If you’re among those who love the Trail Blazer’s idea to redevelop the area around Memorial Coliseum into a mixed-use sports and entertainment district, this news won’t make you happy. Almost half the respondents to this week’s poll question about the JumpTown redevelopment idea say it would be a waste of taxpayer’s money.
“Imagine JumpTown” is a campaign for what should happen to the neighborhood around the coliseum. This past week, the city of Portland started accepting concept applications and the Trail Blazers are pushing their idea with a new website called Imagine: JumpTown. Portland Mayor Sam Adams is asking for public input on projects for the area.
One resident writing in the Oregonian calls the JumpTown idea a sad legacy for urban renewal: “Forty-five years on, the Rose Quarter dead zone feels like urban renewal chickens coming home to roost. If public money is ‘essential’ to JumpTown’s success, perhaps the city should think about spending instead where people actually live — maybe just to the north in the remnants of the original JumpTown.”
If you’re among those who love the Trail Blazer’s idea to redevelop the area around Memorial Coliseum into a mixed-use sports and entertainment district, this news won’t make you happy. Almost half the respondents to this week’s poll question about the JumpTown redevelopment idea say it would be a waste of taxpayer’s money.
“Imagine JumpTown” is a campaign for what should happen to the neighborhood around the coliseum. This past week, the city of Portland started accepting concept applications and the Trail Blazers are pushing their idea with a new website called Imagine: JumpTown. Portland Mayor Sam Adams is asking for public input on projects for the area.
One resident writing in the Oregonian calls the JumpTown idea a sad legacy for urban renewal: “Forty-five years on, the Rose Quarter dead zone feels like urban renewal chickens coming home to roost. If public money is ‘essential’ to JumpTown’s success, perhaps the city should think about spending instead where people actually live — maybe just to the north in the remnants of the original JumpTown.”
Oregon Business managing editor Ben Jacklet is a fan of the idea. His blog on the topic hopes for a better future: “The Rose Quarter lies roughly halfway between my home and my office, and every time I roll past I wonder how such a prime piece of urban property can manage to be so very lame, in so many ways … It makes sense for the city and the Blazers to redevelop the quarter into something that reflects the soul of the city, because there’s really nowhere to go but up. The neighborhood just hasn’t been the same since it got bulldozed.”
As with many redevelopment efforts, this one has its controversies. Stay tuned.
