Important information was left out of story
I’m puzzled. In reading the Valley Voice this past Thursday on the demise of the Sprague/Appleway Revitalization (Redistribution) Plan, I noticed some interesting omissions.
Of course, always noted was my participation in Friends of Spokane Valley (formed to restore of property rights for over 1,100 small business and property owners along the Sprague corridor) followed by my participation in the Disincorpration Now movement. OK with me. I will always stand against the bullying of a local government using the right of petition and the ballot box for change.
However, for real disclosure, I noticed an inordinate amount of “front-load” print given to the members of the not-disclosed SVBA (Spokane Valley Business Association.). Those speaking against the SARP are mostly at the end, summarily discounted and dismissed by their past activism against injustice.
So please add this:
Dick Behm, author of a fear-mongering e-mail saying that our Valley is lost without a City Center at U-City. Missing is his SVBA membership and ownership of commercial property in the favored area.
Richard Munson: SVBA member and former council person who angrily continues to lobby for his oppressive vision asking for resignations. Failing to address glaring inequities and problems, he rushed SARP through, taking cover in SVBA and Chamber endorsements. No special interests here except possibly the rightful judgment of the electorate.
Carlos Landa: Board member of the SVBA.
Dr. Philip Rudy: SVBA Board member and Chamber of Commerce member who champions a return to a two-way Sprague Avenue to the freeway and a city-owned “Big Dig” tunnel from U-City to Dishman for traffic with city built above.
Karla Kaley: After Ms. Kaley’s multiple-paged treatise on remaking the Valley, no mention of her ownership of a large office building next to U-City and that she’s a recent transplant to the Valley. I applaud her activism, but shouldn’t those interests be disclosed along with her status as an ex officio board member of the SVBA?
Councilperson Bill Gothmann is a member of the SVBA, champion of the SARP and the traffic reversal. He and Rose Dempsey both oppose a public vote on the traffic direction. Repeatedly, I have asked for a public vote. Never mentioned. What does the SVBA fear?
Where was mention of the substantial number of property and business owners and the harm done to them? They spoke.
Over the past year, hundreds have come forward to plead for relief. Only this meeting was mentioned, not past hearings over months. The SARP is costly, hurtful, filled with oppressive detail. The intent may have been good, but “The road to ruin is paved with good intentions.”
As Senator and Councilman Bob McCaslin eloquently says: “The ‘plan’ is the free enterprise system, and the duty of government is to get out of the way.” We need jobs and revenues from business in this community and that’s what drives this Council.
Lastly, Councilman Gothmann continues to cite a 2004 survey for a city center at University City though it is now almost 2011. The city’s moved on. The heart of the community is CenterPlace, between Pines and Sullivan in economic terms and community spirit. There is freeway access, Class A office buildings, regional shopping, hotels nearby, a medical district, the Industrial Park, vacant land, the Centennial Trail, Senior Center, YMCA, Discovery Park, government facilities, Mirabeau Park, river views and natural areas.
Sprague Avenue is a business route, for new and existing businesses of all types. It provides opportunity for hundreds of small businesses who can’t afford the high prices and rents of other areas. The council has practical, common-sense goals to help business in this corridor. The high-priced consultants of SARP can peddle their “Brooklyn Bridge” somewhere else.