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duce68's comments:
on Winter Depression
I heard that your recent guest recommended cool white flourescent lights. I had used a 3 way soft wite flourescent and noticed trouble sleeping. My neighbor, a natural health kinda guy, suggested the light itself was causing the disruptions to my sleep patterns due to the "cycling" nature of flourescent light. While the light looks constant, it is in fact a very fast cycling on and off that produces the visible spectrum.
I went out and bought an incandescent, and voila, no more trouble getting to sleep at night. This was in my den where I would spend 2 to 3 hours prior to bed. Now, with incandescents, no sleep troubles.
posted 2 years, 6 months ago
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on A Moveable Feast
Great topic today. One drawback to the carts that I'd like to see you address is LITTER & GARBAGE at the downtown locations. The pods like Mississippi Marketplace out in the neighborhoods don't have this problem because they have their own garbage. But downtown since the proliferation of the carts is a sea of GARBAGE due to overloaded city trash receptacles.
My favorites: The Big Egg, Garden State, Caraquenas (Venezuelan) at North Station Pod (Greeley @ Killingsworth), Zibas Pitas downtown.
May have to come down for a fried egg sandwich from Big Egg!
Lelio
Overlook--N. Pdx
posted 2 years, 10 months ago
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on Primary Conversations: Washington's 3rd
I agree, Gary. I'm in Overlook and every day Interstate Ave is full of them trying to skirt the traffic. They making getting to New Seasons a pain in the a**.....
posted 2 years, 10 months ago
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on Primary Conversations: Washington's 3rd
Typical suburban rhetoric coming out of this conversation. They want all the benefits of spending without paying for it. Low taxes, no tolls, etc. You don't get what you want by NOT paying for it. They sit in their cars polluting air in Oregon to save a few $$ on property taxes and nag about the bridge. Then they nag about having to pay for a new bridge. Then they nag about MAX. When are these people in the 'burbs going to wake up and smell the coffee? Toll the damned highways and build a new bridge so as soon as its done it'll be full and backed up again. Typical suburban tea party rhetoric on this from your guests; let Vancouver have their strip malls, Walmarts and crappy public transit (yes, I've used it). When they want to pay for a service and/or benefit, then they can have it. Anyway, none of them can drive, either.
posted 2 years, 10 months ago
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on Classes To Cut
http://healthyamericans.org/reports/obesity2010/
Check out this article, then decide if PE should be cut. PE is necessary, if not, how many kids would then turn into obese diabetics for medicare to take care of? We need to start with payroll, we need to run schools like a business; cut the fat, have the unions pay their fare share of healthcare costs, invest in their own 401ks (not have the taxpayers fund it), etc. This is a structural problem that is NOT going away anytime soon. The school board is a bunch of talking heads, the superintendent is a worthless use of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Administrative costs are out of control. The PPS executives aren't willing to cut their pay, the teachers (understandably) don't want to cut their pay as they're already overworked and overextended. The PPS system has to pay custodians they erroneously fired. Buildings are extremely inefficient (energy-wise). The PPS can't even co-ordinate a dumpster to be delivered to local schools where clean-up projects are done by community members (Portsmouth).
As a victim of Prop 13 in California in the 70s, we learned to live with the reality back then. The luxury bus service went away, parents chipped in to fund the local schools, etc. I turned out fine, although I admit I grew up in an over privileged community. What about bussing? How much does that cost? I see the bus come by my house every day in the Overlook neighborhood and Beech is just a short hop, skip & a jump away. Most people walk their kids to school, what's with the bus?
How about charging for bus service. Kids are fat, they need the PE. Just go to the suburbs and look at the people out there that drive everywhere. They're terribly out of shape. Keep PE, change the cafeteria menus, and hold the parents accountable for keeping their kids active.
posted 2 years, 11 months ago
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on The Meaning of Jefferson High
It's time to stop talking about the racial card in the whole Jefferson closure debate. The neighborhood has changed, plain and simple, and it's been gentrified. The capture rate for PPS high schools is 85% per David Woods (PPS HS curriculum director), it's 21% or so for Jefferson. The graduation rate for PPS high schools is a miserable 56% or so, I'm sure Jefferson is far worse.
Tuesday night at the Overlook Neighborhood Association meeting everyone present had sent their kids somewhere else because Jefferson is such a miserable wreck of a school. I am white and single, but if I had children I would surely send them elsewhere. In a room of 50 people Tuesday night, there was not a single one of color or diversity to hear about the proposed changes (granted, Overlook is not considered a diverse neighborhood). David Wood had suggested that possibly the redistricting could send people from the neighborhood to Lincoln, which I think would be a good thing. Feeding people into mediocrity does nothing to better their situation, that is just what PPS has done for years by keeping Jefferson open.
Neighborhoods change, have changed and are still changing. Let's get over the whole race thing here and focus on educating our children. Let's dispense with the diversity card and focus on achievement. Close the wreck down. Get the parents involved. When parents EXPECT their children to achieve, they will, no matter what their race, income or background.
LM
Overlook, N. Pdx
posted 3 years ago
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