Jay Raskin Architect

Author: Raskin

  • The Great American Shakeout Occurred in Seaside, Oregon

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    The following is a repost of a Facebook post done Tom Horning, a geologist and city councilor, who lives in Seaside, Oregon and has been a long time advocate for preparing for a Cascadia earthquake and tsunami. He granted me permission to get it out to a wider audience: The GREAT AMERICAN SHAKEOUT occurred in…

  • Future of Cars and Cities 5

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    As my last blog entries go, I am fascinated by autonomous vehicles. This recent article “The Numbers don’t lie, self-driving cars are getting good” show that things are heating up. While a bit on wonky side, the article shows how many companies are in the field.  Their focus on different metrics show the differences in…

  • Future and Cities and Cars 4

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    Just a quick blog to say that the regulatory environment for driverless cars is kicking into gear.  California has just come up with some conservative rules that require there be an operator in the car. On the other hand the Federal government in taking a pro-active approach for national standards that seem to promise fully…

  • Future of Cities and Cars 3

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    I had thought San Francisco might be the first city with self-driving cars, but it looks like Audi is going to do a test with a small fleet of cars in Summerville, a suburb of Boston in 2018.  Check out this article in Wired: Audi Will Unleash Self-Parking Cars in a Bid to Fix Urban Gridlock.…

  • Resilience Ratings are here

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    A major recommendation of the Oregon Resilience Plan was the establishment of resilience ratings for building and communities.  The idea was to let people and communities know how well a particular building, structure or community would perform in the Cascadia Earthquake.  The goal was to  help people make informed decisions about the acceptable level of risk.  These…

  • Making resilience a Priority in School District

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    The Oregon Chapter the Association of Civil Engineers was just mentioned in an article on making resilience a priority for school districts.  The article from ASCE News, focuses on the efforts of the Beaverton School District to adopt the findings of the Oregon Resilience Plan (ORP) for schools. The ORP’s  goals were to ensure that schools…

  • OPB “Unprepared” Documentary

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    OPB has been doing an incredible integrated radio, TV, and online effort, called “Unprepared”, looking at the vulnerability of the region to a Cascadia subduction zone earthquake and resulting tsunami. The finale will be an airing of the Oregon Field Guide Special Unprepared Documentary.  The premier showing will be October 1, 2015 at 6:10 pm.  For those wanting…

  • Big Story and small stories that add up

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    The big story was the recent New Yorker article, “The Earthquake That Will Devastate Seattle” that caused quite a stir both here in the Northwest and the rest of the country by providing a very well written summary of what the Cascadia earthquake and resulting tsunami will do to the region.  The smaller stories are…

  • Resilience Legislation: One more step

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    Oregon is nearing a milestone in preparing for a Cascadia earthquake and tsunami, but it could be delayed for lack of funding (see this report from OPB).  The Legislature, back in 2011, asked Oregon’s Seismic Commission (OSSPAC) to create a resilience plan, which it did with the help of 169 volunteers from across the State.…

  • The Future of Cars and Cities 2

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    A couple of years ago I wrote a blog about the Future of Cars and Cities where I talked about the potential impact of driverless cars.  Development is speeding up, especially with the rise of Uber.  A recent article by Zack Kanter called How Uber’s Autonomous Cars Will Destroy 10 million jobs and Reshape the Economy…