PRO Measure 37 Repeal Speech at Dorchester

[NOTE: I was asked to make a 5-minute speech at Dorchester against Measure 37. Hey, someone had to. This quickly become known as my "Borg" speech. Enjoy!]

Oregon belongs to all of us, not just those of you who have M37 claims...

These claims will do real damage to Oregon
We have chosen to be different here in Oregon. I meet people on a regular basis who chose to move to Oregon specifically because of our progressive environmental ethic and our forward-looking land use planning laws that have preserved Oregon’s scenic and rural landscape. We have chosen to elevate “respect for the environment” and “sustainability” above short-term economic gains, the profit-motive and the paving and strip-malling of America. We don’t want to look like Los Angeles. We’ve made that decision.

We are in the process of adding one million people to the population of Oregon. Do we want sprawling suburban neighborhoods and no landscape? Or do we want to maintain the Urban Growth Boundaries that were wisely set up to make sure most of Oregon’s natural beauty will still be here for our grandchildren and great-grandchildren to enjoy?

The Willamette Valley is Oregon's agricultural industrial park
Measure 37 development claims now threaten at least 132,346 acres of the Willamette Valley's richest farmland. If all these developments move forward as planned, eventually engulfing farmland, land-use specialist Jim Johnson points out, Oregon stands to lose an astonishing amount of its richest ag land -- 2 1/2 times what the state lost to development between 1982 and 1997.

Oregon’s farm families have a strong connection to their land. They have a right to continue that legacy and pass it onto their children without having to worry about urban sprawl running them over. Protecting their way of life is a win-win for us all. When we enforce land use rules that keep subdivisions from creeping towards them or surrounding their farms and pastures, we also protect Oregon’s scenic beauty for ourselves.

A final note
I do not expect to win this vote today. This audience is not representative of Oregon as a whole. The people moving into this state who believe in strong environmental protections--by my estimates about 8,000 of us each year—we believe there must be balance between property rights and environmental concerns. In many ways, M37 was a trick, a cruel joke on Oregon’s voters. Dorothy English was used as a stalking horse for large corporate interests. The voters did not intend for this outcome.

We have the votes, we have the courts, we maintain political control over all of Oregon’s major cities and all of Oregon’s statewide offices. Each year we grow stronger. We sit on the planning commissions, the economic development commissions, the city councils, the transportation committees, the transit committees, the task forces, the Big Looks, the New Looks, the alliances, the chambers of commerce, the school boards…and in nearly every case, we dominate them.

You are outnumbered.

Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated.