City picks developer for developing new Sports Arena/Entertainment district:
https://www.kpbs.org/news/2020/aug/2...eloper-build-/ |
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https://eastvillagequarterinput.org/ |
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Do you think the Padres' proposal is at risk considering Cisterra is part of their JV and the city is now withholding rent payments for 101 Ash?
Voice of San Diego - City Is Halting Rent Payments on 101 Ash St. Quote:
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The RFQ/RFP for East Village Quarter doesn't seem to be accessible without creating a vendor login on PlanetBids, however some of the addendum are. I can't see the scoring categories, but the city makes it pretty clear in the Q&A that they can change how they weight them at their discretion.
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https://www.planetbids.com/portal/po...ompanyID=24128 |
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I'm no lawyer, but the way I've always understood the concept as it relates to RFPs is that public agencies have broad discretion to choose among proposals, but not with who they do business with. So for example, say a city has some land to lease and gets two proposals to build on it. One proposes to build an apartment complex, a school, some community spaces, and some stores. The other is a billionaire who offers double the rent of anyone else if he can build a giant mansion. The city can say their community will benefit more from additional housing, retail, etc than the extra rent, even if they didn't mention this explicitly in the RFP. Now lets say I'm a city manager awarding contracts to mow the lawn in front of city hall. You run a gardening company, and submitted the lowest bid to perform the work, but last week I heard you ran over someone's dog. I call you an evil, dog hating monster and give the contract to someone else. That was illegal, because you running over a dog has nothing to do with your employees' ability to mow a lawn. I am using public funds to push a personal vendetta, and acting in an "arbitrary and capricious" manner. This comes up because at this point there's no proof Cisterra has done anything illegal, or even anything wrong. In court they are going to argue that they didn't know 101 Ash St was full of asbestos, that it was the city's responsibility to check before buying the building and tearing out all the walls, and that the city is trying to punish them rather than admit it acted irresponsibly. And even if Cisterra did screw over the city by selling it a lemon, that alone is hardly proof that they won't build what they say they'll build now. Not that the city even needs to say that, they can legitimately say that the Brookfield proposal has more housing, a larger investment, etc instead. Cisterra might still sue though just to gain a bargaining chip for the fight over 101 Ash. |
Thanks for the breakdown! I hope whatever the decision is, the city and the developer can keep delays to a minimum during negotiation. The Padres are saying they could break ground as soon as 2025, and Brookfield isn't willing to comment on any potential construction date.
Either way, it's a long haul between now and golden shovels in the ground. |
Welp, I told you guys to prepare for the 1970s experience of watching your transit dreams bite it. Guess here we are.
Internal audit finds SANDAG leadership approved improper payments Full report I'm trying to wrap my head around all of this but the audit basically alleges that Ikhrata has been running SANDAG as his own personal fiefdom, without any form of oversight, and has used that power abusively. In detail he's being accused of: -refusing to acknowledge there are any limits to his ability to hire, fire, promote, transfer, or give monetary bonuses to SANDAG employees -lying to the SANDAG board that they are not allowed any form of oversight, and claiming that he can essentially make his own rules as far as the above goes -paying several retiring SANDAG employees large severance payments without proper justification (there's a strong implication this was done to keep them from badmouthing him to the press/the SANDAG board) -giving out monetary bonuses and pay raises to SANDAG employees with little documentation, and sometimes without clear justification -promoting employees to executive level positions without competition, possibly violating state discrimination laws -changing employees from full time into at-will employment (so they could be fired without standard process) -nearly doubling SANDAG's overall salary costs for no real benefit, and hiding this from the SANDAG Board -harassing the auditor while she was trying to make this report Ikhrata has responded that this is the way things have always been run at SANDAG, that the Board's oversight role consists of their ability to fire him, and that this auditor is biased against him. Probably not the best move, considering this audit was commissioned by the state after the failures of the last SANDAG administration... |
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He proposed a pie-in-the-sky hundred-billion-dollar plus transit plan in the middle of a pandemic (not his fault) to a city and region that are only prepared for incremental change. On top of that, he proposed a transit system that's ill-suited to San Diego's multi-nodal employment patterns and completely ignored the unique needs of a long and narrow region with employment centers scattered along nearly the region's entire length. Why he didn't go for the low-hanging fruit of a Purple Line trolley extension, a commuter rail along the 15-corridor and the long promised expansion of the north county freeways (perhaps with transit built into the median)??? Simple, ego and failure to "read the room". |
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Reading the room = catering to NIMBYS. If we had a non-controversial do nothing in there giving us the same half-assed crap SANDAG has put out the last many decades, people on this board would be complaining about how insufficient the transportation plan is. I’m not a fan of the corruption that has been swirling but I’m totally behind the plan he put out. Just because San Diegan’s will likely reject it doesn’t mean it’s not a good plan. In fact, that likely means it IS a good plan. This is the city that had a chance to buy Miramar for $1 in the 1950s and turned it down This is the city that turned down a smart city hall redevelopment about a decade ago that would have solved their impending leasing issues, and now it’s blown up in their faces with the old Sempra building This is the city that time and time again has made some of the stupidest, narrow-minded urban planning decisions in the country. I don’t consider a plan that fails to “read the room” bad at all; in fact, the “room” needs to be told they’ve f’d this city for far too long IMO |
IS RETAIL DOWNTOWN DEAD?
So, the last remaining tenant of Horton Plaza closed. Jimbos Horton Plaza has only a few days left. They are in the middle of a construction zone so I guess it shouldn’t be surprising, but there seems to be a really depressing void in downtown lately. I know some of this is related to COVID-19, but I have to wonder what plans there are (if any) for the future of retail downtown. There’s literally nothing left. It’s just restaurants and condos. Over the years I know there’s been proposals that have floated about putting a Target or Home Depot or other similar things, but it seems like they’ve all died. I’m not sure what will be in the ground level of the Horton Plaza redevelopment, they are extremely vague about it. I think there was supposed to be high end retail at Manchester’s Pacific Gateway and that crashed and burned. Is there just not enough people living down here for retail? Horton Plaza did good for awhile, so I’m having trouble understand why this is such a huge void downtown. |
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In late 1947, after the mass drawdowns post-WW2, San Diego asked for and the Navy gave permission for joint use at Miramar. There was an understanding that this was for cargo flights and maybe a few international flights, so long as they didn't interfere with Navy operations. Lindbergh would be kept open to serve the majority of passenger flights. The city was given a 50 year lease on half the aircraft parking areas and development rights to everything south of the runways. At the time Miramar's runways were too short for commercial airliners, so they would need to be extended before commercial service could start. San Diego at the time was broke, the curtailment of war protection left the unemployment rates at around 33%. In 1948 the city asked the CAB (predecessor to the FAA) for funding. The CAB declined, citing more urgent priorities and that San Diego could make due with just Lindbergh for a few years. In 1949 congress approved the Woods Plan, which designated Miramar as a Master Jet Station and primary base for all Navy aircraft on the west coast. Funds to expand the airbase weren't appropriated until 1951. From 1949-1951 the city tried very hard to find a way to coexist on Miramar with the Navy, but it was not to be. In 1950 the Navy retook the entire aircraft parking area to make room for Korean War training. In 1952, after the Master Jet Station was completed, the city ceded their development rights under pressure from the Navy. By then it was clear level joint would never be possible. |
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