West Spring Valley Moratorium).
One of the Richardson, Texas, City Councilmen in particular has been rightly and wrongly accused of being lazy and crafty over various things over the last years. He should have gotten off council (a hindrance and seat filler more than a help recently) but I have never heard anyone accuse him of being a liberal fascist, other than one guy who calls everyone a liberal, as if that is a bad thing in all things (don't be stingy with hot sauce on my burrito), and the time the Councilman threatened eminent domain, and I admit I too called him wrong for agreeing to that little threat.
I doubt this Councilman will agree to a moratorium on businesses who want to clean up their act but can't afford to do a whole redo, in this economy especially. This "choke out" moratorium was proposed publicly about a year ago by A Neighborhood Leader, A City Councilman, and a City Plan Commissioner, and an extra CPC'r along for good measure (sounds like the beginning of a bad bar joke). Three of them together (others separately) held private court with the Richardson Coalition Grand Poobah too, in advance of The Council Meeting to present. What? To get clearance for their appearance and "plan" before going before the almost real council?
Where there is Poobah and The Richardson Coalition and their entourage, there always seems to be poo resulting, and a big clean up bill.
Who wouldn't be for cleaning up an area, but a moratorium as suggested, to not even allow facade repair as the one Neighborhood Leader proposes, is way overboard. Oh sure, it can further devalue and make things ripe for pickin' for the right city approved developer friend.
The pressure is great to go fascist, but I hope the Councilman doesn't fold, and I hope the Council does not do this.
This moratorium is not right, it's not the right way to make up for past years or criticisms for such. It may be seen as a sudden rush cure, after twenty years, or one year, a convenient way to accomplish something, like abortion, using a coat hanger at that, or cheating on a spouse for jollies when you don't like the marriage contract or spirit of the constitution or property rights, but it's not.
By the way there has been at least one facade improvement over the last year or so and it looks good and I'm glad you all did not get to stop it.
Oh wait, it is not called fascism if "we" are doing it, in the name of progress, in the name of the environment, what have you.
West Spring Valley, or The West Bank (hey, if a neighborhood can be called "The Reservation," why shouldn't we call a place where moratoriums are put into place "The West Bank?") is sorely in need of attention to follow code, to have a plan (after blocking by "the guard," one of which was the Councilman and by association the "Neighborhood Leader" who supported him year after year), but a moratorium is the wrong way to go about it. It is bad precedent and poor public policy. It is an erosion, despite the immediate expedient goal of building up.
I know and understand the arguments for a moratorium. The arguments are sincere. The need for attention is real, and has been (but blocked by the guard). But a moratorium is bad business to get into, by applying it to a selective part of a city that is receiving attention at a given time. All business owners and residents should keep in mind, if they do it to "them" they can and will do it to you, no matter the reason or the cause or group or what the gain or to whom.
I'm not an ideologue at all, but Liberal Fascism, (edit: okay, or Neo Conservatism or something like that), wrapped in a flag, or rolled up in environmentalism, carrying a cross, or in the name of "redevelopment" should not be such an easy crutch, and a sudden one at that, after years of blocking and feet dragging and no real interest in positive activity by the deans of the Richardson City Council, or their at-all-cost supporters, which include at least one of the moratorium seekers, the biggest one pushing for it.
When the Neighborhood Leader, CPC'er and one Councilman voiced the moratorium idea (will it float?) about a year ago, one might have thought it would not go over with a group of "conservatives" as they like to call themselves (The Current Council). A self imposed neighborhood set of redevelopment rules and protocols and process is to a significant degree different than a moratorium placed on a geographical business area.
Being oblivious versus being led by their noses? How about neither. How about reasonable, even measured progressive (real progressive, not fake progressive) leadership? Or what about true conservative leadership? I know three or four keep saying they want to be bold! But I just don't see a moratorium as bold, I see it as bad.
How about saying "no" to (holiday, rushing) moratoriums and "no" to raising our trash rates threefold (it's coming) and saying "yes" instead to taking reasonable mitigating action that still respects the most number of people long term and not election time sops and holiday rush throughs. How about not leaving it to regional representatives or the mayor's representatives and coming up with something that serves as many people in Richardson as possible.
I hope this Councilman and the others do not agree to use a moratorium on The West Bank to stop the runaway rebuilding going on there now. Oh wait. What rebuilding? The vast number of permits? So what's really going on? It's not like we would be informed or allowed to learn of what is really happening behind the scenes. This surely can't be hurry up and wait.
Play the roles. Take cover. Here it comes.
Topic II: Trash. Edit: I am moving and editing this topic in a separate post above.
