Letters to the editor

NW Examiner readers reply

Do not mix

Portland’s various approaches to solving homelessness have had minimal success. As a marketing consultant for over 40 years, it appears to me that one of the problems has been a failure to segment the market. We do not differentiate the people who are homeless for financial reasons from those who have drug issues or those who have mental health challenges.

At the William Temple House pantry, where I volunteer, I have met people who are eager to get back to a normal life but don’t have the assistance and guidance they need. Their interactions with others with whom they are forced to share the street or overnight shelter cause them to lose their belongings, get physically threatened and feel helpless.

Segregate these people, spend money on what it will take to help them and then move on to the other two homeless segments. It would take less money, less time and result in more success than the approach of the current plans.

Residents of neighborhoods like the Pearl would probably be open to shelters where these individuals are given counseling, job preparation and a place to leave their belongings during the day. But mixing them with those who suffer from drug addiction and mental health issues can push them into one of the two other categories out of depression and desperation.

Marcia Wolly

NW Lomita Terrace

No adults in room

Your call for a political party comprised of those adults in the room to counter the radical leftists who have hijacked City Council begs the question: Where were the adults when Portland chose to expand the council?

Where are the adults who should decry the generous salaries and benefits bestowed to the likes of Angelita Morillo. Instead, Portland seems to endlessly obsess over federal immigration policies or other things related to Donald Trump, which are federal and local issues. Why doesn’t Portland ever look in the mirror versus employing tired old tactics that never work?

This ideological war between the Democratic Socialists of America, which is far more radical than Europe’s more familiar social democrats, has been brewing for at least a decade. The DSA loathes capitalism and wants to topple it entirely, lacking regard for the lifeblood of any city, its businesses and hard-working professional taxpayers.

Morillo cares not a whit about the ad nauseam filth and drugs in the Pearl.

Karla Powell

NW 11th Ave

Message from native son

Portland’s Forest Park certainly might have helped focus environmental scientist Tom Kaye’s love of nature, growing up as he did just yards from the park’s northern border. He later founded and now directs the Institute for Applied Ecology, a nonprofit conservation group in Corvallis.

Kaye was interviewed last month on Oregon Public Broadcasting’s “Think Out Loud” describing the slashing of federal funding for 30 vital research projects that are being aborted.

Among the projects lost are several butterfly restoration efforts done with the assistance of Coffee Creek Correctional Facility inmates, aiding their education and future lives. The emerald ash borer, killer of native Pacific Northwest trees, is also under study.

I happened upon a Barry Lopez quote just after listening to the OPB interview: “In the gathering darkness, to say to the physical Earth and to all its creatures, including ourselves fiercely and without embarrassment, I love you. And to embrace fearlessly the burning world.”

Jere Grimm

NW Aspen Ave.

Comments from nwexaminer.com:

To Montgomery Park or bust

A responsible transportation agenda would:

• Fix NW 23rd now—not in 10 years.

• Prioritize safety, maintenance and reliability over ribbon-cutting mega-projects.

• Update ridership assumptions to reflect real conditions, not legacy spreadsheets.

• Demand financial accountability before committing to another nine-figure gamble.

Instead, we are sprinting toward Montgomery Park—or bust. If this project proceeds on its current trajectory, “bust” may be the more accurate destination.

Bob Weinstein

If the goal is to move people, why not work with TriMet to create a new bus line that follows where the tracks would be laid? Seems less expensive and more flexible. I ride the streetcar on a regular basis between PSU area and Good Sam and would prefer if it were a bus route. It always seems like the streetcar was nothing more than nostalgia for the past and a way for tourists to get around.

Scott Spencer

Little improvement around Pearl shelter

You can’t bring a large population of people addicted to drugs or battling severe mental illness into a neighborhood and expect things to remain the same…. These people need help, not a place to crash.

Rich Ovenburg

Pearl Safeway area is ‘absolute disaster’

North Pearl has almost no other businesses still surviving, so Safeway has been the main spot for panhandling, loitering etc., long before the shelter opened. Many nearby businesses closed because of untenable rent increases rather than street-people issues.

Linda Berg

It’s this way early in the morning as well. Last week, I could not walk on the sidewalk ramp or steps on Northwest 13th going to Safeway because individuals were strewn across actively taking meth or just having taken it. Mitch Green: You are our councilor. Get off your Peacock horse, open your eyes, and help those of us who live here.

Dan Berne