Naughty
Nipples
Throats were dry at Nike
last week after the Beaverton sneaker empire issued a
voluntary recall of roughly 250,000 swooshy water bottles
because of concerns that the $7 bottles' plastic nipples
could come loose and choke unsuspecting weekend warriors.
Nike recalled the sporty 22-ounce bottles, which have
been available since April, in cooperation with the U.S.
Consumer Product Safety Commission after receiving
a report that the nipple (technically known as the "drinking
valve") had detached during use. There have been no reports
of nipple-related injuries so far.
The vile valves are the latest in a series of setbacks
for the Beaverton sneaker giant. In March, Nike recalled
110,000 pairs of Little Air Jordan XIV baby sneakers due
to toxic levels of lead in their red paint. Last fall,
the company recalled 350,000 pairs of Air Face Up basketball
shoes due to an errant rivet that was prone to cutting
into the feet of hoopsters. And two years ago, the company
suffered a PR disaster when runner John Kagwe's shoelaces
came undone several times during the New York City marathon.
(He was using a pair of prototype Nikes with nylon laces
that had a tendency to slip a knot.)
What's with the losing streak? "When your product line
expands exponentially, you're bound to have problems from
time to time," says Nike spokesman Vada Manager. "The
only answer is testing, testing and more testing."
--Chris Lydgate
Preserving
the Status Quo
While the dust is still settling from
the struggle over Portland's landmark Housing Preservation
Ordinance, the city has already rescued one endangered
low-rent property and is eyeing another.
In the spring, city officials plunked down $2.8 million
for the 88-unit Park Terrace Apartments on North Alberta
Street. Now, WW has learned, they are also exploring
the purchase of the 78-unit Biltmore Hotel, in the heart
of Old Town, whose residents include several formerly
homeless people.
Both buildings are so-called Section 8 properties, receiving
federal subsidies to guarantee that their impoverished
residents pay rent of no more than 30 percent of their
incomes--no matter how small they may be.
In recent years, many private landlords have bailed out
of the Section 8 program, forcing hundreds of low-income
tenants out into the street and chipping away at the city's
dwindling stock of cheap housing.
Portland's preservation ordinance originally required
private owners to notify the city before they pulled the
plug on Section 8 and would have forced them to give the
city the right of first refusal on the buildings or else
face a stiff penalty. But private landlords, led by real-estate
tycoon Harold Schnitzer, vehemently opposed the ordinance
and managed to persuade the state Legislature to overturn
it. Now the city is revising its regulations to comply
with state law.
The city is currently reviewing bids from private and
nonprofit developers seeking to buy and renovate Park
Terrace. The complex is home to a number of elderly low-income
African-Americans, and a buyer would likely be required
to keep it in the Section 8 program. "A lot of people
worried about losing their apartments," says resident
Art Payne, a 78-year-old retired Union Pacific railway
man, who played a key role in persuading the city to buy
the Park Terrace. "We had to preserve them."
--Chris Lydgate
911
Mystery
FOLLOW-UP
A pair of influential local officials are urging
Multnomah County commissioners not to extend the county's
exclusive ambulance contract with American Medical Response
without first hearing from the company's arch-rival.
Mayor of Gresham Charles Becker sent the commission a
strongly worded letter last week urging Chairwoman Beverly
Stein to reopen the contract, saying he was worried by
data showing that AMR's response time is increasing ("Ambulance
Wars II," WW, July 21, 1999).
"The Gresham City Council continues to be concerned with
the unequal level of ambulance services east Multnomah
County has consistently endured under the current ambulance
contract," says Becker's letter.
Portland City Commissioner Jim Francesconi, who oversees
the city's fire bureau, also thinks the county should
re-bid the ambulance contract and says he plans to send
Stein a letter to that effect. "It's a county decision,
but it's probably a good idea to reopen the contract.
I'm very concerned about response times," says Francesconi.
Francesconi says the Portland Fire Bureau will not join
AMR's rival, Rural/Metro, the country's second-largest
ambulance company, in a collaborative bid to take over
911 services.
That's significant because some commissioners who are
concerned about AMR's performance are even more leery
of turning the 911 duties over to the fire bureau. Such
a plan was explicitly rejected by Multnomah County voters
in a 1994 ballot measure because it appears inefficient
and more costly.
"I do not believe the fire bureau is ready to respond.
I'm not saying I won't reconsider, but it's unlikely,"
Francesconi says.
Francesconi, like many, is frustrated by the county's
inconclusive data on increased response times in the last
year.
On May 21 the county Ambulance Contract Compliance Committee
requested that commissioners conduct an audit of ambulance
services because AMR's response times had increased in
1998, and there were conflicting theories about that increase.
Francesconi also asked Stein for an audit.
But county officials, who must decide whether to extend
the contract by the end of next month, felt there wasn't
enough time for a full-blown audit. So they resorted to
a review of response times by an ad hoc panel of auditors
and interested parties. The findings of that panel? "The
group was unable to come to consensus on any one explanation
or set of explanations for the cause of increased response
times," according to Bill Collins, the county ambulance
administrator.
If anyone should have an explanation for the rising response
times, you'd think it would be Collins. Unfortunately,
Collins is also baffled. "The causes of increased response
times noted since May 1998 are not clear," Collins wrote
last week in a report to county commissioners.
