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Not For Publication
This week we received some hate mail from the Oregonian, which means
they are paying attention to us. The following letter arrived by
snail mail earlier this week: "I am appalled by your attacks on
our columnist Margie Boule and other irresponsible comments in your
recent issue. Journalism like yours¾if
we can even call it journalism¾
degrades the entire profession. You should come to my office next week
so I could teach you a thing or two about journalistic ethics,
responsibility, and above all else, class. You need a dose of decency
and class." NOT FOR PUBLICATION is written across the top and
bottom of the letter in human blood. We published the letter
anyway, but will allow our fan from the Big O to preserve their
anonymity. That seems like a decent compromise. For the
record, letting Margie Boule off the hook is not something we can do.
Did the courts release Ted Bundy from prison, allowing him to kill
again? Is Wayne Williams out on bail? Somebody has to keep
an eye on Margie. For now the job falls to us.
The Incredible Shrinking Appliance Salesman
How is it we have an easier time landing an interview with Gene Simmons
of KISS than with local appliance salesman Tom Peterson? The
Simmons management team got back to us promptly and made a good faith
effort to find a spot in his schedule for us to chat with him on the
phone. Tom Peterson? The cold shoulder. We crawled on our
belly across broken glass for a few minutes with the local icon, and all
we have to show for it are cuts and scrapes across our torso. Tom
doesn't even have a Web site. Someone should drag him kicking and
screaming into the modern age. Maybe Tom is more sage than we give
him credit for. If rejection is the ultimate aphrodisiac, we might
find ourselves camping outside his 82nd Avenue compound for an
exclusive.
The Hollywood Star
Apparently the Oregonian and Portland Business Journal wanted to
interview the management team for the Portland Bottling Company and was
denied access in recent weeks, making our current feature story
something of an exclusive. James Marsh, the self-described
"Bottling Specialist" at the Portland Bottling plant was pestered last
week by a reporter from the Hollywood Star, a community newspaper
covering the Hollywood District in Portland. How much
self-loathing is required for a newspaper to limit its coverage to a
tiny geographic strip of a major city? The Portland Bottling
Company isn't even in the Hollywood District, which speaks to the
desperation of their little publication. If the Oregonian is
Dustin Hoffman, the Portland Tribune
is James Gandolfini, and Inside Portland is
Matthew McConaughey, the Hollywood Star
is Gavin McLeod from the Love Boat, fresh off a dinner theater
performance of the Sisters Rosensweig in Montreal, Canada.
Read the Fine Print
Finally, a reader in Beaverton taunted our Fine Print column as a
"rip-off of The Edge from the Oregonian." Actually, "The Edge" is
a rip-off of the now defunct Spy Magazine, which at its zenith ranked
among the finest magazines ever produced. Spy was the architect of
its own demise. The brilliant but mean-spirited attacks it leveled
against politicians, media personalities, celebrities, and business
moguls like "short-fingered vulgarian" Donald Trump, earned the
publication so many enemies that its advertising base disappeared.
In the end, they were reduced to promoting 976 numbers and penis
enlargement devices. Before their demise, they were the first
magazine to employ desktop publishing, and originated dozens of feature
concepts still in use today, from "Separated at Birth" to the "Fine
Print" column featured at Inside Portland. Have we ever stolen an
idea from the Oregonian? Sure. We have yet to cover any
stories about corruption in the Portland Police Bureau or the excessive
use of deadly force by local law enforcement. To date, neither has
the Oregonian.
Martha, My Dear
Martha Stewart has mysteriously vanished from her own Web
site. No photos of the domestic goddess could be found at
marthastewart.com
and images that previously included the über hostess appear to have been
cropped. Stewart is under fire for alleged inside trading and has
assumed a low profile since her legal woes reared their ugly head.
Publicity hungry Congressman on the House Energy and Commerce Committee
made a lot of noise about her legal troubles, exploiting her name
familiarity to generate headlines. In the meantime, Martha Stewart
Living Omnimedia is laying off employees, tarred and feathered by the
scandal.
