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WW
Reader Contest:
Hai2k
edantic verses,
vague promise of lame prizes,
fifteen minutes fame
Can it really be that The New MillenniumATM
will be here in just six weeks? That means that in next
month we all will be treated to thousands of pages of end-of-century
retrospectives. Since WW published a 25-year-anniversary
issue last week, we won't be adding too much to the glut.
Still, it seems the occasion should be marked in some way.
We figure 17 syllables ought to do it.
Summarize what you think is the best or worst of the 20th
century in haiku form, and we'll print the best in our last
issue of the century. We'll also find some sort of reward
for the
winners. Send entries to "WW Hai-2k Contest" by mail:
822 SW 10th Ave., Portland OR 97205; by fax: 243-1115; or
by e-mail: jschrag@wweek.com.
A FEW TIPS:
Poems must be three lines of 5, 7, 5
syllables. No rhyming allowed. Local is better than global.
Nasty is better than nice.
FOR EXAMPLE:
Channel 6 drives me
to the AM band's refuge
But Lars is there,
too
ATM The New Millennium is almost a
registered trademark of the Microsoft/
Willamette Week Corp. All rights deserved.
Typo
of the Week
Date:
November 4, 1999
To: Entertainment Editor
Re: Super Jam
I would like to invite you to whiteness first hand one
of the hottest concerts of the season. It's Jammin 95.5's
Super Jam on November 12th at 7pm at the Rose Garden.
Artists scheduled to perform include Snoop Dogg, Tyrese,
Blaque, Warren G., Tracie Spencer, Eve of the Ruff Ryder
Camp, IMX and One Voice. Tickets are expected to sell
out, but at this time are still available at the Rose
Garden and Ticketmaster outlets from $9.55-$32 (not
including service charges).
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Leading the whiteness: KXJM promotion director Renee Rank
assured WW that it was a simple typo in that first
sentence, not a Freudian slip. "Ooh, that's not a good thing,"
she said when we brought the error to her attention.
Homeless
Horses?
Advocates Say "Neigh"
The cavalry lovers have called in reinforcements.
For more than two years the 11 equine members of the Portland
Police Bureau's Mounted Patrol Unit have been facing eviction
from their current barn near downtown Union Station. Now,
with just five months to go before the horses must be moved,
a coalition hopes to put the horses' homelessness on center
stage this week at a City Club committee meeting.
The City Club's interest is sure to lend urgency to the
limbo status of the horses. Sue Carlson of the Friends of
the Mounted Patrol told WW that the horses have become
a political football. She says they are caught between the
city's desire to keep them near downtown and the Parks and
Recreation Bureau's resistance to putting them in Washington
Park, the only decent site located thus far.
"The mounted patrol, the citizens around Washington Park,
the citizens of Goose Hollow, the people downtown, all would
love to have them in Washington Park," says Irwin Mandel,
a downtown activist who is co-chair of the City Club's public-safety
committee. "Why this is not happening when there's a real
crisis situation, I don't know."
Darlene Carlson, an aide to Commissioner Jim Francesconi,
who oversees Parks and Recreation, says her boss opposes
boarding the horses in Washington Park because of the space
a facility would take up. She also says she's been told
that the horses would need to be transported downtown by
trailer.
Sgt. Dave Pool of the mounted patrol, however, told WW
the distance wasn't a problem. "We'd ride them downtown,"
he says. "It's not very far."
Pool says the decision is up to the city, but he didn't
find any problems with the park. "I just need room for these
big animals to run around," he says. "And Washington Park
provides enough space."
The City Club committee meeting is at noon Wednesday, Nov.
17. It will be held at offices of the Association for Portland
Progress, at 520 SW Yamhill St., Suite 1000.
--Nick Budnick
Vote
Local, Think Global
It's not the first time that the Portland City
Council has been accused of being a pawn of left-wing extremists,
but it's been a while since that charge has come from within.
On Nov. 17, Commissioner Erik Sten will introduce a non-binding
resolution defending local governments' authority to pass
local laws addressing human rights, the environment and
labor. Multnomah County Chairwoman Bev Stein introduced
a similar resolution to the County Commission on Nov. 16.
The backdrop for the resolutions is the upcoming meeting
of the World Trade Organization, which begins Nov. 30 in
Seattle. A broad coalition of unions, environmentalists
and human-rights activists believe that the WTO, an unelected
assembly representing 134 nations, intends to run roughshod
over local governments in the pursuit of free trade.
But City Council member Dan Saltzman says Sten and Stein
have bought a specious argument from those who oppose knocking
down the barriers to free trade. "It's part of the anti-WTO
hype," Saltzman says. "I don't buy it."
Saltzman is no right-winger, but he says free trade has
been good for Portland, and he doesn't believe that a supranational
body will impinge on the city's ability to make and enforce
local policy. Besides, he says, the Seattle meeting may
not even take up the issue of whether the WTO can overrule
local governments.
For his part, Sten says it's crucial for the city of Portland
be on record--as are several other cities, such as Houston,
San Francisco and Seattle--opposing any loss of local control.
"If local governments don't stand up for principles," he
says, "nobody else will."
--Nigel Jaquiss
Corrections
In our 25th anniversary issue (WW,
Nov. 10, 1999), we misspelled the name of lawyer Clifford
Alterman ("Ivancie the Terrible"). We also misstated the
names of Mike and Brian McMenamin ("They Rule").
WW regrets these errors.
Slowing
The Pace
Controversial plans for a North Portland music
amphitheater took a twist last week when the Metropolitan
Exposition-Recreation Commission postponed a key vote on
the matter.
Now neighbors are claiming partial victory, saying that
the second delay in two weeks reflects the growing momentum
of the opposition. They say the process that MERC has agreed
to sounds the death knell for the 5,000-seat venue--or at
least for its proposed location, eight acres of environmentally
sensitive land in the southwest corner of the Expo Center
property.
At issue is a project that the two sides agree could have
a major impact on the Portland music scene, for better or
worse. Besides concerns over noise and traffic, opponents
of the project have questioned its impact on local promoters.
The would-be operator, Pace Entertainment Inc., is a national
conglomerate that already enjoys a dominant position in
the entertainment business, giving it control over some
of the most popular acts.
Supporters of the amphitheater, such as MERC general manager
Mark Williams, say an amphitheater would improve the music
scene and help the agency pay the bills for much-needed
renovations of the Expo Center.
Last week, however, MERC agreed to include the pavilion
project in its "master plan" process, which could postpone
a decision for several months and dash Pace's hopes to be
ready for the summer 2000 concert season. "That changes
the landscape fairly dramatically, at least as far as we're
concerned," says North Portland neighborhood activist Richard
Ellmeyer. "Time is definitely on the side of the forces
that don't want an amphitheater in the southwest corner
of the property."
Pace lobbyist Len Bergstein says MERC's decision doesn't
mean the project is dead. He says PACE is open to looking
at other parts of the EXPO property. But relocating the
theater to the southeast corner, as neighbors want, could
be a deal-breaker. "From my point of view," says MERC's
Williams, "that doesn't work." --Nick Budnick
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Willamette Week | originally
published November 23,
1999
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