will be destroyed by the Crosstown plan - moving all east-west BNSF rail traffic further south to existing "at grade" rail crossings at the foot of Capitol Hill. The passenger and freight tunnels around which the Union Station waiting rooms were built will be destroyed to allow the new highway to lie in a 12-foot "depression" just a few feet behind the depot building's back wall. Make no mistake about it, folks, this is a deliberate preemptive strike by the "highways only" crowd that controls ODOT against the sort of multimodal redevelopment which has been successfully created using similar facilities in Dallas-Ft. Worth, St. Louis, Denver and Salt Lake - and is soon to be emulated in both Houston and Phoenix. How old will YOU be 10 years from now? How glad to have NO CHOICE but to "get out there and mix it up with the big trucks" EVERYDAY to get ANYWHERE? If, in 10 years, OKC is the only metro region of its size in the West WITHOUT a modern and comprehensive transit system - (whether or not the price of gasoline rises over $2 a gallon) - will our state have a "better" or "worse" chance of maintaining competitive quality of life, reasonable growth and environmental quality such that we won't lose at least one more congressional seat in 2010? In Dallas, DART rail commuters use the trains for about $15 a month to get to work, saving downtown parking costs and wear and tear on their cars. (Many DRIVE in from outlying areas to secure park-and-ride lots on the urban periphery, using DART trains and buses to take them into the urban centers.) Modern rail transit is proving to be a highly effective redevelopment tool. Commercial and other property in formerly "blighted" areas of old Dallas which are served by DART Rail are now 25% more valuable than similar properties OFF the transit lines. Around 50,000 DFW commuters now use rail every day - and more service has not only been demanded, but FUNDED by last summer's 3-to-1 public vote to give DART the authority to create nearly 3 billion dollars in bond funding for new extensions. As good as the former freight-railway corridors and old Union Station which were used to create DART Rail were, OKC Union Station and its rail lines are arguably the best in the West. They are THERE - just waiting for intelligent reuse. This is an elegant, comparatively low-cost solution to problems our leaders now conveniently ignore - which are getting worse at an accelerating rate. If the Union Station rail plant is destroyed, we will ALL be negatively affected. We're ALL "stakeholders" - and, believe me - this argument was never widely heard by those at ODOT/FHWA's closely controlled "public meetings" because the big shots that were running the show wouldn't ALLOW it to be heard. Last April 6th, I brought my slide projector to one of these meetings (held, ironically enough, at Union Station) - prepared to show all present what was being lost - using Dallas and other cities with new transit developments as examples. The ODOT boys wouldn't allow my presentation to be heard until they had formally dismissed the meeting - and then, with voices raised, some tried to try to drown me out - helping to create confusion while I tried to speak. All things considered, DART Rail simply could NOT have been built without the availability of the old rail corridors and other facilities. If OKC Union Station is destroyed, the highway builders will forever claim "it's too expensive" to create an alternative. In any case, a facility of the quality of the existing one could not be created for ANY amount of money.`` Isn't it strange to any of you that our "department of transportation" NEVER even considered the prospect of redevelopment of the fabulous existing asset at Union Station? Instead - as is the case with so much other railway - it was seen only as "a place to build a new highway." We should consider OKC Union Station a gift from our grandparents' generation to our own grandchildren. We should NOT allow its destruction by the malevolent special interests that plan to show us - yet again - that THEY, not we, control Oklahoma. We can stop this thing if we really want to, folks. It might very well be the most important thing we could do for the future of our state and our children's children. I've got plenty of info backing up what I've said here. If any of you need this material, or know of folks to whom I could make my half-hour slide presentation, please contact me either at the above E-mail address or at my phone number - (405)794-7163. Tom Elmore North American Transportation Institute PO Box 6617 OKC, OK 73153-0617 Tel: (405)794-7163 Fax: (405)799-2641 NATI is an independent 501(c)3 nonprofit organization promoting advanced multimodal and intermodal transportation strategies and policies for the nation. We do not accept funds from any transportation business. We are funded entirely through the tax-deductible donations of individual taxpayers. We are fighting to give the American public the tools to hold government and special interests accountable in the field of transportation. _____________________________________________ From rmwj@soonernet.com Wed Jan 30 23:09:48 2002 From: rmwj@soonernet.com (Robert Waldrop) Date: Wed, 30 Jan 2002 17:09:48 -0600 Subject: [ok-sus] Complexity, problem solving, and sustainable societies Message-ID: <008f01c1a9e3$a042fea0$bfaae840@gabriel> Here is an essay by Joseph Tainter, author of "The Collapse of Complex Societies," which examines the rise and collapse of 24 cultures here on planet Earth. Robert Waldrop, http://www.bettertimesinfo.org/oklahoma.htm COMPLEXITY, PROBLEM SOLVING, AND SUSTAINABLE SOCIETIES, by Joseph A. Tainter, 1996 PROBLEM SOLVING, ENERGY, AND SUSTAINABILITY This historical discussion gives a perspective on what it means to be practical and sustainable. A few years ago I described about two dozen societies that have collapsed (Tainter 1988). In no case is it evident or even likely that any of these societies collapsed because its members or leaders did not take practical steps to resolve its problems (Tainter 1988). The experience of the Roman Empire is again instructive. Most actions that the Roman government took in response to crises-such as debasing the currency, raising taxes, expanding the army, and conscripting labor-were practical solutions to immediate problems. It would have been unthinkable not to adopt such measures. Cumulatively, however, these practical steps made the empire ever weaker, as the capital stock (agricultural land and peasants) was depleted through taxation and conscription. Over time, devising practical solutions drove the Roman Empire into diminishing, then negative, returns to complexity. The implication is that to focus a problem-solving system, such as ecological economics, on practical applications will not automatically increase its value to society, nor enhance sustainability. The historical development of problem-solving systems needs to be understood and taken into consideration. * * * * * * * * The Collapse of The Roman Empire One outcome of diminishing returns to complexity is illustrated by the collapse of the Western Roman Empire. As a solar-energy based society which taxed heavily, the empire had little fiscal reserve. When confronted with military crises, Roman Emperors often had to respond by debasing the silver currency (Figure 4.2) and trying to raise new funds. In the third century A.D. constant crises forced the emperors to double the size of the army and increase both the size and complexity of the government. To pay for this, masses of worthless coins were produced, supplies were commandeered from peasants, and the level of taxation was made even more oppressive (up to two-thirds of the net yield after payment of rent). Inflation devastated the economy. Lands and population were surveyed across the empire and assessed for taxes. Communities were held corporately liable for any unpaid amounts. While peasants went hungry or sold their children into slavery, massive fortifications were built, the size of the bureaucracy doubled, provincial administration was made more complex, large subsidies in gold were paid to Germanic tribes, and new imperial cities and courts were established. With rising taxes, marginal lands were abandoned and population declined. Peasants could no longer support large families. To avoid oppressive civic obligations, the wealthy fled from cities to establish self-sufficient rural estates. Ultimately, to escape taxation, peasants voluntarily entered into feudal relationships with these land holders. A few wealthy families came to own much of the land in the western empire, and were able to defy the imperial government. The empire came to sustain itself by consuming its capital resources; producing lands and peasant population (Jones 1964, 1974; Wickham 1984; Tainter 1988, 1994b). The Roman Empire provides history's best-documented example of how increasing complexity to resolve problems leads to higher costs, diminishing returns, alienation of a support population, economic weakness, and collapse. In the end it could no longer afford to solve the problems of its own existence.