Quote:
Originally Posted by bradford
urban_j: No one has ever argued that Marriott shouldn't pay the fees it's being charged. The question is, How do we spend the money? We could spend it on anything. Sidewalks. Downtown grafitti removal (proposed budget -- if city finds the money for it -- $550,000). Other displaced businesses. How do you justify giving all of this money to one business? What, should the city give money to every business displaced by development? Apparently not -- there are businesses being displaced every day that no one seems to give a sh*t about. And we all know we couldn't afford to do that anyway. So what are the criteria for deciding who gets the handout and who doesn't? Apparently, it's just whoever can raise the most ruckus. That's a stupid system, and just encourages rent-seeking.
And what is the justification for making the loan forgivable? I have yet to see a coherent justification for that.
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I definitely see your point, I mean about other displaced businesses - especially the others in that block. And about the loan - I don't believe it should be forgivable, necessarily, especially since the sisters run a packed house most of the time. However, let's look at the fact that this business is the one who may have just turned the game over, setting a precedent to follow and alter for other neighborhoods, even though it has, yes, caused a lot of 'ruckus'... but it's not just people complaining, right? this is their life, their business, their location for 25 years (right?), not just a petty thing. atleast find that little shred of respect for them for having the guts to stick it out and be secure in their cause. that's more than i can say for a lot of austin - which has become more complacent with age. that is the real cause of displaced businesses - and pure observation tells us that consumers in the majority here really and truly don't give a damn anymore, or rather they don't understand the correlation between great city and local business. and, in today's world it seems a bit of 'ruckus' may be the only effective way to get an answer. i'm not about to believe, though, that austin is just going to start rolling over for other businesses - that is an accusation often heard about the federal government and welfare, etc... when in reality, it just doesn't work that way. What the city needs to do is evaluate properly all of this matter, look at other cities for successes/failures, and see what is the best way to continue. I believe the Las Manitas thing was a singular incident, but a necessary one to get the conversation going.
I also still believe an architectural solution could have possibly cleared this up without a standoff as we witnessed. Correct me if I'm wrong, but the company owns almost that entire block, or atleast a piece to the edge of 2nd and congress, which means instead of that parking lot there at the end, that would be great enough street frontage for the marriot. no hotel needs more than that, unless they're putting their own restaurant down there also (which is, I suppose what they're going to do, though I also think it's mostly just cost effective and easier for the architect not to be innovative or try to work around the existing context a little, and just take the whole block).
Now, the grafitti budget is interesting - that's a ton of money for a city that has really no big grafitti problem (unless you've never been anywhere else, you know Austin's got it good). Quite a lot of the grafitti I see actually adds some urban character, because I don't see just a lot of text, I see images and color - a lot of that creativity is not expressed in graffiti elsewhere - you don't want it dull and white washed, right? And we all realize this is not baltimore, right? I mean, this city seems nearly crime free, in respect to others. I wouldn't approve a grafitti cleaning budget for downtown that was half a million dollars. That's a bit insane.
Anyway, hope I didn't ruin anyone's day by adding some positive light to a situation that is always doused in the most vehement negativity. Austin has a LOT on its plate right now; I just hope the city can find the time, in all the development and growth craze, to sit down and plan out a good framework for these situations. The developer fee system is only the start.
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