Next Tuesday Upstream is hosting a casual happy hour screening of an amazing new film at the Leftbank, and Alex of Upright has graciously agreed to open his tasting room the hour before. Come hang out with your neighbors!

Our newest Hive member, Jonathan Maus (Editor-in-Chief of BikePortland.org) recently interviewed Upstream’s Mel Rader about his involvement in a Transportation Seminar Series at Portland State University which investigates links between transport (greenhouse gas emissions) and health.  You can check out this interview here.

We at Upstream are enjoying the addition of new neighbors in the building. We’re also excited about the ping pong table that we just discovered downstairs! We’ve been busy in the last few months.

The four main issues that we’ve been focused on lately are:

-A statewide menu labeling bill that would put calorie counts on menus and menu boards, providing consumers with information to make informed, healthy choices;

-A farm to school and school garden bill that would put money toward getting local foods into our schools while benefiting Oregon farmers;

-A tobacco tax that would increase funding of tobacco prevention and cessation programs, and;

-An analysis of the Jobs and Transportation Act that looks specifically at the health effects related to reducing vehicle miles traveled.

While working to support this legislation we made time to host a networking party where we released the Vehicle Miles Traveled Health Impact Assessment. We hope to continue to make use of our great space here at the Leftbank building!

-Emilia