I'd like to carry my previous thought farther. The Council, when it debates whether to rename 39th Avenue after Cesar Chavez at a cost to the City of $150,000, should not be asking itself whether Mr. Chavez's memory is worthy of some commemoration, nor even whether his thin connections to Portland merit the Council honoring him, rather than another prominent labor leader, with a street. (I answer the first part of this question affirmatively, but not the second.)
Rather, the Council should be discussing whether this is the best use of $150,000 that it can think of.
SImilarly, when it comes time to vote on turning PGE Park into a soccer field and building a replacement baseball field in some other location, apparently to be chosen by the Flying Dutchman, the question is not whether the City should subsidize a soccer field and a baseball field, but whether helping to pay for two sports fields is the best use of $40 million (or whatever higher number the City's contribution, calculated according to generally accepted accounting principles, actually is). The issue is not soccer or no soccer, but $40 million here or $40 million there. It would be nice to hear any of the councilors grasp that principle of budgetary prudence.
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