Baseball moves closer, but is Portland ready?

As stadium bill winds through Salem, questions revolve around PGE Park, other sites

By Andy Giegerich And Todd Murphy

The Portland Tribune, Aug 19, 2003, Updated Oct 30, 2009

As Portland tries to prove it can play ball major league-style, PGE Park neighbors say the city has yet to show them how the neighborhood’s transportation and parking system could host a major league ball park even temporarily.

Some neighbors of the stadium, where the city is planning to have the team play for as many as three seasons longer if the city chooses to retrofit it as a permanent site wonder how an influx of about 24,000 fans 81 times a year will affect livability in their neighborhood.

“I think it would overwhelm both the infrastructure designed to handle basically 19th-century traffic, and we have no more parking capacity in the neighborhood,” said Frank Dixon, president of the Northwest District Association, just across West Burnside Street from the stadium.

Dixon said no city official has shown neighborhood leaders any plan to deal with the issue.

“No one has come to the neighborhoods and said, ‘What do you think about a temporary major league team residing in PGE park for three years?’ ” he said.

The neighbors’ concerns underline several important questions, including: Is the city really ready for the next step if the state Legislature approves a stadium funding bill? And can it be ready by the spring of next year, when Major League Baseball, which owns the Montreal Expos, may move the team to a new home?

The questions come the same day the Oregon House of Representatives isexpected to vote on a plan to use the state income tax portion of players’ and team executives’ salaries to pay off bonds that would provide $150 million of the estimated $350 million cost for a new major league stadium.

Supporters of the bill expected the House to approve it, and a Senate vote on the bill, SB 5, could come later this week.

Meanwhile, city officials are working on plans to pay for $138 million of the remaining construction costs for the new stadium with hopes that the rest of the stadium costs would be paid by the team’s private owner.

For instance, Mayor Vera Katz said talks have begun with hotel and motel representatives regarding a lodging tax increase. The hotel and motel officials suggested that Katz explore adding a food and beverage tax to the proposal.

Local developers are exploring ways to capitalize as a potentially lucrative stadium district emerges near the yet-to-be-determined site.

Most baseball supporters and city leaders contacted this week said they’re waiting until the Oregon Senate votes on the measure before disclosing their next-phase plans.

Senators supporting the bill hope to delay a vote until the body resolves issues regarding the state’s public education funding.

Timing notwithstanding, a majority of the state’s 30 senators will support the stadium measure, in the opinion of David Kahn, who leads the Oregon Stadium Campaign’s day-to-day activities.

“I’ve felt reasonably optimistic about this for several weeks,” he said. “We have something here that’s supported not just by elected officials, not just by more than 600 businesses that have lent their names to the campaign, and not just by neighborhood alliances. My feeling is that something has to work out.”

PGE Park’s neighbors worry

If Portland wins its big-league bid, PGE Park would host the Expos from next year through the 2006 baseball season, according to the city’s proposal to Major League Baseball.

Katz also said PGE Park could host the Expos during the 2004 season if Major League Baseball hasn’t decided on a permanent location by next year. Katz said doing so would help the city better understand what hosting a major league baseball team means, as well as help pay off PGE Park’s existing construction bonds.

Kahn and architect John Vosmek, who has laid out much of Portland’s design groundwork for an expanded PGE Park, say the stadium can easily be adapted into a larger-scale facility including adding about 5,000 temporary outfield bleacher seats.

The stadium’s narrow concourses, often impassable during big events, also must be addressed.

Vosmek said he’s explored designs of new passages on both Southwest 18th and 20th avenues. Such work could be done in one off-season, he said.

“Obviously, the city owns a lot of the land, some of the major excavation has been done, and there’s some infrastructure there already,” he said.

1 | 2 Next Page >>

Facebook	Digg	Del.icio.us
Newsvine	Stumbleupon	Reddit