Notice how on days when I’ve been light on posts, I try to at least give you a Virtual Front Page? Well, this is such a day:
- Assad Warns Israel, Claiming a Stockpile of Russian Weapons (NYT) — This was in the context of a blustering speech about how he has the upper hand in the civil war, which could be true with the Russian help that he’s getting.
- Overnight deal revives ethics bill in SC Senate (thestate.com) — I wrote about this earlier.
- US agents murdered my son, claims Chechen father (The Guardian) — This case just gets weirder.
- Boston bombing suspect ‘walking’ (BBC) — That’s according to his mom.
- FBI: Potential ricin-laced letter sent to Obama (WashPost) — Just how many nutballs are out there watching way too much “Breaking Bad”?
- Ethics charges against SC state senator include adult-store purchases (thestate.com) — That Robert Ford is accused of being ethically challenged is not shocking, but I guess the porn stuff makes it slightly more interesting.
Related Posts
Ricin letter to POTUS: “(WashPost) — Just how many nutballs are out there watching way too much ‘Breaking Bad’?”
One hopes the Secret Service and FBI this time will look for left-wing nutballs, too, as this could be a desperate political stunt to garner sympathy for a beleagured administration and the pathetic failure of ‘gun control’ aimed at the law abiding.
Note to Mark Stewart: Critical thinkers of merit are capable not only of hypothesizing chess moves many iterations ahead, but of routinely examining paradigm-busting theories and lookong critically upon popular orthodoxies (i.e. the anthropological global warming scam).
Juan what exactly is the “anthropological global warming scam”? Some 98% of all climate scientist strongly believe the average temperature of the earth’s surface is increasing as a result of greenhouse gases produced by humans. Are you suggesting 98% of the worlds scientists are con artists?
And by the way your chess analogy is pure crap. It’s been demonstrated that the worlds great chess players are not great because they can see the board many moves ahead. That particular meme greatly over simplifies the complex, and unique, abilities of a great chess player. Computers can calculate many moves ahead far more efficiently than a human but until recently they have been unable to beat the worlds best humans. That breakthrough occured when computers were programmed to mimic human reasoning.
99+%
“It’s been demonstrated that the worlds great chess players are not great because they can see the board many moves ahead.”
Great chess players notwithstanding, Bud, critical thinkers of merit do hypothesize outcomes many iterations ahead. The political scam termed “anthropological global warming” has failed scientifictic objectivity time and time again.
“Are you suggesting 98% of the worlds scientists are con artists? ” I am suggesting that the percentage, which had been inflated by grant-seeking, non climate-related scientists like pseudo-scientist, lawyer-drop-out Al Gore (the modern Ponzi). It has also failed in several of science’s bedrocks. Remove all scientists whose income is dependent upon federal “research” grants and you have an even smaller percentage of scientists who are presumed objective thinkers.
The current scam is as good as it gets because despite missing every time horizon for catastrophe your politically dependent scientists ever set, their ultimate dishonesty will only be patently clear after their deaths and ours. —- They are modern proponents of archaic shamans and mystical knowledge-men. Today, a less sanguine equivalent is promoted as a modern con. Who must make the sacrifice? Wage earners, pensioners and utility ratepayers will. Who will rob these honest toilers? The IPCC, UN and US government.
Any scientist worth his or her salt relies on government funding. That is just how it works. The alternative is business funding, which is considerably less objective!
And what possible benefit could the government derive from promulgating climate change?
Uh, increasing taxes to counteract climate change? Carbon taxes… for example. It’s always about money.
Sometimes I get the impression that, just as Mitt Romney says corporations are people, Doug thinks the government is a person — and when you pay taxes, that person takes the money and puts it in his pocket. He then goes out and buys whatever he wants with it — movie tickets, chewing gum, iPads, lattes, whatever strikes his fancy.
That’s because he writes of the government, and politicians, as though they are GREEDY the way only individuals can be — personally acquisitive, chock full of cupidity, and THAT’S why they levy taxes… so they can get money with which to buy their movie tickets, chewing gum, iPads, lattes and so forth.
And then, I read a comment like this one over on this other thread, and I KNOW that’s the way Doug thinks…
Anyway, to the point under discussion — any taxes levied with regard to climate change are done with a view to affecting behavior.
Brad, you live in a dream world where politicians are just facilitators, working tirelessly and selflessly to improve the country.
All one needs to do it look at the budget and tax code to understand that government is about the transfer of funds between parties. And very, very, very often that transfer occurs in a way that rewards both politicians, lobbyists, contributors, and cronies. It happens at the local level all the way to the top.
The Palmetto Compress Building and Solyndra are typical examples of the government (or more specifically, the individuals in power) abusing the system for personal gain.
The hospitality tax is a perfect example of what I am talking about. It doesn’t influence behavior, it rewards well connected people.
Or read today’s story on FitsNews about the Charleston Post & Courier’s handling of stories about Bobby Harrell. They lobby for continuing the tax breaks on sales tax for newspapers and and then appear to kill stories that implicate Harrell.
http://www.fitsnews.com/2013/06/03/charleston-post-and-corruption/
All newspapers in the state, as business entities, lobby for keeping that tax break. I see no connection between that and news judgments made by editors.
Having spent 35 years as a newspaper editor, it’s hard for me to imagine how the two things would interact. For people who’ve never worked at a newspaper, there seems to be a connection.
