News Mayor Sam Adams and City Commissioner Randy Leonard this morning rolled out their draft agreement (PDF) with Portland Beavers/Timbers owner Merritt Paulson to renovate PGE Park into a soccer-specific facility and build a new ballpark for the Beavers where Memorial Coliseum is now located. Total cost of the deal: $88.785 million. This afternoon, proponents of the deal are lobbying skeptics, including ...   More

News Whilst many Portlanders spent their Saturday running errands, catching up on sleep or doing something else off-line, Memorial Coliseum defender Brian Libby and city Commissioner Randy Leonard were busy e-mailing each other over the Coliseum and copying the rest of us conflict-loving reporters. Here's their entertaining exchange: Libby writes Leonard on Saturday morning to invite Leonard to tour ...   More

News Jeff Joslin, a former city land use manager for urban design, design review, and landmarks review, "retired" earlier this year. Over at Portland Architecture, a bizarre thread of comments followed his announcement when a number of anonymous Portlanders criticized Joslin online for exercising what they called undue power during his 15-year reign at Portland's Bureau of Development Services. But ...   More

News Mayor Sam Adams and Commissioner Randy Leonard may think tearing down Portland's 49-year-old Memorial Coliseum to make room for a new minor-league baseball stadium is a done deal. But a serious opposition has begun to coalesce. Writer Brian Libby has penned a sports-centric protest on his blog, Portland Architecture. Today the American Intsitute of Architects sent City Council a letter condemning ...   More

News As if the powers behind a new minor-league baseball stadium in the Rose Quarter and revamping PGE Park for Major League Soccer didn't have enough to worry about, now this longstanding concern about potty parity at stadiums has made it to the front page of today's New York Times. Fortunately, Portland already has its own commissioner concerned with all things potty. We're sure he's already on ...   More

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News Commissioner Randy Leonard and Merritt Paulson went before the Lents community Tuesday night and told the neighborhood they would need $2 million from the Lents Town Center Urban Renewal Area to pay for new park space taken from Lents by the new proposed Triple-A baseball stadium. Leonard and Paulson both said the baseball stadium would "impact" one soccer field. But Portland Parks and Recreation ...   More

News The cafeteria of Lent Elementary School near the site of Merritt Paulson's proposed baseball stadium was crowded Wednesday night with Lents neighbors who had questions about the proposal and its funding as well as the stadium's possible impact on the Southeast Portland neighborhood. And, oh man, was it heated. Commissioner Randy Leonard was one of the first people to speak at the meeting convened ...   More

News Commissioner Randy Leonard went before the Lents Town Center Urban Renewal Area committee last night to tell the group the city wanted not $25 million from the tax-increment district, not $40 million, but $42 million. The new $2 million cost to taxpayers would be necessary, Leonard said, because the new baseball stadium Leonard and Mayor Sam Adams want to build in Lents would destroy a soccer ...   More

News City Council wasn't in a kumbaya mood this morning. Veteran city Commissioner Randy Leonard sharply criticized newbie Commissioner Amanda Fritz at this morning's City Council session after Fritz sought a delay on an ordinance (PDF) from Leonard and Mayor Sam Adams that would extend the expiration dates of land-use decisions. The goal of the ordinance is to give builders more time to complete ...   More