Tuesday, January 23, 2007
imaginary towers-will they ever be real?
Here's the latest Bee story on the Towers. Nice to discover that my retirement fund has invested money in this dog of a project. Can't wait to see how much the city will pony up now to get this customer to success. On the bright side, if this project goes bye-bye does the city get their eleven million back?
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8 comments:
this comment is funny
I can't wait for these towers to be built. Imagine if you will... Hundred, if not Thousands of educated, hard working people living, playing, working, and spending their money downtown. Also imagine all the new jobs that will open up for those that didn't work quite as hard in school or spend enough time in the library. When one of the vagrants on the street streaches out a hand - we can just point him to the new SacTowers and tell him they are hiring Chefs, Maids, Valets, Waiters, etc, etc - a GREAT opportunity for some in this town to pull themselves up by their bootstaps. Get it together Saca - we are all pulling for you. We need this project ASAP!
"Hi, front desk, this is Mr Miller on the 80th floor. This steak you just sent to my room is digusting!"
"Sorry sir, we've just hired that big pants bum who wanders around the capitol all day to be our new chef & he's still learning."
"Oh, in that case, it's no problem at all. Please have downtown James Brown pull my car around & I'll go to Mikuni"
Sir, I'd love to send the car out for you but the bird lady is currently laying down in front of the car and blocking its exit. We hired her to clean the rooms last week but she has been difficult to train. Perhaps you could just ride the space bike to Mikuni? I apologize for any inconvenience.
You know, getting people to live downtown isn't such a bad goal. But when the "high-rise living" thing gets to be your sole focus, you start to run into problems, as they did in Vancouver.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/01/17/business/vancouver.php
-Erik
Yeah, right! If I wanted to invest my retirement in half baked schemes, I'd invest it myself.
Maybe I will. Can I get shares in that space bicycle to Mikuni scheme?
gbomb
it really does make me want to cry to imagine my tax money being spent on something i won't be able to utilize. i am hard working, i am educated, but i won't be able to live in that damn tower. i guess i should trade my berkeley degree in for a job in selling faulty retirement plans--it's the only way i'd be able to afford living in downtown sac high rises.
Personally I think the question that people should have for all elected city officials involved is why they decided to offer a subsidy to SACA, only so "the numbers pencil". I mean really the question boils down to how much is the developer going to make, 6 mil instead of 12 if he hadn't recieved the subsidy? Why not give the money to the middle income resident so they can buy a condo in this high rise? Wouldn't it be more beneficial to offer the middle and lower (not lowest that are covered by low-income housing) the chance to buy into downtown/midtown and not to pad the pocket of a rich developer? I guess the cost of high-rise housing might "not pencil" but can the costs of construction be so high, the city has to offer the developer money to make sure the SACA breaks even? I seriously doubt every project the city chooses to sink redevelopment funds into barely breaks even.
Maybe I should ask Heather Fargo why she won't give Alice her money back so she can buy downtown. But she just confirms my theory those most elected officials prefer to pad the pocket of the rich and leave the poor and this case, middle income) out in the cold.
amanda
Remember, the city's motto is now "Get the customer to success."
And who are the best customers? That's right, rich people. Those are the customers that the city is trying to get "to success."
This explains a lot of the redevelopment - it's all about pleasing higher-end customers with fancy lofts & expensive stores & restaurants.
Maybe someday the city will care about "citizens" rather than just "customers", but I wouldn't hold my breath.
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