A Good Thing, But Not the Right Good Thing
It makes my stomach churn to see a perfectly good $45 million project shuttered by the City. The project—involving a hotel, apartments, and a parking garage—has been tabled by the City Council because (get this) it doesn’t feature enough empty space. More specifically, the proposed building comes too close to a currently non-existent linear “park” along M Street.
Look, I understand a Master Plan needs to look forward and there will no doubt be hiccups in the road between plan visualization and realization. But this just sucks. Somebody wants to spend $45 million in our city and we’re going to tell them no? And after all the recent failures Downtown? Ugh. I sure hope City officials are doing cartwheels and handsprings trying to get this thing to happen.
The Comments
Fletch says This really pisses me off, September 29, 2009 at 8:06am
This really pisses me off, too. I think the “master plan” should be more guideline than rule, whereas something like this project could be a centerpiece for other things to build around.
If you really want a hoot, go read the LJS articles about the firefighters and the $300,000 screw-up, and look at the comments by Doug Emery. His tirade is an embarrasment for a public official to be posting online, if it was really done by him.
Gene says RE: This really pisses me off, September 29, 2009 at 8:59am
I wondered if it was really him. I wouldn’t think it would be all that wise to jump into the fray like that, but maybe there’s no real harm in it.
Dave K says Somebody wants to spend $45 September 29, 2009 at 11:44am
Somebody wants to spend $45 million in our city and we’re going to tell them no?
A quick glance at the ‘guidelines’ of the master plan will give you an idea of whether revenue generation is a priority, or even a concern, of city officials.