Public Market Showdown Continues

What a week! In the eight days since my Eat Me column on the Portland Public Market appeared, I've received many emotionally charged personal responses, and the overwhelming majority have been positive. It pleases me that more Portlanders are talking about the proposed year-round food market now than at any other time in recent memory.

The debate has also created well-publicized and highly vocal disagreements—most recently on Tuesday when Portland Public Market backers Ron Paul and Amelia Hard posted a 1,700-word response to my column on the local blog Portland Food and Drink (portlandfoodanddrink.com). You can read it here. (While Paul and Hard shared it with WW hours in advance as a courtesy, they requested that we not publish it as a Letter to the Editor.)

Because the Public Market and local agriculture are subjects that deeply interest me, I will continue to revisit them. In the meantime—and based on the large response to my column—Portland Food and Drink is taking any and all questions from readers on the subject, and the Portland Public Market backers have promised to fully and unconditionally answer them.

Hopefully we'll leave this forum far more enlightened on the subject than after the City Club forum on the Sept. 28. You can listen to that podcast here.

Oh, and as for my response to Ron Paul's and Amelia Hard's statement, here goes:

I appreciate the response but regret that Amelia Hard and Ron Paul believe that my article in Willamette Week was based on a personal agenda or pre-determined results. The article was the product of more than 20 interviews and reflects the views and concerns of many members of Oregon's food, agriculture and urban planning communities. I stand by my story and the accuracy of all the quotes. Promoting local agriculture is a laudable goal and I share it with the supporters of the Portland Public Market project.