Jeff Pendergraph remembers the fight like it was yesterday. It changed his life. It also changed a relationship forever.

What would you like to see happen at Portland's Rose Quarter? With two stadiums, a transit center, parking structures and a large swath of vacant riverfront property, there's a lot of potential there. Would you like to see a sports-themed entertainment district? How about a museum...a water slide?  Friday marks the final deadline for public proposals to remodel this vast regional destination that hosts the state's only major-league team, the Portland Trail Blazers, and the aging (and controversial) Memorial Coliseum.

After nearly two months of sifting through concept applications ranging from a roller coaster to a concert hall to the Portland Trail Blazers' own JumpTown vision of repurposing Memorial Coliseum, the city of Portland's Rose Quarter Stakeholder Advisory Committee will close the gate on new ideas and begin to determine how to move forward.

After the Jan. 8 deadline, the SAC will analyze the concepts based on the evaluation of nine standards:  Finances, Architect, Veteran’s Memorial, Sustainability, Flexibility, Connectivity, Existing Rose Quarter and Surrounding Uses, and, lastly, Cultural Heritage.

With criteria in place and all eyes on Friday, two groups are busy fine-tuning their proposals, while the JumpTown group — the apparent frontrunner in the future of the Rose Quarter and Memorial Coliseum — finds itself having to defend the JumpTown development company, Cordish, which has recently taken some heat.

Perhaps the Portland Trail Blazers and Larry Miller shouldn’t chalk up another win just yet.

While their JumpTown vision for the Rose Quarter and Memorial Coliseum redevelopment was met with wide approval by area businesses and neighborhood associations last month, alternate proposals continue to flow towards Mayor Sam Adams and his 32-member Rose Quarter Development Stakeholder Advisory Committee (SAC).

(Pictured: Maurice Lucas, left, with Brandon Roy. Photo courtesy of Portland Trail Blazers.)

Here's a sneak peek at one of our January Street Edition stories. Read on and enjoy.

Driving home from the Rose Garden on a rainy Tuesday night in late December, Nate McMillan wondered where his life would be without Maurice Lucas, his longtime friend and Portland Trail Blazers assistant coach.

Add one more name to the mounting list of JumpTown supporters.

While Portland Trail Blazers team president Larry Miller prepares to give another JumpTown presentation today at the Oregon Association of Minority Entrepreneurs, the Portland Winterhawks are jumping in to support the Blazers and their plan to revitalize the Rose Quarter.

Change is finally getting ready to come to the Rose Quarter, one silo at a time.

“If you know anyone that can help us get rid of a grain elevator, that would be great,” joked Portland Trail Blazers Team President Larry Miller, who is helping spearhead a proposal to develop the Rose Quarter and re-invigorate Memorial Coliseum.

On Nov. 1, Miller and the Blazers were the first major players to ante up with their JumpTown vision — an intersection of sports, music and Portland culture — in hopes of renewing the Rose Quarter as a “vibrant 365-days-a-year district.” Since the launch date to accept public proposals, Mayor Sam Adams and his 32-member Rose Quarter Development Stakeholder Advisory Committee (SAC) have received vast submissions from the general public ranging from turning the Coliseum into a casino and convention center, a concert hall, a Seattle-like Pike Place, and even a few requests to simply bulldoze the “Glass Palace” sprinkled in.

The yellow sticky note no longer hangs from Brandon Roy’s locker at the Rose Garden, but the words once scribbled out in red marker remain permanent: “Stay Humble.”

It’s a two-word mantra the Portland Trail Blazers all-star guard began living by long before he became the face of a resurging franchise or an $82 million man this last summer. It began back when he was just an 18-year-old kid hosing out shipping containers at the Port of Seattle for $11 an hour.

“I’d come home just dirty from cleaning out containers and moving boxes on the forklift. I’d have to clean the bathrooms. I’d drive truck back and forth between docks. Some days I’d have to just sweep,” Roy remembered as he leaned against his locker after yet another Blazers home win.

[PHOTO TEASE BY MARK WEBER]
Larry Miller and the Portland Trail Blazers are pulling in some outside help for their inside job partnering with The Cordish Company, a real estate development and entertainment operating company based in Maryland.

On Saturday night in the Georgia Pacific Room at Memorial Coliseum, Miller — the Blazers team president and JumpTown front man — gave a half-hour presentation to roughly 60 ticket package leaders on the Rose Quarter vision and repurposing Memorial Coliseum.

During the forum, those gathered heard early and often about The Cordish Company, which we’ll continue to hear more about if or when the Blazers' proposal is eventually accepted by Mayor Sam Adams and the Stakeholder Advisory Committee (SAC).

[PHOTO TEASER FROM OREGONLIVE]

Randy Leonard has been the City Council's lone advocate for redeveloping Memorial Coliseum into a Triple-A home for the Portland Beavers.
 
The idea was first floated about a year ago.  After vocal opposition to that idea, and Mayor Sam Adams’ retreat from support of it, the Beavers got kicked to the curb.  Beaver owner Merritt Paulson and the city of Beaverton recently abandoned an attempt to move the team west.  Now, the new mayor of Vancouver is starting to talk about the homeless home team.

In the interim, the Trail Blazers have outlined a vision for the Rose Quarter that does not include baseball at all.  But with things moving so fast, is this a chance for Portland to score a rebound with the Beavers?
 
Leonard has recently been referred to as the de facto mayor of Portland by the Willamette Week. WW just released the second of a two-part expose on Leonard, one that calls into question some of Leonard’s methods but acknowledges that he is extraordinarily good at working a system that too often moves at glacial speed.
 
The Sentinel spoke with Leonard Wednesday to see if his position on the Coliseum has changed, and what his views are regarding the Rose Quarter.
 
Q. What are your initial thoughts on the Rose Quarter and Memorial Coliseum redevelopment?
 
A. “I’m not really sure what the redevelopment plan is at this point. I don’t know if anyone is. I supported a triple-A stadium going on the Coliseum site and the rest of the City Council did not, so we’re just sitting back waiting to see what comes out of the process the mayor initiated, and what the (Portland Trail) Blazers are willing to do.”

The Portland Trail Blazers may be winning fans over on the court, but the organizations JumpTown vision is throwing up air balls according to a recent poll by OregonBusiness.com.

The poll shows roughly 50% of those who participated in casting their opinion believe the JumpTown redevelopment idea is “a waste of taxpayer money”. The number is supported in the piece – “The OB Poll: Dumping on JumpTown” – by one Oregonian reader who feels the project is a “sad legacy for urban renewal”.