That Little Black Dress
When you receive more than 1000 e-mail messages every day, you become
less discriminating about what you delete. Even with a powerful
spam filter, we receive tons of junk mail, especially from publicists
who want us to provide ink for whatever they are promoting. While
being offered books, magazines, compact discs, toys, concert tickets,
and photos of provocatively dressed Portland State co-eds is certainly
appealing, the sheer volume of information we receive feels
overwhelming. Take for instance, an e-mail that captured my
attention this morning, for all the wrong reasons. "Dear
Christopher Vetter. Women today are more complex than ever. You,
for instance, probably care deeply about women's abuse issues, while
simultaneously worrying constantly about whether you'll find the perfect
black dress in time for your big date.
You're a driven career woman, who also looks forward to meeting Mr.
Right and having a family. Perfect skin, hair and nails are important to
you. So is world peace.
Marie Claire understands¾it's
the only magazine that recognizes the depth and complexity of women
today. Not just another shallow fashion magazine,
Marie Claire is aimed at women with
independent minds and hearts, who never follow the crowd and who have
their own unique sense of style." If I wasn't a guy I might spend
more time "fussing over my little black dress." Actually, magazines like
Marie Claire and Cosmopolitan are always a good read, for guys and gals
alike. An article like "Ten Ways To Tell If He Really Loves You"
is like raw meat to attention-starved post- adolescent women. Men
in my demographic group read these articles to deconstruct the yearnings
of 20-35 year old women so we can trick them into caring about us. Cosmopolitan and Marie Claire are
essential guide books for players everywhere. An article like "How
To Make Him Think About You When He is at Work" is a reminder to tell
the women in our lives that we think about them at work. Without
these little tips and hints, we might just forget. |
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The
world-famous Portland Bottling Company 7-Up sign stopped spinning in
1962, a victim of the infamous Columbus Day Storm. Bankruptcy
threatened to topple the city landmark, but a new ownership group is
restoring the factory to its former glory. |
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 The most famous commercial landmark
in city history will live to spin another day. The Portland
Bottling Company is back.
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by Christopher Vetter
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 andmarks
define cities. Washington D.C. has the
Jefferson Memorial and the
Washington
Monument.
Chicago offers Wrigley Field and the
Sears Tower.
Seattle is synonymous with the Space Needle. The City of
Roses has
Portlandia, but she arrived on the scene in 1985,
barely enough time to qualify for consideration. Beyond bridges
or buildings, the most famous commercial landmark in city
history sits atop the Portland Bottling Company headquarters in
the Kerns District. For over 60 years, their giant
7-Up display
sign has dominated the local landscape, a beacon of capitalism
that has survived twelve Presidential administrations, countless
storms and natural disasters, World War 2, the Korean War,
Vietnam, the Gulf War, the coming Gulf War, and the cancellation
of
Ally McBeal.
 The
Portland Bottling Company factory was the last building erected in
Portland in 1941. World War II brought a moratorium on new
construction. Since the project
began prior to the war, city leaders made an exception for the
factory and it opened in 1942. The mammoth 7-Up landmark
stopped spinning on October 12, 1962, a casualty of the infamous
Columbus Day storm.
The management team of that era considered the repair cost excessive and
it has not rotated since that time.
Times are about to change. “We are going to get it running
again,” said Portland Bottling Company Chairman of the Board
Samuel E. Allen. “We are very, very close to getting this
done.” Estimates for restoring the sign range from $50,000 to
$75,000, but the historic and public relations value of
repairing the sign appear to outpace any financial
considerations. Richard Engeman, Public Historian for the
Oregon Historical Society, believes the
sign might qualify for placement on the national historic
register. “This is something definitely worth looking at,”
 said Engeman. “It meets several criteria for historic preservation.
The first step is to nominate the site for consideration with
the Portland Landmarks Commission.” The nomination
process is labyrinth. Applications originate with the city,
travel to Salem for consideration by the State Historic
Preservation Office, then move to the
National Parks Service in
Washington D.C. “Application forms are pretty extensive and
take months to prepare,” said Engeman. “They require a lot of
historical research.” The Portland Bottling Company is flirting
with the idea of applying for the national register and may
submit an application before the end of the year.
Entrepreneur
Andrew Hrestu founded the company in 1924. In 1990, the Hrestu family sold the
plant to Robert Cole, who ran the company for roughly a dozen
years. Overexpansion forced the business to close shop and
declare bankruptcy in December 2001. According to the Portland
Business Journal, the company had $12 million in assets and
$16.6 million in liabilities.
