It doesn’t take much to see that the problems of food trucks on the Eastern Prom don’t amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world. But after being pleasantly surprised at the original decision made by interim City Manager Danielle West, I couldn’t help feeling depressed as I watched the city cave so quickly to the food truck operators.

The sign the demonstrators held that read “the prom belongs to the people” was meant ironically, right? Because I’m pretty sure the Olmstead brothers, who designed the park, would not have considered the noisy, dirty environmentally destructive vehicles to be a positive addition to what was imagined as a lovely, green, free space for the people of Portland.

Janice Bailey
Portland