Comments

1
Sure you can create 10,000 temporary jobs if you don't care how much you borrow. Loan me a $100 million. I'll create you some jobs.

Charrette: Planners come "listen" to you for an hour and do what they were going to do anyway.
2
I would call it not a charrette but a charade -- a charade of yeah, we're listening, but not really, because we've already made up our minds. Now they can just check off the "public process" box on their list. I haven't witnessed such blatant disregard for public opinion since the Bush administration. But that makes sense, given that we're getting into a deal with the son of George Bush's treasury secretary (and his family's "personal [financial] guarantee").

Saltzman is the swing vote, starting at tomorrow's council hearing to approve the predevelopment agreement.

dan@ci.portland.or.us
3
But, Paul! It's going to be a world-class, sustainable parking garage!

And you're not just getting into a deal with the son of George Bush's treasury secretary - you're getting into a deal with the man you helped elect who's making it all possible. Paulson's a dick, but he's doing what dicks do, and that's take advantage of rubes.

Adams is the one selling you down the Willamette.
4
Hasty process and questionable budget priorities aside, please help me here. Memorial Colliseum is an antiquated eyesore with virtually no redeeming spectator features and the engagement calendar of an unloved spinster. And you want to save it... why? Because once upon a time it hosted some great Blazers teams? I can't believe I'm rooting for parking garages, but at least people use them.
5
I am all for saving historic buildings, but someone needs to explain to me the significance of the Memorial Coliseum. It looks ugly to me.

Is this some sort of architectural retro-appreciation thing? It's just a boring box. And I even have sentimental reasons to appreciate it - I saw a Blazer game there as a kid.
6
Oh, yeah, I forgot -- "eco-district" is what they call it now. Eco-parking garages and all, is what I guess that means.
7
I haven't lived here long enough to know anything about Memorial Coliseum. I don't even know what it looks like. That being said, I'm all about preserving old buildings rather than destroying them. However, 9 out of 10 opinions I've heard say it's not worth saving.

Also. Adams has some balls. For him to wade out into this crowd like that and take unscripted questions, and for him to stand before a group of press taking hostile question after hostile question at the outbreak of the Breedlove scandal, you have to give him credit for that. He's willing to put himself under fire.
8
I just educated myself by looking at some pictures on the interwebs. I like the coliseum. I don't think it should be torn down.
9
wow. I always get to these things way too late. I agree with WR about saving the Coliseum. I believe my neighbor Tom would agree. Maybe not.

The Steel Bridge is still, and will always be the hardest working bridge in Portland, sitting right next to it's garden and esplanade immediately to the east. That and the grain silo should be the draw for the fans standing in the stands of a new field pledging allegiance to something. But I'm from Cleveland.

Hope this story never dies, it just keeps delivering.
10
The Colesium was a signifcant modernist structure when it was created and widely known in architecture circles. I think the glass enclosure around the functional inards was the big thing.

I'm not crazy about it. Like a lot of modernist movement it hasn't aged well.

My main issue is the ridiculous speed and unknown expense of the two stadium projects. And bringing a cheesy ass "entertainment district" to the Rose Quarter. And this "public involvement" nonsense.

"How do you feel about this?"
"I don't like it."
"Fine. That was your involvement. Now fuck off."
11
I think it's a shame they might tear down Memorial Coliseum. I saw a mighty good Grateful Dead show there in the early 80's. I might forget all about that experience if the Coliseum isn't there to remind me of it.
12
Not in love with Memorial but I agree this seems like a done deal. The valued input from citizens is clearly for show. I agree with Blabbs - the whole entertainment district idea sounds like major suckitude. We need another fluorescent lit mall apparently???
13
What happened to the idea of putting the baseball stadium at the Portland Schools site, on the north side of Broadway?
14
I drove around the area last night at around 9pm after I got off of work. Glimpsed the structure while going up Grand, I think, then when I circled around I couldn't find it and I went home. The glimpse I got was kind of intriguing,low-slung, sleek, simple, looked like it would make an AMAZING tropical butterfly garden. Bottom line is, a mystery building that's hard to find seemed so, well, PORTLAND. The problem here seems to be a lack of imagination, (on the part of say, people who have racy encounters in restrooms with adolescents), about what to do with our glass mystique-holding architectural puzzle.
15
I drove around the area last night at around 9pm after I got off of work. Glimpsed the structure while going up Grand, I think, then when I circled around I couldn't find it and I went home. The glimpse I got was kind of intriguing,low-slung, sleek, simple, looked like it would make an AMAZING tropical butterfly garden. Bottom line is, a mystery building that's hard to find seemed so, well, PORTLAND. The problem here seems to be a lack of imagination, (on the part of say, people who have racy encounters in restrooms with adolescents), about what to do with our glass mystique-holding architectural puzzle.
16
"Ecodistrict"? The stench of bullshit coming off of that word is so strong it makes me wanna punch somebody. By claiming that 12-lane bridges and corporate-chain entertainment venues are "green", Sam Adams is going to turn Portland's sustainability movement into a joke (if he hasn't already). Fuck him.
17
For those of you wondering why the Memorial Coliseum is worth saving architecturally, there are some good posts and comments over at the Portland Architecture blog, including details about latest twist in this saga (the City of Portland is looking to tear down Memorial Coliseum in order to preserve a PARKING GARAGE).

http://chatterbox.typepad.com/portlandarch…
18
Geraghty: I read elsewhere (but sorry, can't remember where -- the Portland Architecture blog maybe) that the school district won't be ready to move out of that building in time ... which, of course, is another reason for questioning why this proposal has to be fast-tracked to the degree it is.

