Everyone is wondering what happened today at council. Well….well….no one is sure, exactly. At the last minute Rickenmann proposed an amendment to the resolution reducing the city up front payout for air rights to $500,000. Finlay went along with this saying he was satisfied that with that reduction plus a commitment by the 5 Points Association to rent monthly spaces for 3 years would satisfy a worthwhile cash flow, Finlay, who usually is on top of matters financial, neither asked how many spaces would be rented, nor had it contractually obligated. Now, where is the money coming from? From the general 5 Points Association budget? I would hope it is from the individual merchants who want the spaces, not out of my dues nor the money my association raises from other means. Those who wanted it should commit to it, not charging the rest of the members for something that they will not use as they have no need, or it is too far to be of practical use. This is a loop hole that does not obligate anyone, just a wordy way of pushing it through.

The proposal caught many on council off guard as the majority did not hear of it until 8 or 9 this morning. Coble and others expressed concern that the condos would not happen with only $500,000 instead of the $1,000,000. He stated that if the developer could not do it with $500k, the city may have to participate in some way to help. Finlay said that he did not believe we should have to subsidize condos and private development deals, and that this issue should be only about parking in 5 Points. Obviously, Tameika, Sinclair, Coble and EW were somewhat confused by the situation as they had not time to ask questions and digest them. Council redid the proposal on the spot with attorney Gottlieb rewriting it. EW stated that it is not a good idea to do that without time to consider, nor on the fly in a public forum, which is good policy. Council added new conditions and voted yes with EW voting no.

Is it a win for anyone? Who knows as it is still a confused issue, and the possibility that the developers will not get financing for 20+ expensive condos. It also appeared to some to be a backroom deal, and rumor is that a councilman called the developer last night and said take the $500,000 or the deal is dead. Feelings also ran that this is a political move by Rickenmann to salvage some of his credibility as he took a beating in the recent city election, losing nearly every ward in district 3 and wards surrounding the Kenny project, barely winning by only 3-4%. Thought is that he needs to establish goodwill now if he is to run for mayor in 2 years. Will this do it? Or will it anger both sides? Tune in 2 year from now and I will let you know.

(I wonder if he will first resign his seat to run? Or will he run, and if he wins, resign, causing the city to spend somewhere between $50,000 to 100,000 to run a special election, depending on who’s numbers you believe.)

All of this, well most of it, should be on tonight’s news and tomorrow’s paper.

Joseph Azar

Write comment
Name:
Email:	do not notifynotify
Website:
Title:
UBBCode:	-color-aquablackbluefuchsiagraygreenlimemaroonnavyolivepurpleredsilvertealwhiteyellow -size-tinysmallmediumlargehuge
	Please input the anti-spam code that you can read in the image.

3.25 Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."