Improve downtown for pedestrians

To the editor:

I am responding to the request for input concerning downtown improvements.

I have two main suggestions for attracting people downtown.

First, as I’ve stated previously, something needs to be done to curb bicycles on the sidewalks. If, as has been suggested, Meridian Street were to be reverted back to two lane traffic, there could be a bicycle lane, or two, designed. There would then need to be city ordinances written to encourage their use, and penalizing the using of the sidewalks for bicycles, and the enforcement of those ordinances. 

I have had negative experiences, concerning bicycle riders on the sidewalks of downtown. I have walked out of doors to nearly be hit by bicycles on several occasions. I am alert to the dangers, and am agile, and can usually avoid problems, but there are many who may end up being hit by bicycles on sidewalks. That makes being downtown a detriment.

My second suggestion is for the lights to be set so that people can walk east and west across Meridian Street with a walk light. The lights are not long enough for anyone to cross, excepting Water Street and High Street when it is running in its long cycle. I’ve watched school children run across streets, with lights, and not make it with a green light. How is an elderly person, using mobility assistance, i.e. walker, wheelchair, to safely cross a street? 

Using a button to bring a walk light is a long wait, as the buttons do not speed the changing of the lights, but will bring a very brief walk light, when the lights do change. A walk light is a joke, as the light is the same length, as not having the walk light, but the walk light is lit.There is no benefit to using the walk light, which encourages jaywalking.

The downtown lights are set for traffic to move unstopped north and south, but are not set for pedestrian traffic. The best way to cross Meridian Street is for someone to drive across the street. That is not reasonable, or shopper friendly. It is a benefit for the gas sellers of Portland, as it is a waste of gasoline, and a polluter.

Those are my suggestions for making downtown Portland more desirable for people to visit, and to shop. The facades can be beautified to the maximum, but unless the citizens demand it be utile, it will all be done in vain. 

Sincerely,

Daniel E. Chase

Portland



Support Partners

To the editor:

Jayland Partners is a local 501(c)3 non-profit organization taht is supporting community opportunities for socialization and education alongside people with disabilities.

According to the Governor’s Council for People with Diabilities, roughly 19 percent of Hoosiers have some type of disability.

It’s important to know that all people with disabilities are more than their diagnosis. We are all people first and in the final analysis.

For more information regarding Jayland Partners, you can call (317) 727-9223. Or if you want to learn more about us, visit facebook.com/jaylandpartners.

Thanks for everything you’re already doing to support our mission. We welcome any and all support.

Marcy Bodle

Jayland Partners



Use $ for good

To the editor:

This is a Christian nation, some billionaire Christians like to say.

We have the best holy book and Jesus taught us how to pray.

But I’d like to know what billionaire Christians truly do believe, 

Because they seem to have a different Bible from the one I like to read.

Who knows if they have Christian faith, because faith is hard to see?

And heavenly faith needs earthly acts to ground it in reality.

Their money could be used to rebuild Flint and feed our hungry kids,

But they hoard it off shore and in Geneva, wherever it can be hid.

Even one of their own kind, Edmund Burke, said the rich should protect the land,

Yet they exploit it recklessly for profit and now it’s gotten out of hand.

Those pesky Kochs are real smart alecs and they pay top dollar to get their way.

Where are the billionaires hiding, those who want to save the earth and who are willing and eager to pay?

 To change the script of billionaires hoarding money for self-gain, to sharing generously,

We must have create a new equation.

So it’s time those stingy oligarchs stop saying they’re good Christians,

When they stiff the poor and needy and then use all their gold and silver just to buy up Caesar’s nation.

David Chase

Alhambra, California