I already said in the comments for the "Little Dubai" story that I don't get all the love for the Coliseum. "Eyesore" may be going to far, but Brian Libby actually compared the potential loss of this building to the loss of NYC's McKim, Mead & White-designed Penn Station. Please! At best, this modernist "gem" is bland enough that a clever design team could augment the site with other buildings and/or landscaping and make the whole site into something pleasing. But that's hardly a persuasive argument for enshrining the tedium as one of Portland's great building.

OTOH, razing it to save those hideous, soul-sucking parking garages? So much for sustainability. And so much for any opportunity for any kind of locally flavored life in the dead zone we call the Rose Quarter. The problem with an area so overwhelmed with bureaucratic planning is that you end up needing Cordish-style enterprise to make anything of it, because anyone with any appreciation for genuine neighborhoods will sensibly stay far, far away.
19
Brian Libby, the only idiocy is coming from your mouth. So sorry you had to waste your precious time to have this conversation. The fact that architects are so attached to this building is a good reason to tear it down, imo, considering the ego-driven monuments of crap that many of these same tasteless architects blight our city with. The building is solid, but was an urban planning blunder from the start; building our future around it doesn't make much sense. Make sure the veterans get a better memorial as part of the redevelopment.
20
Remember, folks: let this debacle unfold and you'll get to see some overpaid athletes chase a ball around a field! What a reward!

21
Can the rising numbers of homeless and wandering mentallty ill folks sleep in the new baseball stadium on the 200+ days a year it won't be in active use?
22
So...they've been talking about what to do with the Coliseum since the Blazers stopped playing in that building like 15 years ago.

I find it odd so many want the thing saved now yet weren't screaming mad about the way the building was literally falling apart over the last 15 years.

So clarify this for me. If they save the thing we're going to have to spend $50 million gutting it and putting something else inside the glass walls right?
23
Six years ago we did a case study of the Rose Quarter in a urban planing class I took at PSU. We found that this is a very complicated place. The most important thing we found out was that the Rose Quarter Corp. has 'first right of refusal' on all and any projects. That means that all of this talk is about as useful as a hamsters hemorrhoid unless it makes them money.

What is really going here is Sam Adams is building a fort of capital projects around himself in an attempt to stave off a recall vote.

First it was the bridge, then the soccer team/stadium, now the Rose Quarter; he is also moving ahead on the Burnside bridge-MLK interchange. He also tried to get the Rose Quarter mega hotel off the ground until the Nines reported problems in cash flow. Whats next?

This is just a big show to try to make himself irreplaceable. By going into the recall with all of these projects on the board don't you think that some unions, construction companies, developers, team owners... would want him to stay on as mayor? Sam Adams is betting on it.
24
@Vert

The recall effort never had a chance. They will never be able to get enough signatures.
25
Can not wait for the recall. I have a list of nearly 600 people that will sign on the dotted line. right now. I am sure I will have over 1000 by July 2, 2009.
26
@VanSmack

You're aware they have to be from PDX right? Unlike the doofuses that go in front of city hall to complain they can't be from Lake Oswego, Vancouver and West Linn.
27
This is blatant mis-reporting of what happened last night. when confronted with the schools, streets, homeless question Sam spoke at length about why the financing for this project couldn't be accessed for those things AND he talked at length about what the Paulson family is doing to guarantee these projects so they can't just walk away.

But that's to lazy to report right?

I also love how you completely failed to understand the parking garage issue. FACT: the Memorial Coliseum costs taxpayers about $500,000 a year right now because it operates at a loss and is an aging, decrepit building with lots of upkeep needs. Who pays for that half a million? Why the Stadium and Facilities Fund. And what is the major contributor to that fund? Revenue from the city owned parking garages.

So if you tear down the damn garages to keep the Colesium you are gonna have to find half a million or more from the general fund just to keep that building open.
28
monorail monorail monorail!

Marge: I think the money should be spent on something the whole town can be proud of.
Homer: Like a giant Billboard that says "no fat chicks"?
29
Garrett,

No worries. They are all from Portland and not one of them is a registered sex offender like most of the supporters of Sam Adams are.

I know sex offenders and members of NAMBLA are looking at the recall of Sam as a battle ground issue. What those low lives do not understand is those of us that feel child molesters and liars should not hold public office are looking at this fight the same way.
30
There are some other sites around the Rose Quarter which haven't gotten too much attention. Namely the art installments stained the color of the Statue of Liberty- The crown Ms. Liberty threw to the west coast and one of her wings standing in front of the parking garages across the street.

http://portlandtried.blogspot.com

Please wait...

Comments are closed.

Commenting on this item is available only to members of the site. You can sign in here or create an account here.


Add a comment
Preview

By posting this comment, you are agreeing to our Terms of Use.