The front page news today about a remodel at the Reed Opera House was interesting.
The warren of dens and shops certainly needs an update, and it may be that the vaguely "gay 90s" retro theme from the initial big remodel in the 1970s is way long past its prime and needs a thorough update.
Old buildings must be refreshed and renewed so they answer to current needs and continue to be useful.
So really there's not much to object to.
But the building's name is the Reed Opera House, and the proposal to update it to simply "the Reed" seems like it might be a mistake. Maybe the word "opera" sounds fussy and dusty, but that seems like the one element of history an update should retain, even as they gut and replace the interior.
Maybe you will have a different opinion, and this is not a very strong opinion, but I think they should retain the full Reed Opera House name even as they totally change the interior.
Previously on the Reed Opera House see:
- "The Rebel who Owned the Opera House, Chaired the School Board, and was Willamette Trustee"
- "Lucy Rose Mallory: Publisher, Feminist, and Spiritualist"
- "Cyrus Reed of Reed Opera House was also a Spiritualist"
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| Anthropogenic Climate Change is not exactly a "natural disaster" |
The Task Force for the Climate Action Plan convenes tomorrow morning and each time the City and project team publish new materials, it seems they shy away from the central matter. They are timid rather than bold. When they could be impressive, they are not.
This Workshop appears to use a "natural disaster" frame and sees the tasks primarily as preparation and resilience, and not reducing emissions in any kind of "prevention" frame. Moreover, even if climate disruption will cause or aggravate natural disasters, like our wildfires this September, or cyanotoxins the past few summers in our water supply, they are substantially caused by human action in increasing greenhouse gas emissions, and are not merely the vicissitudes of nature, of weather, chance, and fortune. It's like they are talking around the targets Council recently adopted.
The project team is also not very good about publishing new materials on the third-party website. There are no presentations or other materials yet posted for this meeting for people who cannot attend or zoom in.
It will be interesting to see any follow-up after the meeting and to see what, in particular, our 350.org chapter has to say about it.
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