This Week in the Mercury

I, Anonymous

Columns

I, Anonymous

The Unwashed


Gossip Girl

Theater

Gossip Girl

Violence Takes Center Stage in (I Am Still) The Duchess of Malfi



  |  

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Fashion / Build Out More Dirt on New Rose Quarter Developer

Posted by Sarah Mirk on Wed, Apr 15, 2009 at 2:22 PM

Remember the shiny shiny suburban images of entertainment districts built around the nation by proposed Rose Quarter redeveloper Cordish Company? In case you forgot:
ada2/1239829224-1236898134-cordi_vision.jpg

Bam! A Cordish "Live Block" is coming to Portland!
Collage via Portland Spaces


Well it's not just their designs that have been bad in other cities - we blogged yesterday about complaints that Cordish strongarmed public officials in both Kansas City and Louisville. Now get this: in Kansas City's Power and Light District (the Cordish project Portland's Rose Quarter Live! is supposed to most resemble) the company got in hot water for instituting a dress code that was "hysterically racist" according to citizen complaints.

The dress code for the bars-theaters-restaurants district banned white t-shirts, baggy pants, men wearing necklaces and shorts that hung below the top of one's calf. Many Kansas City citizens and a majority of City Council members felt the ban on very specific clothing items clearly discriminated against black people.

The ACLU got involved and after a heated City Council meeting (which involved a former city councilwoman shouting at the African-American Cordish rep, "You want to invite us down to picket you? I'm embarrassed black people stand up here and advocate discrimination!") the city banned restrictive dress codes in developments that receive taxpayer assistance.

Portland has not yet signed any deal with Cordish, but the redevelopment plan is moving swiftly forward. A study (pdf) commissioned by the City of Toronto found that municipalities partnering with Cordish to create a Live! style project fund 30 percent of the development with public money, on average.

 

Comments (13) RSS

Oldest First Unregistered On Registered On Add a comment
1
Are you KIDDING me? Ya know what? Sam, step down. Developers, leave town. People of Portland, get out in the streets and in the corridors of city halls and protect the only decent city left in America from the profiteers who intend to ruin our hometown.
Posted by anatta on April 15, 2009 at 3:14 PM · Report
2
Fourth Street Live in Louisville is an abomination. It's absolutely hideous and defames any of the city's wealth of character and charm.
Posted by buchino on April 15, 2009 at 3:38 PM · Report
3
Guys, are you on some kind of vendetta? You know as well as I do that Cordish has said up front they wouldn't be creating the same crap here as they did in KC--and Randy Leonard will demand it, as he told me.

As for dress codes, are you sure no bars in Portland have a similar dress code, without apparent outrage from the Merc?
Posted by torridjoe on April 15, 2009 at 4:12 PM · Report
4
Looking at these Cordish developments is scary: they somehow own (or control?) the "entertainment zone" as a corporation? So now we're building an outdoor strip of nightclubs (greenwashed of course!) that behaves like a mall?

We've already got PBA-funded private cops abusing their power on downtown streets with little or no accountability. And now we're leveling half the Rose Quarter to create a pseudo-public Fremont Street Experience-style abomination? What the fuck, Sam Adams? What the fuck, Randy Leonard? And every other one of you fucks. Fuck!
Posted by Chunty McHutchence on April 15, 2009 at 4:21 PM · Report
5
oh my god
i can not believe i am saying this
but
at this moment
i miss tom potter and his "lack of" visioning.
Posted by v.renwick on April 15, 2009 at 4:47 PM · Report
6
Listen, if we are ever going to be a world-class soccer city, like Columbus, we are going to need more Fuddruckers.

Columbus has 27 different Fuddruckers within its city limits!
Posted by remold on April 15, 2009 at 4:57 PM · Report
7
I'm sure Cordish has said a lot of things up front. They probably said the same things before they built their developments in Louisville and Kansas City, and almost 30 other places.

Cordish is a "multi-billion dollar global conglomerate" (quote from their website).

http://cordish.com/

Do you really think that they all of a sudden have changed the way they do business? Do you want that mentality driving redevelopment in Portland? Don't we have enough of that already, both here and stamped elsewhere across the country (and let's not forget Dubai, which is now making a fast retreat on development).