“Bob was a smart, ambitious guy, but the economy didn’t keep
pace with his plans,” offered a former vendor. “This isn’t a
bad business to be involved in¾the
demand for soft drinks and beverages is always going to be there¾but
any business is going to see sales drop off. Bob simply didn’t
prepare for the worst case scenario.”
Until a new management team appeared on the horizon, the
Portland Bottling Company seemed destined for the dustbin of
history. “Under different circumstances, the plant could have
become a fast-food mall, a housing complex, or a sterile
business park,” said Bottling Specialist James Marsh. “It could
even have been plowed over, with a plaque placed on the site to
commemorate what was once a proud business.”
“Near the end, I was with Bob Cole and [Portland Bottling
Company CEO] Randy Wright at a crab feed, and we explored ideas
for rescuing the plant from bankruptcy,” said Allen. “We
negotiated with the bank to see if we could buy it directly, but
it was too late to call off the auction. In February 2002, we
had to bid on the equipment like everyone else. Over 280 people
bid on items piece-meal, while we went after the entire
property. In the end we not only won the auction, we got it all
for less than the bank was willing to sell it to us in the first
place.”
Allen is one of the most influential people in the city and
served on the board of directors of
the Portland Oregon Visitors Association. His business
empire includes the Monarch Hotel, the Inn at the Meadows, and
vast real estate holdings in
Oregon
and Washington. He also presides over two lending
institutions, Today’s Bank and the Town Center Bank. “We
are very happy with the direction of the plant,” continued
Allen. “We have completely modernized the operation while
creating jobs in
Portland.
Everyone we hire becomes a stockholder in the company. We don’t
call our team members employees, we call them owners.”
Though the amount of stock each employee receives is nominal,
the gesture is appreciated by the rank and file. “This is a
great place to work,” said Quality Control Manager Ed Steckel,
“The plant was a mess when we arrived. We took a building
filled with archaic machinery and converted it into something
modern.”
Cole and the previous ownership team bottled 7Up, RC Cola, and
other familiar brands, then distributed them to stores and
businesses throughout the Northwest. The new Portland Bottling
Company is not involved in product distribution.
“Transportation fees were a huge expense,” said Portland
Bottling Company President Tom Keenan. “Outsourcing
distribution is a less expensive way to bring our products to
the market.” Keenan and Wright streamlined the operation,
allowing Portland-based Columbia Distributing Company to deliver
bottles and cans to store shelves.
Portland Bottling has two principal divisions, one for beverages
and another for general merchandising. “We don’t just survive
on our liquid assets,” quipped Marsh. 70% of company revenue
comes from purchasing and marketing retail goods, from stuffed
animals to toys. “Hundreds of stores carry Portland Bottling
merchandise under a variety of brand names,” said Keenan. “Anything you see on a local store shelf could have originated
from our warehouse.” Wright regularly develops products for retail distribution, from video cassette recorders to later
 versions of the
Teddy Ruxpin talking bear. “Don’t forget his
friend Grubby,” said Marsh, “Ruxpin was nothing without his
sidekick Grubby.”
The dominance of general merchandising as a percentage of
revenue should decrease over time. “We expect that
beverage sales
will be our focus in the near future,” said Wright. “Over
the next few months, general merchandising will take a backseat
to bottling. As production increases and new employees are
hired for additional shifts, 70% of our revenue will originate
with the bottling division.” In addition to
Royal Crown
Cola and Diet Rite, the Portland Bottling Company manufactures a
number of "private label" soft drinks, including store brands
featured at major supermarket chains throughout the Northwest.
Insiders
expect the Portland Bottling Company to add 7-Up to the list of
beverages produced at the factory.
“We
are optimistic,” said a member of the management team.
“Our fingers are crossed that we can bring 7-Up back home.”
Plans are underway to market a line of spring water originating
from Culver, Oregon under the brand name Opal Springs.
According to the Portland Business Journal, the growth potential
for bottled water is vastly greater than for carbonated soda.
Opal Springs represents a departure for the Portland Bottling
Company, since they will produce their own brand instead of
limiting their operation to filling orders for clients.
 Previous owners provided public tours of the Portland Bottling
headquarters. Thousands of children visited the factory over
the last three decades. “I came here as a kid,” said Marsh. “I
remember having a crush on the 7-Up lady in third grade. I
don't really remember what she looked like, but she gave us free
pop, and that was enough for me." Allen is determined to
resurrect the public tours as a service to the community. “Watching the factory line is visually exciting,” said Allen.
