Hello everyone!
Wow two posts in two days not bad. Please indulge me to let off more steam
about an issue that is not current but happened believe last spring
regarding the building at 4th and Lake. The building I am referring to is
the one building that currently has a vacant restaurant space and a theatre
that now I believe has moved or if it has not moved will be soon because the
new landlord raised her rent 6 times; a price she certainly can not afford.
The building had been renovated but went over budget and had to be sold. It
went on the market and was open to whoever was interested. There were at
least two bidders: a man by the name of Pham, I believe, who wanted to open
a Chinese restaurant and Basim Sabri who has loads of money and is trying to
own that whole corner of Central Neighborhood. The offer that my Pham made
was more than what Basim Sabri had bid. Many in the neighborhood had
lobbied to have Mr. Pham purchase the building for many reasons, two being
that he was going to keep the low income housing on the 2nd floor and he was
going to add a Chinese restaurant to a corner that did not have one. Mr.
Sabri was going to put in a Mexican restaurant and put in offices thus
displacing all the low income tenants. We contacted Brian many times to
express our desires and in his usual form he did not respond back. Again it
came to committee and we lobbied the committee, oddly enough MCDA was
advocating for Mr. Pham. The committee said they would defer to the
councilmember in that ward, Brian. Councilmember Niland said at the meeting
that he was voting for Mr. Sabri as that was who Brian was supporting. I
e-mailed Brian three times personally asking for his reasoning for choosing
Basim. He finally got back to me and said he never supported Basim. So
Brian are you calling Councilmember Niland a liar? In that deal the MCDA I
believe could have made $25,000-$50,000 I can't quite remember. I think
about the decision made yesterday and we lost a quality house because they
would have to pay out a subsidy. Can anyone help me make sense of this
craziness?
Thank you I feel better now,
Karen Forbes
Central Neighborhood