Even if your understanding of newspaper work extends no farther than having watched the old “Superman” TV series (and the “Daily Planet” of that series was unlike any newspaper I ever saw — starting with reporter Clark Kent having a private office that apparently was nowhere near anyone else’s workplace), you should be able to see the fundamental flaw in this basic statement of Will’s “evidence:”
Really? The reporters “published” stories critical of Harrell? Set aside the fact that reporters are not supposed to be “critical” of anyone. The basic problem is that reporters can’t “publish” anything. Their editors make such decisions.
Which causes me to find Will’s line of thinking problematic.
I clicked through a couple of links just to see if Will was right, and that somehow these reporters had managed to publish stories on their own — I thought maybe they had blogged about it on personal blogs unrelated to the newspaper, or had written freelance pieces for other papers…
Nope. The first such story he cites is this one, which bears all the signs of having been published by… the Post and Courier. A fact which, by itself, sort of knocks his argument back to the starting gate.
Responding to this from Doug: “Brad, you live in a dream world where politicians are just facilitators, working tirelessly and selflessly to improve the country.”
No, I don’t. I live in a world in which government is run by people, exactly the same as every other human endeavor — businesses, NGOs, etc. You get all the good and bad that you get with people, in all those areas.
Then he says, “All one needs to do it look at the budget and tax code to understand that government is about the transfer of funds between parties. And very, very, very often that transfer occurs in a way that rewards both politicians, lobbyists, contributors, and cronies. It happens at the local level all the way to the top.
The Palmetto Compress Building and Solyndra are typical examples of the government (or more specifically, the individuals in power) abusing the system for personal gain.”
Really? Let’s take the Palmetto Compress thing — which I think was a lousy idea. Kathryn disagrees, and probably has a lot of evidence to support her position because she’s been way, way more interested in it than I have been. But based on what I see, it’s a lousy idea.
But that’s all it is. There are good ideas and there are bad ideas. That doesn’t mean someone in government is stealing from the till, as Doug always seems to suggest. Who are these public officials who are “abusing the system for personal gain” in the Palmetto Compress deal?
Hopefully this reply to Brad will show up in the right place. I think taxpayers who are opposed to the Compress Warehouse purchase believe that the decision was made to benefit a small group of well connected local individuals.
OK, so even if that’s the case — and I’m not for a moment going to say that it is, because I have no idea (in fact, I rather doubt it, but I have no more proof of that than I do of its opposite) — that’s not public officials pocketing the money. Which is sort of where we started, and is so very strongly implied by “the government (or more specifically, the individuals in power) abusing the system for personal gain.”
Let’s say some individuals DID make a killing, and that they shouldn’t have (I add that because people can get rich off of good, wise decisions the government makes as well). That’s simply the government making a bad decision — not anyone in the government profiting from it.
Government makes decisions that benefit or harm this or that individual or group all the time — when they rezone your property (or the property next door to your property), when they hire someone, when they award a contract, when they set priorities for which potholes get filled first, etc.
Some of those decisions are sounder than others. Some may be atrocious — but that doesn’t mean anyone in the government is benefiting at the expense of those harmed.
Again, I’m going back to the point I raised in this comment.
When a bad decision is made, that’s bad enough. We don’t need to throw in these ominous words that suggest actual corruption, in the absence of evidence.
“Personal gain” does not have to be financial… or the financial benefit can come much later. Examine every transaction involved with the warehouse. Who benefits from each? Which law firms are involved? Which organizations related to which people will receive public funds as part of this endeavor? If you need votes, who do you need to please in order to get that faction locked up?
My point is that the currency used in any of these deals is not personal funds, it is public funds. Politicians have a lot of power to spread other people’s money around for personal gain. The hospitality tax slush fund is a perfect example. The distribution of those funds is in the hands of a small group of people. The recipients are typically connected somehow to those in power. Wives, friends, relatives, donors, business partners.
If this didn’t happen on a regular, pervasive basis there would be no need for an ethics bill.
I wonder what % of the Palmetto Compress Warehouse owners wrote checks to the mayor and members of council in the last election cycle. I wonder what % will in the next election, and for how much….
Exactly, Silence. I would gladly spend $7 million of someone else’s money if I could get back $5, $10K , $25K later on. The return on investment is Madoff-like.
” The political scam termed “anthropological global warming” has failed scientifictic objectivity time and time again. ” -Juan
No, not really. Peer reviewed journals, which reject subjectivity and poorly done science, are in agreement.
“Are you suggesting 98% of the worlds scientists are con artists? ” I am suggesting that the percentage, which had been inflated by grant-seeking, non climate-related scientists like pseudo-scientist, lawyer-drop-out Al Gore (the modern Ponzi).” – Juan
I think your clause is missing a predicate here. I really don’t know what you are trying to say. What are you suggesting that the percentage has done? By the way, Al Gore is a not a scientist and is not counted in the 98%.
” It has also failed in several of science’s bedrocks.” -Juan
What is ‘it’ and what are you referring to as science’s bedrocks? Can you give examples?
” Remove all scientists whose income is dependent upon federal “research” grants and you have an even smaller percentage of scientists who are presumed objective thinkers. ” -Juan
So do you reject all federally funded scientific conclusions, then, or do you just pick and choose which to accept subjectively? (which is rather unscientific) It is hard to live in the modern world without experiencing the benefits of federally funded science. If you reject one, please reject all, or provide evidence as to why climate change in particular should be discounted.
What evidence do you have that federally funded scientists are perpetrating this mass hoax?
“What evidence do you have that federally funded scientists are perpetrating this mass hoax?” – scout
“Peer-Reviewed Survey Finds Majority Of Scientists Skeptical Of Global Warming Crisis”, James Taylo.r 2/13/2013
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jamestaylor/2013/02/13/peer-reviewed-survey-finds-majority-of-scientists-skeptical-of-global-warming-crisis/
Also see “The Ten Myths of Global Warming” and the geological record of climate changes. While the “Holocene”, the interglacial period in which we live, has lasted 10,000 to 13,000 years so far. Humanity is due, according to millions of years of geological records, for at least 100,000 of glacial ice age.
