The names are out for the citizen group that will be advising the city on how to redevelop the Rose Quarter and Memorial Coliseum. As discussed in this week's paper the group is intended to make the design process more inclusive and bottom-up than this spring's highly-criticized proposals for redeveloping the area, which included tearing down Memorial Coliseum to make way for the Beavers' baseball stadium and 24-hour entertainment district called "Rose Quarter Live!"

As discussed with the aid of a hellish multi-directional flowchart last week, the committee is responsible for evaluating new ideas for the Rose Quarter and recommending proposals to city council.

Mayor Adams' office received 120 applications for what was slated to be a 20-person committee—the actual number of people chosen for the committee is 32. Coming to a decision about a major redevelopment project with 32 people? I hope they're not shooting for unanimous consensus, though they'll be deciding those ground rules at their first meeting September 15th. They'll also be using the services of a professional facilitator because of the "high stakes" of the issues, says Adams' spokesman Roy Kaufmann.

"We were looking at, 'Who can we select to represent the diverse viewpoints Portland has on the development of the Rose Quarter?'" says Kaufmann, who explains that the office decided to expand the size of the group because of the high number of talented applicants.

The resulting committee does contain a wide range of perspectives and expertise, at least at my first glance. Here's some familiar names that jumped out at me:

Sandra McDonough, president of the Portland Business Alliance.

Jules Renaud, a 12-year-old boy who was on the tram naming committee. He's been chosen here to help represent the "youth perspective," says Kaufmann.

Lillian Karabaic, a bicycle advocate (and "youth" herself) who helps run lots of bike fun events around town (like this year's world naked bike ride) but also works with the more suit-and-spandex crowd through her job at the Bicycle Transportation Alliance.

Will Macht is a developer and urban planning prof at Portland State who spoke out about the plan to demolish Memorial Coliseum, saying, "The plan is not deliberate, it has not considered all the options in a professional way."

Walter Valenta is a North Portland realtor who's definitely not in favor of development at any cost: he pushed back on the Columbia River Crossing's "generic" bridge design earlier this year.

Dean Gisvold is the land use chair for the Irvington Neighborhood Association, a group which fought a condo development in their historic neighborhood last year.

Also of keen interest is the list of applicants who weren't invited onto the committee, including former city council candidate Nick Popenuk and Portland's most outspoken Memorial Coliseum advocate, Brian Libby.

Kauffman explained Libby's absence, saying, "It seemed that his strongest interest was making sure that the architectural preservation perspective was represented and we've done that." So was Libby too controversial to have on the committee? "That wasn't a concern," replies Kaufmann.

Update 4:20PM Brian Libby says, "Part of me is disappointed, but part of me knows that I can go to these meetings and have a voice, even if though it's not a voting voice." He's looking forward to being an "outside watchdog" for the committee.

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Full list below the cut—what do you think of the committee make up?


Rose Quarter Stakeholder Advisory Committee
:

Alicia Rose

Brian Owendoff

Cameron Vaughan-Tyler

Carolyn Briggs

Clint Lundmark

Daniel Deutche

Dean Gisvold

Drew Mahalic

Faye Burch

Greg Phillips

Jeff Miller

Jim Peterson

Joseph Readdy

Jules Renaud

Lillian Karabaic

Marcus Mundy

Paul Falsetto

Philip Kalberer

Regina Hauser

Rick Michaelson

Rick Williams

Rosemary Colliver

Rudy Soto

Sam Adams

Samuel Brooks

Sandra McDonough

Steven Rawley

Tony Stacy

Virginia Sewell

Wade Lange

Walter Valenta

Will Macht

Email me for the full list of applicants, if you want to peruse for yourself who wasn't invited.