Saltzman's bogus talking points on the Paulson stadium deal
Here's what Portland city commissioner Dan Saltzman told the Portland Timber soccer fans the other day about the plan to renovate PGE Park for their team and its owners, the Hank Paulson family:
· The deal protects taxpayers from risk – as no funding will be coming out of the City’s general fund. -- False.Back to drawing boards, Danno. How does the media let this guy get away with this?· The agreement includes PGE Park becoming the first LEED Sliver certified stadium in the country. -- False. Utterly false.
· The nearby health clinic has committed to provide services to all of Portland’s citizens- regardless of types of coverage, age, or socio-economic background. -- Probably misleading at best -- the nonpaying poor patients will no doubt be a token few -- but even if true, this is reason to blow $30 million on a soccer stadium?
| Posted at 11:34 AM | Permalink |
|
Comments (16)
Sorry, Jack, I've been very busy following the GREG ODEN NUDE PHOTO SCANDAL. What's this about a new soccer stadium?
Posted by dg | January 27, 2010 11:59 AM
The stadium will be LEED Silver certified; it will only be the first renovated stadium classified as such.
Or maybe the first on the West Coast; choose your own superlative. What counts is the LEED certification.
Posted by Roger | January 27, 2010 12:07 PM
Dan's letter to Timbers Army blog mentions that there will be a "Candidate Olympiad."
What events will he be entering?
Skating around figures?
Bull Put?
Don't See No Stinking Hurdles?
Downhill Management?
Pole Vault Pandering?
I don't even like to think of what the Pentathalon may be composed of.
Posted by NW Portlander | January 27, 2010 12:21 PM
So in addition to remodeling a stadium to make it OK for soccer we are going to ladle on a dose of greenwash via going for LEEDS Silver certification... Great, just great.
Posted by Dean | January 27, 2010 12:33 PM
The stadium will be LEED Silver certified
Great, I wonder how much extra that added to the cost.
Posted by Jon | January 27, 2010 12:45 PM
I'm sure it was a typo -- first LEED Silver stadium in the COUNTY for sure, though!
Posted by George Anonymuncule Seldes | January 27, 2010 12:45 PM
This green build mantra makes me sick.If being "green" and getting LEED certification is so important, then why waste valuable resources by performing major renovations on PGE Park only 10 years after the last major renovation we are still paying for? Wouldn't it be better to keep it as is? Stadiums & arenas have become throw away objects in our society.
Posted by Dale | January 27, 2010 12:56 PM
Wait til you see the nude pics Big Pipe sent to the Timbers Army.
Posted by Bark Munster | January 27, 2010 12:58 PM
Meanwhile, Henry Paulson Jr, the minority owner of the Timbers is on the Hill today to explain why the American taxpayers were ripped off in the AIG bailout. Full dollar for dollar amounts were given to AIG for securities that were worth much less at the time, and that meant a backdoor bailout for institutions like Goldman Sachs. What a shock.
The difference is a backdoor bailout is free money because it never has to be repaid to the taxpayers.
The deal stinks so bad they can smell it from the space station, yet none of our ace print reporters even consider whom we're dealing with here, and our ace politicians are so enamored of their negotiating skills that they are probably going to put Portland Taxpayers in a similar position as AIG did for America.
Meanwhile, the list of institutions that got paid through AIG was kept secret with all the bigwigs in charge denying they had anything to do with that. Oh, sure.
We now know the institutions, including a bank in France, but what happened after the billions arrived at those institutions? Sure they probably show up as bonuses, etc...but there are aspects of the AIG deal that are still buried in sleaze, and I am sure it is true for PGE Park. One clue? One of the players in the AIG deal is the exact same man we're dealing with here. Wake up, Portland!!!!
Posted by Bill Mcdonald | January 27, 2010 1:05 PM
If the city really cared about being green, it would have fought to retain the sharing arrangement for the baseball and soccer teams. That would have saved all the materials for construction (along with the money, which is also green, wouldn't ya know), and doubled the use for the facility. Now that is smart planning. Instead, we get a bunch of grandstanding about certifications which turned out to be a bunch of lies anyways. Throw the bums out.
Posted by Green stadium means sharing | January 27, 2010 1:17 PM
Well, Danno the Dumbo has a problem..... the CoP Office of Mgt. and Finance has acknowledged that the plan puts the general fund at risk.... How do you get out of that one?
http://blogs.wweek.com/news/2010/01/27/merritt-paulson-makes-the-rounds-at-city-hall/
And there's even a nod to Jack Bog in this...
Posted by LucsAdvo | January 27, 2010 1:43 PM
And it doesnt exactly take a Woodward and Bernstein to find out that it does place the general fund at risk (no offense to Jack). It is literally in black and white.
The only reasonable conclusion is that the local media is ignoring the clear language of the deal so they can continue to cheerlead.
Posted by mk | January 27, 2010 2:02 PM
It won't even be the first Stadium in the city to receive LEED certification of a silver or higher. The Rose Garden was just certified Gold for LEED cert.
http://www.nba.com/blazers/news/leed_certification.html
Posted by jyah13 | January 27, 2010 3:06 PM
"How do you get out of that one?"
Live in a town where the average IQ is
Posted by Steve | January 27, 2010 3:07 PM
All this and you bad mouth Vanvouver
Posted by meg | January 27, 2010 6:34 PM
I had my dog jump on my lap, sorry for the error.
Posted by meg | January 27, 2010 6:36 PM