River Road Community Organization
Another important asset in our neighborhood is the River Road Community Organization [RRCO]. RRCO is one of the city of Eugene’s 23 neighborhood associations. Many cities have similar neighborhood programs. The purpose of a neighborhood association is to help make the neighborhood a better place to live for everyone. NAs help create civic culture and can empower people to take initiatives for the good of people and planet.
RRCO receives technical assistance and a modest budget from both the City and the County. RRCO meets once a month and has an elected board of which I have been a member for about twenty of my twenty five years living in the neighborhood. RRCO has standing in the neighborhood and community. It has a website and sends out a monthly newsletter and several times a year, snail mail to 4000 addresses in the neighborhood. It meets with other entities in the neighborhood, the city and other neighborhood associations. Typically, a neighborhood association will have an interest in development, traffic, crime, human rights, the environment, homelessness and more.
Immediately upon moving into this River Road Neighborhood, I was drafted to run for a position on our neighborhood association's executive board. Before then, I didn't know what a neighborhood association [NA] was. 25 years later, I have been on the board 20 of those 25 years. This involvement has been one of the most educational in my life - meeting new people, learning about concerns and issues people have in the neighborhood and beyond. I have learned a great deal how the city works.
My interest in urban land use in terms of paradigm shift has been boosted by my involvement with my NA. The restoration of the filbert grove, ongoing now for 15 years was largely the result of me learning about city programs because I was involved with my NA.
Most NAs have sub committees so there are usually multiple areas of interest contained in the NA and new areas of interest can be added. NAs are a wonderful asset to any neighborhood. Those who participate create the agenda. NAs empower those who participate and those who participate empower the NA.
As a long time board member of RRCO, I have been a voice for permaculture and paradigm shift. By way of RRCO, I have sent out messages that explain suburban permaculture and have put out invitations to site tours of properties in the neighborhood that have various features for reducing eco footprints and increasing emergency preparedness. RRCO monthly meetings over the years have included permaculture, gardening, food storage, emergency preparedness and more related to sustainability, climate change and positive opportunities in the neighborhood.
As mentioned, the 2015 NW Permaculture Convergence was a very successful event and RRCO was a big help, both with volunteers from RRCO and also publicity for the Convergence going out to the neighborhood. The point here is to call attention to neighborhood associations - a community asset. Many cities have neighborhood programs which means millions of people have access to being involved their own NA.
Also very important, many issues, assets and actions important to permaculture and paradigm shift support many concerns to any neighborhood association and city such as affordable housing, climate change, sustainability, inclusive communities and civic culture. Another part of the Primer goes into greater detail about how permaculture and paradigm shift converge with many city goals and planning ideals.
Another important asset in our neighborhood is the River Road Community Organization [RRCO]. RRCO is one of the city of Eugene’s 23 neighborhood associations. Many cities have similar neighborhood programs. The purpose of a neighborhood association is to help make the neighborhood a better place to live for everyone. NAs help create civic culture and can empower people to take initiatives for the good of people and planet.
RRCO receives technical assistance and a modest budget from both the City and the County. RRCO meets once a month and has an elected board of which I have been a member for about twenty of my twenty five years living in the neighborhood. RRCO has standing in the neighborhood and community. It has a website and sends out a monthly newsletter and several times a year, snail mail to 4000 addresses in the neighborhood. It meets with other entities in the neighborhood, the city and other neighborhood associations. Typically, a neighborhood association will have an interest in development, traffic, crime, human rights, the environment, homelessness and more.
Immediately upon moving into this River Road Neighborhood, I was drafted to run for a position on our neighborhood association's executive board. Before then, I didn't know what a neighborhood association [NA] was. 25 years later, I have been on the board 20 of those 25 years. This involvement has been one of the most educational in my life - meeting new people, learning about concerns and issues people have in the neighborhood and beyond. I have learned a great deal how the city works.
My interest in urban land use in terms of paradigm shift has been boosted by my involvement with my NA. The restoration of the filbert grove, ongoing now for 15 years was largely the result of me learning about city programs because I was involved with my NA.
Most NAs have sub committees so there are usually multiple areas of interest contained in the NA and new areas of interest can be added. NAs are a wonderful asset to any neighborhood. Those who participate create the agenda. NAs empower those who participate and those who participate empower the NA.
As a long time board member of RRCO, I have been a voice for permaculture and paradigm shift. By way of RRCO, I have sent out messages that explain suburban permaculture and have put out invitations to site tours of properties in the neighborhood that have various features for reducing eco footprints and increasing emergency preparedness. RRCO monthly meetings over the years have included permaculture, gardening, food storage, emergency preparedness and more related to sustainability, climate change and positive opportunities in the neighborhood.
