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To bring major-league baseball to Portland, proponents have made the case that a new stadium will be self-financed, using new taxes on player salaries to fund the public investment ["Field of Dreams...or Field of Schemes?,"
, Jan. 15, 2003]. The concern that the state is at risk by borrowing on the promise of player salaries is eliminated by reversing the proposal: have the owner fund the stadium, then pay him the taxes on player salaries to recoup his construction costs. This would also reverse the ownership from public to private, a concept with its own pros and cons.
Opponents also don't want a precedent of allowing employee taxes to fund an employer's operation, since those taxes are needed for other services. But government services consumed by baseball players are either negligible (visiting players) or minimal (home players) compared with the high taxes they pay, freeing their taxes to pay for a stadium. In contrast, employees of most businesses consume services roughly equal to their taxes.
The article reflects other misconceptions, such as the willingness of one owner of an existing, successful franchise (the San Francisco Giants) to build his own stadium. A new owner deciding on a new city is completely different. We know that no team will move to Portland without public stadium financing.
The question with an elusive answer is whether there is a positive economic impact from a new team. One thing is certain: We would end up with another world-class venue at no direct cost to the public. And just as it is now hard to imagine Portland without the Blazers, in 20 years it might be hard to imagine Portland without major-league baseball.
Greg Hitchcock
Executive Director,
Oregon Sports Trust
Beaverton
SNITCH'S BREW
Your article "Snitch-Slapped" [Jan. 22, 2003] was lacking on some of the finer details. Ilya Adamidov liked to crack jokes about doing illegal things, but everyone around him knew he was just joking. The FBI even had him on tape stating he didn't want to do anything illegal!
When it came time, the state offered Ilya a deal, after months of sleepless nights over what his jokes had cost his family in embarrassment and attorney fees. He was ready to plead guilty just to get it over with, but the FBI agent in charge of the case couldn't justify such a small conviction after having screwed up so badly with his snitch, so he asked the DA to halt the deal. Ilya pleaded innocent, and Oregon dropped all charges.
Ilya and his mom are immigrant success stories. They came here, worked hard and made themselves a good life. They believed in our country. Now they have lost most of that belief because of this whole ordeal. Ilya had his world demolished by shoddy work and a snitch who had no interest in the truth--because the FBI wouldn't pay him for the truth.
No one working here at Union Jacks has one ounce of belief in Ilya being Russian Mafia. He is one of the kindest, most gentle men we've met--and his jokes were hilarious! Too bad the FBI doesn't have a sense of humor. They could have saved themselves and the public half a million dollars spent trying to entrap an innocent man.
Rob Schatz
Marketing Manager,
Union Jacks Club
East Burnside Street
PUT THE ART BEFORE THE HORSE
Richard Speer's rant about Edie Tsong's work at the Field Gallery [Visual Arts, Dec. 31, 2002] isn't art criticism. It's a general dismissal of women's issues. "Let's face it, critiques of media-fueled beauty ideals are tired," you wrote. "The horse is dead, and the vet doesn't give a damn."
While I admire any writer's desperate attempts to make palatable that long-rotten, inedible chestnut, the Dead Horse Metaphor, the circus pony in question is still prancing around with its head held high. Dismissing all feminist/feminine critique of women's presentation in the media is like dismissing landscapes or portraiture. They may not be No. 1 on the pop-culture trend list this week, but they're important forms of artistic expression and they aren't going anywhere.
As for no one giving a damn--speak for yourself, Mr. Speer. With a name like Dick, you probably have NO FUCKING IDEA what it's like to be a chick, clubbed to death by media images in society. It's important for everybody to engage in a conversation with the media, rather than letting it bombard all of us with its one dull image. We need outspoken women to engage in dialogues and explore alternatives. We don't need local critics influencing curatorial decisions with knee-jerk sexism and cynicism.
Speer's brand of either/or "feminism" seems to be completely clueless about the entire third wave of feminism, which acknowledges and even embraces the complications and confusions of modern womanhood. I guess you missed the last 10 to 15 years, so here's the memo: Not every woman is going to be the cellulite-celebrating, sweatsuit-wearing vision you seem to think Friedan and Steinem demand; neither are they going to settle happily into the Britney Bimbo camp. We want a little of each and a whole lot of Something Else Entirely. Performance, art, music and writing about women and media help us discover that Something Else. Speer should read some back issues of Bust and Bitch before attempting to review another show that deals with life as a woman.
Opaline Esque
Northeast Skidmore Street
WE'RE NOT CRACK PUSHERS
In response to Amy Roe's story on CRACK (Children Requiring a Caring Kommunity) ["The Fix," WW, Jan. 29, 2003], it is important to clarify that Planned Parenthood of the Columbia/Willamette has no formal relationship with CRACK and does not refer or in any way encourage patients to participate in the program.
Planned Parenthood has been in this community for 40 years, and our highest priority has always been the patient. Each person who walks through our doors is treated as an individual. We make sure that he or she fully understands the services we provide, and we work with them to determine the best options. We strongly oppose coercive programs or activities of any kind, but we also respect the rights of each patient to make his or her own personal and health-care decisions.
Cathryn Wilcox, MPH
Patient Services Director,
Planned Parenthood of the Columbia/Willamette
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH, LEFT IS RIGHT
I enjoyed reading your feature on the Art vs. Stalin theme of the "ROMP" at Reed ["The Art of Tyranny," Jan. 15, 2003]. Steffen Silvis' political analysis was particularly helpful to me as my mind was troubled after reading Martin Amis' Koba the Dread: Laughter and the 20 Million. Amis had given me the impression that Stalin was a Communist atheist, and that Solzhenitsyn, the voice of the murdered souls, is a devout Christian. Even worse, it appeared that the Left had gotten off virtually scot-free for its complicity in Stalin's crimes.
But now Mr. Silvis has re-educated me to the subjective truth that Stalin was really a right-wing Christian bigot like Ashcroft. With this insight, my anxiety about the true nature of the Red Terror has all but vanished.
I hope Mr. Silvis will continue to carry his good work forward and find a way to exonerate the Khmer Rouge and blame Christians for that nasty "Killing Fields" business in Cambodia.
Martin S. Altschul
Salem
WWeek 2015