I am writing to convey my disgust regarding a hypocrisy of which few people are aware. I frequent many small businesses and proprietorships around the Portland area. I find them far more pleasing than your average faceless, corporate chains with plastic smiles and super-size menus. The other day I’m at this little restaurant down Broadway past Shattuck Hall, the Green Onion, and there’s construction all around them. Inside, where last time there were many people eating, there was an empty room. After I ate, I asked the woman who owned the store what was going on. She said that on both sides of the street, the university was doing construction and that it had decimated her business. Outside was a crane parked in the middle of the street, blocking traffic from the only other accessible route to her business. She informed me they would be closing for awhile as a result. Why do I care? Because all I ever hear from the university is how they are supposed to be serving the community around them, and how they love multiculturalism and diversity. But now they are destroying a little Iranian woman’s small business with their “expansion” and I’m sure they (the university) aren’t even aware of it. It’s good to know that the university actually practices what it preaches.
Reena Bjorgson, junior