As mentioned, the 2015 NW Permaculture Convergence was a very successful event and RRCO was a big help, both with volunteers from RRCO and also publicity for the Convergence going out to the neighborhood. The point here is to call attention to neighborhood associations - a community asset. Many cities have neighborhood programs which means millions of people have access to being involved their own NA.
Also very important, many issues, assets and actions important to permaculture and paradigm shift support many concerns to any neighborhood association and city such as affordable housing, climate change, sustainability, inclusive communities and civic culture. Another part of the Primer goes into greater detail about how permaculture and paradigm shift converge with many city goals and planning ideals.
Neighborhoods USA Conference
Being involved with RRCO led to another interesting opportunity to share suburban permaculture with the wider world. The city of Eugene hosted the 2014 Neighborhoods USA Conference. I knew about the event.
Eugene belongs to Neighborhoods USA, a nation wide network of cities with neighborhood programs. One year Eugene took its turn and hosted the national conference. Being an RRCO board member, I knew about the conference in Eugene many months before its date. Always alert to the opportunity for putting permaculture and paradigm shift ideas out to a wider audience, I came up with a plan.
Each city that hosts the neighborhood conference has a big part in what goes into the event. Every city wants to show its best to attendees who come from all over the country. I went to a neighborhood conference in Palm Springs one year and loved the tour of famous peoples’ homes which include Dinah Shore, Frank Sinatra and Charlie the guy who played the affable house father in the favorite 60’s sit com, My Three Sons. I also made a presentation at that conference about suburban permaculture.
I submitted the idea to the conference organizers for both a site tour and a panel presentation about transforming suburbia. RRCO endorsed both proposals which helped encourage the conference to accept our site tour and panel.
The day of the site tour saw a full sized tour bus pull up in our neighborhood. The 30 or so people who attended the tour hailed from Birmingham, Roanoke Virginia, Omaha, Nebraska and many other locations and were introduced to suburban permaculture. We visited my place, Heiko’s place, John Pitney’s place, all within walking distance of each other and finished at Dharmalaya, one River Road's most important permaculture sites. We made arrangements with our neighborhood favorite vegetarian restaurant, Govinda’s, to cater a flavorful vegetarian meal in honor of our out of town guests and also invited pals from the neighborhood.
A frequent comment from out of town visitors who saw edible landscapes, grass to garden, de paved and removed driveway, front yard gardens, natural building, rain water catchment, passive solar features, front yard food forest and much more was “we had no idea people were doing this kind of stuff.” Our panel discussion provided even more information about suburban permaculture and paradigm shift.
Below, the big catered dinner at Dharmalaya. The presentation we made at the conference.
Being involved with RRCO led to another interesting opportunity to share suburban permaculture with the wider world. The city of Eugene hosted the 2014 Neighborhoods USA Conference. I knew about the event.
Eugene belongs to Neighborhoods USA, a nation wide network of cities with neighborhood programs. One year Eugene took its turn and hosted the national conference. Being an RRCO board member, I knew about the conference in Eugene many months before its date. Always alert to the opportunity for putting permaculture and paradigm shift ideas out to a wider audience, I came up with a plan.
Each city that hosts the neighborhood conference has a big part in what goes into the event. Every city wants to show its best to attendees who come from all over the country. I went to a neighborhood conference in Palm Springs one year and loved the tour of famous peoples’ homes which include Dinah Shore, Frank Sinatra and Charlie the guy who played the affable house father in the favorite 60’s sit com, My Three Sons. I also made a presentation at that conference about suburban permaculture.
I submitted the idea to the conference organizers for both a site tour and a panel presentation about transforming suburbia. RRCO endorsed both proposals which helped encourage the conference to accept our site tour and panel.
The day of the site tour saw a full sized tour bus pull up in our neighborhood. The 30 or so people who attended the tour hailed from Birmingham, Roanoke Virginia, Omaha, Nebraska and many other locations and were introduced to suburban permaculture. We visited my place, Heiko’s place, John Pitney’s place, all within walking distance of each other and finished at Dharmalaya, one River Road's most important permaculture sites. We made arrangements with our neighborhood favorite vegetarian restaurant, Govinda’s, to cater a flavorful vegetarian meal in honor of our out of town guests and also invited pals from the neighborhood.
A frequent comment from out of town visitors who saw edible landscapes, grass to garden, de paved and removed driveway, front yard gardens, natural building, rain water catchment, passive solar features, front yard food forest and much more was “we had no idea people were doing this kind of stuff.” Our panel discussion provided even more information about suburban permaculture and paradigm shift.
Below, the big catered dinner at Dharmalaya. The presentation we made at the conference.
River Celebration
River Road Neighborhood is blessed with almost two miles of greenway along the Willamette River as our eastern boundary. It's public property and there is a wonderful paved bike and pedestrian way the entire distance. There are no cars. The greenway is part of state planning to help protect the well being of the Willamette River. There is open space, groves of cottonwood trees and habitat that is in need of restoration, a primary challenge is invasive plant species, particularly English Ivy.
