2 • The Southwest Portland Post
EDITORIAL
The Southwest Portland Post
4207 SE Woodstock Blvd #509
Portland, OR 97206
Fax: (866) 727-5336
email: editor@multnomahpost.com
Drive slowly on every Southwest
street as if you live there
As we gear up for the latest Capitol
Highway Plan [project], I am once again
reminded about concerns about traffic
speeds in our area.
Every resident of a Southwest
Portland neighborhood wants traffic
slowed or calmed on their street and
we understand those concerns.
I would like strongly to encourage
each of us to drive on every Southwest
Portland street as if we actually live
there, too.
Try to remember that we are all part of
the problem and we can make an effort
to do better. Don’t wait for the SLOW
or “children at play” signs. Start now
to make a real effort to drive the posted
speed and even slower if warranted. We
all live here.
Patti Waitman-Ingebretsen
Southwest Capitol Highway
Regarding “Don’t hate ‘monstrosities’
just because they’re big and expensive,”
letter by W. Brewster Gillett, The Post,
December 2016.
Big homes are less eco-friendly
than smaller ones
January 2017
our oxygen. I will keep my emotional
answers to myself—be assured envy is
not one of them.
Beth Woodward
Southwest Portland
Large homes can make a real and
specific negative impact
In response to Mr. Gillett’s letter to
the editor, I first want to agree that [the
word] “monstrosity” is derogatory,
judgmental, and more importantly,
offers little constructive information.
However, “logic” can lead to
conclusions other than those he has
come to. There can be real and specific
negative impact when a much larger
than average home goes up in a
neighborhood.
What harm? People take succor
from trees and their presence impacts
health and a sense of wellbeing; this
has been demonstrated in studies that
link better health and improved sense
of wellbeing to the number of trees in
a living environment.
Trees are frequently sacrificed to
these large homes. Many larger than
average homes, especially those that fill
their lots, destroy even the comforting
illusion of privacy their neighbors may
once have enjoyed.
Larger, and especially taller than
average homes, frequently block the
light available to the homes and yards
adjacent to them. Gardens, especially
vegetable and flower gardens can and
sometimes are lost because of the loss
of light.
Lastly, counter to the envy hypothesis,
many of us find these new homes not just
large, but aesthetically unappealing—
sometimes aesthetically inferior to the
smaller homes they are replacing.
While we can’t all agree on aesthetics,
(Continued on Page 3)
W. Brewster Gillett can think of no
logical answer to his or her question,
“What could there possibly be about
a house larger than the neighborhood
average that could qualify it as a
monstrosity?” Gillette says the only
answer is “envy.”
In this century, though, everyone
must know that the materials and
energy it takes to build, furnish, heat
and cool a very large home, relative
to a smaller home, contribute more to
climate change.
In addition, a bigger home leaves
less green space for neighbors to enjoy
looking at even if the owner doesn’t care
about the photosynthesis that provides
rea
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Phone: (503) 244-6933; Fax: (866) 727-5336
general email: news@multnomahpost.com
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24
Editor & Publisher .........Don Snedecor
Reporters / Writers...... ....KC Cowan, Jack Rubinger,
................Erik Vidstrand
Copy Editor ......................Janet Goetze
Advertising Sales ...........Don Snedecor
Graphic Design ..............Leslie Baird Design
Printing ............................Oregon Lithoprint
Circulation .......................Rick Hepper
© 2017 by The Southwest Portland Post. All rights reserved. The opinions of the
artists and authors contained herein are not necessarily shared by the publisher.
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