Too bad he's so deferential to the Lavatory Lothario. Then again, maybe he's figured that with this smelly deal, it's as easy to gather signatures on three recall petitions as it is on two.

For now, however, he says “the Beavers are going to have to find another location to play. They’re going to need to find another location to play if in fact they can’t use the MLS stadium on a temporary basis.”

Wait. What? Saltzman wants to sacrifice baseball for soccer? He's going to tell Paulson to take his baseball team somewhere else until we get a new stadium? What happens if we reconfigure PGE Park as a soccer only stadium then either the team or the league folds? Do we then spend another $40 million to re-reconfigure it? No way.

As a baseball fan, this is COMPLETELY unacceptable. If MLS wants in to this town, it can share the stadium with the Beavers. Period.

PGE Park as presently configured is good enough for FIFA. It's good enough for MLS.

It's good enough for MLS.

Of course it is. But it's not enough to impress Little Lord Paulson's friends. "Your dad gave you $50 million to play with, and this is all you've got?" He should have stayed on the East Coast. And he can still go back.

Good news: they have restored the comment function to the Mayor's staff blog....

http://www.portlandonline.com/mayor/index.cfm?c=49278

Live long and prosper!

Sniff, sniff...
Here's a little tidbit that must relate somehow to this mess, though I'm too confused to figure out how."

"(Freddie Mac CEO) Moffett hasn't been replaced, but chairman John Koskinen is filling the CEO role for the time being. Koskinen is the former president of the United States Soccer Foundation and in his past participated "in the restructuring of a range of large, troubled enterprises including the Penn Central, the Teamsters Pension Fund, Levitt and Sons, Inc. and Mutual Benefit," according to Freddie Mac." http://blogs.wsj.com/deals/2009/04/22/freddie-mac-tragedy-follows-trouble#mod=djemDeal&reflink=djemWLB

Maybe Saltzman visited http://www.goldmansachs666.com/
and is asking himself a key question. Could the $50 mil be blood money?

Jethro Tull saves the day?

Jethro Tull explains a lot. Adams=Aqualung (snot-nosed dirtbag "eyeing little boys with bad intent"), & if Leonard isn't "Thick as a Brick," nobody is. I saw that concert in the Coliseum in summer '74 - awesome.

And The Statesman Journal has come out against TIFfing for the benefit of the Paulsons (or anyone else for that matter).

http://www.statesmanjournal.com/article/20090417/OPINION/904170315/1050

9% or better unemployment in the county and this is what has the mayor's attention. The man needs to learn to focus on the problem at hand.

The unemployment rate, crumbling infrastructure, crumbling political support, AG's investigation and looming recall all go some way toward explaining why the mayor's behavior is deliberately bombastic, deliberately divisive and deliberately distracting.

The deal is not DOA yet. In fact, the Oregon House Committee on Sustainability and Economic Development had two work sessions last week on House Bill 2531 (the Major League Stadium bill) and a third work session is scheduled for tomorrow.

Randy has been so quiet recently that I think he must be spending time in Salem working on and lobbying for the bill.

Remember, Sam and Randy employ diversionary tactics before springing some new outrage on the citizens of Portland.

I wish I could believe this, but how many times has it looked like the wheels are coming off something only for a secret back-room deal emerge out of nowhere?

Randy's not been quiet, he's just busy right now with making sure he can put a 10ft neon rose sign on top of the new Visitor's Center.

I note in today's WW that Sammy said that Wal*Mart "fails the basic test of ethical capitalism."

Like Merritt Paulson does?

I've seen this movie before. Last time Dan was against the tram in no uncertain terms with Randy Leonard vouching for him based on how well he knew him.
Then Mayor Potter leaned on Dan and voila! The vote flipped. That was the time the Oregonian gushed how this made Saltzman a man of steel.
Sam also complimented him on his great leadership.

Doesn't it remain a fact that we can have both teams at PGE Park and still meet the requirements of the leagues? I know Paulson can threaten to take the Beavers somewhere else in 2010 - but I'm not feeling the leverage here. Doesn't Merritt win enough if he gets to play soccer in the new league? Then later when the international prestige and overwhelming success is too great to ignore - then we can deal with a soccer only facility.

Dan, you can be a hero here and we could still have MLS soccer. What's the downside?

Let's hope this time the movie will turn out differently.

What we really need is for Rosie to come out and publicly make some contrast relating to handing kajillionaire Paulson hundreds of millions while the public safety budget is being shredded and she is having to shutter a police precinct. Done correctly, that could send this thing over a cliff....

Good idea, Ranz. Someone who knows how to crunch numbers should figure out how many public service jobs -- police, teachers, other city and county employees -- are going to be exchanged for the jobs this project will "create."

It's not really about "job creation"; it's about "job exchange." Sam says "we need construction jobs." So, public service jobs must be sacrificed for temporary construction jobs followed by new service sector jobs.

Amazing that this boondoggle/taxpayer theft is still on the table.
Read the Trib today. Gresham gets it, so does Ted Wheeler. They are eliminating positions, freezing wages, setting aside projects, passing on new purchases; you know, all the sometimes painful things that you need to do in a recession in order to ride out a tough economic period and be financially prudent. Sam, Randy, Dan and the two spineless drones, what have you done to pare things down to fit the economic scale we now face?