Go Biggi!

I always liked their products - good quality, reasonably priced, locally produced. If you want some horseradish that your olefactory and taste organs will take notice, try Beaverton Food's brand.

Now I have reason to buy even more of them.

The money quote from Beaverton Councilor Betty Bode: "The fact that Mr. Paulson seems to be in a hurry to find another stadium," Bode said Tuesday, "doesn't mean the city needs to be in that much of a hurry."

Beaverton's Amanda Fritz?

I'll gleefully stand alongside him if Beaverton tries to condemn his land. Not enough people stood with the Curtis Mathes family when George W. and his buddies confiscated their land to build their new stadium for the Texas Rangers in the Nineties, and that gave precedent for Jerry Jones to steal more land to build the new Cowboys Stadium.

Gino and his family are good people with a sense of purpose and business smarts, plus they give to the community. I'll stand with them too. His word is good as gold.

I believe he would win a condemnation battle, especially when his land is now contributing to the taxes of Beaverton and it is hard to demonstrate that a city owned ball field for Paulson's Triple AAA would.

Municipal governments would do well to remember that those they screw over today might be needed in the future. Sounds like sweet payback for the Biggi family.

I am eating a frankfurter with their mustard and horseradish even as I write these words.

The right answer was always to keep multiple sports at PGE Park. Common sense 0, Paulson Bromance 4.

The Biggi family hasn't been able to stop the city in the past, what makes you think they could this time? The city will get their way, as they always do in Beaverton.

Yes, baseball should stay in PGE Park along with soccer, but it's time to admit that Scam and Rando aren't going to let that happen. I actually think a ballpark in Beaverton makes a ton of sense. It's a good demographic out that way for something like AAA baseball, and the Westgate/Round area is a great spot for it.

the Westgate/Round area is a great spot for it.

How can it possibly fit there? They would have to condemn/buy/take acres of property to the north or south to make it work in that area. And the MAX lines go right through it.
They going to build a tunnel?

That old Westgate lot is just not big enough.

try Beaverton Food's brand.

I always favored Tulelake brand, but thats probably because my parents used to work there. Kinda hard find around here since they were bought out.

Wow. Reading the comments posted with the O's story is mind boggling. Apparently, teaching people critical thinking and of basic legal principles lost out to No Village Idiot (er Child) Left Behind. Many of those boneheads sound like whiny children who would be howling if something was taken from them that was of value.

The SCOTUS decision allowing condemnation of property for private development was enough to make me reconsider my stance on strict constructionism (I generally believe the law is a living organism).

Anyway, more power to the Biggis and Doyle is now apparently on his way to becoming a clone of Drake.

The comments on the O site are from Paulson's stooges. They pile on every Paulson story the O runs and start pumping out shrill, exclamatory, barking comments day and night. No other story or discussion attracts such a sustained and monomaniacal response.

The city will get their way, as they always do in Beaverton.

Say what?

Didn't Oregon voters pass an initiative a few years ago that prohibits this type of land grab for private development?

How can it possibly fit there? They would have to condemn/buy/take acres of property to the north or south to make it work in that area. And the MAX lines go right through it.

Why not just condemn the Beaverton Round? End the perpetually bankrupt New Urban demonstration project and transfer the tax dollars propping that up to fund the Paulson scam... er scheme.. stadium. I'm sure the city can make it fit, they specialize in compact urban development. Maybe they can even keep the condos. Just build a parking garage adjacent to the current complex, then build the stadium on top. Grow up, not out!

Didn't Oregon voters pass an initiative a few years ago that prohibits this type of land grab for private development?

Yes, it was measure 39 in 2006. But there are ways around anything. M39 specifies "eminent domain". They could just call it something else and say M39 doesnt apply.

Not really, Jon. ED by any other name is still ED. It the exercise of government power and its effect on the use and enjoyment of private property that implicates the Fifth Amendment.

I know Bob Dole had the ED.

It may be time for what remains of our local businesses to support one another.

Companies like ABoy (who has condemnation supreme court experience), Nike, Columbia Sportswear, Esco, Precision Castparts, Schnitzers, Zidells, etc. need to support businesses like Beaverton Foods when our government bodies start swinging their weight around with little regard to our Constitution, business sense, or common sense.

ED is the perfect description of the half-finished Round and various overly ambitious pie-in-the-sky developments around Portland.

The comments accompanying the Oregonian article by those seeking to legitimize the money spent on investigating the potential of bringing the Beavers to Beaverton reminds me of the apologists for the money spent on the Chavez street naming situation. Both are unprecedented. As far as I know, the whole "bring to the Beavers to Beaverton" idea originated with the mayor of Beaverton. Merritt Paulson and Peregrine LLC haven't applied for any permits and didn't make the initial contacts.

The person or persons who suggested that we might all be appalled if someone added up the money spent on this entire stadium fuss (MLS and baseball) since Paulson Jr. came to town is dead on. I wish someone would figure it out and publish the results along with the text of The Nation's recent article on the front page of the Oregonian.

I picture Merritt sitting by as the various councils swot it out for his favor like Guenevere in CAMELOT:

"Shall I not be on a pedestal
Worshiped and competed for?
Not be carried off
or better still,
cause a little war?"

From the Oregon Revised Statutes, chapter 35-

http://www.leg.state.or.us/ors/035.html

a public body as defined in ORS 174.109 may not condemn private real property used as a residence, business establishment, farm, or forest operation if at the time of the condemnation the public body intends to convey fee title to all or a portion of the real property, or a lesser interest than fee title, to another private party.

(2) Subsection (1) of this section does not apply to condemnation of:

(a) Improved or unimproved real property that constitutes a danger to the health or safety of the community by reason of contamination, dilapidated structures, improper or insufficient water or sanitary facilities, or any combination of these factors;

(b) Any timber, crops, top soil, gravel or fixtures to be removed from the real property being condemned;

(c) Real property condemned for maintenance, improvement, or construction of transportation facilities, transportation systems, utility facilities or utility transmission systems;

(3) Subsection (1) of this section does not prohibit a public body from leasing a portion of a public facility to a privately owned business for the provision of retail services designed primarily to serve the patrons of the public facility.

Seems to me that #2c and #3 could be massaged for a baseball stadium by the weasels in office...condemn the property for "improvements", then lease it to Paulson.

Jon, I think they would have a heck of a time convincing a court that a baseball stadium is either a "transportation or utility" (2c) or a "retail service", which involves the buying and reselling of goods (3). By the time that case makes it through the courts all the way to the U. S. Supreme Court, Paulson will have long since either moved the Beavers or re-arranged PGE Park so they can play there. This would take years to settle, and Paulson's chance of winning is almost nil.

I am virtually certain that the City of Beaverton will get to "own" the stadium and "lease" it to LLP, and so the quoted statute won't be a problem.

Even if Mr. Biggi wouldn't ultimately prevail, he is willing to stare them down and has the resources to drag it out for longer than Paulson is willing to play around.
Such a shame when Wilsonville has that spacious, abandoned 60-acre site where Thunderbird Mobile park used to be. Not too far from the Wes too.

John Shonkwiler, the land use attorney for the Dolans and A Boty, may be getting another boig case.

The real trump card that Biggi has here is that of TIME.

A court fight in state circuit court, the court of appeals and the Oregon Supreme Court will take years - like 4 to 6 years - and neither the City of Beaverton the "Beaverton Beraver", nor LLP have years.

The Beavers and LLP need a place to play in 2011, and they won't have it on the Biggis' property.

Lets start a new tag line, in addition to "Go by streetcar".

Buy Beaverton Foods!