Avenue with the most potential must wait, again
There is a City imposed Moratorium on Development on West Broadway.
Cultivating new business activity and vitality on this avenue, already a
difficult challenge here, is further impeded by this additional obstacle. In
the bad old days, Jackie Cherryhomes, while lavishly rewarding the DT portion
of her former Ward offered little more then punishment for her neighborhood
corridor, West Broadway. Like an abusive parent, with the wrecking ball as
her rod, she made her periods of simple neglect feel like a holiday from her
wrath. Many of us have tried to make a development "carrot" out of the
moratorium "stick". The professed goal of the moratorium was to allow time to
create an optimal development plan through a zoning (use) overlay. We had a
City Planner working to refine/redefine our Zoning Use Plan. RT diverted this
person to his Transition Team and delayed our development plans at least an
additional 6 precious months. RT, you must have known what this man's job
assignment was when you grabbed him away form us? Give him back; and come
around this Northwest quadrant of your City to show us you care about problem
solving here.
(For history and background I add what I wrote in Nov. 2000, when I only
dreamed of
e-Democracy)
Keith Reitman/World Headquarters Penn/Bro, November 25, 2000 5:16 am CST
"STOPPING WHO ??? NEWS FLASH/--CITY COUNCIL VOTES MORATORIUM on new
development along western third of West Broadway in effort to reverse Council
Member Joe Biernat BOO-BOO at old Burger King site. " This should help us do
the necessary planning for the old Burger King site. " says Jackie
Cherryhomes, Mpls City Council Prez. as she wields her shot gun solution to a
major oversight by Joe. He gave B/K a " pass " and a Mpls. $$$ hand-out on
its slide up the Avenue from Penn N. to Bryant N. He forgot, again, to talk
to those of us left behind at Penn/Bro or to demand a return favor from B/K
at the old site. Whoops! This council freeze on development extends from
Girard N. to the western city limits at Wirth Parkway. It is the area slated
for Henn. county repaving in spring 2002. How loud is the sound of Jackie
putting the Brakes on private development of retail and service facilities
along this huge stretch of the Avenue? Well, there will be no great
screeching noises, no skid marks, no vaporizing of matter as huge wheels of
industrial initiative grind to a halt here. Why? Because no private money,
free enterprise developers have made any plans to build anything in these
environs in years, probably decades. The measure of Jackie's "planning" is
starkly scored by the lack of retail development and the proliferation of
vacant lots, tax-forfeited lands and buildings, and ongoing decay of our once
decent West Broadway Av. The shot gun approach of moratoriums, that is by
outlawing one identity-building retail use after another, has just been
hostile. This negative unplanning has brought us the above mentioned torpor
here. Jackie didn't like used goods, once upon a time, so a moratorium was
placed on used goods on the Avenue in the '80's. Never mind that budget
minded shoppers did seek affordable furnishings up here to outfit there
affordable housing. ( P.S. guess who tore down all the affordable housing up
here. Hint: she is a D.F.L.er in the city council ) Never mind that tres chic
neighborhoods have always welcomed used goods shops as a place to find a rare
bargain or treasure (i.e., 50th and Xerxes S., 50th and France S. or Henn.
Av. S.). " Let Hawthorne, Jordan, and Near North pay retail for new junk!!"
must have been her battle cry. I guess fast food was a bad taste in her mouth
when she instituted yet another moratorium, this one against fast food start
ups. New auto related business's were also banned from start up by
moratorium. Did she feel they wouldn't fit in along TONEY West Broadway. "
The power to tax is the power to destroy '' was told to us by one of the
founders of this country. Our City leadership has found another way to
destroy, ZONE US OUT TO OBLIVION. I expect the vacant land the city gains by
nurturing default will be used to make all Jackie's dreams come true on the
Avenue. Is this a fair plan or a "final solution" for the rest of us?"
_______________________________________
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