Invitation to charades
The City of Portland has posted some of the design documents for the spiffy new soccer grandstands that the taxpayers are going to build for Little Lord Paulson at PGE Park. They've also announced that the "design review" and land use processes have begun, with hearings in a few weeks.
Of course, the heavy equipment has been on the scene doing renovation work on the stadium since before Christmas. Unless a burning bush talks to Dan Saltzman, and soon, Henry III will get to do whatever he wants, and the peons will learn to love it or else.
Meanwhile, City Council action on the financial side of this shaky deal has been postponed until next week, and the story is that Mayor Creepy, who's off in our nation's capital acting out his fantasies, has only two other votes on the money details. According to this story, Nick Fish and Amanda Fritz are ready to just say no.
| Posted at 5:01 PM | Permalink |
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Comments (6)
Scammy has only two votes in addition to his own?
That (sadly) is all he needs.
Does anybody really think Saltzman will grow a set any time soon?
Posted by Nonny Mouse | January 19, 2010 5:33 PM
Adams says:
“This pilot program is an unprecedented example of how we can bring the private and public sectors together to benefit the community.”
I'm a little tired of Adams' ongoing "I invented it!" charades. You didn't invent "Clean Energy Works"-type programs, Adams, and it's far from "unprecedented".
Adams originally planned to have the council approve the agreement on Wednesday, Jan. 20.
Which is mighty strange, since he's had his current "field trip" planned far in advance.
Posted by the other white meat | January 19, 2010 5:41 PM
And the stadium won't be nearly as enduring, inspiring, or beautiful, as say...any of the great Cathedrals of Europe, also bought and paid for by peons.
But we shall worship at the alter of "major league" soccer anyway, if only for common sense to someday return to city government.
Posted by portland native | January 19, 2010 5:45 PM
Thank you for your continued posts about this deal, Bojack. It is easy to forget. But like many of your readers, I can't keep track of the many different ways that City Hall manages to flush taxpayer money down the toilet. Your muckraking on this and other local issues is very much appreciated and a valuable public service.
Posted by Mike H | January 19, 2010 9:14 PM
Here's are some interesting tidbits of information.
Based on official estimates provided by Paulson's consultants last year, the average number of people actually passing through the turnstiles for an MLS match in 2011 will only be 11,248.
And according to those same consultants, that figure will DECLINE over the next four years, to just over 10,000 per match by 2015.
So, forget about PGE Park being full of soccer fans. According to Paulson, most of the time it will be less than half full, based on a projected post-renovation stadium capacity of 24,000.
Or, have those attendance numbers been deliberately low-balled in order to get around concerns about parking in a neighborhood where parking is already saturated even on days when there isn't a soccer match at PGE Park?
You can find these attendance figures in the MLS Soccer Proforma posted on the city's MLS webpage. And the parking stats are in the newly-released parking study that is part of the plan to revise the Goose Hollow "Good Neighbor Agreement," which, for some reason, isn't posted on the city's website, as far as I can tell.
Posted by Peter Apanel | January 19, 2010 10:18 PM
"And the peons will learn to love it or else." That pretty much sums up the attitude down at City Hall.
Posted by Michelle | January 20, 2010 7:28 AM