As of press time,
OPDR hadn't served Double Tee with a notice of violation,
though Kleim says her office intends to. Meanwhile, Double
Tee plans to continue its summer series at Portland Meadows.
While Double
Tee has the longest track record (no pun intended) at Meadows,
its fellow local promotions outfits Monqui and Showman have
helped out with shows there.
The three promotions
companies planned to revive the Waterfront River Queen venue
for concerts this summer, but city regulators pinpointed
problems that won't be fixed until next year at the earliest.
This summer's
concert series at Portland Meadows honors diversity; both
the Temptations and Stone Temple Pilots are scheduled to
play there.
As Bob Dylan, the woolly-haired, raspy-voiced living symbol
of '60s upheaval, held court at Portland Meadows last Friday
night, the 5,000-plus fans worshiping at the altar of counterculture
rebellions gone by had no clue they stood at ground zero
of a new battle. This struggle, however, has nothing to
do with bombing Hanoi or burning draft cards--instead, it
centers on the future of major concerts in Portland.
You see, friends, the Man is comin' down on Portland Meadows,
bringing heat that could shut down the nine other concerts
scheduled to take place at the track this summer and, ultimately,
weaken the local promoters behind the series.
Double Tee Concerts, one of Portland's largest locally
owned concert-promotion companies, has produced shows at
the Meadows since 1992--including a pair of massive Grateful
Dead bacchanals in the mid-'90s. Last year, for the first
time, city officials chasing complaints from neighboring
businesses started hounding Double Tee, charging that concerts
violate city noise and zoning ordinances.
A few tweaks to the sound system banished the noise complaints,
but the city still claims that concerts are verboten
by zoning. The track operates under a kind of grandfather
clause that allows activities historically associated with
the place even if they're not permitted by current codes.
The city contends that this exemption applies only to horse
racing and that concerts put a considerably more intense
strain on roads and parking in the track's North Portland
'hood.
The city's efforts against Double Tee and Portland Meadows
are led by the Office of Planning and Development Review,
overseen by Commissioner Charlie Hales.
OPDR is so convinced that the Meadows should be music-free
that last month it took the unusual step of asking the Oregon
Liquor Control Commission to short-circuit the concert series
by yanking Double Tee's liquor permit for the venue. The
OLCC, after hearing a sizable OPDR delegation's case, politely
declined to jump into the business of land-use regulation,
granting the permits in May.
Now, with negotiations at an impasse and the Dylan show
already history, OPDR is about to hit the concert series
with a citation that could lead to thousands of dollars
in fines and a reconsideration of the track's grandfathered
zoning.
"They've known where we stand for awhile," says Denise
Kleim of OPDR. "The city believes that their zoning applies
to horse racing, not concerts. We've indicated to them that
if there's a concert held, they'll be cited and could pay
up to $1,000 per day that the violations persist."
Double Tee and New Portland Meadows, the company that operates
the racetrack, insist that they can schedule as many concerts
as they damn well please at the track. They say that all
sorts of things--from concerts to boxing matches to religious
revivals--have taken place at track since it opened in the
'40s. More to the point, they say there's a gap in the city's
logic: OPDR doesn't explain why it would be OK for thousands
of people to attend a horse race but not OK for a similar
number to go to a concert.
"In the heyday of horse racing, they'd draw 5,000 people
to every race, 100 races in the season," says Double Tee
honcho David Leiken. "We drew 78,000 people to our concert
series last summer. For them to claim that this is a new,
intensive use is incredible. Portland Meadows is a major
entertainment venue. I don't know of a single major entertainment
venue in America that doesn't do concerts."
A couple of factors further muddy the dispute.
First, there's the source of the complaints driving the
city's pursuit: Hayden Meadows, a company owned by local
magnate Tom Moyer, which runs a shopping center next to
the racetrack. In 1995, Hayden Meadows sued New Portland
Meadows and Double Tee in the wake of the Dead shows, a
suit that eventually ended in a mild injunction prohibiting
rock shows with crowds greater than 25,000 on Memorial Day
and Labor Day weekends. Now, Hayden is the prime impetus
behind the city's efforts to stop concerts at Portland Meadows.
This isn't a simple neighborly dispute. Moyer also owns
a piece of the track itself, along with about a dozen others.
That group has a long history of legal squabbles with New
Portland Meadows, a separate company that runs the day-to-day
operations of the track and works with Double Tee and other
promoters running concerts at the site. Neither Moyer nor
any of his representatives were available to comment on
why the millionaire is pushing for sanctions against property
he owns.
Beyond that apparent paradox, Leiken and others at Double
Tee say a broader agenda lies behind the city's stance.
"The city is trying to monopolize the concert business,"
says Lowell MacGregor, Double Tee's production manager.
Double Tee points out that if major acts like Bob Dylan
can't play at Portland Meadows, they'll inevitably find
another large area venue. Right now, that means the Rose
Garden, which kicks a percentage of its earnings to the
city. Starting next year, big tours could hit Civic Stadium,
which also gives the city a share of the spoils. By contrast,
the city will get no cut of revenues generated when the
evil, wildly popular masked goons of Slipknot take over
the Meadows during KUFO's Rock Fest on July 15.
Although there's certainly no direct evidence of the alleged
city conspiracy to muscle in on the major-concert business,
Leiken and MacGregor say the conflict of interest is enough
to muddy the motives of regulators.
"There's a concerted effort by the city to control the
concert business in this town," Leiken says. "The bureaucracy
is being manipulated. I honestly feel it's conspiratorial."
Leiken's conspiracy charge, however, makes at least one
city official laugh--literally. Hales assistant Jillian
Detweiler dismisses such concerns.
"Our motives are complaints from Hayden Meadows and other
neighbors," Detweiler says. "I'm totally comfortable in
saying there's no other agenda on our part."
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Willamette Week | originally
published April 26,
2000
|
