Inbox: Letters About Life In East Portland

Life in east portland

Thanks for the attention to East Portland ["Life in the Numbers," WW, June 15, 2016]. Half of the city's population lives here, and that percentage is only going to grow.

East Portland has a lot going for it, but there are a few things missing (besides sidewalks). We need a grocery store—something other than a cavernous Safeway. Why hasn't New Seasons tapped this rapidly growing area, with its high percentage of owner-occupied family homes going up in value?

Portland's eastern boundary for Car2go is now Northeast 60th Avenue. Why don't the car-sharing services notice the demographic shift toward younger people? A lot of local businesses seem to have fallen for the mistaken view that people west of 82nd Avenue often have of East Portland.

—Sallie Tisdale

Northeast Portland

I read this article and was thinking "fuck you" the entire time. Now that they've ruined North and Northeast Portland and people can't afford to live there anymore, east of I-205 has to be the undiscovered, raw, authentic next new thing.

And my home value will skyrocket, and I will move somewhere else. But all those renters in the higher percentage of mobile home parks will be screwed.

—Angela Woodruff

NPR cancels pundit's speech

Kudos to Oregon Public Broadcasting CEO Steve Bass. Mara Liasson is a prime example of a both-siderist and villager—she is one of National Public Radio's weakest links, so no tears shed for her ["Broken Pledge," WW, June 15, 2016].

(Also, nice touch, WW, for calling John Edwards and Paul Ryan "distinguished speakers"!)

—"lissa211"

Proposed MAX Line to Tualatin

Someone much smarter than me once explained that TriMet sees itself as more of an urban development organization than a public transit agency, and its capital-projects fetish is a big part of this [Murmurs: "Portland Voters' Support Is Soft for Light Rail to Tualatin," WW, June 15, 2016].

Also, I've studied the past two TriMet budgets, and there's definitely some shifty stuff going on to obfuscate massive amounts of debt servicing and dubious capital-planning work.

The Southwest Portland corridor needs a traffic solution, but it doesn't need to be a billion-dollar boondoggle.

—Jonathan Gates

rising rents in portland

If Portland didn't want this to happen, people should have made damn sure it couldn't happen [Dr. Know, WW, June 15, 2016]. Gentrification is not the inevitable result of economic development.

Quite the opposite, it is the result of fundamentally unjust economic development policies, widespread public disinvestment in historically marginalized communities, and lack of protections for existing residents.

—"xina"

Letters to the editor must include the author's street address and phone number for verification. Letters must be 250 or fewer words.

Submit to: 2220 NW Quimby St., Portland, OR 97210.

Email: mzusman@wweek.com.

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