With all the hullabaloo surrounding our very own scion of a Bush crony begging public money for his private sports teams, and with the rump of Oregon’s infamous Goldschmidt gang doing his bidding, it sure is nice to have Amanda Fritz on the city council.

As reported in the Willamette Week today, Fritz sent a comprehensive condemnation (PDF) of the plan to put a baseball stadium in Lents Park to her council colleagues. It’s a great read, but if you’re in a hurry, here’s the gist of it:

I oppose any proposal that uses Portland taxpayers’ money, including urban renewal funds, to build sports facilities. If the PGE renovations for soccer and construction of a modest stadium for baseball cannot be accomplished using spectator and visitor taxes, the private interests desiring professional sports teams in Portland should pay the balance.

Nick Fish  is also thought to be opposed to this nonsense, with Randy Leonard and Sam Adams heading up the magical thinking crowd pushing this deal forward. (Adams’ old mentor Vera Katz is lobbying for the deal.)

Dan Saltzman will likely be the swing vote on any deal, and has issued a list of conditions for his support.

Now would be a good time to drop Amanda a line thanking her for her principled stand, and also to Dan to urge him to oppose this boondoggle.

This entry was posted on Friday, June 12th, 2009 at 5:30 pm and is filed under Baseball, Politics, Portland. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.