Were anthropological global warming a scientific fact reather than a fraudulent hypothesis, it would be a solution to mitigate severe agricultural and protein shortages human can reliably anticipate.
Take a deep breath and realize that scientists one concurred the earth was the center of the universe. Of course, the majority of scientists would later subscribe to a “flat earth”. Popular opinion is a political corruption of the Scientific Method for the very reasons Doug Ross has cited.
The article you provided is not evidence. Reading into the detail of the article, following the link to the actual journal publication, and the link to the actual survey from that journal, and researching James Taylor were all kind of enlightening though. The “majority” referred to in the headline is a majority of a very small isolated sample in Alberta, Canada – scientists or engineers who likely are not directly involved in climate related research. It was a survey conducted by business psychologists and published in a journal of business psychology. It was more about attitudes than science.
James Taylor is a lawyer who appears to have no science credentials who works for a think tank that is funded by Exxon Mobil and is well known for promoting climate denial.
Since you like polls, here is another: this poll was conducted by scientists and published in a scientific journal and had a much larger sample drawn from all over the world of scientists actively involved in climate research. It had a different result from the one you cited.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/01/090119210532.htm
But polls aren’t really evidence. The question was what evidence do you have that federally funded scientists are perpetrating a hoax?
“” -scout
See “The Ten Myths of Global Warming” and the geological record of past climate changes. While the “Holocene”, the interglacial period in which we live, has lasted 10,000 to 13,000 years so far. Humanity is due, according to millions of years of geological records, for at least 100,000 of glacial ice age.
Were anthropological global warming a scientific fact reather than a fraudulent hypothesis, it would be a solution to mitigate severe agricultural and protein shortages humanity can reliably anticipate.
Take a deep breath and realize that most scientists once concurred the earth was the center of the universe. Of course, the majority of scientists would later subscribe to a “flat earth”. Popular opinion is a political corruption of the Scientific Method.
No one can deny nor should one ever overlook science’s past record of majority error. Unlike political bodies created by politicians (the corrupt IPCC and UN), the scientific method relies on honest skepticism, not majority opinions of those with a conflict of interest. KF like Obama credits the government with goodness and major discoveries. Neither the Wright brothers nor private innovators since have been materially helped by the government. Solyndra and 9 other (now bankrupt) solar front-companies that kicked $$$$ of their billion dollar (cumulative) federal grants back to political campaigns have received enormous help with very, very poor results.
Juan,
You are clearly going to believe what you want to believe no matter what evidence is presented. The fact that the earth goes through regular cycles and variations is not being disputed. What the evidence shows is that the speed at which this change is happening is greatly amplified relative to past changes of this sort in the geologic record and that the change seems to be directly correlated to increasing CO2 levels documented in polar ice cores. Additionally, the levels of CO2 recorded in polar ice begins increasing dramatically at the onset of industrialization, and again at a more rapid rate than historically recorded. It is a direct correlation.
You are right – true science depends on honest skepticism. I do not see why you don’t see that as being in play here. This isn’t about majority opinion. It’s not about opinion at all – it’s about the consensus of the evidence. When honestly gotten evidence that negates the current interpretation of the data is published in a respected peer-reviewed journal, it will be honestly considered and models will be revised. That hasn’t happened so far. Scientists don’t have an agenda except to find the truth which is whatever the data shows. I don’t buy your conflict-of-interest theory. If this were only about federal grants then why would scientists abroad take part? There is something else about the idea of this being a grant seekers hoax that strikes me as laughable, but I can’t quite get it articulated – basically I just don’t think it is believable given the independent-minded, truth-seeking personality type of your typical scientist that they would participate en mass in such a cooperative deception.
Yes, scientific thinking does go down the wrong path sometimes and then it self corrects as new data comes in – it is constantly self correcting. That is the scientific method. Right now, this is what the data shows.
Your explanation is like a parent in denial writing off a child’s autistic behaviors by saying all kids his age have trouble following directions. And it may be true that all kids his age have some trouble following directions – the difference is in the degree. Just like when climate deniers say the Earth has gone through these cycles for thousands of years – that’s true, but the difference is in the degree. Just because all kids a certain age have some trouble following directions doesn’t mean his kid doesn’t also have autism. Just because the Earth has gone through cycles for thousands of years doesn’t mean we are in a normal cycle now. I can understand why a parent is emotionally invested in not wanting to see that their kid has a disability.
What I don’t understand is the emotional investment and energy expended in not seeing what the data is showing in regards to climate.
By the way, I think the word you are looking for is anthropogenic.
poor guy didn’t have much “edumacation”
https://twitter.com/RepJeffDuncan/status/340133243695288320
The tweeted responses are very funny, too!
“I don’t take no money from my campaign for me,” – State Sen. Robert Ford
I don’t care so much about the ethics violations, but the violations against the English language rise to the level of crimes against humanity.
Wasn’t Ford’s statement an admission of guilt? “I don’t take no money” means he does take some money.
Countdown to Sheheen campaign issuing a statement using Ford’s obvious ethical issues as and example of why Sheheen’s bill should be passed begins in: 3…2…1…………..0…..-1…-2…-3…-4… hmmm.. this clock must be broken.
FYI, if he did write such a piece, you wouldn’t see it in The State. Cindi would make him wait three months, since he just had one…
Oh Lawdy, now Senator Ford done gone to the hospital with chest pains!
