Clean Compared To What?

Reader's Digest is hardly a progressive or an environment publication. Yet for a reason beyond my comprehension, this publication named Portland, Oregon as America's cleanest city. As a Portland resident who loves my city I would feel proud if I could find some proof to back up this honor.

While Portland is a terrific city in many ways, including one of America's most politically progressive cities with a great mayor, and great businesses, the air quality seems so much worse this year than any previous that I remember. I recently required blood tests and other medical help at OHSU. The parking situation at the hospital is absolutely terrible, so I thought riding the bus would be a good alternative. But downtown Portland was so congested with automobile pollution, unnecessary panhandler cigarette smokers on every block, who discard cigarette butts on every sidewalk and beg for money to buy drugs or alcohol, that I couldn't believe the chaos. I also had real breathing problems with the air quality so bad that I would probably require a portable oxygen unit to even go to downtown Portland again.

And I used to enjoy walking the dogs in my neighborhood, but now many residents who didn't smoke have taken up this nicotine drug addiction habit, and harm the health of children as well as myself with the lung choking 4,700 poisons each of these nicotine drug delivery systems(cigarettes for the lay folks) produces. And backyard barbeques, roasting and burning the hacked flesh of an animal fill the air with pungent choking smoke. And as a result of high oil prices, more resident heat their homes by burning logs or other material in wood burning stoves. And many residents use gas powered mowers, instead of the far cleaner electric models.

I can hardly breath or even walk the dogs in such a dirty and congested city with major health consequences for myself. Yet Reader's Digest claims this is the nations's cleanest city. This means that other cities are far worse by comparison. That is deeply sad.

I'm a vegan. I respect animals and nature. And certainy there must be ways to clean up air quality in American cities. Public cigarette smoking should be banned, this nicotine drug addiction should only be practiced at home or in an automobile with windows fully closed. Allowing public cigarette smoking allows the spread of nicotine, a harmful and highly addictive drug to children and other unwilling persons. I don't understand any concept of freedom that allows some people to publicly administer a harmful addictive drug to unwilling persons. Lawmakers and government are very lax to allow such a health harming practice to exist. Automobile traffic could be rerouted in large cities, allowing more shopping mall type areas. And electric mowers rather than dirty gasoline would also help. Every city could do much better. Even the nation's supposed cleanest one.