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How well do you know your neighbors? Portlanders have a reputation for being a little standoffish, yet most of us would probably notice if the guy down the hall opened up a fentanyl market. A better question: How well does your landlord know your neighbors? The Portland housing authority, Home Forward, forbids or limits its property managers from considering a range of felony convictions when screening tenants. Could this policy have contributed to an open-air drug den relocating from Dawson Park to a low-income apartment complex nearby (“Parkside Living,” WW, Feb. 4)? Our readers sure think so. Here’s what they had to say:
Kat2211, via Reddit: “In other words, they’ve decided that the rights of ALL tenants to live in safe, secure, clean housing run a distant second to virtue signaling. Never mind the fact that the disparity they SHOULD be focusing on is that between low-income tenants in general and those who are well off enough to be able to afford housing in buildings that aren’t serving as open-air drug markets and havens for violent individuals.
“If they actually want to make a difference, they need to prioritize upholding the basic rights of ALL their tenants. If they can’t do that, they need to be shut down.”
Jon Walker, via Bluesky: “A real example of what I think of as the ‘one in 1,000 problem’ which plagues public policy. Basically, 1 in 1,000 people are just super-destructive assholes who will ruin things for no reason, but it only takes 1 in a 1,000 to ruin a public good/space.
“One of the most important and difficult questions in both public policy and private policy making (think social media mod rules) is how to deal with these 1 in 1,000. Clearly, Home Forward made a terrible call letting a few people terrorize public housing residents.
“If the Portland DSA council members are truly serious about social housing, they need to come up with a way better answer for this 1-in-1,000 problem to make it work. So far, the repeated position from them is basically to deny the problem even exists.”
Portland Sooner, via wweek.com: “Thought about it over breakfast and the only thing I could come up with is that the board is more afraid of getting beat up by the criminals they allow to live in their buildings than being sued by an elderly crime victim.
“If historical behaviors are not the best predictor of future behaviors then what the heck is? At least until the individual has demonstrated, over a period of several years, that they are no longer a threat to the community.
“Between this article and the one about the Oregon Department of Education’s abdicating oversight in favor of local control, I see a typical pattern of not wanting to take responsibility for outcomes and watering down personal accountability in favor of ‘decisions by the board.’”
AllChem_NoEcon, via Reddit: “How this can be framed in any way other than ‘Portland Police Bureau utterly fails at its job’ is beyond me. If a fucking retiree can easily identify drug dealing, how an organization with a roughly $300 million budget, whose express job is doing that very thing, can’t should be the fucking headline.”
TRAIN YOUR TEACHERS WELL
For more than 20 years, my colleagues and I have urged the Oregon Department of Education to require all teachers to be trained in the science of reading [“Left Unattended,” OJP, Feb. 4]. We have met with Portland Public Schools, testified before the Legislature, and worked with colleges of education to encourage meaningful change in how future teachers are prepared. Yet many institutions have remained committed to existing curricula that do not meet the needs of all students. Research consistently shows that only about 40% of students learn to read effortlessly. Another 40% require explicit, systematic literacy instruction to become successful readers, and approximately 20% need intensive intervention.
Despite decades of evidence supporting structured literacy and phonics-based instruction, only two teacher preparation programs in Oregon currently provide comprehensive training in the science of reading. This leaves many educators without the tools they need to support struggling readers and prevent long-term academic consequences. Portland Public Schools should take immediate action by requiring all teachers to receive thorough training grounded in evidence-based reading instruction. Literacy is the foundation of all learning, and the ability to read confidently shapes a student’s academic success, self-esteem, and future opportunities. There is nothing more important in education than ensuring that every child becomes a literate, capable reader. Demand that ODE require all K–3 teachers be trained!
Jennifer M. Pultz
Southeast Portland
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:
P.O. Box 10770
Portland, OR 97296
Email: amesh@wweek.com
