Nick Fish, Portland’s parks commissioner, has broken what’s mostly been a code of silent unity at City Hall over the Occupy Portland protests, sending out a fairly harsh letter this afternoon that lays out the potential bill for damages to the two occupied city parks downtown—Chapman and Lownsdale squares.
Fish’s letter (pdf) asks for help dealing with the damage, some of which—thanks to trampled ground and rope-rubbed tree trunks—may take years to manifest, he says. Apparently the camp’s creation of an earth stewardship committee wasn’t convincing enough for Fish.
The letter then goes on to invoke the civil rights movement and the goals of the Occupy movement itself.
It’s a shift for Fish who, on Day 1 of the camp, went out of his way to provide extra garbage pickup—and who also doesn’t have the same electoral freedoms as our self-declared one-term mayor, Sam Adams. It also marks the first public comments by an elected official who isn’t Adams. Earlier, according to the Mercury‘s regular review of Occupy-related emails from Adams’ office, Fish had deferred to the mayor as the public face of Portland. But even as long as a week ago, cost discussions were beginning to surface as a point of contention over an occupation that Adams has allowed to continue for nearly two weeks.
(Oh, and what about all those festivals during the summer that muddy up and wreck the fine grass over at Tom McCall Waterfront Park? I asked Parks, and spokesman Mike Ross said “events like, say, the Brew Fest or marathon require a permit and fees; I believe the funds are designed to help mitigate cleanup and maintenance. They costs vary by event and number of people, and various other factors.”)
Update 3:40 PM: I’ve heard back from Shawn Rogers, the parks bureau’s customer service center manager.
Yes, all permitted events are subject to damage fees, whether it’s a sports league or festival. In Waterfront park we use a formula that, in addition to actual damage, records the likely damage caused by different types of activities and structures being placed within the park (tents, stages, vehicles, pathways, portable restrooms as well as estimated numbers of people in attendance). Each are given a point value and a charge is added. That specific money goes to the renovation of the park that occurs two to three times each year.
To be clear, damage fees are directly related to something that an event broke or damaged during their stay in the park. Renovation fees are separate and are determined in advance of the event.
Hippies take care of nature so they will probably leave the park in better condition than before they squatted it so hard. Right hippies?
The parks get big bucks for restoration after the festivals that is why the Portland Pirate Festival moved to St. Helens.
Why do activists hate parks so much?
I want to start a movement for the 98% of us who aren’t the 1% insanely wealthy or the 1% batshit mental twinklers.
get off my lawn!
Time to move it to Pioneer Square or the inside of City Hall.
THE #OP SHOULD MOVE TO DIRECTOR’S PARK. AINT NO GRASS THERE FOR THEM TO FUCK OVER.
What idiots down there decided to tear up an area and plant a ‘garden’ in there anyway?
@Number Six: Yes, it seems clear that Nick Fish would rather they occupy Pioneer Courthouse Square. Takes a little more effort to drive in the tent stakes there, of course…
Concern troll is concerned
I just realized that Nick Fish is possibly a small, rather smooth Ent.
Nick Fish cares so much about greenspace, he forgot who the greenspace is there for in the first place! They’re called citizens, Nick. You asked them to vote for you, and they voted for you. Send the bill to Geithner and find something worthwhile to whine about..
By Occupy being there, the citizens at large are now unable to enjoy that space. The majority of citizens would rather downtown parks not morph into makeshift camps, regardless of the reasons.
Don’t worry. We all ready have plans to clean the park when we are done. I am sure plenty of people will donate their time, some rakes, and grass seed to fix the park. If you haven’t heard, Occupy Wall Street has accumulated 300K, so I am sure Occupy Portland can come up with a $1000+ to maintain the park.
In comparison to the destruction the protestors caused in England. I think the city should be proud that our non-violent movement only destroyed some grass in a city park.
Some idiots down there planted bamboo too.
WTF??
I’m with Chuck on this. Walking through there the other day was quite an eye full – eyesore.
Yes, complain about that unemployed middle aged lady walking on the grass while the bankers keep you over the barrel and ream you. Sheeple will be sheeple.
You’ve addressed what my question is Demondog: how does a bunch of well-meaning folks hanging out in a park in downtown Portland result in bankers not reaming me anymore? The Tea Party is full of psychotics, but they’re getting their issues filtered up to decisionmakers, without taking up public space for indefinite periods of time. What is the Occupy Portland end game? What will victory looks like, and roughly how long is that going to take? And how in the hell does camping out downtown get Occupy closer to that goal? You can be sympathetic to their general message ( I am ), but I can’t see how any of their tactics, which have more negative impacts as the days go by, are going to produce a result.
Give them time. I’m as cynical as the next guy when it comes to anything political (or just anything), but I think they’ve accomplished a decent amount already in the month or so this has been going on. There is a national dialogue about economic inequality, and a voice for economic populism in the media. That hasn’t really happened since, what, 1965. In NY the movement is giving considerable weight to progressive tax proposals. And we’ll wait and see what impact the Nov. 5th Bank-whateverthefuckthey’recallingit has. Simmmmer dowwwwn.
Clearly, we need to rip out all the grass and install astroturf.
My question: Is this $19,000 damage done to GRASS?! Or is this actual damage to trees, shrubs or otherwise harm the infrastructure of the sidewalks/paths/streets? What kinda damage?
Today, I got a call from a local station, about ropes on the trees, where Occupy Portland set up camp. I spent about 10 minutes explaining to the caller, that the soil compaction and damage in the root zone was probably the worst problem caused by the protesters. Roots use oygen and need to release carbon dioxide. When soil compacts, it traps the gas, and it’s similar to putting a bag over one’s head, only it happens slower.
More specifics about this here … page on soil care …
http://www.mdvaden.com/soil.shtml