SB 9 Defines Rural Oregon

Sponsored by Senator Todd Nash (R-Enterprise) with Representatives Darcey Edwards (R-Banks), Bobby Levy (R-Echo), and Gregory Smith (R-Heppner) as co-sponsors, SB 9 prioritizes the waiting list of drive tests for rural Oregonians. In doing so, it defines “Rural Oregon” as: “Baker, Clatsop, Crook, Curry, Gilliam, Grant, Harney, Hood River, Jefferson, Klamath, Lake, Malheur, Morrow, Sherman, Tillamook, Umatilla, Union, Wallowa, Wasco and Wheeler Counties.”

Defining by the county has an interesting consequence. While that makes sense, it would mean that, under Oregon statute, I didn’t grow up in rural Oregon. I grew up in the woods. I grew up on a gravel road. I grew up in Eagle Creek, Oregon, which is still unincorporated land between Sandy and Estacada. One still has to drive fifteen minutes before seeing a traffic light or grocery store. One has to drive even longer to find a DMV office, the nature of the bill, because the only two government facilities in Eagle Creek are a post office and an elementary school, the latter now under private operation. Clackamas County has some very rural areas, yet it is within a closer range to the amenities of the Portland metro area than the folks living in the counties listed in this bill.

Therefore, I have no qualms with SB 9. I don’t know how many residents of these more rural counties are forced to wait for a driving test because someone closer to a DMV office or from out of county floods the waiting list, but I suspect this is a constituent-driven bill bringing some real stories of frustration behind it. Yet, the practice of defining just about anything tends to serve an interesting exercise in setting limits to mental categories.

Eric Shierman lives in Salem and is the author of We were winning when I was there.