Skating around the question
I see that Portland City Hall is calling its downtown ice skating rink experiment a success, and extending it through the 11th of February. I don't know what the criteria are for judging it a success, but from what Chainsaw Rubio amd her minions are and aren't revealing, I gather it isn't turning any kind of profit.
From Dec. 16 to 31, the ice rink sold roughly 12,000 tickets and generated more than $228,800 in revenue, according to Prosper Portland, the city’s economic development agency. The agency did not disclose the costs to set up and staff the ice rink.
Commissioner Carmen Rubio said the winter ice rink has been well received and helped shore up business in the downtown area. Prosper Portland said 85 visitors showed a receipt from a downtown or central city business for discounted tickets....
Amanda Park, program manager at Prosper Portland, said while it’s difficult to tease out whether the ice rink contributed to the increase in downtown foot traffic, her team is working with the Portland Metro Chamber to evaluate the data and possibly do a survey.
Park said the winter ice rink was an “investment” by the city to draw people downtown. Though the city charged admission for the rink, it was not intended to recoup the cost of building and staffing it, she said.
I'm not going to be too much of a grouch about it, but how much the city is spending on the thing is a public record, and the reporter for the O should not have let them evade the issue like that. I wonder if anyone will ask again. Lord knows, the media never inquires how the Convention Center hotel is doing, and that's a much bigger boondoggle that can't possibly called a success by any stretch. Yoo hoo, assignment editors!
Dumb stunt.....from start to finish. What's next after February 11??? Portland's downtown revival won't happen anytime soon without serious economic development efforts by Gov Tina and other investment resources.
ReplyDeleteAnything connected with Proaper Portland, formerly known as the PDC, is never kosher!
DeleteWhen I last visited Toronto there was a huge open-air skating rink right downtown free to all and open late into the night! Families, couples, solos, visitors, young and old all doing what Canadians do best....
ReplyDeleteAnd in other downtown news, Hoffman Construction is pulling up stakes and moving out of downtown after having been there for decades.
ReplyDeleteI visited twice and it was quite fun and well put together all things considered. Seeing the money that is wasted on much worse things in this city, I hope this tradition continues for many years to come. A better location in the future would help, as it is so tucked away that I am sure many folks don't notice it.
ReplyDeleteThey could take that money and give it to shoppers for discounts at Downtown stores if they really wanted to help spur sales.
ReplyDeleteThe O doesn’t acknowledge comments about journalistic incompetence. “Nothing to see here. Move along”
ReplyDeleteIf the make it a regular thing, I hope they find a better location. Maybe Pioneer Square, Director Park, or the Park Blocks would make more sense, and be more central and obvious.
ReplyDeleteAlso, sold 12,000 tickets, but only 85 downtown receipts for a discount? Yikes!
And that includes a week before Christmas, the hottest shopping time of the year.
DeleteLet's see, we bought this land for $6 million in SDC funding on the premise it would bring in parking revenue north of $500k per year, to which no parking revenue has been found. At least we made some money on a skating rink. God only knows what vendor got to build it, maintain it, and how much they made off that.
ReplyDeleteIce America. Didn't have to ask God to find that out
Delete