“You can’t believe how quickly they create thousands of bottles
and cans. I remember as a kid going through the
Alpenrose Dairy,
and what a big deal that was. We are going to bring these tours
back.” By any measure, the Portland Bottling Company is growing
and thriving, encouraging local investors and entrepreneurs to
search for opportunities in their own back yard. "We feel like
we are on a mission,” said Marsh. “If we support the community
and continue to work hard, that 7-Up sign will live to spin
another day.”
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 Hunger in Oregon Tied To Minimum Wage
"Oregon's food insecurity is
based not in a lack of emergency food, but in the low level of
wages in the state and the high cost of housing," says Rachel
Bristol, Executive Director of the Oregon Food Bank. The
real cure for hunger? Force people to stare at
this face and they will lose their appetite. |
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 ►In our February 27, 2003 Fine Print
blog, we wrongly stated that
Willamette Week Writer Zach Dundas had covered "a news story already
reported ad nauseum at Willamette Week¾the
Obo Addy family feud." Though other publications have
mentioned the falling out between the West African drummer and his
nephew, Willamette Week never previously reported the story.
►Oregonian
Editor Sandy Rowe was not at the helm of the 153 year-old newspaper
when Bob Packwood was elected to
a
fifth Senate term in
1992. In a March 6, 2003 article,
Rowe was wrongly identified as the editor responsible for failing to print
information about allegations of sexual
harassment leveled against the former senator before the November 1992
election. We regret the error.
Do you have a concern to share about Inside Portland? Send
feedback or suggestions to
editor@insideportland.com. |
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The Randy Leonard and Vera Katz Show
Portland City Council meetings can be deadly dull affairs. Policy
analysts or self-important community leaders can drone on endlessly
about sewage processing or the importance of fluoride in our regional
water supply. The guarantee of boredom that accompanies these
meetings was lifted last November with the election of City Commissioner
Randy Leonard, a fireman turned State Representative who took over the
City Council seat vacated by Charlie Hales. Leonard is a
no-nonsense pragmatist whose patience with verbose speakers is extremely
limited. If a city official or invited guest isn't providing
answers quickly enough, he will turn on them―setting
his glasses low on his nose, scowling, frowning, and radiating
disapproval. The effect can be withering on ill-prepared speakers.
Guests before the Council have stammered, hesitated, fretted, and stared
at the floor in response to the "Randy treatment." These exchanges
are hugely entertaining, not unlike watching an adult get sent to the
principals office. As a counterweight to the "Randy treatment"
Mayor Vera Katz radiates warmth, literally consoling visitors
to the Council after a Leonard outburst with comments like "we know how
hard you are working on this" or "we value your input and appreciate
your time today." Vera plays good cop to Randy's bad lieutenant.
If you scripted some of these exchanges they could not be any more
dramatic. Vera is Paula Abdul from American Idol, encouraging and
nurturing the young singers that approach the Council. Randy is
Simon Cowell, reminding contestants not to quit their day job.
Together, Vera and Randy endow every City Council meeting with the raw
appeal of reality television. You just don't know what might
happen next. |
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Seattle Supersonics Embarrass the
Blazers
Though the Blazers swept the
season series versus Seattle, the Sonics Web site puts our home team to
shame. Check out the
interactive Flash pages at the Sonics site then sneak a peek at what
the Blazers
have to offer. The Blazers page is filled with blurred or
low-resolution images and desperately needs a face-lift. The
Sonics site features the
Greatest
Moments in Supersonic History, a tribute to players who made an
impact on the franchise. Any mention of Clyde Drexler, Terry
Porter, Buck Williams, Rick Adelman, Jack Ramsey, Bill Walton, or even
Kevin Duckworth is strangely absent from the Blazers site. The
public relations geniuses at the Rose Quarter are too busy promoting
Alaska Airlines ticket giveaways to honor the players and coaches who
built the franchise. They could at least add an interactive Flash
game featuring Rasheed Wallace evading police or streaming audio of the
Ruben Patterson 911 call from his wife. |
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Size Does Matter
skyscraperpage.com employs an amazing graphical engine to display
major buildings and construction projects around the globe.
