Wounded mayor defeated by nerds
by Steve, April 21st, 2009A wounded Sam Adams, aided only by an army of man-child soccer fans and erstwhile enemy Randy Leonard, has failed to “get things done” vis-a-vis demolishing the Memorial Coliseum to make way for patrician Merrit Paulson’s stunted sports dreams.
At one point, Adams said he would resign if he could no longer be effective. We’ll never know if this failure had anything to do with his peccadillo, or everything to do with the fact that the whole plan is insanely rushed and involves the almost humorously cocky scion of George W. Bush’s Treasury Secretary issuing ultimatums about our civic property.
But this is only the latest failure for the guy who boasted to his friends “I get things done.” Remember, Adams ran on an education platform. He also wanted an “iconic” bridge to Vancouver, Wash.
Perhaps his quixotic attempt to shovel city-backed loans to one of the richest guys on the planet will be his undoing. Having been defeated by a handful of modernist architecture lovers (with support from pissed off veterans and a few nostalgic hockey fans), he’s gone back to the drawing board to find another piece of city-owned land to hand over to Paulson.
Let’s see if he can get things done after all.
April 21st, 2009 at 11:10 am
there’s no land or property being handed over to Paulson, what are you talking about?
April 21st, 2009 at 11:51 am
Oh, torridjoe, you’re a hoot! Of course you know what I’m talking about, but let me spell it out for you.
I should have written “find another piece of city-owned land to hand over for the exclusive benefit of Merrit Paulson’s commercial ventures.”
There will be virtually no other public use for his little ball park (maybe a concert here and there), which Adams wanted to put in the place of a facility that currently provides year-round public use, from high school graduations and athletics, trade shows, concerts, national skating and tennis championships, to 30-odd hockey games a year, drawing far more spectators than minor league baseball ever has or likely ever will (not to mention the possibilities for public recreation I proposed in an earlier post).
I put odds at about 50-50 that Adams will cobble something together to save face and his deal with Paulson. But the fact that a handful of architect nerds were able to parry his attack on the Coliseum speaks volumes about his weakened state.
April 21st, 2009 at 2:39 pm
Sorry Steve, you’re still not right. Written into the deal are multiple non-Beavers, non-Timbers events. The park is envisioned as the music amphitheatre that Oregon doesn’t currently have, which is why the Blazers were cool on it at first–they thought it would horn in on their own idea for a music venue. And also in the agreement are provisions for youth and recreational activity.
The events you speak of can go on in a lot of other places in town. There will be no suitable place for the Beavers after PGE is remodeled. Furthermore, in fall and winter we already have the Blazers in the quarter; the MC is redundant. An outdoor park will bring year round entertainment to the area that the MC can’t.
And of course the MC itself is a shithole. It would take nearly as much to renovate for today’s standards as it would to knock it down.
The park will be owned by the City. Paulson will rent it. I don’t know where you’re getting your information, but it’s just not correct.
April 21st, 2009 at 2:44 pm
Keep talking, Joe, you’ve got yourself convinced at least. But even smart soccer fans smell the shitiness of this deal from miles away.