When I joined the Trail Blazers two years ago, I was charged with building our brand to a level where we are once again regarded within our industry as one of the best sports/entertainment organizations in the world.
Achieving that lofty goal means more than running a viable business. It means recognizing and embracing our corporate social responsibility to have a positive impact on our city, our stakeholders, our employees, our environment and our neighborhood. It is a commitment we take very seriously.
It’s why we have built a team to reflect the values that Portlanders hold dear. It is why we answer the call to “make it better” by serving the Portland community with programs that touched the lives of more than 100,000 Portlanders last season, and it’s why we are committed to the development of a green, vibrant and economically viable Rose Quarter.
As a resident of Portland, my interest in the Rose Quarter is also personal. I want to help foster a vision that’s a source of neighborhood pride, a benefit to the local economy and a community gathering place for the city I love.
For that to happen, our vision needs to reflect the desires of a diverse community. We are excited to launch this Web site to begin the conversation, provide information about the project and to provide a forum for interested citizens to share with us their ideas and opinions.
Take a look and let us know what you think. We want this project to be rooted in Portland values – which is why we’re eager to hear what you think.
Thanks for your interest in a bright future for the Rose Quarter.
Sincerely,
Larry Miller
President, Portland Trail Blazers
Tags: jumptown, memorial coliseum, Rose Garden, rosequarter
Awesome…glad you’re gonna liven up the Rose Quarter!
Have you already Chosen “Jumptown as Name ?
How unsophisticated / shallow a name for a Major City
sports entertainment/ music/shopping and Memorial Locale
I can hear its name coming from the Sports Commentators on
ESPN or TNT . (Embarrassing it would be)
RoseQuarter is a National/International sound ,worthy of a Major City.
Yours truly CE(Chuck) Williams
Jumptown is a great idea, and will help vitalize the area, as well as connect us with the areas dynamic past. A terrific first step would be better outdoor lighting in the general area of the Rose Quarter and Memorial Coleseum. Bravo!
I like your words Mr. Isaac, go for it! PS No chain stores please, bring in local business owners only! Do what you have to do and get Mel Brown over here! To keep it alive, bring in housing, retail and a grocery store. The best views in town are here and this should be the most vibrant neighborhood in Portland, just like it was before the city bulldozed it all.
Step into the future and think outside the box. I hail from the Greater Boston Area and find Oregon to have one foot in the past and the other firmly in the air. Development at the South End of town is both ugly IMHO and poorly planned. Architecture in Greater Portland is archaic and Oregonians stand firmly in a past that is less than insightful. As an “outsider” I would expect Jumptown (The Rose Quarter) to be exactly the same. You had the chance to build a Minor League AAA ball park there and passed on it. Now NIKE, the fair haired son and sole Fortune 500 company based in Oregon will lead the charge with the adidas international headquarters as a neighbor? That’s hilarious. Find a better OUTSIDE partner in order to embrace a broader view of the future for Portland, or fail.
It all sounds self-serving and patronizing. Best of luck with it though!
Those of us from other parts of the country do not necessarily wish to turn Portland into Boston or any other community we’ve lived in. Some of us have, like me, lived in Michigan, California, New England and are perhaps even well-traveled domestically and internationally throughout Europe and Asia. This “global-view” of the world tends to loosen the tightness associated with contrarian views. I suppose the “insiders” (like NIKE and the Trailblazers) will cling to control (and the “tradition of Jumptown”) while the “outsiders” continue to move here in greater numbers; having to make up for your mistakes until we finally outnumber y’all. Good luck with Jumptown Larry!
I love it when people move from another area and feel like they should tell the new town how to live.
You have a point as far as the passing on the AAA ball park, but as far as what you think of the look of Portland keep it to yourself. No one is begging you to stay here. Maybe you should go back to Boston.
I would like to see a large sports themed arcade/restaurant combo like espnzone or dave and busters. Doesn’t necessarily have to be them, and I know we’re shooting for Portland area restaurants, which I applaud. I just know that restaurants like that are capital intensive. Maybe Big Al’s.
The point is, you want to build an attraction that will make the Rose Garden a year round attraction. Let’s face it, the weather is not always spectacular and a sports themed restaurant espnzone type place would create that attraction.
The originators of this concept of “Jumptown” have done such a poor job of publicizing this forum that only six (6) people have actually commented.
Wayne, we have actually had a tremendous response to the site. We have had nearly 100 e-mails come our way with suggestions, concerns, ideas and other considerations. We are very encouraged, in fact, that many of the ideas being advocated by the public are consistent with our vision for the quarter.
I’m not surprised that the paltry number of responses (100 in 17 days) are in keeping with your “vision” as most visiting this site may well be folks who are native to Oregon. “Vision” is an interesting word that has different meanings to different people. My hope is that your “vision” indeed delivers something that helps Portland move beyond the “jingoistic” and close-minded reputation Portland has. The man responsible for leading the Blazers (Paul Allen?) is characterized by a personality rooted in insight and enthusiasm. that being the case my hope for you Bill is that you can see my concern for doing what’s right despite me choice of words. What’s right? Success. Who defines success? Without doubt, success is not defined by anyone; it is defined by botom-line-profit. Unless of course you decide to build a historical tourist attraction.