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The Mid-county Memo is your newspaper. We want to hear from you. Discuss an important issue or address a concern you want to call to the community’s attention. 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. Our deadline for the September issue is Wednesday, August 15.
Want family farm back
To the editor:
In your article written in the Mid-county Memo titled “Farmland to Become Parkland” (July 2007), you asked a question that I would like to share my answer on. Your question was, “What do you want to see in these 15.7 acres?”
To be candid, all I see on the 15.7-acre land is a farm, my family farm that has been a business and a lifestyle for three generations. The Garre Farm dates back to my Great Grandpa Joseph, to my Grandpa Bert and Grandma Rose, and now to my dad, Albert. After emigrating from Italy in 1921, Joseph Garre bought and cleared this property. He and his family worked hard to grow food for the community. This farm was in its third generation, and my dad worked hard on the farm; he did what he loved. It was not until last summer that he received a notice from Portland Parks saying that this would be my dad’s last year with the land. What a shock! A park verses fresh vegetables? I was sad to see the farm go. My family loved it, the neighbors loved it, and Parkrose loved it. It was a small family farm, one of Oregon’s own, and now it is just high yellow grass filled with many unforgettable memories and a lot of years of hard work.
Alison Garre
Resident raises issues with speed bumps
To the editor:
Parkrose Heights residents need to know that the following streets have been identified for speed bumps or tables (22 foot speed bump devices used on bus routes) by the Safe Routes to Schools committee of Sacramento School:
• Northeast San Rafael Street from 111th to 122nd avenues (7 bumps)
• Northeast Morris Street between 111th and 117th avenues (3 tables, 3 bumps)
• Northeast Klickitat Street from 111th to 117th avenues (3 bumps)
The committee also wants crosswalks on San Rafael and Sacramento streets. Approved funding is about $22,000 to $24,000 toward these projects.
Since there will be no shared cost portion charged to property owners on the effected streets, the Portland Department of Transportation notifies occupants, not necessarily property owners, by letter to vote by signing a petition. If 67 percent of occupants are in favor, the project is approved.
All proposed street locations are uncurbed streets. Drivers will drive around the bumps into the gravel shoulder of the street. This is an added danger to pedestrians and children walking to school. Residents living on Northeast Morris and Knott streets where bumps are already in place have witnessed this driving habit. PDOT staff has stated that the safest factor is having sidewalks for routes to schools, not speed bumps.
Serious consideration should be given to the fact that speed bumps delay fire and other emergency responders. They also increase maintenance costs for heavy fire trucks, TriMet busses and your personal vehicles.
Residents who have lived on San Rafael for 39 years state that the morning work-hour traffic is coming from Northeast 148th west to San Rafael and Tillamook to 102nd Avenue in order to avoid Halsey Street. San Rafael has just been resurfaced and striped. Now do you want it cut up for bumps?
Parkrose and Parkrose Heights residents attended many public meetings with TriMet to keep bus service in this area. This matters to your employed neighbors and those who depend on TriMet for transportation. With low ridership we don’t want any justification for discontinuing Line 23 service. Furthermore, TriMet uses San Rafael Street for any rerouting from 111th to 122nd.
The proposed speed bumps and crosswalks will create a grid on the only through routes mostly used within the square mile from Halsey Street to Fremont Street between 102nd and 122nd avenues.
Sacramento School should re-examine its problem. Drivers dropping off or picking up students block Sacramento Street every school day. They have so many cars coming; they want one-way traffic during these hours to control the problem. A resident said he has to begin his morning travel to work in the opposite direction in order to avoid the tie-up created at the school. I don’t see any children biking to school. The majority of children used to walk. Sacramento staff personnel also park in the small front parking lot, which should be off limits to staff during morning and afternoon hours. Parkrose School District administration should be appropriating funding for an additional parking lot, as there is ample land. They could have head-on parking on the east boundary of the property. This off-street parking could serve the athletic field users, who currently fill all parking on Sacramento Street in front of homes when games are in progress.
The project summary lists $3,200 for painting yellow clearance lines at 32 driveways on Sacramento Street. A phone call to city parking patrol reporting the offenders and leading to parking fine may be the school lesson to solve their problems at less taxpayers’ expense.
It’s usually your neighbors, including parent drivers, who are speeding or sliding through stop signs and creating the alleged traffic safety problems. If you speed bump our only through streets, this will encourage drivers to use other neighborhood streets for traveling within the grid area in order to avoid bumps.
More importantly, don’t punish all residents with delayed emergency responder times.
VOTE NO ON SPEED BUMPS.
Mrs. Geri Henry
10828 N.E. Thompson St.
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