Forest City woos city council.
According to the Fresno Bee, City Council nearly wet their collective pants when they saw Forest City Enterprises presentation for redeveloping the area near the downtown stadium. Let's hope they don't get star struck and hand over the house keys. Some thorough due diligence will be required.
On its face, the project looks like a definite shot in the arm for Fresno, and is a progression to what Fresno needs--more efficient land-use policy, integrating housing, retail, and commercial spaces. The project would usher into existence a characteristic heretofore lacking in Fresno; an integrated, urban, city-space. The Mall falls a bit short, due to its lack of housing; this flaw would not be replicated with the Forest City project.
I have two primary concerns about the project. 1) How much public money will the developer be seeking, and 2) What will be the impact to existing businesses? Corporations have a habit of feeing at the public trough whenever possible. Last time I checked, a good investment is a good investment; so how much public tax dollars will they want and for what? Also, it doesn't send a good signal to your existing business base when you run roughshod over them to assist another company with land assemblage and financing. It'll be interesting to see how this one plays out over the next few years.
Some questions for the readers:
Do you want to see this project happen?
Do you think the public should contribute a significant sum of money to make it happen, if necessary?
Should eminent domain be used to acquire needed property, if necessary?
On its face, the project looks like a definite shot in the arm for Fresno, and is a progression to what Fresno needs--more efficient land-use policy, integrating housing, retail, and commercial spaces. The project would usher into existence a characteristic heretofore lacking in Fresno; an integrated, urban, city-space. The Mall falls a bit short, due to its lack of housing; this flaw would not be replicated with the Forest City project.
I have two primary concerns about the project. 1) How much public money will the developer be seeking, and 2) What will be the impact to existing businesses? Corporations have a habit of feeing at the public trough whenever possible. Last time I checked, a good investment is a good investment; so how much public tax dollars will they want and for what? Also, it doesn't send a good signal to your existing business base when you run roughshod over them to assist another company with land assemblage and financing. It'll be interesting to see how this one plays out over the next few years.
Some questions for the readers:
Do you want to see this project happen?
Do you think the public should contribute a significant sum of money to make it happen, if necessary?
Should eminent domain be used to acquire needed property, if necessary?
posted by Jason at 9:02 AM
3 Comments:
Great post, keep up the good work. I would like to see the project go forward. However, more information needs to be revealed before I can answer the other two questions: (1) the amount of public $ that should be used and (2) whether the power of eminent domain should be invoked. I'm not opposed in principle to either the use of public money to fund a revitalization project or the use of eminent domain to further that project, but as of yet, very little information has been made available, at least by the Fresno Bee, which for better or worse is my primary source of information on this issue.
The proactive downtown project is doomed, as you will all see. Do not be fooled by the government's slight of hand tricks. This is step one of hundreds, and as you will see, Downtown will become Riverpark 2. It doesn't help that you have only two readers for your blog, and the rest of the universe could really give a shit.
I ,too ,worry that it will be just another River Park. This needs to be less sterile than River Park to allow a true urban feeling to the project. It needs to allow the people who do move there to dictate what it will really feel like and not manufactured by the Forest City corporation. Having said that, I don't have a problem with public money spent or eminent domain ,for the right project.
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