How Hard Is It to Live with Less?
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ONE OF THE NATION’S Playing Abe, honestly BEST SEE SPORTS, SEE LIFE, PAGE B1 PAGE B10 PortlandTHURSDAY, JUNE 26, 2014 • TWICE CHOSEN THE NATION’S BEST NONDAILY PAPER • PORTLANDTRIBUNE.COM Tribune • PUBLISHED TUESDAY AND THURSDAY OHSU students get bitter insurance pill n School By PETER KORN health plan, which will cost her says state The Tribune about $4,000 a year for basic cover- “This health plan will cost our family age, not to mention a $500 annual medical Kim Cathcart doesn’t have a deductible and 20 percent co-pays. coverage not lot of spare change lying around. thousands we simply cannot afford.” “This health plan will cost our She’s a third-year pharmacy stu- family thousands we simply cannot good enough, dent at Oregon Health & Science — Kim Cathcart, OHSU student afford,” Cathcart says. but many University, so she hopes to be Whitney Woolstenhulme is an- call policy making good money in a few other OHSU pharmacy student fac- years. But right now she’s amass- has been covered for the last several costs to a minimum. ing a similar predicament. Wool- unfair to ing huge student debt while liv- years through the Oregon Health So you can understand why Cath- stenhulme works 20 hours a week TRIBUNE PHOTO: JAIME VALDEZ students ing with her husband, a disabled Plan. She’s been pleased with the cart was upset when administrators as a pharmacy intern for Kaiser Whitney Woolstenhulme has been veteran, and their 12-year-old son Oregon version of Medicaid, which at OHSU told her in February that Permanente while studying for her fi ghting her school’s decision to insist on about $1,200 a month. covers her dental care and keeps despite her OHP insurance she she and others pay for OHSU health For health insurance, Cathcart medication and other out of pocket would have to buy into OHSU’s See OHSU / Page 5 insurance. Street fee n Downsizing to 200 items forces closer look at meaning of ‘stuff’ prompts howls of How hard protest is it to live Mayor, Novick nd little support for idea at lively city forum with less? By JIM REDDEN The Tribune Mayor Charlie Hales and Story by Peter Korn Steve Novick have done a lot of work on their proposed street fee since it was fi rst wo hundred things counts as one, though it has introduced on May 22. seems about right paniers, a water bottle and Among other things, they for Lina Menard. lights that could be consid- have come up with discounts TThe Northeast ered separate items. A truer for low-in- Portland tiny house resi- count of her possessions, come house- dent has tried for a few Menard says, would be more “I didn’t holds, fi nal- years to live with less stuff. like 577. But that’s not the hear a ized a $53 mil- She teaches workshops in point. lion a year downsizing. She thinks liv- Menard used to live in a consensus fundraising ing with fewer material pos- nice, two-bedroom house be- in the room goal, agreed sessions is not only respon- fore she took the 200 Things for an to spend 97 sible from an ecological Challenge, her version of the percent of the point of view, but frees her “100 Thing Challenge,” in- alternative money on to live a happier, more spired by Dave Bruno’s 2010 proposal maintenance meaningful life. book about living a simple and safety And yes, her “200 things” life with only 100 posses- that would projects, de- has a little bit of cheat in it. sions. So she had stuff she raise as veloped de- She counts her jewelry box had to lose. And getting rid much tailed maps as one item, even though of stuff, she says, is hard. about where there are about 30 pieces of money.” the work jewelry inside. Her bike See DOWNSIZE / Page 2 — Steve Novick, would be do- city commissioner ne, and said they are open to ideas for collecting the funds from non- residential properties. None of that seemed to make much of a difference Tuesday morning when dozens of angry Portlanders lambasted the proposal during a town hall on the non-residential fee at the Oregon Convention Center. Signs calling for Novick’s re- call and the words “street fee” with a red slash through them circulated in the room. Asked for a show of hands, around 80 COURTESY OF BRITTANY YUNKER percent of those at the 8 a.m. TRIBUNE PHOTO: JAIME VALDEZ Two hundred possessions and bikes are two of them? Living forum signaled they had come For Lina Menard (and cat Raffi ), fi tting 200 possessions into a 120-square-foot tiny home requires light advocate Lina Menard says she doesn’t own a car, so she to oppose the fee. With Hales creativity and effi