It’s hard to tell whether New Urbanism best fits the definition of a cult or a conspiracy. It has elements of both. Either way, my advice is not to drink the Kool-Aid. Embracing a politically correct excuse for growth is suicide for the West’s small towns. New Urbanism is the name given to a collection […]
Communities
Posted inMarch 31, 2003: Tinkering with Nature
Motorheads sue over park’s seasons
Proposal would keep snowmobiles humming year-round
Posted inWotr
A message from women, witnesses in black
Today, in the short space of one hour, I was cursed, yelled at and repeatedly shown the finger. One man pulled down his pants and stuck his rear out of a car window. Why? Simply because, together with seven other women, I donned all black clothing and a veil and stood silently on a sidewalk […]
Posted inWotr
Looking at sprawl in familiar faces
Soon, it will be goodbye to the Colorado Front Range. The moving van is reserved, and Heather and our 4-year-old son, Josiah, will soon aim north and west from Boulder to the Missoula area in western Montana. It will be an adventure. We don’t know where we will live, maybe in a condo or a […]
Posted inMarch 31, 2003: Tinkering with Nature
The Latest Wrinkle
Dubois, Wyo., has announced a name change. The town council voted in February to change the name of the community to “Doo Wah Diddy.” “We thought it sounded more American — you know, patriotic,” explained Mayor Roy Bungee. “We want our men and women in uniform to know we’re not a town full of Frenchies.” […]
Posted inMarch 31, 2003: Tinkering with Nature
Forest Service fights red tape
When Philip Dechain-Saw, the supervisor of Colorado’s Big Fir National Forest, tried to approve a 30,000-acre clear-cut in 1997, his efforts to “bulletproof” the final decision against environmentalists’ appeals and lawsuits took a horrific personal toll. First, he experienced dizziness and ringing in the ears; now, he’s suffering full-blown “analysis paralysis.” Unable to cook meals […]
Posted inMarch 31, 2003: Tinkering with Nature
Emmet Gowin: Changing the Earth
The word “beauty” does not normally come to mind at the mention of bomb testing, open-pit mining, chemical disposal, or the marks these activities have left on the Western landscape. But Changing the Earth, a book and traveling exhibit of Emmet Gowin’s aerial photographs, lends rich texture and a mysterious vitality to the Hanford Nuclear […]
Posted inMarch 31, 2003: Tinkering with Nature
The Underground Heart: Return to a Hidden Landscape
I loved the desert when I lived in El Paso, but as a native, I had no environmental concerns. There was no such thing back then. We were too busy growing up in a vast landscape that could never change. — Ray Gonzalez, The Underground Heart Ray Gonzalez grew up on the Mexican border, in […]
Posted inMarch 31, 2003: Tinkering with Nature
The hunt is on for a mystery killer
Leukemia cluster has Nevada town thirsty for answers
Posted inMarch 31, 2003: Tinkering with Nature
A small-town mayor challenges developers
Community discovers that once you’re on the growth train, it’s hard to get off
Posted inMarch 31, 2003: Tinkering with Nature
Heard Around the West
Open a Wenatchee, Wash., phone book and you might want to take a bite out of it. A fragrance strip has been applied to the front cover, and instead of perfume, this one sends out succulent molecules of green-apple aroma. That’s fitting, says Jim Hail, co-owner of Hagedone Directries Inc., who came up with the […]
Posted inWotr
Mention planning in Oregon and get ready for a yawn
Advice for party-goers: If you’re hoping to enthrall acquaintances and potential dates, avoid the terms “urban-growth boundary or “transit-oriented development.” While working recently on a story about Oregon’s land-use system, I was eager to share my findings at social occasions. Bad idea. Few Oregonians understand how it works, and my attempts at conversation yielded polite […]
Posted inMarch 17, 2003: Bracing against the tide
Coastal open space gets a boost
Score one point for endangered steelhead and the threatened California red-legged frog: The 82,000-acre Hearst Ranch, on the Pacific Coast just south of Big Sur, may be forever protected from development. Famous for Hearst Castle, the elaborate mansion built for media tycoon William Randolph Hearst early in the 20th century, the sprawling, hilly ranch includes […]
Posted inMarch 17, 2003: Bracing against the tide
Tangled up in blue
“It has been rightly said: Color is the first principle of place.” A quick look across any desert reveals a lack of watery blues and leafy greens. But Ellen Meloy fills that void in her memoir, The Anthropology of Turquoise. She uses turquoise — the color and the mineral — to explore desert geology, flora […]
Posted inMarch 17, 2003: Bracing against the tide
Looters sneak into monument
President Clinton established the Canyons of the Ancients National Monument in southwestern Colorado to protect an estimated 20,000 archaeological sites, ranging from scattered potsherds to intact cliff dwellings (HCN, 4/23/01: Monuments caught in the crosshairs). Monument officials, however, are having a hard time fending off looters and vandals. Since the monument was created in June […]
Posted inMarch 17, 2003: Bracing against the tide
Of Western myth and jackalopes
“Are there jackalope around here?” the dude from Chicago asked. “Well, up here there’s too much elevation. They’re down on the sagebrush flats.” from Jackalope by Hilda Volk On Jan. 6, 2003, the West lost one of its great mythmakers, 82-year-old Douglas Herrick, of Casper, Wyo. No, Herrick wasn’t a writer, an artist, or a […]
Posted inMarch 17, 2003: Bracing against the tide
Heard Around the West
Vive la France! There, we’ve said it, knowing full well those are fighting words — especially in Nevada. The owners of a restaurant in Reno were so angry at France for thwarting our Iraqi war plans at the United Nations, they poured expensive French champagne into a bucket on the sidewalk. And if they’d had […]
Posted inMarch 17, 2003: Bracing against the tide
Engagement in a time of terror
Who do we believe? How do we behave? These are questions I hold as we watch President Bush make his case for war. Our Department of Homeland Security recently placed us on “high alert/code orange,” advised us to buy duct tape and cover our windows with plastic, then in the same breath told us not […]
Posted inMarch 17, 2003: Bracing against the tide
Taosenos take on Wal-Mart
Backers use populist rhetoric to promote a corporate giant
Posted inMarch 3, 2003: The Wild Card
Land-use laws attacked from all sides
Although it died on the floor of the Oregon Supreme Court last October, Oregon’s controversial property-rights initiative, Measure 7, may live again. The initiative, approved by voters in 2000, would compensate landowners for decreased property value caused by local and state land-use rules. The regulations, conceived in the 1970s, aim to preserve farmlands and forests […]