Too Many People

Will people please stop moving to Oregon, or at least not to the Willamette Valley? And how about every one who moved here after 1970 pack up and move somewhere else. This is some of the best farm land there is and it's all being covered with houses, shopping malls, roads and freeways. I used to be able to travel anywhere during the day with almost no traffic at all. Now its bumper to bumper almost anytime of the day and any road you choose to take.

This little tirade was brought on by an article in Saturday's Oregonian which says to expect 1.25 million more people in the Portland Metro area in the coming years. It doesn't say exactly when this will occur, just that the numbers now say that the population increase expected in earlier estimates will be here 10 to 15 years sooner than originally thought. It goes on to say that this is equivalent to squeezing an additional 450,000 households, or two cities the size of present-day Portland, into a metropolitan area that is already 80 percent developed. I guess this is what comes of Portland being listed as one of the most liveable cities several years in a row. It won't be for long.

Grrrr. There's already too many people, and they're expecting more? I am really showing my age, I'm starting to sound like an old person, wanting the good old days back. Where's Tom McCall when you need him? He was the governor of Oregon back in the 70's. He used to say come and visit, but don't stay. We even had bumper stickers that showed a map with I-5 going around the state instead of through it. And those of us born here refer to ourselves as native oregonians.

Maybe I need to move to the Midwest. There's plenty of open space there, I know because I drove through mile after mile of it last summer. But I love Oregon. I was born here. I grew up here. It's green and the climate moderate. But then again, I could probably be happy most anywhere, I think.

Well, thanks for letting me get that off my chest. You all probably have similar feelings about your location or you figure the more the merrier. And even if we ourselves didn't move to a particular spot, somewhere up the line one of our relatives did.