Greg Kesich, editorial page editor for the Portland Press Herald, has now made his misguided position absolutely clear: Growth of any kind in Portland is our city’s salvation, and we should all sit down, shut up and let it happen.

There is no other way to read his March 25 column (“Residents of Portland have to get past their aversion to growth”), which leads off: “Growth is good for Portland … . Growth is good for you.” No qualifiers.

He couldn’t be more wrong.

Unbounded growth can be horrific. In a body or a society, growth without limits is cancer. Unbalanced growth solely for the very rich and the very poor hollows out and ruins a city.

Meanwhile, stability can be very good indeed. Look at what has happened to our own Portland in the past 20 years. With little growth we have vastly improved as a place to live, work and recreate.

Mr. Kesich, in any case, has set up a straw man to do battle with. He charges that any resident who opposes a developer’s initial plans is averse to growth.

I and those associated with Keep Portland Livable are foremost among the people Mr. Kesich lashes out at. This although we have proved to everyone – except him, apparently – that we favor increases in density and any sensible development that conforms to city standards, reflects our great city’s character and embodies decent urban design.

Oddly, we haven’t seen Mr. Kesich at the city hearings where we’ve supported intelligent, job-creating growth that serves the needs of average families. And we’ve never seen him mention urban design, the determinant of attractive cities everywhere.

When he gets a sense of the role of urban design in the life and death of cities, we suspect he’ll take a more modulated view of “growth.” As the rest of us already have.

Peter Monro

co-founder, Keep Portland Livable

Portland

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