Comments

1

People showed up for their communities because they care about their communities. I believe that is a human, citizen, creature concern - there may well be additional aspects of this, but shaming a community in essence for its caring about its community center/s regardless of zipcode, race or religion is low. There are many words in the palette of possibility to no doubt make the points Alex you wish to make without throwing the supporters of a couple community centers under the bus. White washing or green washing or gas lighting community caring about its assets be that crosswalks - bus stops or community centers or trees is an admirable and positive thing. In a time where there is far too much negativity in our press and society, would be awesome to recognize communities come out on matters such as these, because they care, they have a civic right to do so, and these communities have been fiercely vocal about their position and support of their community assets as PP&R has intended for over 100 years. It was why they were built in the first place. A great majority of people - by way of example in the Hillsdale neighborhood - Fulton Community Center's stewards, are not "loaded" and "privileged" - they are your neighbors, brothers and sisters, elders, students, chaplains and co-workers, just like folks in NE - SE - S or N or W Portland.To polarize Portland does no one any good, we're all in this together.

2

CareMoreGrouseLess I don't think it's the intent of the article to look down on these communities for fighting to keep these centers alive. It's totally understandable and appreciable for any particular community to do everything it can to ensure safe and beneficial spaces like these for its families and children. I think the point here is more to draw attention to the fact that the city seems to be focusing on this cause in lieu of dealing with others that are less convenient and more controversial (i.e. police accountability) and then taking credit for a perceived sense of overall city improvement, when in fact a larger percentage of the city hasn't reaped much of a benefit from this change. The article is also aiming to highlight the fact that these community centers received attention almost immediately, whereas issues like police accountability, access to mental health resources, and reliable transportation so kids can get to school have been in city discussions for months (or years in a lot of cases), and have seen little to no measurable improvement in that time.

Ultimately, everyone just wants the best for their community, but it can be frustrating when it seems like some issues are favored over others that are more contentious, leaving a lot of people feeling like the city is sort of brushing them under the rug. I, for one, think that we should ensure that children in our city have the ability to get to school first and work on places for them to spend their time outside of that second.


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