Opinion
Why Higher Education is More Important than Ever
By RICK BAILEY I’m going to start with a disclaimer. I am a university president, so I have an obvious affection for higher education. The university I serve is a regionally responsive, liberal arts institution, so I am admittedly partial to the advantages that come with a broad-based education. Am…
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Opinion: Why Incentives to Attract Doctors to Rural Areas Haven’t Worked
BY ARJUN V.K. SHARMA 01.11.2024 – This article was originally published on undark.org Opinion: Why Incentives to Attract Doctors to Rural Areas Haven’t Worked IN THE 1960s and 1970s, researchers offered financial incentives to patients to get them to lose weight, quit smoking, and abstain from alcohol. To some degree, it worked. But when governmental…
Read MoreOvercoming Hurdles: The Journey of Black-Owned Restaurants
Introduction: A Rising Tide for Black Entrepreneurs in Oregon In recent years, the entrepreneurial spirit within Black communities across the state of Oregon has witnessed remarkable growth. A 2022 study conducted by Washington University and the University of Arkansas revealed a promising trend of increasing Black entrepreneurs throughout the region.…
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I am extremely sad about my vote for Tina Kotek in the Oregon Governor’s Election of 2022
By Joel Barker Opinion Disclaimer : The views and opinions expressed by the author do not state or reflect those of the Southern Oregon Business Journal and its management. Today, I am casting a vote I don’t want to, for the Democrat Tina Kotek for Oregon Governor. I am despondent what the…
Read MoreGo, Set, Ready
By Greg Henderson Luck resides at the intersection of preparation and opportunity. You and I have heard it a thousand times, but seldom say no to a bit of luck that may come our way. Too, bad. Undeserved luck is addictive and unreliable. COVID-19 is blamed for thousands of business…
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Recent large fires fed by forest management issues and climate change.
There is a lot of misinformation about the state of our forests, especially in the intense political climate we are in regarding the causes of the massive forest fires in the West. Commercial thinning is a method used to open up the tree crowns to light as the trees are…
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Youth Movement
By Joe Cortright The movement of talented young adults to dense urban neighborhoods isn’t waning, it is widespread and accelerating, and it is powering urban revival. Cities continue to be magnets for talented young adults The number of well-educated young adults living in close-in urban neighborhoods is increasing in every…
Read MoreWhen workers can live anywhere
By Joe Cortright Another anecdote-fueled tale predicting of urban decline Writing in The Wall Street Journal, Rachel Feintzeig and Ben Eisen add another story, this one headlined “When workers can live anywhere” to the growing pile of claims that fear of Covid-19 and the possibility for remote work are likely to lead…
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Postcards from the edges: Density is not Destiny
By Joe CortrightCity Observatory There’s a meme equating density with Covid-19 risk. Two polar cases shows that density (or lack thereof) has little to do with the spread of the pandemic. Many, including New York’s Governor, have been quick to blame density for the spread of Covid-19. Last month, we…
Read MoreTransportation planners flunk Econ 101: Price elasticity of demand
Opinion By Joe Cortright The most basic concept in economics is that higher prices lead to less consumption, yet this fact is routinely ignored in transportation planning and policy. If we got the prices right, many of our most pressing transportation problems would be much easier to tackle If we…
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Time to Stop Building Disposable Places
by Daniel Herriges You hear it so often it sounds like a cliché: “Our ancestors used to build things to last. Now we build them to be thrown away.” Sometimes, this sentiment is a cliché or an oversimplification: when it comes to homes, for example, our ancestors built plenty of…
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