This Week in the Mercury
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Neighborhoods Ouch.
Posted by Sarah Mirk on Thu, Jun 18, 2009 at 10:13 PM
A blow for Commissioner Randy Leonard and other backers of the Beavers ballpark in Lents: of the roughly 230 Portlanders who turned up to the big Lents urban renewal meeting tonight, 70 percent said they saw no benefits at all in constructing a stadium in Lents Park.
The city employed some nifty electronic polling to gauge the opinions of the packed, sometimes hostile audience — other results of a brief Q&A showed that three times as many neighbors think urban renewal dollars should go toward promoting smart transit and green space than think the money should be invested in turning Lents into “an entertainment destination.”
Updates and photos - plus video of Merritt Paulson withstanding the force of 200 “Boo!”s - tomorrow morning.
1
What amazing turnout. I was there for 3 hours and the room was still full of people who had not yet testified to the Lents Town Center URAC. URAC proponents never saw this coming!!!! Awesome!!!
2
Nice...
Fortunately PGE Park and Lents deal were decoupled. So it really doesn't matter to me anymore since the soccer deal is a done deal. YAY! :)
Political reality: In two weeks everyone on this blog, including the Mercury staff, and in the city will go back to not giving a shit about Lents again. Fact. Boo!
Hopefully they'll revisit the Memorial Coliseum...
A:they do...then they have a nice AAA stadium there.
B:Paul Allen gets his way and the MC is getting torn down...like soon...and 6 architects won't matter then.
So have fun with that!
Fortunately PGE Park and Lents deal were decoupled. So it really doesn't matter to me anymore since the soccer deal is a done deal. YAY! :)
Political reality: In two weeks everyone on this blog, including the Mercury staff, and in the city will go back to not giving a shit about Lents again. Fact. Boo!
Hopefully they'll revisit the Memorial Coliseum...
A:they do...then they have a nice AAA stadium there.
B:Paul Allen gets his way and the MC is getting torn down...like soon...and 6 architects won't matter then.
So have fun with that!
4
Prediction: Beavers move to Beaverton. They will find a place in central Beaverton near the light rail and enliven the local business there. Though we love to hate the PDC, Beaverton will wish they had a BDC.
5
Kindly remember, BO, that five members of City Council, not six architects, hold power over our Memorial Coliseum.
City Council also holds, as I have remarked before, power of eminent domain over Paul Allen's Rose Garden.
Council 5, Blazers 0.
City Council also holds, as I have remarked before, power of eminent domain over Paul Allen's Rose Garden.
Council 5, Blazers 0.
6
@Blabby
Not bitter. Now I'm watching this kind of like you'd watch a train wreck. I loved reading and hearing how the crowd was so incensed some were actually throwing things and shouting people down...and they're the same people that call the Timbers Army hooligans. Hahahaha. Now I'm just sorry I missed seeing it myself.
But really...in two weeks nobody here or anywhere else will care about Lents again and the only reason anyone in the city will have a reason to go there is because their kids really want to go to the Chuck-E-Cheese. Either that or they're super white trashy and love the New Copper Penny. Either way the $40+ million in the URA will continue to collect dust.
Not bitter. Now I'm watching this kind of like you'd watch a train wreck. I loved reading and hearing how the crowd was so incensed some were actually throwing things and shouting people down...and they're the same people that call the Timbers Army hooligans. Hahahaha. Now I'm just sorry I missed seeing it myself.
But really...in two weeks nobody here or anywhere else will care about Lents again and the only reason anyone in the city will have a reason to go there is because their kids really want to go to the Chuck-E-Cheese. Either that or they're super white trashy and love the New Copper Penny. Either way the $40+ million in the URA will continue to collect dust.
7
It was amazing to see the neighborhood so united against spending $42 million dollars of our Urban Renewal Funds on a stadium. I hope the URAC listens and redirects the funds to priorities of the neighborhood.
We should:
-Build sidewalks
-Improve storefronts
-Pave roads
-Increase housing programs
URAC needs to listen to the community it represents and spend our money on our priorities!
We should:
-Build sidewalks
-Improve storefronts
-Pave roads
-Increase housing programs
URAC needs to listen to the community it represents and spend our money on our priorities!
