The Mid-county Memo is your newspaper. We want to hear from you. Discuss an important issue, respond to a request for comment or address a concern you want to call to the attention of the community. Letters to the editor will always be edited for space, style, grammar and issues of clarity. Please include your full name and identify the neighborhood in which you reside. We prefer e-mailed letters to the editor sent to Darlene Vinson at editor@midcountymemo.com. Please put “Letter to the editor” in the subject line. You may also mail your letter to 3510 N.E. 134th Ave., Portland, OR 97230 or fax it to 503-249-7672. Deadline for the March issue is Saturday, Feb. 15.
We should be able to vote no
To the Editor:
Our mayor telling us that a “No Vote” is not an option is just about the same as telling a lot of us that the people who voted for him are not counted. As taxpayers, we are entitled to vote no. A lot of taxpayers have expressed their feelings and we do not trust what is going on.
[Our concerns include] monies that are not going to the right programs, robbing Peter to pay Paul and all of a sudden we are out of money. Please explain what happened to nearly $200 million of road money that was diverted to other programs which now you want us to make up for.
The city has also threatened us with other raises. I have lived in Multnomah County for 60 years and I, like a lot of others, am tired and frustrated as to what goes on. Also I, like a lot of others, am looking for somewhere out of Multnomah County to live. For the past 10 years or more it seems like our votes mean nothing, and now we are being told we cannot vote no.
Something must be illegal about that. I am sure a lot of taxpayers are still voting no as I am, and every tax the city invents to come up with will be voted with a no.
Keeping Portland weird is all right, but to keep Portland expensive and unconstitutional is unforgivable.
John Chinakos
Parkrose resident
Numbers don’t add up to livability
To the Editor:
Wow, I’m still scratching my head at the tricky, tightrope math involved to qualify as a low-income resident for the newly built Irish Moss housing development in our Parkrose School District, (“Irish Moss low income development opens” Memo, Jan. 2015). The article states one may not earn more than 60 percent of the area median income figure, or $38,000 to $42,000, annually. Rent is $895 a month. Sixty percent of $42,000 is roughly $25,200. Yearly rent adds up to $10,740. So one’s rent is just under half of their total annual income. $14,460 left over to pay utilities, buy food, medicine, clothing, transportation, and hopefully have something for occasional entertainment.
One certainly couldn’t afford a car, which the city is only too happy to point out indirectly-“we love new TriMet riders, it meets our future goal of a car-less Portland, etc.” This is nothing more than a photo-op for the Mayor and Metro to show voters they care about the less fortunate. If these new apartments are really for low income folks, the rent could be lower when you add on all the other expenses just to survive there. [There is] no mention of how long the introductory rental price will remain in effect, but that eventual increase won’t make the news. All I can say to the new tenants is good luck, you’ll need it.
Sincerely,
Marvin Thiessen
Sumner resident