I'm somewhat of two minds on this topic. On one hand, I'm pleased to see we may avoid another city subsidy we can't afford and shouldn't be getting into in the first place.
However, I'm somewhat concerned many opponents were such more because of an out of hand opposition to Cub because it so happened to be a large business. This appeared to be the case in some instances, whether intended or not. It would have been my hope if Cub moved forward, they would have constructed their store in a "streetscape" friendly manner. The Lund's in Uptown provides some point of reference here: building coming to the sidewalk, parking more hidden (either behind the building or with decorative fencing), and much more of a feeling of being pedestrian friendly. The Cub might have been built with open windows facing the street also, to provide more of a "street friendly shop" feel. I realize there were many concerns regarding Cub and its impact on Central and Northeast. My hope, however, was there could have been a dialogue as to how to resolve these concerns. I'm not sure if either Cub or the neighborhoods gave that dialogue much of a chance. Gary Bowman Audubon Park --- Bruce Shoemaker <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Good news--this morning it was announced that Cub > Foods is pulling out > of the proposed Sherman Associates development at > 23/24th and Central. > What many of us has suspected turned out to be true: > Without a large > public subsidy the project is not feasible. Faced > with significant > neighborhood opposition, and given the city's > current financial status, > the MCDA was unlikely to provide the minimum subsidy > required. > > Sherman Associates, however, still wants to proceed > with a redevelopment > proposal for the US Bank site. Details are not yet > available but their > new proposal will only be for the US Bank site, > include a mix of housing > and retail, and not require the acquisition of the > housing units and > businesses on the southern end of the block. There > is at least one > other serious proposal for the site as well. Both > proposals will be > presented at the January 9th Holland neighborhood > meeting and at a later > meeting of the Windom Park neighborhood group. > > Despite the Cub pull-out, the Northeast CDC > apparently still intends to > proceed with their duplicative and wasteful public > meetings regarding > the bank site redevelopment. The rationale for this > is unclear. The > whole reason the CDC gave for their involvement was > that a development > the size of a Cub Foods was an issue affecting the > whole area, not just > one neighborhood. But the revised development > proposal will be much > smaller--mainly housing and smaller commercial. > What real "value added" > is the NECDC providing? None that I can see, but it > will be interesting > to see what kind of spin the NECDC puts on this now. > > Bruce Shoemaker > Holland Neighborhood > _______________________________________ > > Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic > Discussion - Mn E-Democracy > Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now. http://mailplus.yahoo.com _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
