Think Out Loud

In 2017, fewer than 1,000 winter steelhead returned to the Upper Willamette Basin. That number has exploded to more than 7,600 so far this year. The returns are the highest since 2004. Zach Urness is the outdoors editor for the Statesman Journal and hosts the Explore Oregon podcast. He joins us with more on what’s behind the increase.

Plans are underway to turn the former Statesman Journal building in downtown Salem into a one-stop shop for community services, including youth programming, health services and religious charities. As recently covered by the Salem Reporter, the project is moving forward after receiving $3 million from state lawmakers. The current plan is for storage company StoreIT to buy the building and occupy the subfloor, while nonprofits and community organizations rent space on upper floors.  

Tim Sinatra is the CEO of the Family YMCA of Marion and Polk Counties, which is spearheading the project. He joins us with more details.  

Plans are underway to turn part of the former Presbyterian Church of Laurelhurst into a tiny home village for Indigenous families experiencing homelessness. As reported in Underscore, the project – known as Barbie’s Village – will also include family and children’s programming in the former church building. The project was made possible after regional Presbyterian Church leaders voted to sell the land for $1 to Future Generations Collaborative, a local Indigenous services nonprofit. 

Jillene Joseph is the executive director of the Native Wellness Institute and the engagement mode lead for Future Generations Collaborative. Chris Dela Cruz is a former associate pastor at Westminster Presbyterian Church, which helped sponsor the project. They join us to talk about the vision for Barbie’s Village and how the project came to be. 

Four years ago at the dawn of the pandemic, many universities across the country scaled back on their admissions process, many no longer requiring SAT or ACT scores with an application. Now, U.S. universities are bringing standardized testing back. Institutions such as Brown University, the University of Texas at Austin and University of Tennessee are all reinstituting the requirement for applicants. This also comes at a time where the Supreme Court recently struck down Affirmative Action.

In Oregon, no schools have made an announcement to require scores again. Milyon Trulove is the vice president and dean of admission and financial aid at Reed College. Jon Boeckenstedt is the vice provost of enrollment management at Oregon State University. They both join us to share what the admissions process is looking like now and why they are not reinstituting score requirements.

When one of the city’s vehicles are in need of repair, they may find themselves at Kerby Garage, a two-story city-owned facility in North Portland. But while the facility is responsible for servicing more than 2,000 city vehicles such as snowplows, dump trucks and excavators, the building has been labeled in city reports as in “very poor condition.” Some of the many problems with the building include no automated smoke detectors, frequent garage door issues and no air conditioning. Willamette Week reporter Sophie Peel has been covering this issue. She joins us to share more on what workers are facing and potential plans to address conditions at the facility in the future.

Last week, Gov. Tina Kotek signed into law HB 4002 which effectively ends Oregon’s experiment with drug decriminalization under Measure 110. As of Sept. 1, the possession of hard drugs like fentanyl and meth will be a misdemeanor punishable by up to six months in jail. But the law also sets aside nearly $21 million to incentivize counties and Tribal governments to deflect drug users from jail time by connecting them to treatment and recovery service providers. Twenty-three counties in the state, including Washington County, have signed letters committing to prioritize deflection over incarceration. The details of those programs, however, are left up to each participating county. Joining us to talk about what deflection could look like in Washington County, and its impact on law enforcement and treatment providers are District Attorney Kevin Barton and Alison Noice, the executive director of Coda Inc., a substance use disorder treatment provider serving the tri-county region.  

In her State of the City address last month, Vancouver Mayor Anne McEnerny-Ogle touted the city’s rapid growth and development since she was first elected to the city council more than a decade ago. But with that growth comes challenges for Washington’s fourth-largest city. In the past decade, homelessness has increased by more than 250%, prompting city officials to declare a state of emergency to streamline responding to this crisis. Last year, voters approved a new property tax levy that is expected to raise $100 million over 10 years to shore up the city’s Affordable Housing Fund. Meanwhile, hundreds of new housing units are being planned for the Heights District, a neighborhood redevelopment project in central Vancouver. Mayor McEnerny-Ogle joins us to talk about her vision for the city’s future, the challenges it faces and reflections on her past decade in city government. 

Camp Namanu, a camp that has been a summertime idyll for Oregonians since 1924, was recently added to the National Register of Historic Places. The historic district includes  lodges, cabins, and community buildings which were designed to complement and blend in with the Pacific Northwest forest environment. Nancy King, a board member of Camp Namanu, joins us to talk about what this camp has meant to generations of Oregonians.

The state is taking another crack at a wildfire hazard map that outlines areas where fire resources should be prioritized. The first attempt was withdrawn in 2022 after public outcry. As the latest map is drafted, the state continues to seek public feedback. In the coming months, agencies will visit places that might be more affected by the map, like Southern Oregon.  Andy McEvoy is an OSU faculty research assistant, Derek Gasperini is a public affairs officer with the Oregon Department of Forestry and Tim Holschbach is the deputy chief of  policy and planning for Oregon Department of Forestry. They join us with more on the mapping process and what comes next.  

One of the many parts of a 10-year-plan to make the U.S. Postal Service financially sustainable involves reductions to rural postal service. U.S. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy was appointed by then-President Trump in 2020. The cutback to rural service are part of DeJoy’s “Delivering for America” plan. We talk with  Baker City Herald Editor Jayson Jacobi about the latest cutbacks, which went into effect in