Skyscrapers are represented visually, with deadly accurate diagrams of
each tower arranged in order of height. The
Portland page is impressive, with 18 skyscrapers represented, from
the Wells
 Fargo Center at 546 feet to the Portland Building at 235 feet.
The Wells Fargo Center edges the US Bancorp Tower by a mere 10 feet. To
the naked eye, the US Bancorp Tower appears to be taller, since it rests
on an elevated slope. The third tallest building in Portland is
the KOIN Center at 509 feet. Interestingly, the top eight
floors of the KOIN Center are occupied by Channel 6 anchor
Jeff Gianola and his ego. Rounding out the list of tallest
buildings in the city is the PacWest Center at 417 feet, the recently
built Fox Tower at 371 feet, and the Standard Insurance Center at 367
feet. |
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In our cover story last week, we chatted with
Dwight Jaynes, the
outspoken media personality
considered the leading proponent of Major League
Baseball in the city.
 In light of Governor Kulongoski's
flat
rejection of the Grande Ronde Tribes proposal
to pay for a new baseball stadium, we asked Dwight to share his thoughts
on the economics of baseball in Portland and whether the sport could
succeed in Rose City.
Inside Portland:
Is gambling income a credible solution for financing a baseball stadium
in the city?
Dwight Jaynes: I’m a
real radical when it comes to gambling. I think that the state ought to
get into the gambling business. It already is with Keno and with video
poker and sports action. The state ought to say why should we allow the
Native Americans to make all this money off us. You know, why shouldn’t
the state make the money? I think we’re kidding ourselves, and I
think the public’s way ahead of politicians on this. Whenever I
talk about legalized gambling on the air, I am inundated with calls from
people saying, yes, it’s time to do this. It’s time to look in the
mirror and admit what we are, we are gamblers. Why shouldn’t the
state make the money off it? Let’s go for it, and I hear that all
the time, and I just think our politicians are dragging their feet and
not getting involved. I think a casino and a ball park would both
change the entire face of this community. Just the construction
projects alone would be huge.
Inside
Portland:
With AAA baseball
bleeding money at PGE Park, how would Major League Baseball baseball
succeed in Portland?
Dwight Jaynes:
Major League baseball right now is a hit just about wherever it is,
outside of Canada. It’s pretty successful when it’s done right
with a nice ball park. I think it’ll be more successful here than
in most places simply because we don’t have the proper ratio
of
Major League teams in this town. We are very underserved. I
think people are looking for an alternative to what they’ve gotten with
the Blazers. It’s very simple. If NBA basketball is big here,
Major League baseball would be much bigger. There are obvious
reasons for that. The arenas are bigger. You serve more fans
with each game. There are twice as many games, so more people are
served by your product. You could sell out every game in the Rose
Garden, but you can’t ever hope to put as many people in there for a
season as Major League Baseball would put in for a season. More
people get involved. It’s also much, much cheaper. It’s
still family friendly in terms of pricing and things like that. It
would be a no-brainer here. It would succeed, I think, wildly.
I am one of the few people still around who was here before Blazers.
All of the arguments that are anti-baseball, I heard the same arguments
against the NBA. People said that Blazers would never fly in this
town.
Inside Portland: Why do you
think Blazers owner Paul Allen is not interested in Major League
Baseball?
Dwight Jaynes:
He is a little bit quirky.
Allen is only interested in things that he is interested in. He is not
a baseball fan, so he is not interested in bringing baseball here.
I think he was a little bit of a football fan. I think living in
Seattle it would be hard not to be a little bit of a fan between the
Huskies and the Seahawks. Purchasing an NFL team was an opportunity for
him to step into his home town and do something for Seattle—the whole idea of sort of saving the team and the new stadium and all
that—I
think is sort of a legacy for him. He is so involved with the
Blazers team here I think he might have felt some
pressure.
Hey you know, I’ve done something for Portland let me do something for
Seattle. I give Paul Allen a lot of credit. Paul Allen is an
owner who’s willing to put his money where his mouth is, and he wants to
win. I think very often he has received bad advice on how to go
about winning, but he wants to win, and that’s a good thing for an
owner. A lot of owners don’t care. They just care about
making money.
Dwight Jaynes hosts a sports
radio talk show on KPAM 860 AM every weekday from 3pm to 5pm. |
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