Mercury reports Rose Quarter developer Cordish has been chastised for strong-arming, racism

I swore I wasn't going to write about the Coliseum until I got some more sleep and until I wrote about something else for a change, but some recent reporting in the Portland Mercury is worth passing on.

In a feature story hilariously titled "Little Dubai", Sarah Mirk and Matt Davis report that The Cordish Company, the developer that would oversee redevelopment of the Rose Quarter into "Live!", a new entertainment district (minus the Coliseum), has irked residents and elected officials in Kansas City, site of one of its other biggest developments, the Power & Light District, as well as people in Louisville, home of another Cordish development.

"After receiving nearly $300 million in public money," Mirk writes of the Kansas City project, "the district is not meeting its revenue forecasts—in part because Cordish missed construction deadlines. The president of Cordish has sent Kansas City’s mayor abrasive all-caps emails demanding the Power and Light District receive top priority."

Louisville, Kentucky, has had similar problems with the Cordish-developed Fourth Street Live! project. (It's their exclamation point, not mine, by the way. Are these titles thought up by teenage girls?) The Louisville Metro Council, Mirk adds, "publicly berated Cordish for using $950,000 in city money to bring its own sports bar to town. 'In our city they do whatever they want, over some pretty strong protest, and we just keep giving them money,' says Kelly Downard, a Louisville metro councilor who says Cordish wooed the Louisville mayor to secure a $1 lease on city land valued at $17 million."

In today's Mercury, Mirk reports that in Kansas City, Cordish tried to institute a racist dress code that banned "white t-shirts, baggy pants, men wearing necklaces and shorts that hung below the top of one's calf. Many Kansas City citizens and a majority of City Council members felt the ban on very specific clothing items clearly discriminated against black people." The city ultimately banned restrictive dress codes, but only after the ACLU got involved and a former City Council member in Kansas City shouted in one hearing, "You want to invite us down to picket you? I'm embarrassed black people stand up here and advocate discrimination!"

Is this the kind of outfit you want overseeing the new Rose Quarter? Is this a good reason to demolish one of Portland's most beloved architectural landmarks?

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Here's a sampling of what Club Cordish is all about:

http://thebridge.typepad.com/thebridge/2008/12/the-cordish-company-more-of-its-story-by-drted.html

http://www.niagarafallsreporter.com/cordish.html

Posted by: Justin H. | April 16, 2009 at 11:38 AM

The Rose Quarter remains a mystery to me. It was more-or-less developed in the years I wasn't living in Portland. I didn't get until very recently that it was conceived of as an "entertainment district." I had thought, from my brief forays through the area, that is was supposed to be an administrative/office/exhibition center. There's nothing about it that screams "entertainment," nor do I understand how there every could be without some kind of pre-planned, strictly controlled Cordish-style environment. Nothing about it is inviting -- the scale is completely antithetical to ordinary neighborhood development. The buildings (the Convention Center, the Rose Garden & attendant parking, the MC) are too big and monolithic to make it an appealing area for walking and hanging around. Like the area immediately surrounding Madison Square Garden in NYC, it screams "come for the event, then go elsewhere for afters." Portland has plenty of neighborhoods that are good for the afters and I kind of doubt a Cordish-style section would be terribly popular.

Be that as it may, my overall impression is that this whole thing was a mistake from the get-go and the city is currently stuck trying to figure out how to turn lemons into something resembling lemonade. I don't know why, years ago, the whole shebang wasn't planned for the area out closer to the airport, where some of the big box stores are now. There's nothing remotely urban about the scale of these buildings. It just creates a big dead zone near the river, in what could've been a vital extension of downtown and transition to the more commercial areas of east Portland.

I find the whole thing depressing -- the fate of MC (which, alas, I'm not a fan of), the fate of the whole district. To me, the story is really about the downsides of overly bureaucratic, centralized planning.

Posted by: Michael M. | April 16, 2009 at 11:45 AM

Isn't it odd that a mayor who has (as commissioner) opposed big-box retailers, is now advocating for what amounts to a strip mall filled with chain stores and bathed in neon?

Posted by: val | April 16, 2009 at 12:45 PM

I think everyone who went out to support Adams months ago - and that includes me - should be out demanding that this deal doesn't go through. It is so obviously wrong for Portland in so many ways. Well, it's wrong for anywhere, really. And Portland is supposed to be the place that exemplifies a healthy livable alternative to all of that corporate crap. Isn't it?

Posted by: matthew | April 16, 2009 at 01:13 PM

I have to agree with Michael, other cities may need a new “entertainment district” because of the sad state of their historic entertainment venues. I don’t think Portland has that problem.

As well, the intense corporate controlled dress-code atmosphere of Cordish’s developments flies in the face of Portland’s quasi-hippy, homegrown, brewpub frequenting population.

What artist would choose to perform in such a contrived corporate environment when we have a growing number of unique venues like the Crystal Ballroom, the Doug Fir and the Wonder Ballroom?

I am imagining a giant flashing neon sign saying Eco-Entertainment-District!

Posted by: Steve | April 16, 2009 at 04:01 PM