Downtown Drama
Last night, I attended the pre-submission community meeting for GGP’s proposed new development at the mall. I’ll let you read about the drama that ensued here.
One of the things that kept coming up during the question and answer portion of the evening was the fact that the documents and renderings displayed around the room were hard to understand.
Really?
Let me get this straight. You’re not an architect, planner or engineer, but you expect have a good understanding what’s going on in complicated site drawings? Really?
I heard a lot of negative comments, but one in particular really made me angry. A woman named Ursula Kondo, who I remember from her LTE’s opposing the beautiful new Walgreens at the corner of 175 and Thunder Hill Rd said, “This is a waste of time.”
Really?
Let me get this straight. You’re seeing these documents before they are submitted to the county, yet you think this is a waste of time? Really? Isn’t MORE community involvement one of your mantras?
Look, it is clear to me that the same tired old voices are trying to remain relevant and will stop at nothing to derail or delay the progress we need downtown. If we thought the opponents of change that tried so desperately to stop the plan before would magically disappear, last night’s drama at HCC is proof that they were just laying low for a while.
Those of us who fought so hard to get the plan passed cannot just sit by and let these people dictate the terms of this process. Stay tuned….
-Brian
C2.0 
The thing that I found most frustrating about the entire evening was that those who claim to have followed the entire process for 7 or 8 or 10 years have not bothered to learn what process was approved. If they had listened at all in those many, many meetings or read the council bills or zoning regulations that were approved, they would understand that the developer was doing exactly what he was asked to do…period. I was particularly embarrassed that a member of the CA Board which currently has a project going through this same process, can’t figure out what is expected of a developer at this point. On the other hand, I fell sorry for those who genuinely just wanted to learn something about the future of downtown. This wasn’t the place to do that, and, based of the performace of some other members of the audience, why would they bother to get involved now?
After all these years, of wading through the same legislative phases, it’s trying to be exposed to the same impudence imposed on developers. One would think that a long-term CA representative, Rouse Architect, Organizational Figurehead and Activist would have the skills to conduct themselves with reason. Seems like this has become wishful thinking. While Alan Klein wants GGP to provide real information so we can trust them (real information to be able to trust them?) what is certain, we can trust Alan Klein to continue dangling bad bait. Thanks for telling like it is Brian!
After all these years, of wading through the same legislative phases, it’s trying to be exposed to the same impudence imposed on developers. One would think that a long-term CA representative, Rouse Architect, Organizational Figurehead and Activist would have the skills to conduct themselves with reason. Seems like this has become wishful thinking. While Alan Klein wants GGP to provide real information so we can trust them (real information to be able to trust them?) what is certain, we can trust Alan Klein to continue dangling bad bait. Thanks for telling like it is Brian!