Mayor Adams, John Canzano mix it up on air

PORTLAND, Ore. - Sports columnist and radio talk-show host, John Canzano, called out Portland’s leadership Tuesday on his radio show, saying they have no vision.

It started with Canzano’s newspaper column on Monday. In it he blamed Portland Mayor Sam Adams and the City Council for letting the Portland Beavers get away. He said while the city has a $57 million tram and “silly bike lanes” worth $613 million, the city no longer has a Triple-A baseball team.

“I’m not anti-cycling, and I would hate for that to get muddled up in it,” Canzano said. “But I think when you look at the (bigger) picture it just comes down to a simple question: what kind of city does Portland want to be?”

Canzano was able to get Adams to come onto his radio show, “The Bald Faced Truth,” after leaving voice mails, sending Tweets and pressuring Adams to come on his show.

“I’m holding you guys culpable for this baseball team and a lack of a stadium,” Canzano said to the mayor when he finally came onto the show. “Do you think that’s out of line?”

 “Well, some of us have to exist in the real world of finance and the fact of the matter is is that baseball, the Beavers – great, great tradition, that’s why (I’m) absolutely interested in keeping them in the city of Portland - but the fact of the matter is, there’s a 30 million dollar gap and there’s no amount of rhetoric on your part that’s going to make up for that gap,” the mayor said.

“I would in a heartbeat trade a 57 million dollar aerial tram,” said Canzano.

For 13 minutes the two traded passionate punches.

“People keep saying, ‘Mayor Sam Adams, he survived the Beau Breedlove thing, look at him still in office.’ What about the loss of clout? Do you feel like you’re an empty suit? Do you feel like you have any clout?” Canzano asked.

“I’m the mayor of the city of Portland, and you’re supposed to be an esteemed member of the Fourth Estate, but you’re engaging in, like, schoolyard taunts and tactics,” Adams said.

“The fact of the matter is we studied this very carefully. We had a number of people study this issue very carefully, and we couldn’t make it work. Not because we didn’t want to, not because we didn’t try - the numbers didn’t allow us to make it work. And you can rail off and foam at the mouth all you want, but that’s the facts.”

Canzano fired back.

“If you are not going to answer the question about your leadership, good luck to you in 2012,” he said.

About 4,000 fans came to each of the Beavers’ games at PGE Park this season. There’s talk baseball will be back but no one knows when or where.

KATU Note: John Canzano is married to KATU News investigative reporter/anchor Anna Canzano, formerly known as Anna Song.