EAST PORTLANDâS about to get its first homeless shelter, and people are furious.
County and city officials last week announced a plan to house 200 homeless Portlanders in a former sheriffâs office building at NE 122nd and Glisanâa move that would make up for the impending loss of shelter space in downtown Portland.
But no sooner had the announcement been made than two county commissioners, Diane McKeel and Loretta Smith, railed against the proposed building as unsafe. And the next evening, neighbors at a community meeting lashed out at officials, saying it was unfair to house destitute people in their midst.
âHow can they do this with a clear conscience?â one woman asked KATU. DIRK VANDERHART
IF YOU THOUGHT outcry over the demise of Portlandâs open-air drinking water reservoirs was over, you were flat-out wrong.
As first reported by the Mercury, local water activist and credentialed microbiologist Scott Fernandez sued the City of Portland on July 5. He claims that the cityâs move from open-air to covered drinking water storageâmandated by federal ruleâwill lead to harmful amounts of cancer-causing radon in the cityâs water supply.
According to Fernandez, that radonâwhich is present in groundwater the city pumpsâwould naturally dissipate in an open reservoir. Heâs asking a judge to stop the city from âfurther impairing the open reservoir system,â and demanding the city fight for a waiver to federal rules. DVH