Warming fires not OK

As a Lyft driver, I can confirm that warming fires are happening all over Portland [Snapshots, January]. Two nights ago, two homeless men were in a bus shelter on Southeast MLK Boulevard by a roaring bonfire of shipping pallets. The flames were 3-plus feet high, and the fire was filling the whole sidewalk in front of the bus shelter.

Since we are enforcing our no-camping ordinance again, these fires should be attended to by the Portland Police Bureau and Portland Street Response.

Most Portlanders feel that homeless are innocent people forced to live on the streets by the vagaries of the current economic situation. But the folks who do not accept the offers of available shelter beds are breaking the law, and many are career criminals who steal anything not nailed down. They may also be mentally ill and need help if they are to survive the winter.

Not responding to these fires is a criminal act performed by the very people that we elected to end the human crisis that is destroying lives and city. Please write all your elected officials and tell them that ignoring these warming fires is unacceptable. Remind them that we have lost many lives and million of dollars of property due to unsafe fires in the homeless camps every year since street camping has been allowed.

About half of the calls responded to by our firefighters are because of dangerous situations involving homeless persons. These people need either help or involuntary confinement, as each one is a danger to themselves or others.

This type of activity has no place in a civilized society, and we need to keep these incidents in the public eye if we are to save what little we have left of the Portland that I grew up in.

Tim Larson

NW Ferry Rd.

Strong stories

I just finished reading the January edition. I have two strong emotions:

Your coverage of the slimy political / financial actions associated with the Slabtown park clearly identified the “evil doers.”
The essay by Dr. Don Goldenberg was brilliantly written and emotionally powerful.

Marc Green

SW Vista Ave.

Interim idea for Slabtown Park

I’m not going to comment on the shenanigans [“Still no Slabtown Park,” January]. I’m only going to predict that the park won’t be developed for a few years. Meanwhile, here’s something positive to consider:

Northwest lacks community garden space. A high proportion of us live in apartments, and we can’t garden at home. I propose that the site be converted into a community garden space on the cheap, with minimal city government involvement. We can create a nonprofit organization to contract with the city to manage it.

We could leave the asphalt and concrete in place for the park builders to deal with later. Get a few truckloads of clean soil to spread on top of the paving. Two or three feet is deep enough for most garden crops. It would also create a shallow water table, which would be good for the plants. Some developer might donate the dirt.

A water spigot would need to be installed. A shed will be needed. Chances are, someone in the area has one they want to get rid of, or materials from a deconstructed building could be acquired for little or no cost.

Everything else, both initially and ongoing, is to be done by volunteers. From spreading the soil that the trucks dump, to building raised beds for those who want them, to day-to-day management. Note that most community gardens in Portland are managed by the gardeners.

Every gardener would have to sign an agreement to the rules, which would have to include the inevitability of the garden’s closure in favor of a park. Maybe. Someday.

Meanwhile, if we can do this inexpensively, it might be worth it, even for just a few years. And by doing it ourselves, it could happen in time for this year’s growing season.

Bruce Silverman

NW Northrup St.

Equity, social decay linked

Your paper is a treasure I have enjoyed since coming to live in Portland. You are an outstanding researcher and writer, and an even better publisher.

It will be a happy new year if we see some of your great investigations and stories yield benefit to our Northwest community. Never mind the sneering champions of equity and social decay (the two are inseparable!)

Bon courage!

Terry Mughan

NW Fairfax Terrace

Letters to the editor