Vienna no quick solution
There has been a lot of talk about Vienna recently in Portland. I have been there numerous times and have learned that the social current structure in place took decades to build. It was basically initiated around the end of World War I and the Hapsburg Empire.
Social change is not spontaneous. Effective and durable change needs to be carefully planned and takes months or even years and resources. It should involve several generations.
Many people attribute their less-than-ideal situations to plain misfortune. And history has taught that if the folks on the edges of society are left out, failure is inevitable.
I am not a city planner or engineer. I do, however, believe that a plan for the good of a citizenry needs to be compassionate and enabling for everyone.
Carol Lucas
NW 12th Ave.
Remember Pearl origin
Why have we forgotten the history of the Pearl District?
Portland’s politicians and activists keep injecting their fiscally suicidal agenda of wealth-demonizing into what they perceive to be well-off enclaves, but they probably do not understand our city’s past successes. Unlike earlier urban renewal projects, the Pearl District did not replace a poorer neighborhood, and few if any people were displaced in the process. It was built on an area of mostly old, unoccupied railroad yards and warehouses, and when it was proposed in the late 1980s, urban planners were salivating over the prospect of creating the perfect egalitarian place of the future.
The plan was to make a neighborhood near downtown Portland denser, not more exclusive. The idea evolved from the 1972 Downtown Plan and the associated urban growth boundary. As a template of thoughtful urban progressivism, the yet-unnamed Pearl District was meant to prevent Portland from sprawling onto valuable farmland. The cost of utilities and residential services would be cheaper because the neighborhood was built to be vertical, not horizontal.
At the same time, the city was expanding the public transit network to diminish the need for cars. The result was a streetcar-served, family-friendly neighborhood, walkable and open to residents of all incomes.
People who ignore the past may diminish or denigrate the significance of Portland’s older accomplishments. They are a classic example of throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Portland was a groundbreaker in the victory against sprawling suburbia. But victories are never permanent. Portland’s questionable political ideologies of the moment probably reinforce that idea.
John Tomlinson
SW 21st Ave.
Meter extension inconvenient
Extending parking meters hours from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. will be a challenge for people who have a downtown meal before an event. Most of the downtown meters are limited to two hours, while some are four. Two hours is enough for dinner, but not enough for most concerts and plays--and certainly not enough for both meal and event.
Four hours still might not be enough for a 5:45 parking time for a 6 p.m. dinner and a 7:30 p.m. symphony. This has always been a problem when going to lunch-then-matinees. In addition, many single people I know don’t feel safe in parking structures.
I have been parking downtown for evening events at least once a week for years, paying the maximum on the meters to get me to 7 p.m. Now it’s not going to be so easy. My problem is not the increased cost, but being able to park, pay, eat and see a performance without moving my car at some point or taking my chances at being ticketed makes me uncomfortable and more unwilling to go.
Would someone in city government seriously consider what this change would do to downtown businesses and performance venues?
Charlotte Rubin
NW Irving St.