Oregon Music News

As it stands now.

Tuesday, as the Stakeholder Advisory Committee of Portland Development Commission’s “Rose Quarter Development Project” was getting ready to meet to settle some important issues on the future of Memorial Coliseum before presenting a report to the Portland City Council this week, two heavy hitters joined the Trail Blazers’/Winterhawks’ “JumpTown” proposal.

The Oregon Music Hall of Fame and the Portland Jazz Festival lent their support to the project, one of three which passed the SAC in February. “Formalized endorsements” was the way the Jazz Festival put it in a media release. In the Blazers’/Winterhawks’ proposal, the Jazz Festival is predicting “about 150 free shows a year under a covered outdoor stage in the Rose Quarter plaza.”

Festival Artistic Director Bill Royston was quoted in the media release as saying, “This project will provide the catalyst to present national jazz artists outside of the Portland Jazz Festival each February, while also offering the opportunity to showcase local talent and allow Portland’s next generation of great artists and musicians to inspire us just as an earlier generation was inspired at clubs on Williams Avenue.”

No other genres of music were represented, leaving out a very large number of music lovers.

Nearby Williams Avenue was the center of the African-American universe in Portland, a vibrant neighborhood with several jazz clubs. The neighborhood was destroyed by “urban renewal” in the 1960’s.

Blazers’/Winterhawks’ “JumpTown”:

Jump Town -- full Rose Quarter

A modernized and more intimate VMC: We will preserve the building’s architectural character, value and history as a veterans’ memorial and multi-purpose sports arena. We will create a more attractive venue by reducing seating capacity to match promoter demand. New club seating, restaurants, regulation ice sheet, and a state-of-the-art scoreboard will help attract new events and ensure a bright future for the Winterhawks, Rose Festival parade and other community users.

But there are two other plans in the running.

Veterans Memorial Arts and Athletics Center (VMAAC):

VMAAC

The VMAAC is a proposed mixed-use redevelopment of the Memorial Coliseum for arts, athletics, and entertainment. It seeks to be a catalyst project that would reinvigorate the Rose Quarter and foster a cultural renaissance in Portland.

Memorial Athletic & Recreation Center (MARC):

MARC

MARC will house the New Memorial Coliseum, an entirely new, 6,500-seat arena, along with more than 200,000 square feet of community recreation, athletic training, and competition facilities in what will be North America’s most comprehensive center for public recreation, sports events, athletics and training.

Mayor Sam Adams chaired the Stakeholders Advisory Committee meeting on Tuesday, moving it along rather briskly. Kevin Brake, PDC’s Senior Project/Program Coordinator, presented a report on how the 32 member committee voted on various concepts for how the Coliseum should be used. Other than predictable improvements to the Veterans’ Memorial, there was strong agreement on spectator sports, fitness and art/music components.

Dissenting against using the building for ballet, theater, symphony or more intimate concerts (including Jazz) was, oddly enough, Greg Phillips, Executive Director of Portland Center Stage, who maintained that there was not enough room in the building for these activities if the seating bowl were left intact, and too expensive to build if the seating bowl were removed.

The fate of the seating bowl was a subject of much discussion. Can they or can’t they eliminate it? If they do, does it change the historical designation of the building or denigrate the Veterans who consider the entire building to be a memorial. Mayor Adams said it would be difficult, but legally possible to eliminate the bowl.

Phillips said it would be impossible to eliminate the bowl without private money, which he didn’t see as forthcoming. He also added that it would be too expensive for the City to do the job on its own.

A straw vote was taken. The results:

• Leave the bowl intact: 4
• Remove the bowl: 6
• Remove part of the bowl: 0
• Let the three proposals go forward without a recommendation: 14

Adams discussed one upcoming source of controversy: the operating agreement with whomever wins. There is disagreement between the City and two of the parties. Adams would not say which ones. He talked tough and will meet with them this week. If there is resolution, the SAC will present their findings to the City Council on Thursday afternoon. Or not.

The answer to the fundamental question of what exactly will be the focus of the building is yet to be determined. Sentiment appears to be for multi-use.

Portlanders love to discuss at great length, and this discussion has been going on since the Rose Quarter opened in 1995.  There is no certainty that the discussion will end quickly, although the Blazers’ operating agreement is coming to an end.