Commissioner Dan Saltzman, the swing vote on the baseball-soccer deal, clarified his position on the public-private project yesterday with a letter to his colleagues [PDF] at City Hall:
“If the financial reviews I have publicly stipulated are not complete or convincing, and the needed support is not expressed by the Lents Urban Renewal Advisory Committee, I reserve the right to ask for Council consideration of a directive that the city attempt to negotiate a proposal that only includes the required improvements to PGE Park for the recently awarded Major League Soccer franchise.”
His conditions also include two things team-owner Merritt Paulson may not like: Paulson may not put his team offices in Lents Park. And Paulson must pay all workers at PGE Park and the Lents stadium a “living wage” as defined by the city.
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Think I just got my appetite back!
A living wage?? So the guys who sell popcorn make, what, $50,000 a year? Nice. That’ll sure help the financial viability. Always nice to see government dictating wages to private employers.
Mr. V. You may not be up to speed with regards to the the dollar amount
of the Multnomah. Co. living wage, which as it stands, even if someone sold popcorn/40 hrs. a week…their annual salary would be under $19,000. before taxes.
Maybe there are loopholes, and a company could bus in workers from Umatilla. Perhaps they’re in a county with a lesser living wage
Not much of a private employer when he has both hands in taxpayer’s pockets.
Dan’s conditions are weak, and many of them have been agreed to in principle already.
Gee. Dan Saltzman, of all people, caves in to Randy and Sam. What a shocker.
We cannot even support the Blazers financially, yet we’re footing the bill for other sport teams in the city? This is a waste of taxpayer time and money, and when these deals do not turn a profit for the city, I believe politicians who arrange these deals should sign binding pledges to personally reimburse the city for the loss.
This is pure genius!!!!
Paulson needs to make a profit to pay back the debt we take out on his behalf. Saltzman decides lets make it harder for Paulson to make a profit. Average IQ adds 2 and 2 and realizes Paulson = PFE!
Living-wage ticket takers and only 200 parking spaces. Good luck!
Fantastic. My read on the letter is “since your baseball proposal is not convincing, let’s do what we need to do to make soccer happen.”
I am becoming a fan of Dan Saltzman.
The real economic opportunity with this project in Lents comes when all the local junkies bash and dash the cars parked around the park come game night. Hey this could help Foster Auto Parts too!
Since the day my recall failed to drop Vera Katz,off the “good ship Portland”,I have been called everything under the sun for my views on an issue where some unsupervised criminally insane nuts, can walk past your kids grade school, and you, and they, and the teachers at the school…and the cops, haven’t a clue they are there.
I predicted the sinking of this ship,and this “rape” of this city in more ways then one would happen…AND IT HAS!
Randy maybe the worst…a retired “first responder”…a clueless environmental engineer, a nut case, who looked after nuts for 26 yrs(don’t believe me, just ask her), Mr.Fish, he finally got elected(had to uphold the family tradition)…also clueless ,and then…there is Sam Adams..some of us that are not offended by prayer…PRAY…he is recalled.
That is the only chance, commonsense people have…is to see him unemployed as a bunch of us are.
There always is the old “KARMA” deal, I have no idea when the circle is round and full, but we cannot accept that shoving things down peoples throat as this whole deal, and most that has transpired for a couple of years now can continue much longer.
So…delete this post if you feel it’s not worthy…but I know, one thing…call me what you wish on the issue of nuts far worse then advertised next to schools, but on that..there is no way you can call me wrong, or the city has been raped, and it is so far un-punished…A RECALL would be a good get even tool.
Jack, I may or may not agree with your comments but I do give you credit for signing your name. Anonymous postings cannot compete for credibility with those who have the courage to stand behind their words.
Richard Ellmyer
North Portland
Good point, Richard Ellmyer. However, there could be a serious reasons in some cases why posters are reluctant to sign with their full name, as you and Jack admirably do.
The real economic opportunity with this project in Lents comes when all the local junkies bash and dash the cars parked around the park come game night. Hey this could help Foster Auto Parts too!
Hey..Don’t forget Lents Auto Body, another possible business to benifit.
Once again I ask…what about this deal makes and financial sense to anyone but Merritt Paulsen?
I applaud the “living wage” condition since we taxpayers are already subsidizing wages at PGE park (which still don’t add up to “living” standards). I would hope this would also apply to the new MLS development.
I further applaud the condition that the Lents URAC fully support the stadium.
However, regardless of those conditions, we still have a deal that makes little if any economic sense for Portland – especially us taxpayers – much less for Lents.
For one, the countless ADDITIONAL millions that will be poured into studies and infrastructure to support a stadium – (for MINOR LEAGUE BASEBALL FOR GODS SAKE!) – will be shouldered by the taxpayers NOT Paulsen.
The costs to attend either MLS games ($31 average single ticket price) or MINOR LEAGUE BASEBALL FOR GODS SAKE! (yet to be determined but with the costs of the new stadium and all the taxes and fees needed to pay back the bonds, likely to be even higher than MLS) are hardly family friendly.
Then there’s the parking situation – just ask the folks in Boise about parking during Rose Quarter events! And that’s with sprawling parking lots and ramps that Sam Adams calls “urban blight” – at least when we wants some UR dollars for RQ development.
And all this to accomodate a “Major League” soccer franchise – one that has historically NOT contributed anything significant to any of the communities already part of the league???
Sorry, maybe I’m the stupid one but I just don’t get it!
“the needed support is not expressed by the Lents Urban Renewal Advisory Committee”
Since when did Dan Saltzman care about URACs or neighborhood voices when it came to disposing of public property or anything else?
Saltzman dismissed the Interstate Corridor Urban Renewal Area Advisory Committee, the Portsmouth Residents Action Committee and the North Portland Business Association when they ALL asked to stop overloading the Portsmouth neighborhood (30% PUBLIC housing and rising) with PUBLIC housing and transfer PUBLIC housing funds to neighborhoods with less than 15% concentration of PUBLIC housing.
Saltzman dismissed the Portsmouth Residents Action Committee, the North Portland Business Association and the Portsmouth neighborhood association when they all testified on at least two occasions to STOP the use of public property – the John Ball School site – for the private use of the Bridge Meadows corporation.
Saltzman dismissed 195 signed votes in favor of DUE PROCESS and opposed to the Bridge Meadows corporation project when there was NOT a single signed vote opposing DUE PROCESS and supporting the Bridge Meadows Corporation scheme. Denying DUE PROCESS is the ONLY WAY Saltzman’s pet project could possibly even be considered. It could NEVER succeed in a fair, open and democratic competition.
Saltzman marches to his own drummer. He has no ear for the concerns of URACs, neighborhoods or business groups that don’t hear the sounds beating in his own head.
Richard Ellmyer
Portsmouth Residents Action Committee – Leader
[...] is the all-volunteer group that Commissioner Dan Saltzman, the swing vote on the impending deal, is looking to for guidance on whether to use $42.3 million in urban renewal dollars from Lents on the proposed [...]
[...] Commissioner Amanda Fritz has written a detailed critique [PDF] of the proposed minor-league baseball stadium in Lents, amplifying some of the concerns brought forward by Commissioner Dan Saltzman last week. [...]