Do some basic research on the Google, eh? It takes seconds to find this stuff, like this...

http://www.pitch.com/2009-04-02/news/here-…

http://www.pitch.com/2008-02-14/news/drunk…
Posted by Paul Cone on April 15, 2009 at 5:33 PM · Report
8
Fuck that development, yo.
Posted by Will Radik on April 15, 2009 at 9:10 PM · Report
9
"As for dress codes, are you sure no bars in Portland have a similar dress code, without apparent outrage from the Merc?"

torridjoe, as someone who regularly blogs while on the clock at a taxpayer-funded agency, you certainly understand the difference between a private club and one that was built with public dollars. Right?
Posted by GLV on April 15, 2009 at 9:51 PM · Report
10
"But I really really REALLY like soccer!"
Posted by Blabby on April 15, 2009 at 10:51 PM · Report
11
I'll go down there wearing whatever I damn well please.
Posted by Suburban Porn King on April 16, 2009 at 3:16 PM · Report
12
Where was the outrage when they shit up the pearl and bridgetown village?
Posted by NIG GER on April 17, 2009 at 5:46 AM · Report
13
I really think people need to focus on how ALL of these proposals will stir up job creation. As a local Oregon contractor, I must say that my industry has been hit the hardest by this economy. During the Great Depression, the president of the United States helped to fund the construction of the Bonneville Dam. That helped to create the cheapest electrical services in the nation that fueled the largest shipbuilders to relocate to Portland. This created tens of thousands of jobs in Portland. Several people from the south moved to Oregon, including a large number of African Americans. The district where the Memorial Coliseum now stands was once a thriving African American community that worked in the shipyards. They lived and worked in the district which was nicknamed “Jumptown”. We have an opportunity to create the desperately needed jobs like we did during the Great Depression.

Fast forward to 2010…Portland has one of the highest rates of unemployment in the nation. There is an opportunity to create thousands of jobs. So far I’ve seen two of the three proposers pick non local General Contractors, and that is the one thing that absolutely no one is focusing on. “MARC” has teamed with Howard S. Wright, a Washington based General, and “VMAC” has teamed with Kiewit Corporation, an Omaha, Nebraska based contractor. The Blazers have not yet announced who they plan to use, but I’m counting on them to be responsible and choose a company that is truly owned and operated in Oregon. Given the track record of the Rose Garden, Turner (German Owned) / JE Dunn (Kansas City), they might go down the same path as the rest of the teams.

The Blazers are teaming with developer Cordish who on their last project, “Kansas City Lights”, located in Kansas City, had a lot of problems from the minority community, but at least they hired local Kansas based contractor, JE Dunn, to do the work. Most Oregonians don’t realize that while a lot of the General contractors such as Turner (German Owned), Skanska (Swiss Owned), JE Dunn (Kansas City), Howards S. Wright (Seattle Washington), Kiewit Corporation (Omaha Nebraska) have offices in Oregon but are not Oregon based.

This means that the profits the companies make, do not recirculate in the Oregon economy. When you’re talking about millions of tax dollars going to these projects, it is irresponsible to hire non-local contractors and negligent when you’re talking about non-American owned companies such as Turner and Skanska. We have a host of locally owned General Contractors with great track records including: Hoffman, Anderson, Walsh, Emerick, R&H to name a few. While my firm is too small to go after such a large project, I’d rather see local contractors when it comes to publicly funded projects, because the money stays in our economy. Let’s hope the Blazers don’t go down the same road they did when they built the Rose Garden hiring Turner/JE Dunn to be their contractor (keep our dollars in our COMMUNITY!!!). I love reading the Mercury, and I hope it will write an article about how many jobs are being taken from the qualified local General Contractors.
More...
Posted by mikefisher on April 17, 2010 at 8:32 PM · Report

Add a comment

Our Friends

Our Enemies

/images/adoftheweek.gif

ad of the day

The Handyman Pro - Your Honey-Do Specialist
Don’t let our name fool you. The Handyman Pro, LLC is a repair and remodel service provider with over 25-years experience. We cover all aspects of construction and repairs for residential and commercial clients.go


post an ad

All contents © Index Newspapers, LLC

115 SW Ash St. Suite 600
Portland, OR 97204

Contact Info | Privacy Policy | Production Guidelines | Terms of Use