Healthy Parks, Healthy Portland ? I bet some nerd got a healthy payoff for coming up with that infantile crap.

"Pssst. Hey Sam, got some bridges you can sell? No? Let us help you with that. Here, have a tollhouse cookie. Ah, take two. They're big." -- Henry the Hutt & The Merritt Prankster

"If you can't go to the city park for traditional summer outdoor concerts, I guess you'll just have to come to my ballparks then."
-- P.T. Paulson

Communication error. When Merritt Paulson said he wanted the new baseball stadium at the rose garden, he meant the original rose garden. It even has a little commuter rail stop.

Jack,

We're all disappointed that Daimler, the main corporate sponsor of the Summer Concert Festival in Washington Park for the past four years, is not able to support the performances again for 2009. The Festival is a beloved institution, first begun 60 years ago by Dorothea Lensch, and we don’t take the cancellation this summer lightly. Obviously, we'd love to have another corporate sponsor step forward with $100,000, but we also know the recession has hit businesses hard and everyone is tightening their belts. However, we’re optimistic the economy will improve and we’ll be able to find the corporate support to bring the Festival back in 2010.

In the meantime, the dedicated staff at PP&R is working hard to ensure every Portlander, young and old, has access to either free or reduced cost summer activities and programs this year. The popular neighborhood concerts, which are themselves a 29-year-old tradition, will be returning, as will the free Movies in the Park, free Learn to Swim Week, and the 102-year old Summer Playground Program, which offers free drop-in recreation activities for children in neighborhood sites throughout the city. 

I encourage you and your readers to learn more about these and the many other free and affordable programs PP&R offers our community by visiting portlandparks.org.

Nick Fish
Parks Commissioner