…this past First Thursday. Independent art vendors were moved one block north from Occidental Mall to Occidental Park, instead of getting banned altogether (which some of the corporate art galleries wanted).

So the unofficial, un-curated, anything-goes art bazaar continued, with more square footage and just as many buyers and sellers. The only police trouble came when Greg Kucera (one of the bigtime gallery operators who’d pushed for the indie art-sellers’ expulsion) was almost arrested while wearing a second-hand police uniform shirt.

Meanwhile, the kind of outdoor art sale the corporate gallery guys would prefer took place at the Harbor Steps development, west of First and Union. Everything was clean, slick, and quality-control-committee approved. Glass bowls and cutesy sculptures dominated. Surprisingly, it wasn’t all completely dull.