THe medical diagnosis will probably be too much Cyvitra…
Hey, maybe he took the Cyvita because he heard in Richland County some elections can last more than four hours.
Oh, no.
I just Googled “Cyvita” to see what it was.
I can just imagine the ads that are going to start popping up now…
I knew it!
Now I’m getting Viagra ads on Pandora.
Gone, however, are the “low testosterone” ads with the pictures of hot women. No nudity or anything, just, you know, tight jeans and such. Kind of like the ones on those foreign-language ads I wrote about, only without being so obsessed with bust size.
Maybe the algorithms have decided my “T” is so low that I’m hopeless, since I searched for “Cyvita”…
I get Viagra spam, or rather Vigara, V_iagra, etc. I assure you I have never searched for anything that would suggest that I would be in the market…..
Well-played, Doug! My nominee for “comment of the year”.
Agree with Philip. I’m just disappointed that I didn’t think of making Doug’s comment.
People on the scene described Ford as staggering forward, grabbing his heart with one hand, reaching for the sky with the other and loudly saying , ” ‘lizbeth, I’m coming to join you honey!”.
Kind of offensive language….
No, I’m with Phillip. That was very funny.
Although its true that elections in Rchland County can be rather offensive.
Not Doug’s comment, which was a hoot, and clever to boot. The “Ebonics” language employed by another commenter….
OK, yeah. I went back and forth on that one.
I think he was playing on Ford’s own words in defense of himself (before then abruptly resigning his office).
Unlike some other comments that pop up now and then, this commenter was staying on topic. I didn’t think he crossed any lines. I mean, if we can’t make fun of all the characters around SC, we would miss out on a lot of self-reflection, no? I think bigoted speech is something different, maybe only by degrees, but different nonethelessless.
And I like how my iPad thinks it’s …lessless. What is that? I’m finding that predictive spelling is no more accurate than I am unassisted. Which is an udderly low bar indeed, to borrow from another pol’s recent grammar choke.
Yeah, I thought the language and Fred Sanford imagery was fair game, at this point. I try to avoid overt racism, generally, and just stick to dog whistles.
Kathryn, I have a pseudonym, and you can use it. I’m not Voldemort, or anything.
Ford has resigned. Boom goes the dynamite!
One down, dozens to go.
Thanks for the heads-up, Doug. I started another post on the subject…
Wow, I figured he’d get a slap on the wrist (or other appropriate body part) at most. Must have been something to it.
No scandal here though, right, bud?
Whoa, Doug. I was at Ground Zero on the Palmetto Compress Warehouse preservation fight, and you are way off base on this! The personal gain any of us WHO LIVE IN COLUMBIA, and those who drive through from time to time, will get is the preservation of a valuable historic landmark, and highly visible gateway to the city. We will get a much more valuable development than the cheapo one Edwards tried to foist upon us, etc.
You don’t know what you’re talking about!
And yet oddly enough, the Palmetto Compress Warehouse wasn’t important enough to be on the city’s comprehensive historic landmarks list:
http://columbia.sc.gov/cocextranet/assets/File/PlanningDevelopmentServices/BoardsCommisions/PDS_DDRC_Landmark_List.pdf
And neither are the Bull Street mental hospital structures. So, Silence, this can’t be a list of desired “saves”, just which ones were protected when the list was created.
I am not sure why Doug thinks politicians will profit from the purchase (maybe, but the previous owners are the ones who received the overly generous payment). And I’m perplexed by Kathryn’s confidence in thinking this folly will end well for the City taxpayers.
If somebody wants to do something positive for the City I would say they should start by getting the billboard out of the Broad River along the Gervais St bridge. That sets the tone right there for the entire character of the City; yet nearly everyone just tries to pretend it isn’t there.
I’m not saying politicians will profit off this particular deal… but it’s trading favors and influence which CAN have future benefit. And the coin used is from someone else’s pocket.
It is not a city landmark even yet, but it was and is on Historic Columbia’s top twenty list. The former owners did not get it city-landmarked, and no other eligible person saw it through. It is on the National Register of Historic Places, and met all six criteria, only one of which was required.
I defer to Mark Stewart whose expertise in the area of real estate surpassed mine. When he says it is a bad deal, I listen.
It is a deal that was done only because nobody had any skin in the game besides using other people’s money to support a personal cause.
If it had been a bunch of poor black people pushing for it, I doubt it would have got the same attention.
Doug,
While “saving” the PCW may feel good to some, it will assuredly turn out to be a bad deal for all involved (except the sellers).
That’s my two ¥.
As another “type” of real estate professional. I agree with Mark Stewart’s assessment, and with Doug Ross’ as well. This will be another one of a string of bad deals for the Columbia taxpayer and ratepayer.
Well, I have real estate chops, too, as do many of those who worked long, hard and uncompensated to save it.
We shall see.
Kathryn – Put your money where your mouth is.
“Are we talking about a wager, Randolph?”
…
“How much do you want to bet?”
“The usual amount.”
“Why not?”
I’ll bet you a dollar that the city will lose money on this deal.
How do you measure all the lost revenue (property taxes, sales taxes of residents, water& Sewer) had the property been converted into housing?
Louis Winthorpe III: “One dollar… fine. That’s the way they want it? No problem.”
I look at this endeavor from three angles:
1) Is it a core function of government? There is enough room for debate here to question whether it is.