8
@Jim Lee
Paul Allen has something the city council doesn't. $10.5 billion dollars.
Memorial Coliseum doesn't make any money and to fix it up would cost anywhere between $10-$60+ million that the city doesn't have nor wants to spend on an old arena that serves no real purpose anymore.
Paul Allen wants to spend money on that area and the MC doesn't figure in.
You do the math and tell me how that council vote is going to end up whenever it happens?
Paul Allen has something the city council doesn't. $10.5 billion dollars.
Memorial Coliseum doesn't make any money and to fix it up would cost anywhere between $10-$60+ million that the city doesn't have nor wants to spend on an old arena that serves no real purpose anymore.
Paul Allen wants to spend money on that area and the MC doesn't figure in.
You do the math and tell me how that council vote is going to end up whenever it happens?
9
To second BlackedOut, when was the last time before this Lents Stadium nonsense that you ever heard of Lents in the Mercury, in the Willy Week, in the Oregonian? When was the last time you saw a Lents restaurants covered in the A&E? This is somewhat of a different topic than the stadium debacle, but anything that happens east of 39th that doesn't have to do with prostitutes on 81st simply gets ignored by Portland's media and political system.
10
What are the odds MLS folds before Portland is even up and running, we are going into more debt for a franchise that has no television viewership, almost no attendance for the teams that already exist, what a joke this whole thing is. How misguided these fans are who will sell out the city to get this to happen, they will be left with nothing when the league collapses
12
BlackedOut, you still sound a little bitter. And you never cared about Lents either, so get off the high horse.
Neither Beaverton, Hillsboro nor Clark County has anything close to $40 million to spend on a AAA baseball stadium. At most, we'll be "shocked" to find out that Paulson can really build a stadium somewhere else for about $15 million total and be perfectly satisfied with it. Maybe then you'll finally understand the screw job he's been trying to give us.
Neither Beaverton, Hillsboro nor Clark County has anything close to $40 million to spend on a AAA baseball stadium. At most, we'll be "shocked" to find out that Paulson can really build a stadium somewhere else for about $15 million total and be perfectly satisfied with it. Maybe then you'll finally understand the screw job he's been trying to give us.
13
ambrown, the lack of coverage/interest in East Portland is indeed sad, but it also protects it. East Portland is actually still authentic. Most of Portland used to be like that.
One of the most laid back places in the country has become one of the most pretentious in a matter of about four years.
One of the most laid back places in the country has become one of the most pretentious in a matter of about four years.
14
A year ago or so, we were out to eat at the nun's house/vegetarian restaurant on Division just east of 82nd. (Best salad rolls in town). While enjoying our food on the deck, a fire started nearby. Turned out it was someone's detached garage, where they were running a business re-tooling metal (refrigeration?) coils of some kind. The fire raged just briefly, turning the whole garage into a pile of cinders in a spectacularily short time. The homeowner/business person, a young man of Vietnamese descent, was yelling and crying on his cell phone, the firemen were shaking their heads.
Within the city limits, I would venture that only in Lents are people making livings in their garage shops doing things like retooling metal coils.
I wish people would recognize the valor and inventiveness of people living in the poorer areas of town and quit trash-talking those neighborhoods.
Within the city limits, I would venture that only in Lents are people making livings in their garage shops doing things like retooling metal coils.
I wish people would recognize the valor and inventiveness of people living in the poorer areas of town and quit trash-talking those neighborhoods.
15
It's worth noting that the business owners who testified were quite supportive of the stadium idea.
Blabby, telling BlackedOut he's bitter seems kinda pot/kettle.
Blabby, telling BlackedOut he's bitter seems kinda pot/kettle.
18
Gloves, I believe there was one supporter, who happened to be a business owners, out of more than 40 speakers, some of whom were also business owners. One owner said that while he thinks the stadium might bring more business, he was still opposed for a variety of reasons.
20
It was also noteworthy that most speakers had been grossly misinformed by the organized opposition and were reacting more to the misinformation than anything real. Also very noteworthy was fact that the people in the room were unable to rank priorities and poll technician was prompted to add "all of the above."
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