Market Forces

On Friday, November 25, the Portland Development Commission (PDC) released nearly 300 public comments about the Saturday Market. The PDC is seeking a "permanent" home for the iconic market—which may move to make way for an all-week "public market."

Not surprisingly, the comments were overwhelmingly in favor of keeping the market where it is. "The Saturday Market that everyone knows and loves needs to stay where it is," one citizen wrote. "If you move it, it will lose its character and perhaps, die. Don't mess with a good thing." AMY JENNIGES

This is Progress?

Police Chief Derrick Foxworth released a report on Monday, November 28, outlining the "significant changes we've made as an organization," following the March 2004 death of James Jahar Perez. Officer Jason Sery—who believed Perez was pulling a weapon out of his pocket—shot Perez during a traffic stop in the St. Johns neighborhood. The Police Bureau's Review Board later found that the use of deadly force against Perez, who was unarmed, was within department policy.

"Essentially, there is nothing new in the report," Portland Copwatch's Dan Handelman wrote in a Monday evening email. The 27-page report did indicate that the FBI completed a civil rights investigation and is considering whether to press charges in the case, also that Chief Foxworth will present a report on racial profiling in 2006, and that cop training now includes "disengagement techniques," Handelman noted. "But nothing else stood out as new or instructive." AMY JENNIGES

WTO—Oh No!

As the World Trade Organization prepares to meet in Hong Kong in mid-December, Portland's anti-globalization fever kicks off with a screening of This is What Free Trade Looks Like at the Clinton Street Theater Thursday, December 1, featuring footage from the 2003 anti-WTO protest in Cancun (see Movie Times, page 53).

Then, on December 7, the Central American Solidarity Committee hosts speakers from Chile and Mexico to discuss globalization's impact on women in Central and South America (PSU, Smith Student Union, 7 pm).

Both events lead up to a December 10 march for workers' rights. The demonstration—led by labor, environmental, and social justice groups—begins at noon in front of the World Trade Center at SW Salmon and 1st. SCOTT MOORE