Down at City Hall, the debate over the “Made in Oregon” sign change is taking on weird Portland vs. Eugene dimensions.
Commissioner Randy Leonard sees the University of Oregon’s sign makeover as a personal affront to Portland. On his blog, Leonard lashes out at University of Oregon, saying, “Changing the sign from a neutral City of Portland-oriented institution to a Eugene, Oregon based school that is well recognized in its own right seriously degrades the value of the icon to an entire community and commandeers it for the narrow purpose of institutional self-indulgence.”
Darryl Paulsen, whose company Ramsay Signs has owned the sign from the time when it read “White Satin Sugar”, says it will go dark without a sponsor. The 52-foot tall neon icon costs tens of thousands of dollars a year to maintain and University of Oregon is the most likely sponsor because they’ve been picking up the maintenance tab since last January. But Leonard is angling for the city to buy the sign, which his office estimates would cost about $500,000 plus the annual maintenance fees. The commissioner wrote a letter to University of Oregon’s president in December, warning that the controversy over the sign change might overshadow University’s positive relationship with Portland.
The University ignored his advice, so now Leonard is cranking up the controversy. “It would not be unlike the reaction the residents of Eugene would have if Portland State University acquired the sign rights on top of Skinner Butte overlooking downtown Eugene and put up a garish neon “Portland State University” sign for all to see,” writes Leonard on his blog.
“tens of thousands of dollars a year to maintain”
I’m dying to know, other than the electric bill, what are the ongoing maintenance costs?
$10K seems on the low side.
– Replacement of Neon.
– Repair of vandalism (which will increase if the sign changes, just to spite them.)
Neon should be replaced with LEDs to reduce cost.
WTF is R Lenny smoking? It’s a fucking neon sign that has changed over the years. I don’t really think U of O is Portland institution either. I don’t really want my tax dollars, either through U of O or C of P to be paying for this. Hey, how about Merritt Paulson take over where Darryl Paulsen left off… Too bad Lil Randy didn’t think this one through before the deal for soccer. He could have thrown it in.
If Randy shells out taxpayer money to pay for Bill Naito’s billboard, I’m starting a recall campaign. It would amount to corruption.
Maybe I’ll buy the fucking thing and have it say PortlandBurritos.blogspot.com! That’ll solve some problems.
I agree with Randy. The whole move into Portland has been handled poorly, making it disrespectful to PSU.
Tom Potter at the time said something like “finally we’ll have a big university in town.”
PSU has the largest enrollment in Oregon, this type of move by teh UofO shouldn’t go over any more smoothly in Portland than if they were doing it in Corvallis.
I’m so sick of this fake inter-city collegiate rivalry. More college capacity is a better thing for Oregon no matter where it is located. Can’t we get past “PSU represents Portland, OSU represents Corvallis and UO represents Eugene, and secondarily all of these cities are bizarrely at war with each other, kind of” ? How stupid is that? It sounds like we’re letting sports rivalries and regional insecurities affect sound public policy (see sentence one: more college access anywhere is always a good thing). We’re ALL Oregonians. PSU, UO and Oregon State are ALL part of our shared state university system. Can’t we stop this silly fussin’ and feudin’ and let one of them change two words on a goddamn sign?
One only needs to look at the ratio of Duck:Vikings paraphernalia around town to realize that UofO has the money to do this and PSU doesn’t. All that really matters to me is that the landmark stays lit.
Neon should be replaced with LEDs to reduce cost.
YES!!!
Are there no other entities in the running for sign takeover?
First: The sign sucks. Take it down.
Second: There is a real rivalry amongst the three schools, whereby their administrations backstab and undercut each other in the competition for state funding. Awesome, huh? “We’re all Oregonians,” sure, of course — I’m not saying the rivalry isn’t stupid, but it is real.
The sign is BY FAR my favorite thing in Portland. And the closest thing we have to a city landmark. (Fuck that tram; that’s not a landmark.)
I really like it how it is… neutral and broad. I’d hate to see it compartmentalized… though I guess anything is better than it going dark.
Maybe U of O could have Phil Knight buy them a plot of land on the opposite side of the Burnside Bridge and U of O could put up their sign there? He buys them everything anyway.
We should buy the sign, and then we should make it say, “Go By Bicycle”.
No.
Fuck LED’s !!!!!!!
Leave the neon alone.
It stands the test of time and historical significance.
If it was , somehow, made out of LED’s it would look rediculous.
Neon lasts. LED’s fade.
plus, then we won’t get the fun periods of time to enjoy when it says Mad in Oregon
speaking of which, kill two birds with one stone and make it say
‘ad in Oregon’
then it will satiate everyone’s definition.
Cover the face with PV panels (yeah, the orientation sucks, but it’s something) to power OLEDs and go with Will Radik’s GO BY BICYCLE idea. Sweet! Or we could use the bucks to pay for some classes for Jay B. Neon lasts? Pretty clear you weren’t raised in a sign shop, son. The Mad in Oregon bit was funny, though.