Readers Reply to ECT, Council Journey, and the Westward-Going through Elk

BETTER CALL THE SLEDGEHAMMER

The unchallenged pull quote to your ludicrous puff piece about electroshock [“Saving Mrs. Brown,” WW, June 17] says it’s “miraculous,” “a laying on of hands.” I believe the suitable analogy (instructed to me by a neurologist) could be a laying on of a sledgehammer. The mind injury/reminiscence loss could make it easier to neglect why you’re so depressing.

Jeremy Szold Ginzberg

Northeast Portland

VIENNA WAITS FOR YOU

I applaud Councilors Avalos, Dunphy and Green for making a visit to Vienna to watch and study concerning the social housing that the town of Vienna gives for a considerable % of the town’s inhabitants [“Getting Away,” WW, June 17]. With a 100-year head begin, Vienna is leagues forward of Portland, however a late begin higher than what reporting reveals for Home Forward’s efforts. Let’s get it completed!

Larry R. Steuben

Northeast Portland

TRAIN SLOW? GET LOW

Thank you for publishing these current information articles about potential options to the visitors congestion downside on the locations the place the railroad monitor intersects with Southeast eighth, eleventh and twelfth avenues [“Railed,” WW, May 20]. I don’t recall seeing this in any of those articles although…up till the Seventies or perhaps early Nineteen Eighties, lengthy gradual freight trains on this similar railroad monitor additionally brought on terrible visitors jams on Southeast Powell Boulevard (Highway 26). Back then, once I was a boy, I keep in mind being caught there for what appeared like a really very long time typically. And then an underpass was constructed which allowed vehicles, vehicles, bikes, and so on. on Powell Blvd to drive beneath the railroad tracks, which was very nice! So in your future reporting concerning the visitors congestion attributable to the railroad on this similar space, I do encourage you to say there was this very vital victory means again then, and I believe it would provide some hope for the long run as different close by visitors congestion issues are tackled and hopefully resolved.

Andrew Swanson

Clackamas

THE ELK REMAINS THE SAME

I got here throughout a letter to the editor final week [Dialogue, WW, June 3] that raises a query we hear quite a bit concerning the Thompson Elk fountain—what modified when it was reinstalled?

The reply is that nothing has modified, at the least that you’d discover from the surface. The restored fountain appears similar to the previous fountain, with new alternative stones introduced in from the identical granite quarry in Vermont because the previous, broken ones. The beaver and cougar animal heads look the identical, regardless that lots of them have been resculpted by hand to match the previous ones. It additionally faces the identical course it at all times has.

What about modifications on the within? Well, the restored fountain does have a brand new bolstered concrete basis, and a contemporary pump to recirculate the water, as a substitute of constantly draining the water to the sewer just like the previous fountain did. This new pump will save 18,000 gallons of water a day. That’s sufficient for 60 houses.

Is the bronze Elk statue the identical now, too? Again, the reply is sure. Well, besides that the Elk is brighter now, having been cleaned and polished, and stronger too, with further seismic anchorage to the pedestal. It nonetheless factors in the identical previous course, going through the West Hills, wanting again at its dwelling and herd. Today, its dwelling and herd are gone, the pure world the Elk represents lives on past our metropolis limits now, making the Elk Portland’s official Ambassador to nature.

David O’Longaigh

Engineering Manager

Portland Water Bureau

Letters to the editor should embody the writer’s road handle and cellphone quantity for verification. Letters should be 250 or fewer phrases. Submit to:

P.O. Box 10770

Portland, OR 97296

Email: [email protected]

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