Seniors need air conditioning

Submitted by Amanda Fritz on July 24, 2007 - 1:57pm.

Guest Post by Rose Florek
SW Portland resident

The air conditioning at Multnomah Art Center has been broken since February. [The Multnomah Center is a Portland Parks & Recreation facility in SW Portland ~ AF]. I want to register for a class being offered there in August, but cannot unless the air conditioning is fixed, due to my health needs. Other people are also staying away until the air conditioning is fixed. The Multnomah Center is a designated cooling center for seniors!!!

The staff at the center has had their work order in for this repair for a very long time. I called Commissioner Saltzman's office this week, to demand action. Matt Grumm, his parks bureau liaison, said Commissioner Saltzman's office didn't hear about the problem until 1.5 weeks ago. Staff in Portland Parks & Recreation have been working on it since February, but have had trouble getting parts for this antiquated system and finding contractors to work on it. They are promising that it will be fixed by the end of this week or the beginning of next week.

I told Matt Grumm that if it cannot be fixed by that deadline, they need to find the $100,000 to replace this antiquated piece of junk with something reliable. The Center needs to bring in the money from class offerings, but it's not going to do that with a broken air conditioner.

Parks' budget keeps getting cut to subsidize developers at South Waterfront and elsewhere.

Is there any hope we can get this one thing fixed, and that we can somehow stop our city government from giving everything away to the corporations? Would more calls to Dan Saltzman's office demanding action be helpful? Matt Grumm's number is 503-823-3027.

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> I told Matt Grumm that if

Submitted by da29vid on July 24, 2007 - 1:46pm.
> I told Matt Grumm that if it cannot be fixed by that > deadline, they need to find the $100,000 to replace > this antiquated piece of junk with something reliable. And so we have another baby-boomer who thinks the world revolves around them expecting the world to jump to attention because she might have to live without air conditioning. How terribly, terribly unfair. Where, pray tell Amanda, is this $100,000 to come from? Taxes? People have lived without air-conditioning for millions of years and the poor live without it every day of our lives. It's too bad if you're so spoiled that you can't even be in a room without A/C. Maybe you should just stay home instead of expecting the world to jump to attention every time it does not fit your whim. Wow -- some people's sense of entitlement knows no bounds.
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If you had read Rose's post

Submitted by Amanda Fritz on July 24, 2007 - 11:26pm.
If you had read Rose's post more carefully, da29vid, you would have noted that the lack of air conditioning is preventing people from signing up for classes. Selling classes and space is how the Multnomah Center makes money. The Center recently met Commissioner Saltzman's challenge of generating 20% more revenue within its programs, to reduce its dependence on tax support. And if you'd been reading (and enjoying, evidently!) my blog longer, you'd know I personally don't like air conditioning. Having been a nurse for 26 years, I know there are some people who depend on it for their health. You call Rose someone who expects the world to jump to attention. Since you know Rose even less than you know me, I think you owe her an apology. People come to this blog expecting to read civil conversation, and to be able to participate in it without being personally attacked. I don't mind your disagreeing, in fact I think it's helpful to be reminded of opposing viewpoints. I do mind the fact that you repeatedly use language I hope you would never use face to face. Would you go up to a retired woman who you don't know, and tell her you think she's "so spoiled", when you overheard a comment of hers you disagree with? You seem to think you are entitled (your word) to post whatever you choose here. That's incorrect. This blog is not being paid for by taxes, it's mine. You may e-mail an apology to Rose via my e-mail address, and I will forward it to her, and post it. Until that happens, you may not comment here.
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