The Cold Margins
Two
weeks ago, a commissioner for Portland, Oregon,
ordered one of the city’s first response teams
to cease the distribution of tarps and tents to
people sleeping outdoors. The commissioner, Rene
Gonzalez, oversees the Portland
Street Response team, first responders who
focus on those experiencing mental illness or
homelessness. He said he had made the order in
response to a number of recent tent and
tarp-related fires, which put neighborhoods at
risk.
A week later came the cold.
Like much of the Western US, Portland
experienced heavy winter weather. The city was
buried in snow. People abandoned their vehicles,
and buses abandoned their routes. Portland’s
unhoused were encouraged to seek the shelter of
warming centers set up by the city. So far, two
deaths have been reported and linked to the
storm in the city.
Still, that
statistic does little to measure the amount of
suffering that thousands of people just endured.
Throughout the region, unhoused people were
cold, shivering, and near hypothermia — a
painful, miserable experience. And while it is
not possible to link every weather event to
climate change, this latest winter storm was a
sharp reminder that our civic systems need to be
enhanced and made more flexible as we move
toward an uncertain future.
A
longer view confirms a pattern of unraveling.
Hurricanes, heat waves, snow storms, coastal
flooding — we will experience these over and
over again, with increasing frequency and
intensity. A pandemic creates an economic slump;
people lose homes. Cold hits, and suffering
ensues. I think about these things, watching the
news, wondering whether the city planners of the
world are thinking the same. These events demand
big-picture, long-view thinking — the kind of
thinking that considers providing shelter
and giving aid, rather than taking it
away. Let this whacky weather be a reminder of
that.
As the cold continues,
consider your neighbors. Stay warm, stay safe,
and, above all, stay
empathetic.
Brian
Calvert
Associate Editor,
Earth Island
Journal
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out. Check it out and, if you haven't already,
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Frost detail
photo by chris
riebschlager |