2) If you say yes to question #1, the next question is “Are there programs that would seem to have a higher priority and impact more citizens?” I’d say this is an easy “Yes”
3) But if you can make the case that this is a core function of government AND a priority, then the last question is “How do you pay for it?” And we saw all the miraculous methods that were “discovered” to fund this project when just six months prior to that we were told in no uncertain terms that the bus system in Columbia was running out of money and we HAD to pass a penny sales tax to help all those poor bus riders. How many bus trips for the poor people would have been covered by this expense?
Once upon a time, whenever I tried to get a conversation going on the blog on a city of Columbia or other metro-area issue, it would just lie there like a dead fish — no one was interested.
Now, y’all bring up such subjects with my raising a finger, and conduct the debate in detail that I can hardly follow.
This is progress…
Ideally, the owners would have talked to anybody who might have had sufficient credibility, but they would only negotiate with the city.
When it turns out to be another great venue like 701 Whaley, or the Inn at USC, or you name it in the Vista, the city will be a much better place.
Name one historic structure that was threatened and then saved that hasn’t turned into something awesome? The old fire station is tied up in legal proceedings, but every other structure has added greatly. Tourists and the kind of people we’d like to attract and/or retain in Columbia appreciate historic structures. Otherwise, why not just meet out at an interstate exchange or live in huge houses outside of tiny towns like Blythewood?
If it does turn out nicely, you can collect your dollar and give me an “I told you so” but I am not hopeful.
I know. I have put a lot of volunteer effort into this, as have a dozen others. We believe in it enough to sit through incredibly long, boring public meetings…..
I hope everyone will be just as committed to saving the Bull Street Admin Bldg. – and the Richland County Courthouse when the consultants come back that it would be cheaper/better to just start over…
What nobody has mentioned about the Richland County Courthouse – aside from the fact that it’s a crappy, not very functional design – is that it was constructed with expansion in mind. The structural supports are there to expand it vertically. That was the plan when it was built. They can go up, up, up and expand to meet their future requirements.
Of course, the councils WANT to build a new judicial complex…. so they will do it. But there’s no NEED to do it, when you can simply expand the current crappy one.
Well, I attended my second public meeting in a month, which doesn’t count several private ones, to save as much of the asylum village as possible. “Bull Street” was the best in the nation, and way ahead of its time. We should preserve that more than any antebellum plantations!
@Kathryn – So you’re in favor of preserving a brick loony bin building over a historic plantation home? Will that preservation include keeping the electro-shock therapy machine? How about the lobotomy room?
Kathryn,
Give us a projection on the number of tourists who will visit Columbia to see a historic warehouse.
Then determine how much revenue that will bring into the city coffers. Then subtract the hospitality tax funds that will be used to promote this venture. If we get to 4 digits revenue per year I will be shocked.
And it’s not exactly a growth industry. The schools force kids to go on field trips to the historic homes in Columbia and (having been a chaperone twice) I suspect the kids would rather take a test than spend half a day looking at old furniture.
It’s an endeavor that cannot survive on its own. Columbia isn’t Charleston or Savannah or even Camden.
While I’m partial to Woodrow Wilson, I would have to put the boondoggle that is his former childhood home (one of ’em anyway for a few years).
I think the law firm in the house next door did an awesome job repurposing a whacky old house into a viable survivor that is a proud addition to Columbia, but the Woodrow Wilson house has been a regrettable exercise in what happens when nobody says “no”.
If there was any demand for downtown office space, I would also add the landmarking of most of those little old buildings on Main Street – esp the 5 and Dimes and corner lots – was ultimately counter-productive to supporting a viable urban business core (which is distinct from the urban Disneyland effect Charleston has gone after for retail/tourism). Freezing your commercial core with wholesale landmarking only makes sense when a city has given up on itself being a growing center for business.
Are we acknowledging that Columbia has given up on it’s future? Seems to me this is so when something like the PCW is elevated to exalted preservation status.
Something like PCW, which meets all six criteria for historic importance? This isn’t some old random building…..
So when USC comes in offering 4 cents on the dollar, the city will sell it and gloat about how they rid the books of a property that was nothing but a liability to the taxpayers.
Is it really Woodrow Wilson’s childhood home? Didn’t he live in that house for a couple years… not exactly the typical “childhood home”.
That’s as long as I ever lived in one place growing up in this country. I lived in Guayaquil, Ecuador, for two years, four and a half months, but that was my record. I don’t think anywhere I lived in this country as a kid ever extended as far as two years.
So if you became President, there would be nine Brad Warthen childhood homes for taxpayers to waste their money on?
Then it’s going to be very expensive to preserve all of the various and sundry Brad Warthen childhood homes. I’ll start the “Kickstarter” campaign today….
More like 14. Most were duplexes or apartments, which would make it complicated. Some structures, based on satellite view on Google maps, no longer exist. So the historic preservation folks have been falling down on the job…
I was for saving PCW until the city raided the reserve retirement/health care account to buy it. No building is that important.
And does anyone know how much interest this reserve account stands to lose in this deal?
I didn’t just say tourists. Businesses…
Since we don’t know yet what will go in there, projections are meaningless. Statistics do show that historic preservation pays off.
No, I don’t have them at hand, and even if I did, you’d find fault with them….
Look, most people who have a choice about where to live but choose to live in the city agree with me. You don’t. It won’t matter much to you either way.
Obviously, Silence has a stake in this fight, but I would point out that he could live much more cheaply in the Avenues in Cayce in a similar older house, or in Blythewood/Irmo/Lexington in a newer house. Why does he put up with the hassles of Cottontown?
“Tourists and the kind of people we’d like to attract and/or retain in Columbia appreciate historic structures.”
That was what you said. I think it is overstated that historic structures have any meaningful impact on the decision of people and businesses to locate here.
