Cornelius Survey, Link, & Oregonian Piece

Survey is first step in rebranding as Cornelius ponders new logo, motto

http://www.oregonlive.com/washingtoncounty/index.ssf/2010/05/survey_is_first_step_in_rebran.html

First, I'd just like to say how thankful I am that Casey Parks hasn't forgotten about Cornelius. I'm glad that she's the Oregonian's eyes & ears, writing stories about the place we call home. I had the opportunity in meeting with her for a brief interview for her Cornelius Walmart article. Thanks Casey for all that you do! But especially for not forgetting about the little speck on the map that is Cornelius.

Link to Cornelius Survey
http://surveymonkey.com/corneliusresidentsurvey_english

Please please please, fill out the survey so that the group gets a true sense of what residents and others think of our little town! Thank you & God Bless.

Cornelius bucks NIMBY trend, embraces Walmart http://www.oregonlive.com/washingtoncounty/index.ssf/2009/10/cornelius_bucks_nimby_trend_em.html
Cornelius will present 2010 goals http://www.oregonlive.com/washingtoncounty/index.ssf/2010/01/cornelius_will_present_2010_go.html

Excellent Bankrate.com Article

Take grocery coupons to the next level by Jay MacDonald
http://www.bankrate.com/finance/personal-finance/take-grocery-coupons-to-the-next-level-1.aspx

The article basically describes the different grocers out there, their different offerings and pricing styles. It closes mentioning Walmart's massive competition in the razor-thing market of margins. I hope to share on this blog my own findings. Plotting the highs and lows of pricing for certain items that I buy regularly. We'll see how that turns out.

Walmart and Winco - Price Wars

Interesting how I thought of the future of this blog...and how articles pop up with the same underlying ideas. http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1973201,00.html
Time Magazine: "Walmart, Suffering a Rare Slump, Fights Back on Prices" by Sean Gregory.

Several blog postings ago I asked the question, how will Walmart compete in grocery prices against the likes of self-proclaimed "SuperMarket Low Price Leader!" WinCo Foods?

Excerpt:

At WinCo, a huge sign trumpeted that a 42-ounce box of Quaker Oatmeal cost $2.48.
A similar sign stood at Walmart — Quaker Oatmeal, 42-ounces, $3.12.

Of course, Walmart won't get pounded on price for long. "The time has finally arrived!" Weinswig wrote in a research note. "WMT [Walmart's stock symbol] is lacing up the gloves in the fight to win the modern day price war in food retail in 2010." Weinswig found that a 2-liter bottle of Coca-Cola, which recently cost the consumer $1.58 at a New York City-area Walmart, was now selling at the same store for 98 cents. "You're not going to ignore that," says Weinswig. "That's 'wow' pricing, and you'll think twice about going somewhere else.'"

Related story: http://www.financialadvisory.com/article/15-03-2010/762/citigroup-%28nyse-c%29-analyst-upgrades-wal-mart-%28nyse-wmt%29-on-food-discounts-apparel-strategy/

Excerpt:

"The grocery strategy for Wal-Mart is an obvious one, and something their competitors have never been able to match, and probably will never be able to; although they do give them a pretty good run for their money, especially with the power shoppers who pay attention to prices on individual items from store-to-store, which Wal-Mart isn't always the price leader on."

So back to my idea: Seeing as I'm < 10 minutes from the future Walmart(Cornelius), Fred Meyer(Cornelius), WinCo(Hillsboro), and Safeway(Forest Grove). I plan to comparision shop to see how the businesses compete with one another on price alone. Standard grocery list items I would shop for and compare them side-by-side. Who has the greatest selection of said items? What do they carry? What size do they carry? Etc. The options of comparision are limitless. I'll do my best not to be biased. Though I think Walmart can learn to be nimble and can go lower than any competitor, offering us any items we desire, as long as we come back to them each and every week -- like any smart business would. Let's see if they Listen.

Cornelius resident? Vote YES on 2 cent/gall tax

Cornelius residents should vote Yes for the '$0.02 per gallon motor vehicle fuel tax'. Before you go nuts on the t-word, tax, realize that this also comes with a repeal of the Cornelius Streetlight Fee of $2.25/mth. Meaning you'll save that amount ($2.25) on your City utility bill each month. Now, that would mean you would have to buy more than 112.5 gallons of fuel each month before the tax would be a net loss. How is that? $2.25 a month divided by $0.02 per gallon = 112.5 gallons in a month. Like most Cornelius residents we both work outside of town, and together (2 seperate cars - compact) we might use 80 gallons in a month. Still 30+ gallons less from the point where we'd see it as a net loss. Works for us, and it'll work for all those in similar situations, and those that don't drive at all. Our streets & sidewalks can really use a hand...more than that... a facelift...more...a new lease on life. That's more fitting. There should be NO REASON why someone handicap or with a baby-stroller should have to manuever around uneven sidewalks! Everyone deserves to be proud of their community...seeing years of layer after layer of patchwork on our streets is nothing to be proud of. We all have a part in this. Vote YES on Measure 34-174, based on City Ordinance 910. Thanks to Mayor Bash and the City Council with special recognition to Councilor Dalin for their forsight and interest in this matter. Walmart won't be a walk in the park in regards to traffic, we all know it. There's no better time than now to have come up with a way to pay for the accelerated wear & tear our streets will face for the years to come.