The greenway and bike way are the primary reasons I bought my house in River Road. I am car free so a bike is my primary mode of transportation. The bike way follows the River up stream towards the south which includes downtown Eugene and the University of Oregon. On the way to three mile distant UO, one passes the filbert grove, two community gardens, playgrounds, Eugene’s rose garden and an exit from the bike way to downtown Eugene. The University of Oregon and its well known frisbee culture hot spot. Its all a beautiful ride along the River.
Remarkably, in the 1960's there was intention of building a divided highway all along the river where much of the bike way is currently locate.
The greenway is also a perfect place to create a neighborhood event. RRCO is well into developing a neighborhood tradition - The River Fest. The three events so far have been very popular neighborhood scale gatherings hosted by RRCO. The greenway offers plenty of open space, trees and fields, creating two bike friendly and car free locations for the River Fest.
One location is Rasor Park, a purposefully undeveloped five acres of mostly open savannah in the greenway. A Little background. When I first moved into the neighborhood in 2000, a group of River Road residents were in the midst of pushing back on a project that would have included an indoor soccer facility and an acre of parking. All told, over half the current open space would have been paved and built over. The neighborhood activists opposing the development pushed the city to hold meetings to invite public comment to determine what people wanted to do with the five plus acres.
Over a period of several months, these meetings made it clear, there was overwhelming support for keeping the site undeveloped. Fast forward, instead of pavement and building, there is a park master plan that calls for minimal development and instead, habitat restoration. A River Road neighbor has taken the lead for restoring native habitat on the five acres. There have been countless work parties in collaboration with the city to restore the natural oak savannah. The city provides tools, native plants and expertise when needed. The neighborhood provides the labor.
So Rasor Park is a place to celebrate and to show and tell the progress made in removing exotic plants and replacing them with natives. Rasor Park is one of the two sites for River Fest.
The River Fest focus at Rasor Park is gardening, habitat education and site tours of the park to show progress with habitat restoration. Also at Rasor Park is a veggie take it or leave it table, seed saving, freshwater biology for kids, the City has a big display from Parks and Open Spaces. There is a honey table, Willamette River Keepers, a conservation group advocating for the River, invites people to be involved with River conservation issues. There are other groups, music on occasion, lots of bikes, lots of mixing and mingling.
The other River Fest location, a quarter mile north, has a positive story as well. This part of the River Fest is known as the Grove Area. For years, I would bike past this area on my way into town. The bike way passes through open areas with views of the River and a section like a green canyon through a riparian forest of cottonwood trees. The bike way skirts an 8 unit town home complex on a city street before returning to its car free mode right along the River and into Rasor Park.
A core feature of the Grove area, is, of course, the Grove. The Grove is a 65 filbert tree orchard that dates from the 1940’s. When the city bought this property for the greenway, the filbert grove was included. 15 years ago, the filbert trees were covered by blackberries and English Ivy. You could not see from one end of the grove to the other because of the overgrowth. For years, I would ride by on my bike and saw the jungle and finally I decided to clean up the filbert grove.
Thanks to my being on the board of RRCO, I knew about some city programs that support people in the neighborhoods for taking initiatives on public property that benefit the environment and the community. Why not connect with the city to see if restoring the filbert groove would qualify as an official project?
Below, fotos from the River Celebration. Hover over the foto for a caption and clik to enlarge.
The Filbert Grove
A friend worked for the city and her job description is just what we needed. Lorna’s responsibility was to coordinate community action on public property. We talked and agreed to meet in the grove. She recruited an acquaintance who owned a commercial organic filbert grove to join us. We walked around the grove and all agreed there was a lot to do on behalf of the trees. Linda, owner of a commercial organic filbert grove advised us on what she would do to rehabilitate the grove and Lorna explained what the City could do to help.
Over the following years, we have had dozens of work parties with participants from the neighborhood, high schools, fraternities at the U of Oregon, church youth groups and simply people who like work parties and public service. Lorna's expertise was to coordinate with the civic groups then bring tools and snacks to the work parties.
After 15 years, the grove has been transformed. Literally hundreds of excess tree trunks have been cut down to the ground. A fair amount of pruning has happened along with application of organic compost. The grove is no spray, no artificial chemicals.
The trees do not produce at a commercial level but for those who like to search out the nuts, the place is open to anyone.
For me, the Grove is one of my favorite places in the world. There are no cars, the bike way is right there and so is the River. One can see Eugene's iconic Spencer's Butte in the distance. I love collecting nuts, I know the good trees. Just bliss on a sunny early Fall day, breeze sifting through the cottonwood trees, people walking and biking by.
