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Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Build Out Goodbye Rose Quarter... Hello "Jumptown"!

Posted by Sarah Mirk on Wed, Aug 12, 2009 at 5:40 PM

The plans to redevelop the Rose Quarter and Memorial Coliseum into a 24-hour entertainment district moved forward this afternoon, as Mayor Adams and the Council signed off on a set of non-binding guidelines that lay out the process of choosing a Rose Quarter redevelopment proposal. The guidelines (pdf) and today's meeting revealed two important things: 1) The Blazers might not be the group chosen to redevelop Memorial Coliseum. 2) Regardless, the Blazers are now calling the whole area Jumptown.

That's an improvement, I guess, from their old Rose Quarter redevelopment slogan "Water is Magic!". But isn't it a little awkward, I asked Blazer's president Larry Miller, to name the Rose Quarter urban renewal project after the vibrant 1940s African-American neighborhood that was in that location... until an urban renewal project ripped it apart?

No, no, no, said Miller. "We think this continues to pay homage to something that used to be there," says Phillips. The Blazers are still working with horrific Hard Rock Cafe-loving developers Cordish on plans for Jumptown, but promise that the project will be locally-driven, utilizing local architects. "This is not being driven by an outside corporation like Cordish. This is being driven by Portland and Portlanders," says Miller. They are planning to put together a public citizen advisory board (similar to the citizen stakeholder group Adams' office is coordinating) before making any final design decisions but Miller says that the Blazers' plan will "absolutely not" turn Memorial Coliseum into a mall-like hub of restaurants and chain stores. Instead, he imagines a use more in line with the Coliseum's history as a venue—they've already met with the guy who's pushing a velodrome on the site.

But it's not for sure that the Blazers will get the chance to redevelop Memorial Coliseum themselves. Here's the city's flow chart on the process will work. Look, it's simple:

AAAAAA!!!!!!
  • AAAAAA!!!!!!

The process from here on out is explained below the cut.

Okay, so Memorial Coliseum is owned by the city and its development rights are enmeshed is a complicated web of legal agreements ranging back decades. The citizen stakeholder committee Adams' office is forming next month (after receiving 120 applications for its 20 seats) will look at design ideas for the Memorial Coliseum from anyone who wants to present them. Anyone from the Blazers to your crackpot friend's idea for a massive PBR swimming pool will be on "equal footing" according to Adams. The stakeholder committee might get 200 ideas, it might get only six. But either way, they'll just be sketches of uses and budgets.

The stakeholders will recommend a handful of the ideas to City Council and then whoever pitched those ideas will have to make a formal proposal. If the Council decides to go with an idea for public use of Memorial Coliseum (like a public library) then the Council can greenlight the project right away. But if it's looking to redevelop Memorial Coliseum with a private company, then the Blazers get the chance to make the first proposal to Council. Only after rejecting their ideas could Council look at other private proposals.

Does that make sense? Winterhawks President Doug Piper testified at the meeting today, worried that the redevelopment would go straight away to the Blazers with no chance for other agencies to even pitch ideas. Adams promised that everyone would get a fair shot at presenting their ideas. "We like competition," said the mayor.

 

Comments (10) RSS

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1
For those looking for a full-size image of the flow chart, it is on page 7 of the Guidelines PDF (linked above in the original post).
Posted by Bob R. on August 12, 2009 at 5:56 PM · Report
2
"We like competition." Did Sam just come out in favor of the recall?
Posted by Jimbo PDX on August 12, 2009 at 8:46 PM · Report
3
master blaster runs jumptown.
Posted by eric cantona on August 12, 2009 at 9:09 PM · Report
4
i take that back, this is better:

Master: Me order! Me Master! Me run Jumptown!
Max: Sure, that's why you live in shit!
Master: Not shit! Energy!
Max: Call it what you like. It still smells like shit to me!
Jedediah the Pilot: We're not gonna make it.
Posted by eric cantona on August 12, 2009 at 9:25 PM · Report
5
"Yeah! Hey, see! Don't talk about it not being local cause Cordish is just, you know, gonna be doing stuff but it'll be Portlandish, and like, it'll be Portlandey and full of Portland, Portlander localsustainability, see? See!? Portland!!!!!" Whatevs. Rose Quarter = doomed.
Posted by Will Radik on August 12, 2009 at 9:40 PM · Report
6
A baseball stadium would have totally sucked here. Now I see the real genius. I've been forever changed. Thanks architects/anti-Paulson peeps. You velodrome folks have totally changed me too cause I can now see the value in spending $20 million so a bunch of fixie loving hipsters can rub one out in the bathrooms. It's gonna be awesome.

I wonder when the Memorial Coliseum is going to turn into something that's way to expensive to keep open and is an expensive direct competitor to the guy that owns the big stadium next door who wants to redevolop the entire area and he happens to have billions of dollars?

Oh wait...
Posted by BlackedOut on August 13, 2009 at 12:09 AM · Report
7
Hey. Awesome. Let's co-opt the name of a community that was pushed even further to the margins by development, and then develop a white-bread entertainment complex managed by a company that places rules on what kind of clothing can be worn in the complex (no baggy shorts, etc)... Aaaaand let's spend a whole bunch of money to do it. You know, instead of investing it in affordable housing for the community that was pushed to the margins.

Because, man, the hipster need a velodrome. For all the fucking hand wringing about Portland's relationship with race, the people who can do anything about it seem pretty fucking clueless.
Posted by Stay Classy on August 13, 2009 at 9:22 AM · Report
8
The Cordish thing doesn't sound good. But then, anything would be better than what's there at the moment.

Is it too late to bring back the MC waterpark idea?
Posted by Stu on August 13, 2009 at 10:19 AM · Report
9
The image of the flowchart is indeed full-sized, but the PDF cuts off the right side and the bottom.

Not that I, or anyone, needs, a flowchart to be convinced that my old buddy, Sam, actually is up to something.

To be really hip, Sam, et. al., should publish a PERT chart, or, at least, a critical path synthesis.
Posted by Jim Lee on August 13, 2009 at 12:39 PM · Report
10
two more thoughts:

1. hipsters are most certainly not the target market for a velodrome. nerdy bike racer types are. true hipsters find the notion of non-ironic competitive sports to be gauche.

2. can "blackedout" please, please find a different vision for the future to bore us with. anyone familiar with ANYTHING to do with the rose quarter knows what you think is going to happen. if you're right, feel free to say "i told you so" over and over for eternity. but for now you're just coming off as a whiny broken record. time to move on.
Posted by eric cantona on August 13, 2009 at 4:48 PM · Report

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