Civic
Lesson
Major-league baseball in the Rose Quarter?
Opening Day along the Willamette is not as far-fetched
as it might seem.
Two independent sources, one of them a prominent public
employee, tell WW that the city and Blazers owner
Paul Allen are taking a hard look at whether a 42,000-seat
outdoor stadium and concert venue would fit on the current
footprint of the city-owned Memorial Coliseum.
Mayor Vera Katz says neither she nor her staff is currently
speaking to Allen about replacing the coliseum with a
new major-league ballpark. But she indicated that such
talks could soon take place. "After we finish with Civic
Stadium and the Convention Center, the next serious subject
is the Rose Quarter," Katz says. "My hope is to have a
discussion about the coliseum in the near future."
J. Issac, a top Allen aide, says Allen's representatives
have discussed various uses for the coliseum with the
city over the years, but he is not aware of any current
talks about baseball, nor has the organization commissioned
a stadium feasibility study. (The Blazers, however, also
had long denied that they were angling for an NHL team.
The Columbian sports writer Ken Vance reported
Sunday that Allen's organization was in fact working to
bring the Pittsburgh Penguins NHL team to Portland.)
After a recent buying spree, Allen now owns the fourth-largest
cable franchise in the country--as well as Portland's
KXL radio. Other cable barons, notably Ted Turner, who
built his TV empire around the Atlanta Braves, and Rupert
Murdoch, who bought the Los Angeles Dodgers last year,
have used baseball's 162-game schedule to fill their airwaves.
Last year, Allen failed in an expensive and bitterly
contested effort to develop a local outdoor concert venue.
As for the city, bringing baseball to the Rose Quarter
would solve a number of problems. First, the eastside
location would eliminate the biggest barrier to bringing
big-league baseball to Civic Stadium--opposition from
westside neighbors. It would also enliven a moribund part
of the city, boost the Convention Center, help justify
south-north light rail, aid the coming glut of downtown
hotels and, perhaps most importantly, provide a legacy
for Katz, who has repeatedly announced her enthusiasm
for major-league ball.
The sudden interest in the coliseum may account for the
delay in making public the city's plans for Civic Stadium,
as well as the city's decision three weeks ago to foot
nearly the entire bill for that renovation. Katz says
public disclosure of Civic's future is forthcoming.
Renovation of the stadium would probably proceed even
if the big league came to the other side of town. A refurbished
Civic Stadium would provide a first-class home for Portland
State University football and satisfy the requirement
of major-league soccer, which doesn't want to share stadiums
with baseball teams.
--Nigel Jaquiss and Bob Young
Weakly
Reader
A Salem lawmaker is proving that idle hands
truly are the devil's playground.
During the legislative brownout, Democratic state Sen.
Rick Metsger has fallen back on his day job. Metsger,
a former sports broadcaster who now runs a media consulting
business, began publishing The Weakly Democrat
June 23. The one-page paper mixes truth and fiction to
poke fun at all that is ridiculous in Salem. These days,
he has a lot of material--Rep. Lynn Snodgrass' church,
for example. Last week the Speaker came under fire for
seeking a special land-use exemption so her home parish
could build a mega-church. The Weakly reports that
the complex will include a strip mall, an athletic club,
three Starbucks cafes and a petting zoo.
Democrats, though, are not immune to Metsger's poison
pen. Last week, for example, Metsger gleefully mocked
Rep. Chris Beck of Portland for sponsoring a bill to make
the chanterelle the state mushroom.
Metsger also wrote that the Democrats plan to resolve
two of this session's most contentious issues with a shocking
compromise: charter prisons. The Weakly quotes
Rep. Jo Ann Bowman as saying, "Only half of the guards
will be armed."
Metsger reports no complaints from his victims, although
it has been suggested that he should be assigned to more
conference committees to fill his time.
Metsger says he picks up the cost of the paper--about
$8 a week to print 100 copies at Kinko's. He plans to
keep the paper going until the end of the session, which,
he fears, is still a long way off. He says the Legislature
has adopted a new state song: the Animals' "We've Gotta
Get Out of This Place."
--Patty Wentz
The
OCA Shuffle
In a passionate floor speech during
the debate on House Joint Resolution 4 on Tuesday, state
Rep. Bob Montgomery railed against the Oregon Citizens
Alliance. The Republican from Cascade Locks said that
he was not connected with the group and does not support
its discriminatory measures.
Then, under the watchful eye of Lynn Snodgrass, Speaker
of the House, he voted for the resolution, which proposes
inserting the existing state statute defining marriage
(as exclusively for heterosexuals) into the state constitution.
Montgomery's self-conscious writhing typifies the dance
moderate Republicans have done all session. While they
were able to stop a measure cutting benefits to gay and
lesbian partners of public employees, they rolled over
on gay marriage. Every GOP member present voted for HJR
4, and Rep. Jim Hill, usually a solid gay-rights Republican,
didn't even show up.
Tom Novick, lobbyist for Basic Rights Oregon, notes that
the vote came just days after state GOP leaders endorsed
an anti-gay OCA initiative that would prevent teachers
from "promoting homosexuality."
It's a far cry from just a few years ago, when former
party chairman Craig Berkman helped lead the fight against
the OCA's Measure 9.
"One weekend, behind closed doors, the Republican Central
Committee endorsed another divisive OCA measure for the
ballot," Novick says. "The following week they came out
of the closet, so to speak, and did this. We don't see
much difference."
--Patty Wentz
Gutless
Legislation
"Gut and stuff" has taken on a whole new meaning
in Salem.
Last week, Rep. Mark Simmons, a Republican from Elgin,
led the charge to allow "canned hunting" in Oregon once
again. The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife outlawed
the practice--in which hunters pay money to hunt wildlife
trapped within a fenced area--
last April.
Simmons, chair of the House Rules Committee, replaced
the text of Senate Bill 404, which was originally passed
by the Senate as an innocuous economic-development measure,
with language that overturns the hunting ban. The practice
is known as "gut and stuff."
The bill passed out of the Rules Committee with little
public comment and will now go to the House floor for
a vote.
George Buckner of ODFW says the department is extremely
concerned about the measure. If it passes, the law would
not only overturn the agency's existing ban but could
allow the importation of non-native species, such as lions
and elephants, for hunting.
--Patty Wentz
Why,
There Oughta Be a Law...
HOUSE BILL 4022 RELATING TO SLUGGISH SALES
SPONSORED BY SANDY HAYDEN
BE IT ENACTED BY THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF OREGON:
SECTION 1: Whereas Oregon companies are being
usurped by out-of-state corporations and native plantings
are being demolished by homegrown slugs, be it resolved
that:
(a) Garden-variety slugs shall be drowned in Oregon
microbrewery beer only, with each household so affected
by slime trails and disappearing vegetation to be required
to purchase said beer at the rate of one quart per week
per 500 square feet of outdoor space.
(b) Failure to buy local beer for slug removal
shall result in the offender publicly repenting in a popular
outdoor location selected by each community, with the
perpetrator yelling loudly, "Buy-wise-er. Buy-wise-er."
(c) Those outraged by this bill are expressly
prohibited from complaining by way of snail mail.
This week's amateur legislator, Sandy Hayden of Portland,
wins dinner at Captain Ankeny's Well.
