Another post from The Onion, right? Right!? Please say it is . . .

No. Don "the Don" Mazziotti, although appearing to be a comic character out of "The Sopranos," is actually a real person.

Somebody belongs in jail on this one. Maybe the AG can clean PDX up after he finishes with Adams.

The slightest whims of these two-bit sports 'authorities' seem to be law for our noble representatives - "Major League" Soccer wants a stadium exclusively for soccer? Yes Sir! The AAA baseball Gods want 1500 parking places for the despised automobile in our Green Utopia? Principles Begone! Coming Right Up! Anything Else, Your Lordships? How High? What Color?

I sure would like to see Don Mazziotti's contract on this one. Steve Janik's, too -- I think his is with the city, and so maybe we can get hold of it.

Anything Else, Your Lordships? How High? What Color?

If I were the mayor, I'd call up the head of AAA baseball and tell him, "We'll do what you say, as soon as you pay off the $25 million we still owe on the luxury boxes we built for you at Civic Stadium."

Don't it always seem to go

That you don't know what you've got 'til

it's gone?

Not only trees. I don't see the longstanding community garden in that picture.

"Not only trees. I don't see the longstanding community garden in that picture."

Nor do you see the soccer fields or the football field that are used at full capacity during the good weather months by youth sports. This is a public park for use by the public without having to pay an entrance fee. So instead of supporting our kids by giving them space to play and develop as healthy human beings we want to build a ballpark where people pay to sit on their back sides, drink over-priced beer and yell at the umpires. Also lets not forget that Lents Park is smack dab in the middle of an exclusively residential neighborhood. The streets surrounding the park are one lane each direction. Traffic already backs way up on 92nd during a normal rush hour. It will be such a huge cluster on game days that nobody will want to come back after they had to sit in their car for an hour trying to get out of the place after the game. Lents needs sommething good. This is not good.

"It will be such a huge cluster on game days that nobody will want to come back after they had to sit in their car for an hour trying to get out of the place after the game. Lents needs sommething good. This is not good."

Well, that's because in Utopialand (the second floor of City Hall), 90%+ will ride the green line to get there!

Maybe the AG can clean PDX up after he finishes with Adams.

These need not be consecutive events. But I wouldn't hold your breath on either one.

"90%+ will ride the green line to get there!" and 6 % will come by bike. Utopialand dreams on.

You know, they need a couple of teenagers on staff (well, maybe not with Sam around). Teens are notoriously good at pointing out the rediculous, stupid, and bone-headed things that adults do, and they aren't shy about saying their piece. I've got a couple who would do a great job. (Would OSHA protect them from The Creepy One while they're on the job?) You should hear their opinions about Randy's Loo (they thought it looked like a horse trailer parked on a sidewalk), renaming streets, and more!

Traffic already backs way up on 92nd during a normal rush hour. It will be such a huge cluster on game days that nobody will want to come back...

You're making the assumption, of course, that large crowds of people will actually go in the first place.

If the crowds do show up, though, it's a good thing that there's all that extra capacity on 205.

Darrelplant, "that extra capacity on 205" won't be needed that much. Only 4% of ballpark traffic will come by vehicle, the rest will be 90%+ greenline and 6% by bike.

This all sounds like PDOT's Mr. Brown when he said 40% of all traffic for SoWhat will come by transit.

Thirty or forty trees, or a public park for that matter, is a small price to pay on our way to becoming a world class city. All for the greater good.

connecting a few ideas:

(1) I-205 and the I-5 interstate exchange exceeded planned capacity several years ago...

(2)...both of which are key justifications for the new I-5 interstate bridge...

(3)...and a key justification for the MAX line between the Gateway and Clackamas Town Center shopping malls...

(4)...which would serve the Lents stadium, located next to one of the busiest stretches of I-205...

(5)...which has already exceeded planned capacity and might achieve gridlock during baseball games...

(6)...which would put pressure on 212/224, both already close to maximum capacity...

(7)...all of which would require expansion of I-5 and the interstate exchange...

(8)...which would temporarily relieve congestion for 5-10 years at most...

(9)...then, we'd need wider highways, a bigger bridge, another world-class stadium, more Max lines between shopping nodes...

(10)...but naturally, we'd do all of this while reducing pollution and becoming even more "green".

Even if 205 could handle the traffic, anybody coming in from the west who doesn't ride the MAX or bike is going to have to take I-84 (a nightmare 'til you reach the 205 exit) or arterials (worse) to get there.

Drunken bike riders wending their way home from a Beavers game? Not a pretty scenario.

Today's Oregonian carried a letter to the editor from a disgruntled long-time Hillsboro Beavers fan who sez he'd never travel to Lents for games.

"Maybe the AG can clean PDX up after he finishes with Adams."

Near the beginning of May, Steve Duin wrote a column on the AG's office. Someone left a comment at Oregonlive in response to that column to the effect thta Kroger made a bad choice when he appointed old guard DOJ people to key positions and that his appointees will "take him to school" rather than allow him free reign to clean up the state. I think that is accurate; the nature of organized crime, whether official or not, is that it is organized, and therefore difficult to penetrate. The AGs office has always been part of the problem. Gerry Spence's book on his Oregon murder "The Smoking Gun" provides insight into that. And many Oregon lawyers could add chapters. Spence and his co-counsel in that case, Michelle Longo from the coast (Lincoln City) assert that Oreogon lawyers can confront and solve the Oregon good old boy problem. I think that is what will happen in Order for Kroger to be effective; he will have to find a support network outside of the state DOJ.

That should have been Lincoln City(?). Michelle Longo Eder is actually from Newport. Last yeare a book she wrote about her life as a fisherman's wife (she lost a son at sea) came out.

Maybe we could clean things up if we stopped deifying the plastic fantastic Portland legal crowd and started talking to people with "on the ground" experience of good old boy abuse.

We need to organize a Portland club of people who dislike baseball as much as I do. Call it the The Baseballbusters.

How not to be rude to fans of baseball?

The players look slab-like
They hardly ever run
They never really contact eachother
you can't see their legs
they wear ridiculous caps
strategy seems missing

In short, I hate baseball. 40 trees, I wonder if we could find some treehuggers?

40 trees, I wonder if we could find some treehuggers?

Don't forget that they have to cut down trees for the wooden bats...

Don't minor league players use aluminum bats?

The MLB clubs that have working agreements with AAA teams would never allow aluminum bats. It would foul up their ability to assess player development.

Given the size of some AAA parks (including Portland's) and the size/strength of the players, we'd have basketball scores at AAA games with aluminum bats. (Well, at least what basketball scores were back in the days when players could actually shoot the ball). Beavers 75, Rainiers 74...?

1500 parking spaces & assume 2 people per car = 3000 people in attendance. Does Samadaumbs, Randy Leonard, and Merrit Paulson really believe the other 5000 in projected paid attendees are coming by MAX, bike, or bus?

Interesting that the 3000 or so by car isn't much less than the average per game attendance this year.

Probable "green" bricks meaning-purchased with no bid contract.

The city has agreed that if it can't find anyone else to sell it "green" bricks, it will buy them from a supplier that the Paulsons locate on the city's behalf.

Jack, that's sort of like OHSU getting one-half of all federal funds that are designated to SoWhat, if they are merely involved in the lobbying for those funds. Amazing that many of us have forgotten to mention this "gimmie" recently.

Does that mean the recent fed awarding of $200 Million to the Milwaukie Light Rail that OHSU gets a half for that portion within SoWhat? Wouldn't it be nice if the PDC did an accounting of all the one-half funds to OHSU since the inception of this give-away?