But Collins and his boss, Dr. Gary Oxman, the county's
director of health services, stress that AMR has complied
with the terms of its contract with the county, and they
recommend that commissioners renew the pact.
--Bob Young
Tight
Bros. From Way Back When
David Leiken, Mike Quinn and Steve Reischman
haven't always been comrades in arms. The men who run
Portland's three largest music promotion companies--Double
Tee Promotions, Monqui Presents and Showman Inc.--have
been fighting over the same turf for years, with varying
degrees of ferocity. Lately, though, they've displayed
the all-for-one solidarity of the Three Musketeers.
In the spring, for example, the three companies united
to launch a series of big-ticket concerts at the Portland
Meadows. And last week, when the Metro Council and Metro
Exposition Recreation Committee gathered public comment
on a proposal to allow Pace Entertainment to build and
operate a 5,000-seat amphitheater at the Portland Expo
Center, the three voiced unified opposition.
The proposed Pace deal, which comes just months after
Paul Allen's failed effort to build an amphitheater at
Portland International Raceway, motivates this newfound
amity. Pace is a subsidiary of SFX Entertainment, a conglomerate
that owns or controls 82 venues in 31 of the country's
top 50 markets and has gobbled up big regional promoters
like San Francisco's Bill Graham Presents and New York's
Delsener-Slater.
The prospect of a Pace-controlled amphitheater in a city
that already has an unusual number of promoters for its
size, has brought Monqui, Showman and Double Tee together
as never before. "A year ago, Dave Leiken probably would
have told you what a prick I am," says Reischman. "Now,
he says I'm an upstanding citizen, and I say the same
about him."
Beyond business impacts, the three are enraged by what
they see as a back-room deal. MERC officials acknowledge
that the amphitheater was Pace's idea; they say they never
solicited bids for the project. Leiken says he's repeatedly
expressed Double Tee's interest in developing an amphitheater
at the Expo Center, without result.
Chris Bailey, the Expo Center's director, says Pace's
proposal is the first concrete plan for a music venue
at the site. He says he's not moved by the Portland promoters'
amphitheater blues. "Sour grapes is probably too strong
a term," he says, "but at this point, it's almost, 'Oh,
gee, I wish I would have thought of that.'"
Still, the trio's united front seems to be paying off.
Metro councilors and MERC commissioners last week vowed
to spend more time weighing the Pace deal.
--Zach Dundas
Saved
By A Prayer
FOLLOW-UP
Anyone who happened to be passing by the July
11 ceremony underneath the Pearl District's Lovejoy Ramp
might have asked themselves: "Performance art, religious
worship or activist rally?" The answer was all three.
It was also a reminder of what makes Portland so, well,
so very Portland.
On that Sunday morning, lovers of public art honored
the Greek murals painted on the supporting columns for
the ramp, which will be demolished this summer. RIGGA,
an architecture and design firm dedicated to saving the
murals from destruction, led the tongue-in-cheek invocation.
"We wanted to let the spirits in the columns know not
to panic when the chain saw hits them--that someone is
looking out for them," says RIGGA's James Harrison. "Damned
if it didn't work!"
Four days later, Vicky Diede of the Portland Department
of Transportation called RIGGA to say the columns would
not be harmed during the ramp's demolition. Instead, the
department would follow all of the advocates' technical
recommendations to preserve them.
For a while, it didn't look like that was going to happen.
While PDOT had agreed to save the columns, it had not
committed to the specific recommendations, citing cost
and liability issues ("Urban Mythology," WW, June
16, 1999). Without those promises, there was concern that
PDOT's removal methods would not be sufficient to prevent
damage to the art.
Now the transportation department, overseen by Commissioner
Charlie Hales, is making sure its intentions are clear.
The contract for the ramp's demolition includes provisions
to "[go] out of the way to save the columns in a manner
that would preserve their integrity," says Ron Paul, Hales'
chief of staff. "[Adopting the recommendations] really
didn't result in a change as much as just adding emphasis
that this was very important to everyone concerned."
The recommendations--which include protective wrapping
of the columns and keeping the crowns and bases intact--are
important for two reasons: They increase the chance that
the columns will make it through demolition unscathed,
and they create more options for displaying the columns
as public artworks after the demolition is completed.
Responsibility for the murals' future rests with the
Friends of the Columns, a committee that includes Harrison,
Paul, developer Homer Williams, neighbors and arts groups.
Plans include conservation work on the murals, which were
painted by railroad watchman Tom Stefopoulos in the 1940s,
and a design for re-erecting the columns in a new neighborhood
park.
--Karen E. Steen
Apology
Our annual Best of Portland issue is our chance
to celebrate all the great people and places in our fair
city. When we selected hairstylist Kenny Wujak as this
town's best blow-drier, we meant it ("Best
of Portland," July 21, 1999). Our use of a salacious
headline to bestow our honor upon him was intended as
good fun. But his true-blue clients didn't see the humor.
We received many calls protesting his Best of Portland
title; Bella Tocca Salon & Spa, where he works, received
many more. We regret that what was supposed to be a positive
experience for Wujak and his salon turned out to be anything
but fun.