Over the years, I have spent a lot of time in the Grove. One icy winter day, I even cross country skied to the Grove. Another year, we had an ice storm and two large cottonwood trees came down in the grove. By good luck, they did only modest damage to several trees.
At one work party, several people showed up, but not for work. It turns out, they labored in the Grove as kids because their dad planted it. The Grove was a family business and they lived in the house at the end of the residential street next to the Grove. They had some photos to show what their property looked like when they were young. We all had a great time connecting and learning about the Grove’s history.
So the Filbert Grove hosted the other part of the River Fest. There are over 30 community groups set up, all about making Eugene a better place. A bike shop did safety tuneups. RRCO had a space to meet the neighbors. Other groups included the volunteer library, a scout troop, a group advocating emergency preparedness, the League of Women Voters, a gay activist group. I set up a permaculture display with lots of photos of permaculture in action along with posters explaining suburban permaculture and front yard gardens, all hanging from a big horizontal tree limb.
Certainly one of the most important attractions of the Fest was making apple cider, set up in a corner of the filbert grove. People brought apples from home. We had an electric apple press with several friends taking the lead for managing the press and all the gear.The shade was wonderful. A lot of people simply enjoyed just hanging out at a picnic table in the shade next to the cider works. Lots of people helped with the apples and everyone enjoyed the mix and mingling. Just great to see all the neighborhood activity!
And then only a few orchard tree rows away in the Grove, was the song circle with people playing instruments and drums along with 35 or so people sharing uplifting songs.
So the River Fest is a small gathering with the goal to have fun, build civic culture and simply celebrate our neighborhood. And it affirms, paradigm shift is not a distant hope, its an action in the here and now.
Below, these are all views of the Grove over the years. Hover over the foto for a caption and to enlarge the foto.
A friend worked for the city and her job description is just what we needed. Lorna’s responsibility was to coordinate community action on public property. We talked and agreed to meet in the grove. She recruited an acquaintance who owned a commercial organic filbert grove to join us. We walked around the grove and all agreed there was a lot to do on behalf of the trees. Linda, owner of a commercial organic filbert grove advised us on what she would do to rehabilitate the grove and Lorna explained what the City could do to help.
Over the following years, we have had dozens of work parties with participants from the neighborhood, high schools, fraternities at the U of Oregon, church youth groups and simply people who like work parties and public service. Lorna's expertise was to coordinate with the civic groups then bring tools and snacks to the work parties.
After 15 years, the grove has been transformed. Literally hundreds of excess tree trunks have been cut down to the ground. A fair amount of pruning has happened along with application of organic compost. The grove is no spray, no artificial chemicals.
The trees do not produce at a commercial level but for those who like to search out the nuts, the place is open to anyone.
For me, the Grove is one of my favorite places in the world. There are no cars, the bike way is right there and so is the River. One can see Eugene's iconic Spencer's Butte in the distance. I love collecting nuts, I know the good trees. Just bliss on a sunny early Fall day, breeze sifting through the cottonwood trees, people walking and biking by.
Over the years, I have spent a lot of time in the Grove. One icy winter day, I even cross country skied to the Grove. Another year, we had an ice storm and two large cottonwood trees came down in the grove. By good luck, they did only modest damage to several trees.
At one work party, several people showed up, but not for work. It turns out, they labored in the Grove as kids because their dad planted it. The Grove was a family business and they lived in the house at the end of the residential street next to the Grove. They had some photos to show what their property looked like when they were young. We all had a great time connecting and learning about the Grove’s history.
So the Filbert Grove hosted the other part of the River Fest. There are over 30 community groups set up, all about making Eugene a better place. A bike shop did safety tuneups. RRCO had a space to meet the neighbors. Other groups included the volunteer library, a scout troop, a group advocating emergency preparedness, the League of Women Voters, a gay activist group. I set up a permaculture display with lots of photos of permaculture in action along with posters explaining suburban permaculture and front yard gardens, all hanging from a big horizontal tree limb.
Certainly one of the most important attractions of the Fest was making apple cider, set up in a corner of the filbert grove. People brought apples from home. We had an electric apple press with several friends taking the lead for managing the press and all the gear.The shade was wonderful. A lot of people simply enjoyed just hanging out at a picnic table in the shade next to the cider works. Lots of people helped with the apples and everyone enjoyed the mix and mingling. Just great to see all the neighborhood activity!
And then only a few orchard tree rows away in the Grove, was the song circle with people playing instruments and drums along with 35 or so people sharing uplifting songs.
So the River Fest is a small gathering with the goal to have fun, build civic culture and simply celebrate our neighborhood. And it affirms, paradigm shift is not a distant hope, its an action in the here and now.
Below, these are all views of the Grove over the years. Hover over the foto for a caption and to enlarge the foto.
