What do we want? Accurate reporting! When do we want it? NOW!

Your March 24 Murmurs column featuring "scuttlebutt" from the peace movement was misleading on several counts.

First, it is misleading to describe last year's protest of the Iraq invasion as having a "hard edge of violence," when overwhelmingly the event was peaceful, including those acts of non-violent civil disobedience that shut down several bridges into downtown Portland. Disruptive? Yes. But it is unfair to smear that day's protests with the broad brush of a "hard edge of violence." That phrase describes the behavior of perhaps a dozen people on a day when at least 7,000 were in the streets to oppose the war.

Secondly, using or promoting violence (whether by police officers, the Portland Business Alliance, protesters or pro-war thugs) has never been "welcome" at the seven major anti-war rallies of the past two years; in fact these actions have explicitly adopted nonviolence as a core guideline. So it is simply false for WW to report a "shakeout" to discourage those "types."

Finally, the suggestion that physical confrontations involving protesters are an "excuse for the more aggressive cops to themselves riot" (or otherwise brutalize peaceful protesters) is at odds with what our community, including many news reporters, have witnessed firsthand. While there are plenty of police officers who perform their duties with professionalism and even distinction, there are also those who have not waited for an "excuse" to break out the pepper spray and nightstick against peaceful protesters in our city. And the long-overdue departure of Chief Kroeker only punctuated the city administration's dismal failure to impose some genuine accountability for such abuses.

William Seaman
Southeast Taylor Street

Nick Budnick responds: While organizer Will Seaman and the Portland Peaceful Response Coalition do promote nonviolence, I was one of four WW reporters covering last year's March 20 protest and can attest that numbering the violent protesters at "perhaps a dozen" is a bit of wishful hindsight.

NO WELFARE FOR PFE

I must take exception to Nigel Jaquiss' article "Bad Neighbors" [WW, March 3, 2004] regarding the troubled relationship between the city of Portland and PFE and its effects on the Goosehollow Foothills neighborhood. Your headline claims that the city "reneged" on its transit pact with PFE and TriMet, which I took to mean "went back on their word." And the quote from Marcus Simantel, a neighborhood rep, claims that the city's discontinuation of the transit program was "arbitrary," which I read to mean "without cause." However, the original agreement called for day-of-game TriMet passes to be funded by PFE's rent on the facility and a 35-cent surcharge per ticket, and PFE has for over a year continued to collect the surcharge while paying neither rent on the ballpark nor the 35 cents per ticket to TriMet. I find nothing arbitrary in Portland's decision to cut their losses on the transit pact, at the unfortunate expense of Goosehollow residents.

The editorial bias evident in the piece is not borne out by the facts, and while here in Tillamook I am almost never inconvenienced by the PGE Park neighborhood's parking problems, I applaud the city's decision to terminate Portland Family Entertainment's corporate welfare in this case.

Richard R. Warner
Tillamook

MOONEY'S NO RASHEED

My name is Kea Krause, and I am a current student at Lewis & Clark College. I recently read your article about Michael Mooney returning to our college as a professor [The Nose, Feb. 18, 2004]. Although this may not be the most tactful move the school or Mooney has made, I found it absurd and completely ridiculous that the reporter of this article referred to Lewis & Clark as an "embarrassment" to Portland.

What happened at Lewis & Clark with Michael Mooney was a mistake, and as a human, Mooney is allowed to make them. There are so many other organizations that represent Portland that are far more obscene than the college--take the Trail Blazers, for example. To say that our college is an embarrassment strictly based upon the recent incident with our president is blatantly overlooking the fact that our continuously high enrollment is constantly bringing in brilliant, new life to Portland that not only to contributes to this community but enriches it as well.

Kea Krause
Southeast 11th Avenue

ROLE REMODELS

Your March 17 Rogue of the Week recipients [Serena Cruz and Tom Walsh Jr.] should lead by example in obtaining proper permits for their home-improvement project. If they need any help in this regard, the Oregon Remodelers Association would be happy to provide literature on the importance of obtaining permits, as well as a list of qualified remodelers who could help complete their project both legally and efficiently. The association is a great source of remodeling professionals who pledge to abide by state contractor law, local permit requirements, and a strict code of ethics required of its members. These resources are available to any of your readers, including contractors and elected officials.

Phil Peach
Executive Director, Oregon Remodelers Association/NARI
Southeast Flavel Street

SKATING TO VICTORY?

Thank you for your profile of Commissioner Francesconi ["Are We Ready for This?," WW, Feb. 18, 2004]. Portland voters should take to heart Francesconi's declaration that "kids are what is the highest priority for Portland parks." With the dog issue largely settled, reason dictates that providing safe, legal facilities for skateboarders must now be Portland Parks & Recreation's highest priority.

The average skater is 14 years old, and skateboarding is more popular than baseball among kids ages 6 to 17. Of the 13 million skaters nationwide, Portland's share is 27,000 and growing. (Market research firm Board Trac claims 13 million skaters nationwide. U.S. Census 2000 counts 286 million Americans. So 0.05 percent of Americans skate. Assuming, conservatively, Portland has a proportionate share of the nation's skaters, of Portland's 545,000 residents 27,250 skate.)

Skateboarding has for more than a decade been the neglected stepchild in Parks' portfolio of responsibilities. Skateparks, we are told, are controversial. That was the early 1990s. Today Newberg, our religious neighbor down Highway 99, has for three years enjoyed what many consider the world's best skatepark. Wealthy West Linn has a successful skatepark within 500 feet of homes whose values soar beyond the half-million-dollar range. The only remaining controversy is when Parks--and Portland's elected officials--are going to deliver for their constituents.

Parks is moving in the right direction. A skatepark advisory committee is established, and that committee expects to deliver a plan to meet burgeoning citywide need to Francesconi and his commissioner colleagues in six to nine months. That plan will likely call for a network of skateparks that are community-friendly, economically stimulating, and designed and built by Oregon's own world-renowned skatepark firms.

When that plan is delivered, the skatepark issue shifts to City Hall, where we hope to be confident that our elected officials--perhaps with Mr. Francesconi in charge--will determine in fact that kids are the highest priority for Portland parks.

Tom Miller
Skaters for Portland Skateparks
North Winchell Street