dkSez : : : : : : Don Kahle’s blog

Architects and urban planners are beginning rediscover “old and improved.” Building standards are beginning to calculate and consider the energy that went into building the original structure as something worth saving. The future is calling AAA to reuse the past.

[Read more →]

If Coburg votes for sewers, they will be voting to make room for more and other future Coburg residents. That faith in the future is what drives civilization forward — regular people trying to make things just a little bit better.

[Read more →]

The city has gotten admirably creative about swapping with Springfield or with Lane County to achieve shared goals, but this issue demands no fancy footwork. A nickel lost by our schools is a nickel paid to our schools. Period.

[Read more →]

How about a big, squishy, orange Umbrage? Whoever leaves as the most aggrieved party could take Umbrage with them, but they’d then be responsible for its care of feeding, until somebody else took Umbrage.

[Read more →]

If the Supreme Court won’t allow money to have less of a voice, how about lifting the 1911 law and restoring how much voice the Constitution afforded each vote?

[Read more →]

• I’m afraid all my children know about long-term commitment, they’re learning from their cell phone companies. It starts with romance, but ends with a contract “to have and to hold” — a hand-held device.

[Read more →]

Accepting responsibility is just one more act of everyday heroism we should be able to ask of our police officers. Instead, we blame the system, arguing that everyone shares responsibility, so nobody has to own it.

[Read more →]

If a chicken and a pig get together to make some ham and eggs, the chicken’s involved, but the pig has to be committed.

[Read more →]

Busy storefronts have merchants inside. They open their doors and sweep their sidewalks. They shoo away miscreants. They call the police when things get out of hand. Empty buildings don’t do any of that. Empty buildings cause most of the trouble downtown, yet their owners pay less for the services that aim to keep downtown safe, clean and attractive.

[Read more →]