Two grant opportunities worth a combined $190 million were recently opened by the U.S. Forest Service to assist private landowners in climate change adaptation and mitigation. The deadline to apply is Sept. 30.
The leadership team of the Homeless Services Masterplan Subcommittee laid out details of the city’s recently published Homeless Services Masterplan and its suggested actions for the city during the Ashland City Council study session Monday. The report will help inform the 2200 Ashland St. shelter action committee and be up for further discussion at a future council meeting.
Ashland’s proposed Homeless Services Masterplan will be reviewed by the City Council at its study session Monday, while the Tuesday business meeting agenda includes a potential ballot measure related to the resignation of Municipal Judge Pamela Turner and a discussion of the soon-to-be ratified state wildfire risk map and its effects on Ashland’s city code.
Four years ago, a fire on Sept. 8, 2020, swept by hot, dry winds of more than 40 miles per hour, left a 9-mile path of destruction from north Ashland to Phoenix, killing three people and destroying nearly 2,400 structures, including 2,300 homes. Displaced families who are still without permanent housing will receive top priority for new affordable housing at New Spirit Village, an 87-unit development in west Medford which celebrated its grand opening Thursday. Gov. Tina Kotek cut the ribbon in the official ceremony.
A master plan tailor-made to guide the city of Ashland’s approach to homelessness was unanimously approved Thursday evening by the final committee standing between the plan and a review from Ashland City Council. A review of the master plan is scheduled for the Aug. 5 council study session.
In just an hour and half on Monday night, the Ashland City Council strongly affirmed that the city’s future will include major swaths of taller, denser development designed to reduce our dependency on automobiles, adapt to climate change, and provide a greater amount of multi-family and affordable housing, while striving to provide spaces for commercial and small-scale industrial uses.
A statewide “wildfire risk map” that drew the ire of many Oregonians will return in several weeks with few changes but with a new name following a yearlong makeover. The draft map is currently with county planners across the state, who have had two months to review the data and provide feedback.
The due date is fast approaching for a homelessness master plan requested by Ashland City Council. The Homeless Services Master Plan Subcommittee created to produce the plan met Wednesday for what was initially intended to be a final meeting. After two and a half hours of wide ranging discussion, committee members present agreed with a show-of-hands vote to meet one more time after falling short of working through the entire 76 pages of the final draft of the master plan.
Democratic lawmakers, homeless advocates and legal experts in Oregon expressed disappointment Friday with the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in the Grants Pass homeless case, while conservatives welcomed the decision. In a 6-3 decision split along partisan lines, the court sided with the Southern Oregon city in its prohibitions against homeless people using blankets, pillows or cardboard to protect themselves in severe weather while sleeping in public places.
The U.S. Supreme Court Friday sided with a local ordinance in Oregon that bans homeless people from sleeping outdoors, and local governments will be allowed to enforce those laws. In a 6-3 decision, Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote in the opinion that the enforcement of those local laws that regulate camping on public property does not violate the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment.
As of Nov. 3, Ashland Community Food Bank has a new director at the reins. Catie Mahoney will serve in the role with guidance from outgoing director Amey Broeker, who will officially retire on Dec. 31 after serving in the food bank role since 2022.
The Ashland City Council will review a proposal from a potential provider to oversee its extreme weather shelter during its regular business meeting on Tuesday, Nov. 18.
The Ashland Independent Film Festival has added a second screening showcasing Indigenous filmmakers on Sunday, Nov. 23.
Three and a half years into the war with Russia, Ashland violinist and longtime music teacher Faina Podolnaya is still finding ways to help Ukrainian refugees.
Herbert Rothschild: As the number of ads in The New Yorker has shrunk, it seems as if the wealth of its readership has concentrated, just as one might concentrate the flavor of a sauce by reducing it on the stovetop.
Local artist MaryAnn Shank will share the thoughts behind her newest novel “Sor Juana, My Beloved” at Bloomsbury Books Jan. 26. Shank is a finalist of The Isabel Allende Most Inspirational Book of the Year 2025 award, awarded by the International Latino Book Association.
(It’s free)
