Corvallis is struggling with a desire to curtail development and yet maintain a liberal image. Part of the liberal image is at least a pretense of caring about the lives of those less fortunate. But now, their values are clashing head to head. A nonprofit wants to build a low income housing development on wetlands.
I know many in Corvallis would just love (albeit some secretly, since the idea is not PC) to send all the poor of Corvallis over to Albany and Lebanon, so the messy issue of poverty does not have to be dealt with up close and personal. It's so much easier to protest about the way the poor must live or are treated in far off countries than to deal with the realities of the poor in treasured Corvallis.
Who will win this stand off? Well, one win for all would be if the wetland lovers would find a comparable plot of non wetlands, and arrange an exchange, so the wetlands could be saved and the poor could get housing.
There are those in Corvallis (almost always "the have's), who would preserve everything, since they have their piece of the pie secured, and damn those who don't, although again, they'd never say this, because of the political incorrectness of such statements. They would maintain their liberal love the poor glowy shine, maybe by tossing a couple of slightly bulging old cans of spinach in a food bin box somewhere. Or by saying "hi" to a homeless man.
Reality clashses are not so pleasant sometimes.
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Do you know the name of the non-profit? Interesting they would choose to build on a wetland. I also wonder what they mean by "affordable". Affordable to just some or to all?
ReplyDeleteI liked your comment about giving old cans of spinach. I had a conversation with the head of the L/B Food Bank about this. The kinds of foods--the expired foods--that are allowed to be given away is insulting. Many are simply not nutritious or healthy. He said other than baby food and milk products, there wasn't much to be done about it. The Oregon Food Bank relies on "food industry standards" for this. Regional food banks just hand the stuff out. He couldn't be more specific when I asked. I said certainly standard food industry standards mean if it's expired, it's usually pulled from the shelves or it's marked down.
Oh well, at least I was able to get the agency to look at one food bank here in town and the lack of produce they hand out plus some other issues. That will be changing.
I know what you mean about old expired junk cans, people give away to food banks in food drives. At the Benton Plaza, where I lived, the crap in the food boxes was often inedible, like canned ancient beets, stuff people would not eat themselves. We'd use the cans instead to give right back to the food bank, on movie days, in November usually, when you could get into a movie for donating three cans of food. It was kind of a joke at the Benton. The food boxes were often comprised of food that one could not eat. There might be a five pound bag of flour and a one pound bag of white sugar. The ovens were so tiny at the Benton, one could hardly bake in them. I don't use white sugar. Maybe people out there do. After the boxes came, people would put the things they didn't want/couldn't use in the laundry room and there would be a lot of stuff that would sit there forever. The things people used were canned soup, canned chili, any fresh vegetables although the only thing I ever remember getting fresh would be a few potatos.
ReplyDeleteBut I used to live down by Mater Engineering, along the river. One year, a man who worked at Mater's brought me an unbelievable food box. It was like a gift from Heaven. A whole turkey. Sparkling cider. Rolls. Vegetables. Fruit. A bag of tangerines even. Jam. Peanut butter. I can't remember everything in it, but it was like someone took time to put wonderful delicious food together and it lasted me a very long time, too. Makes my mouth water to think about it now. There was nothing canned in it.
It's Corvallis Neighborhood Housing, wanting to build. I have no sympathy for that outfit after they gave permission to trap cats at Lancaster Bridge, being fed by tenants there, and offered to reimburse my expenses. I had a friend and former board member actually call them first, and take me out there, after a tenant called. I got over 30 cats, tame and feral fixed, only to then have to start retrieving the ferals from Heartland. Somebody then trapped them and took many of them there. Heartland would call me when an eartipped cat came in to them, in a live trap, knowing I'd likely remember the cat and not want it killed. Then I went out to pick up a kitten to be fixed for a family, and the manager called the cops on me, claiming I'd been stealing cats. What a freak. It was a neighbor trapping cats. The cops were not nice either, told me that's what I get for volunteering and I should not volunteer. And Neighborhood housing never reimbursed my expenses. It was a very difficult time. I want to believe people. So, I couldn't care less if Neighborhood housing gets blocked totally from the project. They owe me a lot of money.
I should say when you're starving, and I have been desperate in my life, I'd eat anything, even the spinach from a bulging can. But that doesn't mean it's healthy to do so. Better than starving though, if the can doesn't explode when you open it.
ReplyDeleteI got some food from a food box once where the contents exploded when I opened it. It was soup. I was worried just because some hit my face that I would get botulism or something.
One thing I loved about my old place in Corvallis was that there were plum trees behind the place that no one harvested. So I did. I'd just go out and pick plums for breakfast. They were so good. And there were lots of unused apples on apple trees. They were not good for eating straight, so I made applesauce from some of them and then a friend had a cider press and I would take several big buckets out and make cider of them.
In the fall, there is so much free food. Like the blackberries. I remember swimming at Foster Reservoir. I'd swim for miles. It's more natural to me than walking, I suppose. It can be hard there, with all the boats and jet skiis. But along the banks, there are lots of berry vines overloaded with berries and only accessible to a swimmer. So I'd eat my lunch along the rocky berry vine tangled banks---blackberries.