How many businesses want to relocate to a building that’s spitting distance to a set of railroad tracks where trains run 2-3 times a day. Since it’s also near a road crossing, the tenants will get to enjoy not only the rumbling and building shakes, they get to listen to the lovely sound of that horn blowing as it crosses the intersection. Maybe a daycare will consider locating there.
One reason for sure, Kathryn, is that we are already living downtown and own our home. Selling, buying a new house and moving would easily cost 10-20k or more for closings, commisisons, moving, updating stationary, etc. That’s not insignificant. So we stay where we are until it becomes untenable. At the moment though, I would not buy a new property in the city of Columbia corporate limits, or on the City’s water system. At least we have options, some folks don’t even have good options.
What will ultimately drive our decision to move, and make no mistake, it’s definitely coming down the pike, is the school district. We are zoned for St. Andrews MS and Columbia HS. Neither of those are desirable options for my family. So do we move, or spring for Hammond, Heathwood, or Cardinal Newman? Maybe we do both, at some point.
@Silence
I’ll be hoping you get school vouchers by the time you need them.
or out where Brad lives, even.
The shame….. 😉
And of course, you can’t count me among those “who have a choice about where to live.” At least, living in the city center was never an option.
There was never a time in which I could afford to house my family any closer in.
We bought our house right after I was promoted to editorial page editor in 1997. It was the most house we could get, for an amount that was a stretch for us. And there has never been a time that I was more flush than at that time. (My salary went up over the years, but trailed inflation.)
After I got laid off, we tried to sell and move into town, mainly to be closer to our kids with children, to make coordinating child care easier.
So we listed the house for about 6 months. We never got so much as a nibble, even though we priced the house, in absolute, unadjusted dollars, not much more than we’d paid for it in 1997.
And even if we’d gotten our price, we couldn’t have afforded to move. Even downsizing drastically, everything in town that wasn’t falling apart (and remember, we had no money for a “unique fixer-upper opportunity”) was listed for much, much more than we were asking.
As in, asking twice as much for half the house.
Actually, if you go from two-and-a-half bathrooms to one, that’s less than half the house, I guess. Which was often the case for houses priced at twice what we were asking.
You make my point. It costs a premium to live in the central city. Why is that?
I think it is because people who agree with me are willing and able to pay higher prices for the privilege. It isn’t just proximity to work, either. It is the charm and ambience of cool old historic structures, in no small part. Also, sidewalks, big trees….
“It costs a premium to live in the central city. Why is that?”
Someone has to pay for all the free social programs given to those who contribute nothing outside of the crime rate.
It’s really about supply and demand. There is a much smaller supply of houses downtown so it’s not really difficult to understand why prices would remain high. There will always be the pool of USC and state government workers looking for locations close to work.
How many new public schools (not renovations) have been built in Richland One in the past decade? We’ve seen one new school a year in Richland 2 for at least the past 15 years with more coming. Two new high schools in a decade, each holding 1500-2000 students.
Home prices in the Northeast provide more value for the dollar because there has been such a large growth in supply. You can have it all in the suburbs cheaper. And it’s only a 20 minute drive downtown if you want to go there.
How many NEW homes are available downtown? Ones with new HVAC, roofs, large fenced yards, better schools? You can get a brand new brick 2000 sq ft home with at least a half acre yard in a nice subdivision for around $200K in the Northeast. The numbers show that far more people are interested in that option than in living downtown.
Now now Doug, you can find yourself a nice 1600 sq.ft, two bedroom one bathroom, 1930’s built single story with “minor” termite damage on 1/16th acre lot for around $300,000 in Shandon. Handyman special.
They provide more square feet for the dollar. That is not the same thing as value.
I got exactly all that in West Columbia and am only 10 minutes from downtown and it’s way more scenic than the Northeast without the traffic congestion. Scrub pine and sand is not my kind of terrain. I find the Northeast bleak and unappealing for many reasons. But to each his own……. including those that like the Northeast and those that think historic structures bring value to a city.
As Scout said, “to each his own”. We have no traffic, little crime, better schools, more room for the dogs to run… those are valuable to me. And we got a brand new house without any maintenance required for a non-handyman like me.
I think the difference between The city (and West Cola and Cacy) and most of the burbs is which would one tolerate better – sand Gnats or Mosquitos?
That’s the first question one should ask of oneself.
When we bought in the central city, we considered ALL of our options. Seriously, we looked for months and months. We’d lived (collectively) in Elmwood, Earlewood, Shandon, Heathwood, Forest Acres, Olympia, Spring Valley, etc. We liked the bungalow architectural style, and our purchase met our needs at the time and was at the top of our budget, but did fit into the budget.
The upside: We got a fenced yard, 3 BR/2BA bungalow with all new appliances, new plumbing, new HVAC. It was 7 minutes to my job (at the time) and about 8 blocks to my wife’s job. We liked the large, established trees and the sidewalks, especially. A neighborhood just feels better with sidewalks. That’s one amenity I don’t mind paying for. We like the historic nature of the neighborhood, and work hard to preserve it.
The downside of living in town: cut through traffic, particularly speeders. I have no tolerance for people who speed through neighborhoods anymore. I was one of them, though, in my younger days. Trash, lots of beer cans in paper bags, malt liquor bottles in the shrubs, that kind of thing. Rental on-street parking and noisy student neighbors. Panhandlers, solicitors, sketchy random walk-throughs. – Kathryn, you probably experience a lot of this as well. The taxes are getting out of control as well, as are the concentration of LULU’s around our neighborhood.
