The names are out for the citizen group that will be advising the city on how to redevelop the Rose Quarter and Memorial Coliseum. As discussed in this week's paper the group is intended to make the design process more inclusive and bottom-up than this spring's highly-criticized proposals for redeveloping the area, which included tearing down Memorial Coliseum to make way for the Beavers' baseball stadium and 24-hour entertainment district called "Rose Quarter Live!"
As discussed with the aid of a hellish multi-directional flowchart last week, the committee is responsible for evaluating new ideas for the Rose Quarter and recommending proposals to city council.
Mayor Adams' office received 120 applications for what was slated to be a 20-person committee—the actual number of people chosen for the committee is 32. Coming to a decision about a major redevelopment project with 32 people? I hope they're not shooting for unanimous consensus, though they'll be deciding those ground rules at their first meeting September 15th. They'll also be using the services of a professional facilitator because of the "high stakes" of the issues, says Adams' spokesman Roy Kaufmann.
"We were looking at, 'Who can we select to represent the diverse viewpoints Portland has on the development of the Rose Quarter?'" says Kaufmann, who explains that the office decided to expand the size of the group because of the high number of talented applicants.
The resulting committee does contain a wide range of perspectives and expertise, at least at my first glance. Here's some familiar names that jumped out at me:
Sandra McDonough, president of the Portland Business Alliance.Jules Renaud, a 12-year-old boy who was on the tram naming committee. He's been chosen here to help represent the "youth perspective," says Kaufmann.
Lillian Karabaic, a bicycle advocate (and "youth" herself) who helps run lots of bike fun events around town (like this year's world naked bike ride) but also works with the more suit-and-spandex crowd through her job at the Bicycle Transportation Alliance.
Will Macht is a developer and urban planning prof at Portland State who spoke out about the plan to demolish Memorial Coliseum, saying, "The plan is not deliberate, it has not considered all the options in a professional way."
Walter Valenta is a North Portland realtor who's definitely not in favor of development at any cost: he pushed back on the Columbia River Crossing's "generic" bridge design earlier this year.
Dean Gisvold is the land use chair for the Irvington Neighborhood Association, a group which fought a condo development in their historic neighborhood last year.
Also of keen interest is the list of applicants who weren't invited onto the committee, including former city council candidate Nick Popenuk and Portland's most outspoken Memorial Coliseum advocate, Brian Libby.
Kauffman explained Libby's absence, saying, "It seemed that his strongest interest was making sure that the architectural preservation perspective was represented and we've done that." So was Libby too controversial to have on the committee? "That wasn't a concern," replies Kaufmann.
Update 4:20PM Brian Libby says, "Part of me is disappointed, but part of me knows that I can go to these meetings and have a voice, even if though it's not a voting voice." He's looking forward to being an "outside watchdog" for the committee.
Full list below the cut—what do you think of the committee make up?
Rose Quarter Stakeholder Advisory Committee:
Alicia Rose
Brian Owendoff
Cameron Vaughan-Tyler
Carolyn Briggs
Clint Lundmark
Daniel Deutche
Dean Gisvold
Drew Mahalic
Faye Burch
Greg Phillips
Jeff Miller
Jim Peterson
Joseph Readdy
Jules Renaud
Lillian Karabaic
Marcus Mundy
Paul Falsetto
Philip Kalberer
Regina Hauser
Rick Michaelson
Rick Williams
Rosemary Colliver
Rudy Soto
Sam Adams
Samuel Brooks
Sandra McDonough
Steven Rawley
Tony Stacy
Virginia Sewell
Wade Lange
Walter Valenta
Will Macht
Email me for the full list of applicants, if you want to peruse for yourself who wasn't invited.