ReCode Oregon

ReCode Oregon is a community-based group examining how city and state regulations can support rather than inhibit creative and sustainable living, while educating and engaging grassroots communities in changing these codes.

This is a timely and urgent need. Many sustainable practices are not currently allowed in Portland. Our reputation for being green is based on hard work, ingenuity, and grassroots engagement, but building codes and bureaucracies have not kept pace with the visionaries of Portland. In fact, many sustainable approaches considered best practice in other parts of the country are illegal here — simple systems that irrigate yards with reused bathwater, for example.

We are a campaign bringing together citizens, planners, builders, activists, and other stakeholders in developing, coordinating, and building the movement for regulations that support grassroots sustainability. We:

  • facilitate collaboration among the existing organizations and people doing various aspects of the work;
  • create space for grassroots groups in the discussion; and
  • advocate for taking immediate steps within a strategy of systemic regulatory change.

Introduction to the Transition Town Model

Event
When: 
Sunday, June 6, 2010 - 11:00am - 12:30pm

 Are you interested in learning how you can organize your community and neighborhood to create resiliency in the face of an uncertain future?  Come get an introduction to the Transition Town model, which gives a framework to help bring the heads, hearts and hands of a community together to work towards energy descent.

Location

St. Francis Che Room
1131 SE Oak St.
Portland, OR

Panel and Community Fishbowl Conversation with Paul Cienfuegos and other community leaders-“Despair and Personal Power in an Age of Corporate Rule and Climate Crisis”

Event
When: 
Tuesday, June 8, 2010 - 6:30pm - 9:30pm

Panel + Community Fishbowl Conversation with Paul Cienfuegos, Barbara Ford + you!

“Despair and Personal Power in an Age of Corporate Rule and Climate Crisis”

June 8th, 6:30-9:30, St. Francis Church Dining Hall, SE 11th and SE Pine St., (Transition PDX is sponsored in part by St. Francis Church)

Location

St. Francis Dining Hall
SE 11th and Pine St.
Portland, OR

VBC Evening session with Transition PDX and Andrew Langford!

Event
When: 
Saturday, June 5, 2010 - 5:00pm - 11:00pm
Link: 
VBC homepage - tickets are $20

A Pattern Language for Transitioneers - Andrew Langford - 7:00 to 7:50pm

Andrew, 61 and now a seasoned transitioneer, tells contrasting stories of his own and other peoples transitions including 'How I survived the "Hammer of the Universe" and "Kairos moments? - Bring 'em own!" before revealing that transitions, at least for individuals, have patterns. Knowing about these ahead of time (or even in the middle of chaos) allows a person to make some sense of what’s going on when their world is falling apart and, for the bold veteran, opens the possibility of willingly sought, artfully designed, deep and thorough quantum transformations.

Now that’s just what human cultures all over the planet need to do and now! Andrew will propose that the capacity for profound transition in any culture is helped or hindered by the attitudes toward change held by its individual members.

Nurturing the Connective Tissue of Community Resilience: Transition, Collaboration and Emergence - Transition PDX - 8:00-8:50pm

Leaders of Transition PDX will present the seven principles of the Transition Town model which works to bring the heads, hearts and hand of communities together to deal with the challenges of climate change, peak oil and an uncertain future. They will share with you how these principles can be found, applied to and nurtured within Portland metro organizations to create a cohesive connective and collaborative tissue of resilience that can nurture the common shared goals of energy descent, sustainability and self sufficiency within our metro region. How can we honor and share our unique skills and interests while exploring the emergence that takes place when we collectively come together around shared goals? Often in social and natural systems properties emerge from the cooperation of the whole that don’t exist in the individual components.

The mission of TransitionPDX is to inspire, to encourage, to network, to support and train the communities and neighborhoods of the Portland metro area as they consider, adopt, adapt and implement the transition model in order to establish Transition Initiatives.

Music!

Two amazing bands, world twang and eco funk converge for a night that you won’t want to miss! Find full descriptions of all the musicians online at vbc.cityrepair.org

Location

St. David's Church of Wales
2800 SE Harrison St
Portland, OR

Lecture and Community Discussion with Paul Cienfuegos

Event
When: 
Wednesday, May 26, 2010 - 7:00pm - 9:00pm

Paul will give an hour long lecture followed by a Q+A session and discussion with the attendees during the second hour.  Paul will be discussing how corporations and ‘corporate personhood’ have become a thorn in the heel of those working for social/environmental justice and sustainability both at the local, national and international levels. Americans are strongly in favor of bold legislative responses to the climate crisis and the health care crisis, but our elected officials hem and haw. Why? Because we the people are no longer the primary constituents of the people we elect - corporations are! Why? Because corporate constitutional "rights" trump the rights of people.

Please note this is a donation event.  We are asking for $5-10, though no-one will be turned away for lack of funds.

Location

St. Francis Dining Hall
SE 11th and Pine St.
Portland, OR, 97202

Portland Plan Workshop for Recode Oregon

Event
When: 
Tuesday, March 23, 2010 - 6:30pm - 7:30pm

 

The Portland Plan will be our City’s strategic plan for the next 25 years, ensuring that Portland is a thriving and sustainable city and our people are prosperous, healthy and educated.

 

The last time Portland created a plan like this was in 1980. Our recycling rate was in the single digits. Back then there was no such thing as Google let alone cell phones and the Internet. In fact, huge parts of Portland, including Cully and most of East Portland, weren’t even within the city limits.

 

Now we’re at the next big fork in the road. It’s time for us to chart the course for our future and take a new approach to city planning—one that focuses not just on transit and infrastructure but health, education and equity. Come join the conversation... because more voices means better choices.

Read more about the plan »

 

Location

St. Francis Che Room
1131 SE Oak St.
Portland, OR