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This page contains a single entry from the blog posted on March 28, 2004 9:17 PM. The previous post in this blog was Musical interlude (to the tune of "Love and Marriage"). The next post in this blog is The bloggers are taking over. Many more can be found on the main index page or by looking through the archives.

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Sunday, March 28, 2004

Memorial Coliseum

We took the kids to the Shriners Circus at the Portland Memorial Coliseum today. Typical small circus, with elephant poop getting the biggest laugh of the day, but it was a big hit for our girls, who had never attended one before. Tigers, elephants, stunt riders on horseback, highwire thrills, cotton candy -- who can forget their first circus? Or their kids'?

The occasion also marked my first visit to the Coliseum in quite a while. I've been reading about how the city has given up on the building in its current configuration, and now wants to gut it and stuff it with something else.

After thinking about that for a while there today, I think it's a bad move.

For an 11,500-seat arena, you still can't beat this one. It needs a few cosmetics, but the seats are still in great shape, the design of the hall is still immaculate, and it's a wonderful venue for events of certain sizes.

Granted, there are drawbacks: the hideous acoustics; the arena's awkward placement next to the newer, 20,000-seat Rose Garden; and the city's operations contract with the bankrupt Oregon Arena Corp., owner of the Rose Garden, which has every incentive to run the Coliseum into the ground.

If it's time to rip the place apart, it's because of those factors. But don't let the developers and their City Hall chums tell you the building's in bad shape physically. It's not.

Among the more positive aspects of the place are all the memories for longtime Portlanders, particularly of the Blazers in their heyday, and in their not-so-illustrious '80s. There were countless great moments on the basketball floor there. We also had the legendary Mayor's Balls under the leadership -- cultural, political and otherwise -- of Bud Clark. And one great concert after another, despite the lousy acoustics.

The record of the bankrupt beast next door -- just another luxury-box ugly duckling, way out of place in an egalitarian city -- is not even a shadow of that.

The Rose Quarter was a bad concept, and it's been fairly poorly executed. Rather than gut and stuff the Coliseum, I suggest demolishing the Rose Garden, building a baseball stadium on the other side of Broadway, throwing a few million dollars at a new coat of paint and some acoustical work for the Coliseum, and either moving the Blazers back in there or chasing them out of town.

O.k., not really. But paying the usual West Hills contractor suspects tens of millions of scarce taxpayer dollars to turn the place into a Home Depot or some sort of ill-defined, publicly financed MAC Club for the Pearlies seems an equally stupid idea.

Comments (5)

Tearing it down= expensive.

Let someone else use it for free for a certain period of time, but still get the taxes out of it and a tiny portion of the revenue= better deal.

This City Council's ability to put the property on the tax rolls and have it generate net revenue to the city = nil.

I remember Portland Buckaroo hockey games there when the James Bond movies were brand new. Also a Grand Funk Railroad rock concert, circa '74. Lots of memories.

First off, cosmetically it may look like that all the old glass palace needs is some paint and better acoustics. However, if you dig a little deeper you'd find an antiquated inefficient HVAC system, failing electrical system and of course horrible acoustics. To fix the acoustics alone I imagine would be very expensive. And, unless a private party bought the place, we still would not have it on the tax rolls.

Though I know Jack's got a jaded view of the Blazers, I doubt they are going anywhere anytime soon. So the Rose Garden is here to stay.

And I have loads and loads of memories from the Memorial Coliseum because I practically grew up there (due to my father's involvement in the Portland/Oregon sports scene). I too saw the Shriner's Cicus when I was little kid. I also had the thrill as a little kid of seeing Steve Prefontaine fly around the indoor track at the Portland Indoor Track Meet. I saw many a high school championship basketball game including Charlie Sitton's win with McMinnville and AC Green's win for Benson High. I used to attend the Far West Classic college holiday b-ball tournament where I got to see Magic Johnson play for Michigan State. And worked at the Al Giusti woman's college torunament where I saw my first dunk by a woman (it was a player from USC whose name I can't remember). In it's latter years of use by the Blazers I was there to see the officials completely rob us of a championship over Detroit. And in 1992 because I was working at the event and got in much earlier than the crowd, I watched Magic, Bird, Jordan, Barkley and Drexler play a game of HORSE before their opening game in the Torunament of Americas olympic qualifying tournament.

