Sustainability History Project

[This post was written by Megan Foster, Grant Russ, and Tina Xiong, and complements previous students’ analysis of the question What is Sustainability?]

One of the many topics of change that the Coalition for a Livable Future‘s Regional Equity Atlas expands on is poverty and, more specifically, child poverty. The Atlas presents a figure of 31,000 people living in poverty in the Portland metro area in the year 2000 and almost a third of that number were children. A collection of research also cited by the source provides an unsettling correlation of poverty stricken children and elevated exposure to crime and an increased chance of teen pregnancy, family problems, and a lower standard of education. In order to improve these unfortunate circumstances it would be necessary to utilize preventative and tertiary methods.

Preventative methods would aid in addressing the root of the problem rather than simply taking measures that will just move the population of poor to other areas. Tertiary methods are methods that address these conditions after they occur. One such organization that gives aid to children in poverty among others is a local nonprofit called Rose Haven. Rose Haven’s mission concentrates on women and children who need resources necessary to fill their basic human needs and to help them overcome limiting circumstances in order to become successful individuals. Among resources offered are food, clothing, job skills, counseling, and other useful services. Organizations such Rose Haven is a genuine source of help that can facilitate the transition from poverty to a better standard of living with ties to the community.

Another aspect that the Equity Atlas addresses is transportation, in Chapter 5. In light of the situation there are lower-income communities or less-privileged groups that are largely devoid of transportation where one local transit system, Tri-Met, may not be able to extend its services due to economical costs. Unfortunately this largely disrupts social sustainability of providing avenues for the lesser privileged groups and poor communities of getting to work, obtaining basic necessities such as affordable healthier food and other critical destinations that pertain to the basic needs of human development pointed by the Equity Atlas.

The Equity Atlas mentions two other viable transit systems, the CAT and SMART that operate within the cities of Canby and Wilsonville, respectively. Their operation similarly to that of the Tri-Met transit system hold the same Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)-accessible standards along with interconnected destination stops that overlap with Tri-Met’s stops. The obvious difference over CAT and SMART transit systems is that they operate completely free of charge which was the origin for their development to offer lower costs for public transportation.

The Equity Atlas provides an investigation about accessibility between residential areas and critical destinations. Another investigative proposal to offer would be whether or not a similar free-of-charge transit system could be a viable link to assist these transit-dependent populations to the Tri-Met system within the Portland area, such as the SMART and CAT transit systems offer. This would be a great benefit to lower-income groups that already suffer a deficit means of transportation within their neighborhood.

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