That's the general buzz in our neighborhood--that Council Member Herron
rarely returns phone calls. I have not called him often, but he has
usually returned my phone calls--though did not return my phone call when I
called about the turn in the alley for Park Av Methodist Church. Herron
supported the alley turn, and at the hearing about this, his staff said
that part of the reason he wanted approval was so that a minority
contractor who had the work, could get going on it. It is interesting that
the concerns of the contractor outweighed the concerns of the neighbors--21
who signed petition opposing the alley turn.
He has to his credit occasionally also answered email. None the less, I
often feel more represented by other council members than my own. I
appreciate the council members who do participate in this list. I wish
that Brian Herron would.
Jim Niland is on this list I believe, and it would be nice to get his
version of events regarding the Basim/Pham and MCDA.
Thing is, as long as there isn't real electoral competition for Herron, he
has no incentive to improve his lack of constituent service skills.
Eva
Eva Young
Central
At 09:48 AM 10/3/00 -0500, kaforbes wrote:
>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
>
>
>
