A roller coaster for the Rose Quarter? Why not?
I got a note from a Portlander named Sean-Michael Riley a while back. There is an advisory committee taking suggestions about possible ideas for the development of the Rose Quarter and his notion is getting some traction.
Riley has proposed a roller coaster for the area — and I think it’s a pretty good idea. Yeah, I’d still like a ballpark and believe it to be the best possible use of the land, but when I got his note I remembered that Marshall Glickman and I once had a discussion about the same thing.
Marshall, who ramrodded the planning and construction of the Rose Garden for the Trail Blazers, thought a roller coaster was a fun idea to bounce around. Since I’m a coaster-rider from way back (seriously, I’ve been on some of the best in this country) I was excited.
But not just any roller coaster, please. Build the biggest, fastest, highest or longest. Or, since it tends to drizzle here a little, how about the world’s biggest covered one? Or biggest enclosed one?
Riley’s website for his vision is here and I encourage you to take a look. I mean, why not? We don’t have a serious roller coaster anywhere in the Pacific Northwest and I believe it would be a big draw. You could still have an entertainment district but the big coaster could hover above — making it an iconic image for Portland and a destination for tourists.
But maybe such out-of-the-box thinking is way too much for the folks around here?
Sports Business, Stadiums, arenas, small-town Portland | Dwight Jaynes | December 18, 2009
I like it. Why the hell not?
I like it too. But like you said, it couldn’t just be run of the mill roller coaster. It needs to be a ‘four hour wait in the winter’ type of draw.
It is a good idea. I suggested the coaster idea here on this blog back in April.
Build it they will come!
I like it but it will never happen.
‘X’ at Magic Mountain is the best coaster in the country, but it’s broken about 75% of the time so going to the park is always a total gamble.
For Portland to accept an idea like this, it would have to have a theme like “green, eco-friendly, wind-powered, sustainable, yellow-bike, save-the-polar-bears, blah, blah, blah”.
And what should we call this thing?
Here a few of my ideas…
“The Re-Cycler”.
“The Global Cooler”
“The Rose Peddle”
Also, it would be kind of neat if, right off the bat, they could earmark 25 cents or 50 cents out of each ticket to go to the state school fund.
Ridiculous, and a recipe for failure. Dwight seriously, if you were not a roller coaster “enthusiast”, you would slam this idea beyond all recognition.
By God, I will go to any RQ revitalization meeting just to voice my opinion that this is laughable.
Call it “The Stag.”
And stick that old deer light on top.
Dwight,
Playland at the P.N.E. in Vancouver, B.C. has a wooden coaster built in 1958. As a connoisseur of wooden coasters, I have to say that this is a good one. I would bet that you’ve ridden on it, haven’t you?
http://tinyurl.com/yea7sz4
Couldn’t a coaster wrap around the Coliseum the way the one does at New York, New York in Las Vegas?
A pretty dorky idea which is why it might just work in Portland.
Yes! I can see it now, we can call the coaster “The Rip City Rider”! It will slowly go up, up, up then crest for the thrilling ride, only to slowly meander downward at a snails pace. 1/2 way through the ride, the train get’s stopped because of an unexpected breakdown, and everyone is made to get off.
Your last sentence says it all…
Keep Portland Weird! Or boring….or behind the times! Or…who cares! That’s why I moved! You suck Portland!
always thought that was a good idea. have been thinking about that since the early days of the mc. but, alas dwight, youre right. a decision like this might implode the city!! would take 25 years to make the call! but maybe the distraction of a world class coaster would so fragment the social framework of this city folks like you and me could sneek in a ball park and a team….hehehehe!
should we keep the name of the team the beavers?
OMG this is a silly idea , if you havn’t left your computer lately , it is miserable here 50% of the time , then during good weather folks go camping and fishing.This would be dead in a year , and be the ugly sore thumb of PDZ.
Dwiight,
I’m not in a very good mood today, so my sentiments at the moment are running dangerously close to JoJo’s. I haven’t left Pdx, but please, we’ve gone from the dream of a cool new ball park down by the river, to preserving and designating the tomb know as the MC as a historical building, to now actually considering putting roller coaster on the site! Jeez, this conjures up images of the Rose Festival “Fun Center” on the Willamette. Now all we need in the Rose Quarter to make the whole scene complete is toothless carnies and corn dog stands. Sheesh!
I’m sorry, maybe I’ll wake up on the right side of the bed tomorrow yearning for a ride on the new roller coaster. Somehow, I doubt it.
Seems to me that Portland is on the verge of going from weird to just plan stupid.
Gary
Sorry about the typos! Can’t write when I’m cranky. That should read “just PLAIN stupid”.
Gary
Nobody makes you live here, you’re free to leave.
I like it – we need something to enliven that area when the Blazers aren’t playing, and NOTHING anybody has dreamed up thus far has worked. Portland & Oregon is interesting because it dares to be different:
Bottle bill – the “smart money” said it would be a bust.
Pioneer Courthouse Square – was doomed to failure.
Land Use Planning – what a quaint and silly idea (they said as they now fight urban sprawl and gridlocked traffic ala Seattle)
Oregon Beach Law – but that’s OUR land, they said….private property all the way to Japan.
It wouldn’t be the first time the naysayers would eat their words.
I second that motion. Bring a roller coaster to the rose garden!
Looks pretty cool. Why not put the roller coaster INSIDE Memorial Coliseum, ala Space Mountain? With the curtains down, you add lights and special effects. With the curtains up, you get great view of the city during your ride.
I also liked the idea of putting the Sports Hall of Fame in the Rose Quarter – there’s plenty of room there for it in the exhibition hall space.
Oh yeah how about building an stadium with a rollercoaster that goes around the outside and top of the stadium, so you can still catch the action!
Raze the Coliseum and put a mega casino right there, along with a mega hotel, in full proximity to the Rose Garden and the Convention Center. Book Las Vegas style entertainment and boxing events. Run it full tilt boogie 24/7/365. That’d liven it up. Plus if it’s chartered to pay for the schools, presto, no more
school funding crisis.
makes toooooooooo much sense for this city, but anywhere else in the country, that would fly and be incredibly profitable and a very very cool place in the city. but, after 58 years in this city, i have come to realize that this kind of forward thinking is just too much for this city to comprehend.
If you converted several hundred acres of Sauvie Island to RV parking and connected it by monorail (or cable car) to the Rose Quarter, the Coliseum could have second life as a permanent flea market.
It could be like an urban Qartzsite northwest.
Frankly, this is one of the kooky ideas I would actually support. However, for those of you who do not support this idea, don’t fret. The idea is waaaaay too cool for Portland. Nope, what ever happens to the MC, it’ll be lame and boring. My bet is that absolutely nothing will happen to the MC and that it will continue to rot away for years to come.