Friday, November 2, 2007

[13] Culture Regions of the US

Oregon is located in the "Northwest" culture region of the US; eastern Oregon is also considered part of the "Mountains" culture region.



Human settlement in this region relies on the natural resources of the area. In the last 200 years, human activities such as logging, mining, and fishing have impacted the land. Nowadays, this region is well known for its environmentalism. There has been an adoption of sustainable practices by resource-based industries and growing tourism to the region's beautiful forest areas.

Oregon is the first state to create the country's first recycling refund program and initiated a wide-scale preservation of its coastline for public use.



Recently they passed Measure 49 by an unexpected margin of 61%! It protects farm and forest lands, as well as water supplies by limiting large subdivisions and commercial and industrial development. Measure 49 also allows land-owners who only want to build a few homes on their rural property a simpler and fairer way to do so, providing the fairness that Measure 37 promised, but failed to deliver.

Portland is one of the most fountain-centric U.S. cities, with a well-regarded municipal water bureau that maintains 17 decorative outdoor fountains—as well as over 120 public drinking fountains. Many Portland water fountains are the winners of local and international design competitions; others were gifts and commissions to the city from prominent private citizens.

All fountains in the Portland area continuously recycle the water through low energy, high efficiency pumps. They are also chlorinated.Portland’s fountains are for admiring—not drinking.

Most of Portland’s decorative fountains run spring through fall from 6:30 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. The city’s drinking fountains also run on timers.


Keller Forecourt fountain


Salmon Street Springs fountain

As stated in the text, Portland is also known for its social tolerance, especially tolerance of new migrants into the area.

Sources
Environment Oregon
Portland Water Fountains

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