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Peter Meijer failed to address what I think are some of the most significant historical factors in the development of Memorial Coliseum. Constructing the Coliseum led to the displacement of an entire neighborhood: nearly 500 homes and businesses were destroyed, half of which were owned by African Americans. It also served as the first in a string of urban renewal activities that literally erased social and commercial centers of minority communities in Portland, particularly in the Albina neighborhood.

Preserving buildings on the National Register is a good idea, but unless we acknowledge and learn from the total history of a historic development, we'll lose perhaps the most important lessons that could be learned. It's not the combination of bricks and mortar that make one building more significant than another, but instead the impact of the building on the broader communities that matters the most.

posted 3 years, 10 months ago
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What about the rights of a neighbor living next to a do-it-yourselfer? Codes and permits exist in part to protect neighbors' property, as well, and this measure seems to ignore this issue. This seems incredibly foolish in light of the home in Portland's Southwest hills which slid into its neighbors a few weeks ago. Wouldn't this measure allow, for example, a homeowner to install a sprinkler system in their yard without a permit? Improper installation of a sprinkler system causes all kinds of drainage problems, especially in hilly areas, and was cited as a potential cause of the accident on Terwilliger Blvd.

Bottom line: My rights as a landowner do not trump the rights of my neighbors to own and enjoy their land, too.

posted 4 years, 6 months ago
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How about a show on social entrepreneurship -- when people find ways to make a living and palpably improve the quality of their communities? Portland's home to many of these efforts: the Rebuilding Center is probably the most visible, but there are others. A local Portland nonprofit offers a social enterpreneurship "launcher" program that incubates these ideas and helps potential entrepreneurs develop the skills to get going... and cities all over the country are clamoring for similar programs in their communities.

Update: Check out this article from The Oregonian, which details the program and some of its participants: [url]http://www.oregonlive.com/environment/index.ssf/2008/10/social_entrepreneurs_make_drea.html[/url]

posted 4 years, 7 months ago
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Regarding Measure 56: Those who aim to tie government to market forces fail to remember that the government doesn't have the ability to move in and out of markets at will: school districts must accept special education students (private schools don't), police departments must offer services to everyone in their municipality (private security can pick and choose), and so on. It's no wonder that government underperforms relative to the private sector. Let's not forget that the right-wing anti-tax crowd is largely the same group as the pro-Measure 61 crowd, and that measure would increase our corrections spending by a startling amount. True to form, they offer no funding mechanism in the measure. Apparently the McIntyres and Sizemores of the world think that we can just will a new prison into existence -- that bricks and mortar are free -- and that we'll staff them with volunteers. And they call government out of touch? Remarkable.

posted 4 years, 7 months ago
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