Letters to the Editor: Nov. 10, 2023
Make Third car-free
I know I’m wasting my time voicing my opposition to the current plan for Third Street.
I have communicated with city hall, and talked to several neighbors who seem to be on the same page as I am, but any intellectual approach to enhancement of Third Street runs up against the entrenched pickup-truck mentality in McMinnville — and likely most of the folks who work for the city as well.
We have eaten several times at Third Street eateries offering outside dining on the sidewalk. But we have to put up with vehicles not up to passing an emission test if we had one in Yamhill County, or owners who think they need to prove something by driving down the street at speed, or revving their engines, or sporting a modified exhaust.
Seriously? Aren’t most of us adults, not teenagers out to impress strangers?
There are several times during the warmer months when Third Street is closed off to vehicles. Why not extend that closure year-around via pedestrianization of six or seven blocks?
The city could install automatic bollards at each end, which would allow access for emergency vehicles, as well as delivery vehicles before a certain hour of the day.
Pedestrianization is a proven solution for creating an attractive downtown. It has been done in communities large and small.
We don’t need six or eight parking spaces per block. People can park on the cross streets and still have access to the hotels and so forth.
Then, with the parking spaces removed, we won’t witness drivers cruising the street looking for an empty space.
An interesting pedestrianization study was done in Copenhagen, which is admittedly a lot larger than McMinnville. It can be found at https://globaldesigningcities.org/publication/global-street-design-guide/streets/pedestrian-priority-spaces/pedestrian-only-streets/pedestrian-streets-case-study-stroget-copenhagen.
Let’s create a wonderful traffic-free space in downtown McMinnville for everyone to safely enjoy. It would be unfortunate to miss this opportunity.
Philip Haynes
McMinnville
Leave it up to parents
I would like to challenge some of the things you said about book bans in your editorial of Oct. 27.
You listed several books you judged acceptable for high school students because they deal with searing social issues, have won broad critical acclaim and literary awards, sit atop leading bestseller lists and are included in many language arts curricula.
You continue by noting they are among the “most challenged or banned works of youth fiction in the U.S.,” and ask, “Why the controversy?”
I’ll answer with a list of questions: 1. Who gave them critical acclaim? 2. Who gave them the literary awards? 3.Who put them atop bestseller lists? 4. Who included them in language arts curricula?
It wasn’t the parents who made those decisions. It was the social left and the educational establishment.
You correctly list several elements that parents tend to resist and tried to justify their inclusion in our kids’ education.
You say some book challenges are frightening and anti-democratic. What’s frightening and anti-democratic about going to your democratically elected leaders and questioning their leadership?
You say the Idaho Republican Party’s stand on parental supervision, “makes parents the rulers of the realm instead of partners in the process.” I say that’s exactly where parents should be.
Teachers and the educational system are not partners in the process. They are support personnel for parents.
You say parents who restrict personal choice and question inclusion of some books “limit access to your own children in deference to your own views and values.”
I say that a parent’s main duty and responsibility is to instill their own views and values into their children. This is not the duty or responsibility of schools, teachers or librarians.
Ivan Brewer
McMinnville
Federal failings
The recent letter, “Eschew the WHO,” should serve as a wakeup call for all Americans.
The World Health Organization’s proposed Pandemic Preparedness Treaty is just the foot in the door.
It puts us on a path of subjection to the dictates of the United Nations. We would no longer have the liberty and rights we now enjoy.
We can still block this, but it will take all citizens contacting their congressmen. They should urge support for the American Sovereignty Act, as well as HR57 to impeach President Biden.
He has committed crimes and misdemeanors. After all, isn’t it treasonous to cede out sovereignty to WHO?
He is allowing and furthering the invasion of aliens, who drain off funds for their own care while our citizens live on the streets. That’s another mark against him.
And you no longer have control of your own money. Our government, BlackRock and the banks are working on a new monetary system, in conjunction with other nations, patterned after the Chinese system.
If we call on the Creator, as Washington and Lincoln did, we can pass HR 3712, HR 1122 and SB 8871. Then we can win, as Washington and Lincoln did.
But it will take all of us. United we stand, divided we fall.
Which side do you want to be on?
Talk to friends and relatives near and far. Share knowledge and research.
Mary Novak
Yamhill
Stop please
Q - Are you one of those?
A - One of those what?
