Prediction for Proposed 30th Street Urban Renewal District
Last night the City Council served notice that they intend to hold a series of public hearings as they seek to create an urban renewal district around the 30th and Main corridor. I AM ALL FOR IT! I give big props to City Council person Elaine Clegg who spearheaded the design charrette for this area. Nearly 200 residents from the area participated. In the end input from participants in the charrette informed the creation of a 200 page master plan for this neighborhood that is nothing short of totally run-down. I hope the City and CCDC are successful in creating a new district. It is one of the few tools that government has to actually help spur development. And at least SOMEONE is trying to do that. Our Governor is on trail rides and firing staff members and talking ‘cowboy code.’ Thank Heaven the Mayor and Council are taking their charge seriously.
Anyway - on the prediction. If you saw the usually hysterical Dave Frazer’s blog the other day, he actually wants a constitutional limitation on the activities of redevelopment agencies. That completely defies any sense of the historical development of the United States where most cities predate the existence of the territories and ultimately states in which they reside. As states came to bear, municipal power waned - that is until states realized that cities were their economic engines, and constitutional changes gave municipalities more power to control their own destiny. As it stands today, Idaho’s municipalities have less authority than any state west of the Mississippi. The Governor says - get the government off your back and out of the way - but that presupposes that entities other than the state government have some ability to control their own destinies. In Idaho that isn’t the case.
But as for predictions as I keep promising - Having several years ago worked at City Hall as staff to the Council, I can tell you how many people showed up to the more than one-dozen public meetings on the 2006 budget. Zero. My prediction is that Dave Frazier will piss and moan at the Guardian Blog, and never once show up at a public hearing to give us a rational reason, on the record, why this city should not act to control the blight within its borders. Messr. Frazier wants a pure democracy where citizens get to vote on everything their electeds propose but he wants to do it in cyberspace.
If there is statewide opposition to urban renewal, Mr. Frazier, then bring that tribe down to City Hall. I’d like to see it. 200 neighbors from a neighborhood YOU DON’T LIVE IN asked for a solution to the slum that has become their neighborhood, and the city is granting their wishes. It is time for you to stand down, sir.
Tags: Dave Frazier
Economic Development, Government | admin July 14, 2010
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By Ted V., August 11, 2010 @ 12:00 pm
I used to read the “Boise Guardian” fairly regularly, but ultimately got tired of the constant attacks on everything Boise tried to accomplish to make the city more liveable, and interesting. As usual these raging Libertarians consistently get caught in their own contradictory traps, such as the one you pointed out. Of course most Libertarians I’ve found are just Conservatives that don’t like to be called Conservative.