ciency, including a lofted bedroom. Menard, author of blog thisisthelittlelife.com, and Novick sitting in the front uses one bike for grocery hauling and the second for cruising teaches people how to live with less in her downsizing workshops. of the room, many of those who around town. testified questioned whether Portland even needs more mon- ey for streets, arguing that the city already collects plenty of taxes that could be spent for maintenance and safety proj- ects, including urban renewal funds administered by the Port- PSU, Hales wrangle new renewal deal land Development Commission. “If you raise taxes on small properties along the MAX light- But now the PSU president City redraws districts; rail line and the university’s says he’s “very pleased” with an See FEE / Page 4 university will get eastern boundary. The center- alternative development plan piece is the University Place Ho- negotiated with Hales’ staff and millions in subsidies tel south of Lincoln Street, one the Portland Development of four PSU properties that Commission, the city urban re- By STEVE LAW could be redeveloped along newal agency. Wiewel says he The Tribune Southwest Fourth Avenue. foresees no problem agreeing to When Hales announced a ma- a fi nal deal by fall, which could PSU urban renewal is get- jor initiative in February to re- clear the way for Hales to win ting a redo. draw the city’s urban renewal fi nal City Council approval for Gone is former Mayor Sam districts — and put more prop- his broader plan to nix two ur- Adams’ vision of using urban re- erty back on the tax rolls — Port- ban renewal districts, shrink newal to subsidize an EcoDis- land State University President two others and expand two oth- trict, energy effi ciency projects, Wim Wiewel dug in his heels at ers, to take advantage of new and the Oregon Sustainability Hales’ proposal to scrap the development opportunities on Center, among other projects. fl edgling Education Urban Re- the downtown waterfront and In its place: a more tradition- newal Area conceived by Ad- inner-east side. TRIBUNE PHOTO: JONATHAN HOUSE al vision by successor Charlie ams. “I made it very clear that I Adams’ Education Urban Re- PSU spokesman Scott Gallagher talks about future plans for the lot Hales, focused on spurring real thought it was a terrible idea,” where the University Place Hotel is located. City offi cials have altered estate development of PSU Wiewel says. See PDC / Page 11 an urban renewal district that included the university campus. “Pamplin Media Group’s pledge is to Portland Tribune deliver balanced news that re ects the GETTING WARPED stories of our communities. Thank you — SEE LIFE, PAGE B1 for reading our newspapers.” Inside — DR. ROBERT B. PAMPLIN JR. OWNER & NEIGHBOR A2 NEWS The Portland Tribune Thursday, June 26, 2014 Downsize: U.S. culture values consumption ■ cut: the blanket she had as a for a nonprofi t, but commuting From page 1 child, a hammock from Costa isn’t part of their lifestyle. None Rica, her laptop and cell phone, of this would have been possible, For example, there was her one mattress, one pressure Strobel says, if they hadn’t got- grandmother’s fur coat. Menard cooker, and a favorite teacup she ten rid of their stuff, thereby in- had worn it to high school danc- had brought back from Prague. fusing their lives with fl exibility. es and the coat was associated The move to California also al- with all sorts of pleasant memo- Programmed in our genes? lowed Strobel to help nurse her ries. Still, it had to go. So Men- In her workshops, Menard is dying father in the last two years ard discarded the coat in a way not a scold. She’s selling a con- of his life. that would attach a new mean- cept, not a standard, and she ing to it. Research revealed that suspects she’s battling natural Something in, another thing out the Humane Society of the Unit- selection in the process. Strobel no longer counts her ed States accepts fur coats to “If it’s not voluntary, it feels possessions, but fi gures she is help in its wildlife rescue pro- like deprivation,” she says. “We still right around 100 because gram, the fur comforting cubs of have an intrinsic worry about she’s adopted a policy that per- the same species. scarcity that’s related to a bio- petuates the challenge she took “It seemed like an appropriate logical need for survival.” three years ago. “I have what I choice because it kind of sent Yes and no, says University of need, and when I buy something the fur back where it should Missouri evolutionary anthro- new I give something away,” she have been,” Menard says.