C’mon residents, put revitalization plan into perspective
Whiners! That’s what visionaries think of all this negative press about the Sprague revitalization plan.
It’s all perspective. Frankly, we’ve neglected to focus on the plan’s winning aspects. University business district will be big winners, so let’s get on board.
It’s all about location. Business on the inside of the center wins. Those outside lose. A few generations from now no one will remember your business leaving softly into that dark night. If the plan fails, at least we’ll have an aesthetically pleasing ghost town.
Government must be the bad guy to make a more perfect society. The free market couldn’t survive without Uncle Sam shaping rules to get rid of undesirable businesses that don’t fit their plans. Government isn’t shutting down small-business. While nonconforming uses can’t expand and must pay to meet new rules; if they pay they can stay. Is that Draconian? Not for winners.
Who pays? Developers and big business will suck it up and pay for all the new streets and Sprague/Appleway’s face-lift. They’re so rich, they’ll absorb the expense and never pass it on to the consumer. That’s rich.
Check the list and you can be whatever business you want to be as long as you have that San Francisco look. It’s reverse Robin Hood. You take from the less visionary (poor), give to the rich, and wait two generations when it all comes out in the wash. Picture it as business euthanasia. No more malingering ma-and-pa businesses. The reward is uniform, predictable tax revenue from uniform big business.
Always efficient, city center buildings plan an outside shelter. When that rainy day arrives, all the losers can stand under those awnings in the shadow of success. Higher prices and taxes will keep most too busy to watchdog future city plans.
How about allegations that the City Council doesn’t listen? Frankly, why should they listen to average citizens? Are you consultants? The council had to essentially commit identity theft and create a new identity for Spokane Valley because we wouldn’t buy into their vision.
Unhampered by fixed-income thinking, they rat-holed $6 million for our future City Hall. Come on, it would’ve burned a hole in our pocket. We’d have spent it on road improvements.
The city’s spent nearly $1 million on consultants, plus one old-growth forest, all to document the process and better justify their goal. That’s accountability. Council knows the good we choose is not good for us or Mr. Big.
Quit thinking like piddly taxpayers. It’s Manifest Destiny. We wouldn’t willingly spend our money on these things but that’s government’s gift. If Sprague/Appleway transformation isn’t your streets of gold, don’t worry. Hang onto McDonald’s golden arches and remember, there’s always Wal-Mart.