The worst was when I was renting, and had a homeless guy regularly hopping my privacy fence and crapping in my yard. You haven’t lived until you go out to mow your lawn and step in a pile of human feces and used toilet paper. That’s when you break out your old copy of FM 5-31 (1965 ed.) http://www.amazon.com/Boobytraps-5-31-United-States-Army/dp/0873640926
Yeah, people who speed through neighborhoods infuriate me, too.
Particularly MY neighborhood, because there’s zero reason for it. It’s not on the way to anywhere. You’re either coming to my subdivision, or you have to turn around and leave to go where you’re going.
Nevertheless, this past weekend, someone drove past my house going about twice as fast as he should.
He was, by the way, driving a red Hummer. Just in case we had failed to notice what a jerk he was.
Younger couples with children are going to buy based on schools more often than not. When we moved to Columbia is 1990, the realtor we worked with never even took us anywhere near downtown. It was Lexington or Northeast Columbia if you wanted the best schools. And that’s where the growth has been for the past 20+ years. And then when the Richland 2 schools started heading south due to the uncontrolled growth, people started moving further north and west.
Columbia is USC-town. The university is the lifeblood of the city.
Well Hand/Dreher is probably the best of all, and Flora is excellent. Realtors are lazy. You have to work harder to find houses downtown.
That’s all you ever hear about in Richland 1. Those three schools. What about the rest. The worst high school in Richland 2 would probably rank second in Richland 1.
Agreed. Dreher/Hand is the best combo in town, better than anythign in Richland 2.
Actually A.C. Flora has better SAT scores than Dreher. Spring Valley and Flora are the top high schools in Richland County. Graduation rates are similar.
Richland 1 SAT 2012 Rank
A C FLORA HIGH SCHOOL 1502 1
C A JOHNSON HIGH SCHOOL 1185 10
COLUMBIA HIGH SCHOOL 1215 7
DREHER HIGH SCHOOL 1478 3
EAU CLAIRE HIGH SCHOOL 1139 11
LOWER RICHLAND HIGH SCHOOL 1210 8
W J KEENAN HIGH SCHOOL 1200 9
Richland 2
BLYTHEWOOD HIGH SCHOOL 1366 5
RICHLAND NORTHEAST HIGH 1414 6
RIDGE VIEW HIGH SCHOOL 1372 4
SPRING VALLEY HIGH S 1501 2
At a district level, there is no comparison. Richland One is really two school districts – the white one and the black one.
In terms of the local schools, Lex 1 and Lex 5 blow the doors off the rest of the Midlands. Lex 5’s SAT scores are third in the state.
Doug, I was thinking “Those SAT scores look really great!” until I realized that now the SAT is out of 2400, not 1600 like it was when I took it, all those years ago.
Makes you shudder to think what hope there is for the students at the schools other than Flora and Dreher. They are doomed.
And before someone says we need to spend more money on those schools, here’s the facts (from the Dept of Ed School Report Cards):
Dollars spent per pupil Eau Claire : $12,294 up 9%
Dollars spent per pupil CA Johnson: $14,601 up 5.9% (more than $2000 more than similar high schools in the state)
Dollars spent per pupil Dreher : $$7,556 down 7.9%
Dollars spent per pupil Flora: $7,585 up 3.9%
Spending more doesn’t make a difference. You can’t outspend bad parenting,
OK, so if I wanted to translate those scores to something meaningful to me…
Is that 1502 score at A.C. Flora equivalent to a 1001 score back in my day?
And does the 1478 at Dreher compare to a 985 on the test I took?
Or am I thinking of it wrong?
So how much more than DOUBLE what they spend at Dreher do we need to spend at CA Johnson to get them out of being an educational wasteland? Double hasn’t made a dent. If we quadruple spending, do you think you could raise SAT scores to even median level? How about ten times as much?
You could spend a million dollars on singing lessons for me and I’m not going to be any good.
Give a need based voucher to the kids in those awful schools to give them a chance. Just try it. Let’s see what happens. It cannot be worse.
Doug, what you say doesn’t follow. It’s not a matter of “outspending bad parenting.” But you do have to make an effort to give kids a chance when they didn’t win the parent lottery, not only because that’s not their fault, but because society can’t afford to have all of those failures.
Basically, the schools don’t have to make much of an effort with bright, motivated, uncomplicated kids from supportive families. Those kids will excel on their own. But it takes a lot of effort to help the kids who come needing help. And yeah, you have to pay those people involved in that effort.
It has always stood to reason to me that it cost more to educate the least advantaged kids. Maybe that doesn’t make as much sense to you.
In case it’s not immediately clear, I meant that comment as a response to this one from Doug.
It makes sense to me. It’s kind of like a person with a lot of health issues is going to spend more on health care than a person who is naturally more fit and probably still never be as healthy as the person who won the gene lottery and can maintain good health with very little cost. Does that mean it is not worth it to spend money on the sickly person’s health just because even after all the spending they will never attain the same level? Personally, I think it is worth it to improve their quality of life and level of functioning from what it otherwise would be. Maybe Doug would answer differently.
@Scout
Except when the patient keeps dying, maybe you’d try something different. I’d be fine with increased spending if there was any indication it was paying off. Paying double per student and seeing a school remain at the bottom of the barrel with SAT scores that are basically barely literate means the program isn’t working.
Time to do some ER triage here. Save the ones who can be saved. Spend double on the rest and accept that there is nothing that can be done.
