Historic Preservation Terminal Projects

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HOUSING FOR AN URBAN ENVIRONMENT: A NEW COMMUNITY FOR OLD TOWN PORTLAND
(University of Oregon, 1972-08-10) Roth, Teresa Foley
Cities have traditionally been dynamic places of diversity and opportunity. This century, however, has seen a steady urban to suburban migration by the middle economic class. They have left the cities to the few rich and the many poor. The populations from disappearing rural America have continued to come to the big cities the hopes of a better life; Too often only to find themselves existing in overcrowded ghettos under the harsh impersonal grip of poverty. The drain of middle income taxpayers has led to the drain of city government coffers. The poor, who cannot pay, live in a city that cannot support them. Public services such as garbage, St. care, law enforcement, even parks disintegrate as the process of decay begins. The regeneration of our cities will not come with massive urban renewal or government aid. It will come with the return and reintegration of people into the total fabric of city life. As it is now, the central city bustles during the day with commerce and activity but it is deserted at evening as the commuters returned to their homes on the outskirts. Cities at night are being left to the poor and the criminal.