The following appeared as an Op-Ed in the March 22, 2009 edition of the Oregonian
REVIVING THE ROSE QUARTER
With Friday’s announcement that Major League Soccer is coming to Portland, we have a rare opportunity to make sustainable, long-term decisions about the Rose Quarter that can help cement its place alongside Portland’s other exciting neighborhoods and create an anchor for economic development for the East Side from which all Portlanders can benefit.
What’s needed now is for the community, political leaders and the sports and entertainment interests to immediately begin working together toward
a shared vision of a successful and sustainable Rose Quarter. Here are some ideas that will help create that dynamic vision.
Minor League Ballpark. A baseball stadium should not be shoehorned onto a demolished Memorial Coliseum site that would stand empty half the year. Instead, put it on the site of the Portland School District’s oversized and outdated Blanchard Education Center just north of Broadway. By moving the school district’s administrative offices and warehouse to smaller, more energy-efficient buildings (or vacant space downtown), the district will save on operating costs; and the eight-block site will extend the Rose Quarter and its development opportunities. This site is big enough to accommodate a stadium for the minors today that can be readily expanded for Major League Baseball in the future. Smart.
Save Memorial Coliseum. The Coliseum, which turns 50 this year, is just now old enough to be considered an historic landmark, but it has not worn out its usefulness. Don’t tear it down – do the Portland thing: re-use it. By saving the glass box and removing the seating bowl, we can create a huge, flexible space and fill it with new uses. A 2004 proposal to convert the Coliseum to the Memorial Athletic and Recreation Center, or MARC, is a big, bold Portland idea. Portlanders paid for the Coliseum originally and they should be given a chance to decide its future. Let’s ask if they are willing to convert the Coliseum to a public sports and recreation center with pools, gyms, indoor soccer and lacrosse fields, a velodrome and indoor track open to all, with scholarships and grant programs to make sure no one gets turned away. Let’s also do what’s right for our veterans by integrating a highly visual and accessible memorial.
Paul Allen’s Arts and Entertainment Center. With removal of the unsuccessful office and retail building and redesign of the large plaza west of the Rose Garden, there is plenty of room for the venue envisioned by Allen, extending the legacy of great entertainment in the Coliseum. Elvis, Dylan, Hendrix, Ike and Tina, even Evel Knievel rocked the Coliseum. With the MARC and baseball stadium in the neighborhood, we’d build new memories. Everybody wins.
Health and Wellness Center. Area hospitals are interested in building health and wellness facilities that can have a truly positive impact and help reduce the cost of health care by teaching people healthy lifestyles. With Portland Streetcar crossing the Broadway Bridge this year, the accessibility of the Rose Quarter by public transit, bike and auto makes it a natural for this use.
Nike Oregon Sports Museum. This belongs in the MARC redevelopment and it would have a lot more synergy with the thousands of kids and adults that would use those athletic facilities every week.
Other Opportunities. Let’s redevelop the old Red Lion Hotel site for housing to help open up underutilized waterfront properties and create more public access to the riverfront. And on Broadway, north of the Coliseum, there are two blocks that are a key gateway to the Lloyd District which could be developed compatibly to enhance the economic growth of the area.
Community. There is one other critical piece of this vision. Let’s figure out a way to bring together the best resources and talents of the city, the neighborhoods surrounding the Rose Quarter, the Blazers, Beavers, Nike, Columbia Sportswear, Adidas and other members of our sports industry.
We need the cycling, fitness and running communities, the local soccer and lacrosse clubs, local hospitals and youth sports advocates, Downtown and Lloyd District business interests. We need the people of Portland.
Let’s make the Rose Quarter a showplace for Portland’s sustainability and healthy lifestyle, its commitment to families, its love of participant and spectator sports and entertainment. Let’s make it a place the people of Portland can be proud of and a place that captures the essence of Portland’s livability.
Creation of a certain urban growth boundary in 1973 gave us guidance and made us the envy of national planning – it’s high time we do it again. The Rose Quarter can be a centerpiece for Portland’s vision. The place is here. The time is now. It’s up to us.
Douglas L. Obletz is president of Shiels Obletz Johnsen, Inc., a Portland and Seattle-based development and project management consulting firm.