Q - A bad driver. Someone who:
1. Drives too fast on city streets or rural highways.
2. Passes when he shouldn’t.
3. Fails to signal turns or lane changes.
4. Drives without headlights when visibility is limited due to rain, dawn or dusk.
5. Runs stop signs or traffic lights.
6. Engages in rude behavior.
7. Crosses the center line.
8. Follows too close.
9. Fails to yield.
10. Acts like he’s more important than others on the road.
11. Takes his eyes off the road to text or talk on his phone.
12. Drives without insurance.
13. Drives under the influence.
Ask yourself. Have you done any of these things? If so, are you a menace on the highway?
I see people doing these things on a daily basis on Highway 47, with no regard for other drivers. And my car was recently hit in McMinnville by a driver who failed to yield.
If you are among the guilty, stop before you kill someone.
David DeSau
Neskowin
Comments
Bleepbloop
Too many things so terrible in Ivan’s letter, I’m frozen to respond. Your opinions I guess are accepted at Yamhill Christian School (where you teach supplemental parenting classes, but please stay away from public school.
Oh and I can’t resist one comment. “ I say that a parent’s main duty and responsibility is to instill their own views and values into their children.” Holy crap that is crazy talk. Raise your children with an open and inquisitive mind so they can create their own views.
LieslForve
Philip Haynes, we fully support your proposal to make 3rd Street a pedestrian street for its core downtown area. This would enable the businesses to adapt and expand their outdoor businesses year round and create a lively center for our community to thrive. The lack of imagination by the city and its consultants on this project is frustrating to say the least.
LieslForve
Philip Haynes, we fully support your proposal to make 3rd Street a pedestrian street for its core downtown area. This would enable the businesses to adapt and expand their outdoor businesses year round and create a lively center for our community to thrive. The lack of imagination by the city and its consultants on this project is frustrating to say the least.
Otis
Phillip,
Yes...most of us that live in the City would love for this to happen. I wish they would see what other cities have done. Charlottesville VA Downtown Walking mall is another to check out. It's all brick with trees in the center of the street and not the edges. Truly stunning.
Otis
sorry...here is the link to the CHDM
https://www.visitcharlottesville.org/directory/charlottesville-historic-downtown-mall/
Bill B
I feel your frustration Philip. I bring this up with everyone I see and everyone, yes everyone, agrees that Third Street should be pedestrian only.
MSM
I totally agree with Bleepbloop. Mr. Brewer’s approach to education is terrible.
“It wasn’t the parents who made those decisions. It was the social left and the educational establishment.” That statement contains a lot of assumptions. Promoting a variety of perspectives and access to facts is not the realm of only whatever you think is the “social left.” The so-called educational establishment is filled with professionals who have dedicated their lives to the education of all of our children. Would it really be preferable to have the education of our nation’s children designed by people who have not been well educated for that task? Also, most of the educational decision-makers are likely parents, too, though you don’t have to be a parent to understand that we should all be invested in raising humans who have the tools to think critically in the context of the full world, not some limited sliver of society.
Last, but not least, teachers are certainly NOT support personnel for parents. I don’t even know where to begin with that doozy of a statement. Frozen to respond, indeed.
TroyProuty*
Ivan makes a few points. So allow me.
It's not the first time In 1976 Board of Educ, Island Trees Union Free School District V Pico 1982.
New York created a list of books they thought were anti-American, anti-christian, the school board along with book review committee banned many of them pulling them from their libraries. Students sued and lost in lower court U.S. District court, but the Supreme Court overturned that decision in favor of the students, explaining “school boards may freely choose which books to add to their libraries, once they have those books, the situation changes and local school boards may not simply remove the books from the shelves, because they dislike the ideas contained in those books.:
Something missing often is students, school administrations have agenda's, I can literally pick twenty parents on what they want and they will conflict to one another often. Teachers are involved on helping students achieve more.
When you hear children speak at meetings, it's pretty easy to tell, who choose to speak and who is speaking because their parent told them they needed to, and there is a big difference in reason to what is said.
Troy*
TroyProuty*
Dear Mary,
For the Senate, especially a member of the GOP like Tillis to talk about lack of accountability of WHO, or control over the people like he did, why lacking information in his bill.
Or..
For the near mention of impeachment of crimes for Biden..
I would suggest the GOP look into the mirror, from lying about Covid-19, from signing off in 2017 risky testing that was banned, from a Coupe attempt and movement towards authoritarian, including voter suppression, gerrymandering, and bills on CRT, Book Banning, and abortion. Talk of sending military in the streets..etc..etc..
That's the difference I guess, I prefer facts.
Troy*
MR. S
I am surprised by the pushback to Ivan's comments. So wait--parents aren't responsible for their children, the State is? More evidence that teachers and their allies are some of the most delusional people around.
Secondly, I very much enjoyed Ms. Novak's letter.