THE NAME OF THE 'HOOD
Congratulations on another terrific Best of Portland issue [July 23, 2003]. I'm a native Portlander transplanted to NYC who for the past six years has lived in what was once called Little Italy. The "Best Stupid Names for Neighborhoods" piece was hilarious, although I was somewhat nauseated by what it could mean for Portland, given what's happened to my neighborhood.

The term NoLita was coined by a Real Estate columnist from The New York Times a few years ago, and somehow it has stuck. Our 'hood, which was once a fairly quiet, working-class area, has been renamed and subsequently reduced to a string of overpriced boutiques and college/yuppie binge-bars with astronomically high noise levels and rents to match.

Stripped of our family groceries, pet stores, chapels and all other locally owned businesses to make way for "NoLita-fication," I know plenty of my neighbors will enjoy reading the piece and be happy to learn that everyone isn't buying into this manufactured BS.

The writer closed with "C'mon, like you care." As someone who loves my hometown and has seen "Stupid Name" become the catalyst for what has to be one of the worst examples of gentrification around, I do care--and hope my friends in Portland will, too.

One small correction: What does NoLita really stand for? No Lower Income Tenants Allowed!

Renee Soucy
NYC

LOST TO THE MADNESS
To the editors of Willamette Week and the family of Jessica Dolin: Thank you for your compassionate, heart wrenching description of the short life of Jessica Dolin ["Death of a Goddess," July 16, 2003]. By the courageous and painful sharing of the family agony, how starkly clear it is that this illness has no respect for loving families that try to do all the right things; no respect for the incredible, ongoing striving of the affected person and their family to still the demons.

I am struck by the bravery of the family and Jessica. It would be tempting and comfortable to look for easy answers. Jessica and her family faced this horror with a realization that there are things unknown, so you continue to fight for your life and your child by whatever means you find on that day, that hour or that minute. The humility and lack of arrogance in the face of so much confusion, pain and profound sadness is an important message. Jessica is a child to us all.

I am profoundly grateful that Leigh and Leslie Dolin and their son, Boris, shared their tragedy with our community.

Anita August
Northwest 8th Avenue

NO ART ATTACKS
Reading Richard Speer's review of the Oregon Biennial ["Bi-Furious," WW, July 2, 2003], I was shocked by the review's profound misunderstanding of the basic nature of art. Speer doesn't seem to understand that he is part of an art world where different people are sincerely and profoundly moved by different kinds of art. He's like a restaurant reviewer who only likes food made with the hottest peppers and declares every other kind of cuisine inedible and non-nutritive.

He castigates the Biennial because it didn't "cold-cock me." He "wanted the show to scandalize, vandalize and sodomize me." In my 50 years in the art world, I've never seen a show that cold-cocked, scandalized, vandalized and sodomized me, nor am I hoping to see a show that will eviscerate me with its brutality. I have frequently been exhilarated, thrilled and deeply moved by insightful and beautiful art that Speer lumps together as "crap." There is a big difference between saying, "This is the only kind of art that turns me on, personally," and saying, "Anything that is not this kind of art is crap."

In order for artwork to be crap, it must be of no aesthetic use to anyone. In order for work in the show to be crap, it must be of no aesthetic use to Bruce Guenther, who edited this show down from 928 artists and didn't put in anything that didn't move him. It's a reflection of art's profoundest meaning when you learn to say, "That doesn't speak to me" instead of "That's crap."

Christopher Rauschenberg
Southeast 16th Avenue

 

RINGO'S A STAR
I do not know what is in the water at Willamette Week, but you sure missed the point with your review of Charlie Ringo ["The Good, the Bad and the Awful," July 9, 2003]. It must be difficult for more than a few Republicans and industry lobbyists you relied upon for this issue to imagine someone who not only talks about a clean environment, but is willing to take a stand for one. "Clash" with Ted Ferrioli and it's Charlie's fault, "they" say. Do you know who Ted Ferrioli is? Here is a guy whose job description is sell all environmental rights and safeguards down the river ASAP. Compromise? Really? It must be difficult to accept power-sharing for some in the Legislature after having a lock on it so long. Charlie's Senate victory race was the one many feel determined this 15/15 power-sharing D/R split. This was, of course, despite Willamette Week, which endorsed his Nixonian opponent, Bill Witt.

You owe it to the public of this region to do better than show up every two years in Salem. Show some depth. Leave out these phony ratings and catty remarks. Many of these legislators do a heck of a job for the thanks we give them and the pay they get. Where is Willamette Week, and who are you trying to please?

Stephen Gerould
Southwest Dosch Road