Final Proposal - Urban & Rural Reserves

I just received notice from Metro that we're in the final stretch of the Urban & Rural Reserves decision. 50 years. That's right 5 0 . That's how mean years ahead the people of the Portland Metro area thought. Areas to be preserved for the Rural Lifestyle and areas for future Urban Growth. I think the goal makes sense...lets do all the hard work upfront on how we want to grow...so we make our regions job a little easy for two generations. The people of 2009 and 2010 decided this is how we're to grow til 2060. 2060, what a thought. I hope these guys took into account Flying Cars and Airspace. Haha. :)

As for Cornelius, Oregon...see the map above. This is the Final Proposal - DRAFT 2/18/2010 of Washington County - for Urban & Rural Reserves. In 50 years...we have the 'possibility' of reaching Dairy Creek and border more of the Tualatin in our expansion. SMART Growth, I'm a fan.

MEGA POST - Happy New Year! Gazette References & Our Decade in Review in my view

HAPPY 2010 Everyone!

May the new year bring us all love and joy. This includes the place we call home Cornelius ->Washington County -> Portland Metro-> Oregon, and the U.S.A. as a whole. With the recession behind us ... we face the challenge of what to make of the aftermath ahead of us. Where should the focus be? Where do we turn? What should we do to make 2010 the best year of our lives yet?

I think all US communities need to focus on their own JOBS and SUSTAINABILITY above all else in 2010. The age of the 'Field of Dreams' - If you build it they will come - is over... We grew up too fast too quickly... In Real Estate, Hedged Huge Bests, settings up our entire financial network up for near disaster. Building more homes than the sum of us can really afford to live in. From what I understand now...something similiar happened when the Dot Com bubble burst early on this past decade...people got unrealistic about evaluations of wealth then too...real money flowing around to those not deserving of it.

Now I was just graduating high school in the year 2000, age 17-18. So the way I see the past decade was that it was my FIRST as an Adult. And boy was there a lot to learn from. From terrorist attacks in 2001 in New York, Pennsylvania, and Washington DC followed by two Wars in Iraq and Afghanstan and finishing with the election of the US's First Black President & the unfolding of the Great Recession...housing bubble, etc. There's much to tell my future kids about.

At my age I was touched in different ways, it was my 'digital decade' seeing Apple become a powerful force in Tech. Gone the days of Music & Movie (VHS) cassettes and starting the decline of CDs, enter the MP3's, DVDs, the iPod, and later the iPhone. The Internet entered the scene really flexing its muscles & quite literally CHANGED OUR WORLD as we see it & continues to do so. Amazon.com, Netflix.com, eBay.com, and many others OWE their fortunes to this 'Internet'. GPS was given to the masses...we can now know where exactly we are on this planet of ours -- we can also get where we're going with ease. Science & Technology really took a GIGANTIC Leap forward for our advancement as human beings & intelligent stewards of this earth.

I'm happy to be play my individual, albeit tiny, role as an active user & consumer of all of this past us and with us. We'll have to live with it afterall. I'm a 'member' of Generation Y. We'll have to deal with Tremendous Debts of our Predecessors, experience our Baby Boomer/Generation X parents become 'the elderly', and watch as their health gradually declines. We are a Learned Generation, we are a connected & enabled Generation, we will see this and hopefully many more great things to come from all of us.

Now I did not intend to take such a LARGE tangent from talking about Cornelius...and our advancement...but today more than ever we can't live our lives encapsulated from the rest of the world...it's together that we made our current livelihood possible & it will require us working together to do the same for our future.

BACK TO CORNELIUS...I think from 2010 to 2019...we should Honestly focus on Becoming ACTIVE Stewards of Our Communities, Helping Empower of Local Government, And CLEARLY letting them know we're DON'T JUST FUND THEIR Budgets i.e. jobs & visions but We are their MOST VALUABLE ASSET. Without us tax-payers and residents, there would be no communities. Put simply, IF you want to live a Civilized Life..with home & raising families & growing old in, then one should do their part of Civil Service. The compensation will not be in Dollars and Cents but the Priceless Positive Piece of change you role played in the community - Noone could take that from you. It'll bring more meaning into your life...I guarantee it.

I didn't think too much about it before I started this blog...I thought it would be handy to document my thoughts on my city before WalMart. Because the way I saw it WALMART would be a MILESTONE for Cornelius. Either we fumble it and simply allow THE CORPORATE BAHEEMITH to build a store within our city limits and wait to see what happens next OR do something more strategic. I'm happy to being serving my community as a Planning Commissioner and doing what I can to share my INSIDER KNOWLEDGE of city developments & visions with whomever is interested. And this Blog is my bulletin & sounding board to the world...found by Google Searches...referenced in newspaper articles, etc.

Goodbye for now folks...think Positive...and think how you can bring that Positivity to Cornelius with me this decade ahead.

Regards,
Jose

Reference: Timeline to Development for the Year or So ahead. Stay Tuned for more pictures of the Walmart Development and possibly the homes of Linda Lane.

Cornelius Gazzette - January 2010

URR negotiations update

Here's a list of references to stories regarding updates on the Urban and Rural Reserves processes. The latest and greatest is a proposal by now President David Bragdon and Metro Councilor Carl Hosticka of Tualatin. Here's a snapshot from their proposal...specific to Cornelius. [I focused in on it].

The result is less than 1/2 what Cornelius originally proposed for...I guess ANY Urban Reserve area is better than NONE AT ALL. The original request asked to boundary the Tualatin to the South... and an imaginary line connecting Verboort Rd (Forest Grove) and Evergreen Rd (Hillsboro) would be it's northern border.

1. http://blog.oregonlive.com/hillsboroargus/2009/12/metro_councilors_pitch_growth.html
2. http://www.oregonlive.com/news/argus/index.ssf?/base/news/1260903008121100.xml&coll=6
3. http://www.oregonlive.com/washingtoncounty/index.ssf/2009/12/washington_county_request_for.html
4. http://www.forestgrovenewstimes.com/news/story.php?story_id=126041082236391400
5. http://djcoregon.com/news/2009/12/09/some-farmers-want-protected-farmland-open-for-development/