All that said, it is an old, tired arena. I personally think a convention-size hotel would be the best use of the property with its location only blocks from the convention center and right on the light rail line and also right off of the Eastside Esplanade. I think it would be important to maintain the memorial to the veterans of Oregon, but tat could be incorporated int a hotel that could be privately owned, income producing, job supplying and a great addition to the property tax rolls.

just my 2 cents

Everybody seems to agree that we need a new courthouse. How about we put a few courtrooms in the Coliseum? Plenty of parking. If not there, I suppose we could build the courtrooms around the upper tier of the new baseball stadium, instead of those exclusive boxes. During slow trials, who wouldn't want to watch the arc of a Guerrero home run? Oops, he isn't an Expo any more.

TrackBack

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» When even Paul Allen can't afford it... from Isaac Laquedem
The corporation that owns the Rose Garden, Portland's home-away-from-the-probation-office for the Trail Blazer basketball team, has filed a Chapter 11 bankruptcy petition. Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft and reputed to be the 5th-richest person in ... [Read More]

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Quinta das Amoras, Vinho Tinto 2009
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Gran Sasso, Sangiovese, Terre di Chieti 2009
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Trader Joe's Coastal Syrah 2009
Columbia Crest, Horse Heaven Hills Merlot 2008
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Vieux Papes Red
Domaine de l'Aujardiere, Chardonnay 2009
Santa Rita, Cabernet, Medalla Real 2007
Penfold's, Koonunga Hill Shiraz Cabernet 2008
Guild, Red, Lot #02 2008
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Laforet, Burgogne Chardonnay 2009
Columbia Winery, Merlot 2007
Bonterra, Cabernet 2008
Elk Cove, Pinot Gris 2009
Maquis Lien 2006
Scott Paul, Pinot Noir, Le Paulee 2007
Cameron, Chardonnay
B.R. Cohn, Cabernet, Silver Label 2006
Graffigna, Cabernet 2005
Palo Alto, Reserve Red 2008
Menguante, Garnacha 2008
Lange, Pinot Gris 2009
Felsina Berardenga, Vin Santo 1997
Anne Amie, Pinot Gris 2009
McKinley Springs, Bombing Ramge Red 2007
Vieux Papes Red
Dionysius Chardonnay 2009
Haden Fig, Pinot Noir 2009
Vega Montan, Mencia 2008
Chateau la Vernede, Coteaux du Languedoc 2007
Mount Defiance, Hellfire (White) 2008
Root: 1, Cabernet 2008
Columbia Crest, Two Vines Pinot Grigio 2009
Columbia Crest, Two Vines, Vineyard 10 White, 2008
Columbia Crest, Two Vines, Vineyard 10 Rose, 2007
Abacela, Grenache Rose 2009
Avia Cabernet 2004
Lemelson Pinot Noir, Thea's Selection 2007
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Casal Garcia, Vinho Verde Rose
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Cana's Feast, Bricco Red, 2006
Hogue, Genesis Merlot, 2008
Owen Roe, Sharecropper's Cabernet, 2008
Kim Crawford, Unoaked Chardonnay 2008
J. Scott, Pinot Noir 2008
Edmunds St. John, White, Heart of Gold 2008
Columbia Crest, Walter Clore Private Reserve 2006
Stevenot, Cabernet, Sierra Foothills, "Stanford" 2000
Portuga, Vinho Rose 2009
Taylor Fladgate, First Estate Reserve Porto
Franciscan, Cabernet, Napa 2006
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St. Francis, Chardonnay Sonoma 2008
E. Guigal, Cotes du Rhone Blanc, 2007
Edmunds St. John, Bone-Jolly, Gamay Noir 2008
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Domaine Matrot, Chardonnay, Bourgogne 2007
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Harper Lee - To Kill a Mockingbird
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Brian Selznick - The Invention of Hugo Cabret
Sharon Creech - Walk Two Moons
Keith Richards - Life
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Barry Glassner - The Gospel of Food
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Jesse Katz - The Opposite Field
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David Sedaris - Holidays on Ice
Donald Miller - A Million Miles in a Thousand Years
Mitch Albom - Have a Little Faith
C.S. Lewis - The Magician's Nephew
F. Scott Fitzgerald - The Great Gatsby
William Shakespeare - A Midsummer Night's Dream
Ivan Doig - Bucking the Sun
Penda Diakité - I Lost My Tooth in Africa
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William H. Colby - Long Goodbye
Steven D. Stark - Meet the Beatles
Phil Stanford - Portland Confidential
Rick Moody - Garden State
Jonathan Schwartz - All in Good Time
David Sedaris - Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim
Anthony Holden - Big Deal
Robert J. Spitzer - The Spirit of Leadership
James McManus - Positively Fifth Street
Jeff Noon - Vurt

Road Work

Miles run year to date: 26
At this date last year: 15
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In 2005: 149
In 2004: 204
In 2003: 269
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