December 19, 2004
Burnside Bridgehead Proposals Face Intense Public Scrutiny
Recent Meetings Demonstrate Clear Preference For The Small And Local
Six days ago, on Monday evening, the Portland Development Commission held an open house on the three development proposals for the Burnside Bridgehead project.
Our original intent was to try to write up some sort of condensation of the public input generated at the meeting, since we spent a rather concentrated period of time making the circuit amongst the various stations, methodically copying every single comment submitted over the course of the evening.
Turnout at this open house was very, very high, and the PDC staffers charged with accumulating -- and writing down for public display -- public comments and questions were definitely put through their paces. Those comments ranged from simple declarations against big box retail to requests for information on specific impacts and beyond.
Given the sheer volume of those comments, however, we've opted for a different approach so we at least make sure to provide an update of one sort or another. We'll begin with a quick tour of other coverage of the open house.
First, a self-identified "Central Eastside beat reporter" posted a Portland Indymedia report, which among other things correctly indicates that the "room was crowded, with a constant line of newly arrived people." It provides some reaction from the Portland Alliance Of Worker Collectives and from a member of the Kerns Neighborhood Association.
Second, as expected, there's an item on the Burnside Skatepark weblog on the meeting, with reports on conversations with all three development teams.
Third, a brief Portland Mercury article refers to the "constant theme" of the public comments and questions submitted.
In general the Beam proposal (the only one with big box retail conspicuously and deliberately absent) continues to receive the highest level of public support. Which makes this Portland Tribune column a little peculiar. While it speaks of the opposition to big box retail at the site, the author says that "Portlanders don’t mind waiting because they believe something better will come" -- and makes no mention whatsoever of the already-existing proposal from Beam which doesn't include big box retail.
All of that coverage out of the way, then, what else do have to pass along? Well, first off, there's the compilation of public comments and questions (pdf) submitted during the previous Burnside Bridgehead meeting on December 9, at which the developers each make public presentations of their proposals. We got ahold of these at this past Monday's meeting.
At some point, these questions are supposed to be answered by the developers and those answers posted to the Bridgehead page on the PDC website.
Finally, since we find the task of culling through our laboriously-typed copy of all of the comments and questions submitted at Monday's open house to be a bit offputting, we simply offer up those notes in and of themselves (pdf), complete with all of the mistakes, errors, and typos that come with trying to quickly copy and capture this much material.