It's been nearly three years since Metro began the program known as "oak release" at Canemah Bluff in Oregon City. Oak release is the removal of competing plants and trees in habitat that has been, and can be again, an area where native oaks thrive. These white oak areas provide critical habitat for many plant and animal species that are disappearing from our region. They are viewed as among the most important habitat types in our state – habitat that is quite rare today.

Who could resist a trip to "the source?" I've always been fascinated by the underground network of pipes and pumps that supply our freshwater and remove our waste water. Turning the tap, I wonder where does this water come from, how did it get here, how pure is it and how was it purified? So when offered the opportunity to tour the Bull Run Watershed – source of drinking water for 20 percent of all Oregonians – I was happy to accept.

In early April, I joined Greenlight Greater Portland in a "best practices" trip to Barcelona to learn about that city's successful urban redevelopment. The city has been transforming itself over the past 30 years from one of Europe's least hospitable communities, to one of its most popular – for tourists and businesses alike.

Join me at Metro Regional Center on Wednesday, June 22 from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. for my brown bag presentation on Barcelona's Ecology of Innovation.

Last week at the regular Joint Policy Advisory Committee on Transportation (JPACT) meeting, two members of our Regional Flexible Funds Task Force made a presentation on their work. Steve Ganiere from Alliance Packaging in Beaverton and Stephen Gomez from the Bicycle Transportation Alliance explained to the gathering of regional elected leaders and agency directors how they had spent the past few months coming to a shared understanding of the complex challenge of balancing freight mobility and access for bicycles and pedestrians.

Downtown Vancouver

I have made several treks across the Columbia River to "our" Vancouver in recent months, mostly to learn more about the transportation needs of our sister community. During each trip, I spotted Vancouver success stories in the making, but never had the time to indulge my curiosity about these other terrific things the city is doing. On Sept. 22, I brought a group of city leaders from around Metro District 2, plus a few from beyond my district, to see what is going on up there. My primary purpose was to tour the Vancouver Water Resources Education Center, but as I talked with folks in Lake Oswego, Milwaukie, Oregon City and West Linn, for starts, they were also interested in the amazing revitalization of downtown Vancouver. The photos here were taken by Milwaukie Planning Commissioner and World Famous Photographer Mark Gamba.

For the past three years or so, the Metro Council and our regional partner cities and counties have been engaged in a process we've been calling "Making the Greatest Place." This summer we adopted two big critical parts of that effort. We designated Urban and Rural Reserves to help us manage our region's population and employment growth over the next 50 years, and we finalized a 20 Year Regional Transportation Plan that described the kind of region we want to live in and the transportation priorities that will help us build that region. This winter we will be taking the next steps toward our goal of making this region great. To focus that conversation, Metro's chief operating officer Michael Jordan has released a Community Investment Strategy that calls for our region to invest in safe, livable communities; promote economic development and good jobs; protect our natural areas; reduce inefficiency, foster innovation and demand accountability.

Over the past three years, and especially in the past few weeks, the Metro Council has been listening to what people around our region feel should be the priorities in making this a better place to live, work and play over the next 20 to 50 years. In open houses and public hearings in all three of our counties, as well as in written comments and online surveys, we have heard from literally thousands of people who are passionate about our region. People have commented on road projects and trails, future light rail projects and freight mobility, rebuilding our downtowns and expanding our boundaries. We've called this multi-year process "Making the Greatest Place," but it's really just about making an already great place even better.

On the very long list of things I love about living in the Portland metropolitan area two things rise to the top.

I love that I can catch a bus on my corner or a trail a couple of blocks away and go almost anywhere in the region I want to without driving. I've got a grocery store less than a half mile away and corner stores in three directions. There are Mexican, Italian and Chinese restaurants within walking distance and a new Hawaiian one five minutes away by bus. I live in a residential neighborhood in Milwaukie that is linked to everything I need and enjoy. That linkage is my favorite thing about living here.

What I love next best is the fact that I can leave all that behind and be in farm fields or forests quickly just by crossing the region's urban growth boundary. It's not far from my home – a few miles and I'm on my way to Mount Hood or the Columbia River Gorge or a U-pick farm to get berries.

I actually like some kinds of change – a new restaurant filling a storefront downtown, a grocery store opening in a long abandoned building, a neighborhood park built on the site of a former drug house. That kind of change makes it easier and more fun to live here. It means there might be jobs for my neighbors.

But I also find it reassuring that some things aren't changing so much. I am grateful to the folks who drew a line around our region 30 years ago and protected the countryside, the forests, the productive farms and more from urban sprawl. I am grateful that it is not easy to move that line outward. It has to really make sense. It has to be a necessary move to ensure that there is room for people to live and work in our region.

Starting today, I'll be delivering Metro news to you as it occurs, sometimes on a daily basis here on my new online newsfeed. My goal is to make it faster and easier for you to stay informed about issues you and your family care about, and to provide you a way to give me feedback whenever it's most convenient for you. Please check the site regularly and take advantage of the subscription features that let you choose the way you want to stay updated. Let me know what you think of this new way to deliver information, and if you have any ideas for how to make it better.

Ambrose Calcagno grew up farming in Clackamas County, as did his parents and their parents and a fourth generation back as well. Some of the 400 plus acres he farms today is the same land as those other generations farmed, on a peninsula wrapped three sides around by the Clackamas River. But about 50 acres is actually owned by Metro. The family holds a long-term lease on the land, and can continue to farm there, selling their produce to local outlets of Albertsons, Fred Meyer and Safeway, until Metro has the funding and other resources to restore the land for habitat or park purposes.