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The building the Blazers once sold out 809 consecutive games mostly sits empty now.

(Thomas Boyd/Oregonian)

Any other major city in America would have long ago blown the thing up. Any other municipality would shake its head at the absurdity of constructing a second basketball arena at the foot of its archaic and outdated predecessor, and then, keeping both facilities. That Memorial Coliseum was successfully thrust into the National Registry of Historic places as a strategy play by those who had a sentimental attachment to it says as much about us as the building itself.

A couple of years ago, the city wisely put on hold plans for a $25 million Memorial Coliseum maintenance upgrade. I'm momentarily thankful for that, but hoping, too, that we someday soon come to our senses when it comes to a piece of real estate that could mean so much more to Portland if it were converted into a more useful venue, keeping the black granite walls etched with the names of those who gave their lives for our nation.

It feels hollow that children don't walk past that wall on a regular basis, running their fingertips on the names of veterans. It feels silly that the building is used for weddings, some minor-league hockey and high school graduation ceremonies. Mostly since the Blazers left in 1995, it has sat empty, costing the city maintenance and utilities and headaches.

Even as it's gone unnoticed, there have been private, but important, discussions about the future of Veterans Memorial Coliseum in recent months.

Give him credit, Timbers owner Merritt Paulson tried to turn the arena into a 9,000-seat Triple A ballpark in 2009. The Trail Blazers stamped that out, posturing as if they wanted to develop the Rose Quarter, and the city caved. Yet, a few months ago, the Blazers were the frustrated ones, talking informally with city leaders, trying to figure out what happens to the building with the murky future.

So what should happen to it?

Even as the NBA team didn't want a competing sports franchise, even a minor league one, playing in their shadow, the Blazers recognize that the arena in its current form isn't practical. They see what you and I see. But are we willing to do what's necessary to turn Memorial Coliseum into the great venue it should be?

This "Only in Portland" moment is brought to you in part, well, by ... you.

Because until you speak up, you're complicit in this hokey little small-town, double-arena mess. The $25 million in public funds potentially spent on the upgrade project would be wasted going anywhere but back into the general fund. The city knows it, and has tabled the issue. Even the historical architects who protected the building must be giggling over how easily this has all been pulled off, mostly because the citizens and taxpayers are too soft-hearted to do what's necessary --- knock down walls.

Nobody will ever regularly attend anything other than, maybe, a Winterhawks game in that building unless it's converted into something more practical. This is the same venue that once sold out 809 straight Blazers games. And even as the building has important historical value, that value isn't lost if it's turned into a baseball stadium or another venue that serves the city.

Blowing it up is off the table. A cosmetic renovation amounts to pouring good taxpayer money into a hole in the ground. And so what we must begin to think about again is how Memorial Coliseum might be converted into a baseball park or football stadium that might maintain those important granite walls, the names of those veterans, and the heritage that accompanies that.

We must begin to think of a Veterans Memorial Coliseum that you'd want to visit again.

Maybe you want a high-rise with condominiums and breathtaking view of the Willamette River. Maybe you prefer restaurants and shopping. I want sports. Baseball, football, whatever. But I think we can all agree what shouldn't happen with the Memorial Coliseum: It shouldn't sit in its current state, eroding, and becoming a symbol of apathy and indifference.

The building is polarizing. Ask any two citizens what should happen to Memorial Coliseum and you've got a disagreement. On Tuesday, in the midst of daydreaming about what Memorial Coliseum could be I broke away and asked two passing individuals what they thought.

First woman said, "That's where I saw Lionel Richie and had someone throw up on me." She can't imagine tearing it down. The other said, "I remember going there as a kid, but I know it should be torn down."

Try it today. Ask two people. Then, ask yourself: What must be done here? Because taxpayers shouldn't be on the hook for a senseless renovation. The Blazers shouldn't have to exist in the shadow of a useless venue. Veterans should have a building in their honor they can visit, and celebrate.

Any other city would have solved this with sticks of dynamite.

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