Setting a world record in it's own right a man was arrested at the worlds smallest park.
Going into the annals of history was not his intent. His intent was to bring awareness to the greater public about the inequality of our economic system an how that inequality has subverted our political system.
PORTLAND, OR (KPTV)-
A 20-year-old man was arrested Friday afternoon during a demonstration at a Portland park that happens to be the world's smallest.
Officers say Cameron Scott Whitten refused to get out of the street and on to the sidewalk, despite warnings from police.
Whitten was with a demonstration at Mill Ends Park, which is at Southwest Naito Parkway and Taylor Street. It is the world's smallest park, according to the Guinness World Book of Records, at just 452 square inches.
Mills End Park:
The Portland Occupier provided more coverage and a better history.
by Gina Ronning
On December 16th, a flash mob organized by the Occupy Everywhere Campaign marched to the ‘Black Box’ building, the home of the Portland Business Alliance, and occupied its lobby with a miniature Occupy Portland diorama. The Portland Business Alliance was occupied because of its commitment to the agenda’s of the one percent as well as its involvement and support of Portland’s discriminatory city ordinances that continuously target Portland’s most vulnerable.
From the Portland Business Alliance the group marched to occupy Mill Ends Park, which happens to be the Guinness Book of World Records world’s smallest park. There, miniature tents, tiny protest signs, and little police officers were placed in the park as a symbolic representation of the Occupy movement and the struggle for freedom of speech.
This kick-off event is the beginning of what will be a mass PR campaign entitled “The Occupy Everywhere Campaign” intended to help generate awareness about Occupy Portland and the issues of economic injustice and corporate greed.
For more information or to get involved in future mini occupations please contact:
occupyeverywherepdx@gmail.com
Mill Ends Park
SW Naito Pkwy & Taylor St
General Info
Acquired in 1976
Historical Information
In 1946, Dick Fagan returned from World War II to resume his journalistic career with the Oregon Journal. His office, on the second floor above Front Street (now Naito Parkway), gave him a view of not only the busy street, but also an unused hole in the median where a light pole was to be placed. When no pole arrived to fill in this hole, weeds took over the space. Fagan decided to take matters into his own hands and to plant flowers.
Fagan wrote a popular column called Mill Ends (rough, irregular pieces of lumber left over at lumber mills). He used this column to describe the park and the various "events" that occurred there. Fagan billed the space as the "World's Smallest Park." The park was dedicated on St. Patrick's Day in 1948 since Fagan was a good Irishman. He continued to write about activities in the park until he died in 1969. Many of his columns described the lives of a group of leprechauns, who established the "only leprechaun colony west of Ireland" in the park. Fagan claimed to be the only person who could see the head leprechaun, Patrick O'Toole. After Mill Ends officially became a city park on St. Patrick’s Day in 1976, the park continued to be the site of St. Patrick's Day festivities.