Now we are getting somewhere. You said “I’d be fine with increased spending as long as there was any indication it was paying off.” So maybe the problem is just the measure. If you actually worked with these kids, you would SEE the difference the money makes – but the difference is not always something that translates to something quantifiable that is easy to measure with a number. Would longitudinal data that showed growth for individual children over time be valid data for you? Comparing SAT scores year to year is not longitudinal. It is different groups of kids each time, different groups who each probably started way low. You don’t know where those kids started. The growth they achieved to reach that score may be phenomenal relative to where they started. It may be a much larger interval of growth than the kids whose SAT scores end up much higher achieved if the high achievers came in high already. What if you measured the efficacy of the money spent by that differential – by net longitudinal growth? You probably would still not consider this “paying off” but there are ways to show the difference the money is making.
When it comes to bottom level high schools, I would expect to see an increase in the graduation rate. Nothing else matters at that level. If the kids are not getting diplomas, they are destined for poverty.
Spend more, graduate more – good investment. Spend more, graduate same – the money was wasted. For C.A. Johnson, the on time graduation rate for 2012 was 52.6%. Graduation rate in 2009? 50.4%. 3 more students got diplomas in 2012 compared to 2009. Is that the type of incremental growth to expect after four years of double the spending?
I think Scout is on to something. Measuring at-risk kids through their schooling is a better measure of societal investment in them. The successes may not be stellar; but we can all extrapolate what the failures would be if more kids were left to simply flounder and fail.
I met a former two-time Superbowl champion playing golf Tuesday; we didn’t start talking about football. I didn’t even know he was a professional athlete. We started talking about college and majors – architectural history specifically. His major. I told him I decided to major in Art History over Economics because I liked the attractive women in those courses. He thought I was a bit of an idiot for making educational choices based on hormones; but we agreed on the value of education for education’s sake. He said it was a huge risk for him to pursue his degree and said that coming from a very under-priveledged background he could never have considered it, much less college itself, had he not had a mentor (Big Brother) who had stuck with him for years and helped him to see the world as he would never have imagined it. That’s the model Doug would appreciate. But clearly it wasn’t just that he had help with his vision, he also must have received additional support and encouragement in his elementary and secondary educations to actualize that vision. And that’s the need Scout’s talking about.
Yes, Brad, a good estimate to the old SAT would be 2/3 of the new score although the new test has a writing section that probably skews the numbers more toward the Verbal section.
If you want to read a funny (very profane) story about an adult taking the new SAT, here’s a great one:
http://deadspin.com/5893189/what-happens-when-a-35+year+old-man-retakes-the-sat
Well, at least in the neighborhoods you would probably want to live in. The thing about Columbia that it’s supporters often overlook – me included – is that probably about 70% of the City’s houses are cheap, cheap, cheap. Nobody really likes to acknowledge that. I wonder that if the tax assessor’s database could be analyzed that one wouldn’t find a quarter of the City’s housing units as being not much more than third-world, with too many of that quarter being basically uninhabitable when viewed against post-1950 national standards.
My son was accosted by three homeless guys down near Capital City Stadium after work one night this week. We don’t have that excitement out in Blythewood.
no, and you don’t have baseball, either….
nothing to attract panhandlers…
I get panhandlers where I live. One of the more aggressive ones I ever ran into was at the convenience store at the entrance to my subdivision…
The Blowfish baseball team is moving to Lexington next year leaving Columbia baseball-free in the summer for the first time in decades.
Greenville, Rock Hill, Charleston, Augusta, Myrtle Beach, Asheville all support minor league teams. They bring in FAR more revenue/tourism than any collection of historic homes ever could.
Don’t forget about those of us in Shandon back when the projects on Rosewood were in full occupancy. You didn’t leave anything out in the front yard period. I had stuff stolen out of my vehicle during the middle of the day… parked in my driveway. Then there were the “leaf rakers” who liked to ring your doorbell at 7:00 a.m. on Sundays… not to mention the groups of young urban men out for a leisurely stroll through the neighborhood on a Saturday evening. I moved to Lexington, got twice the house, three times the yard, half the taxes and 1/100th the criminal problems in my cul-de-sac.
Steve Benjamin moved to Woodcreek Farms on the furthest border of Northeast Columbia. That’s about the only data point I need.
awfully reductive of you….
It’s analysis by proxy. I’m sure a smart guy like the Mayor has plenty of good reasons to move out in the suburbs. Better home values, better schools for his kids…
The planning department under Marc Mylott cataloged the state of the city’s housing stock. I heard the report, but don’t recall the details. I think most houses met the minimum.
I am on the Board of Property Maintenance Appeals, and there are some sad cases that come before us. The city does try to ensure that houses meet the International Property Maintenance standards, which are, as Marc said, “not going to result in rainbows and unicorns.”
that is why I couched my assertion by limiting it to those who have a choice. I am grateful that I can live where I do….most of the time!
” I think most houses met the minimum”.
Let’s all pause and think about that; the City of Columbia has found that most of it’s housing stock meets third-world building code standards.
I am not singling out Columbia; this is endemic to SC as a whole.
America is not like that. Yes, 10% will always be at the bottom of the social pile. That’s life; in any system of government. But to accept the economic and social conditions that foster enemic growth? For so long that housing stocks in general decline in substance? There is no greater canary than to have people unable, and yes, unwilling also, to maintain and even improve their own living conditions.
The reason we need good governance is because it is a necessity to firing economic opportunity. It’s the place to focus on. Just to draw linkages.
We were only looking in Shandon and Rosewood, because that’s where our kids who have kids lived at the time. And the point was to be close to them, in easy walking distance if possible.
Since then, one of them has moved to Cayce…
Which actually, now that I think about it, would make the Avenues more attractive now. That would be more or less halfway between their houses…
I like the Avenues
Mark – I have a copy of the county assessor’s database, and also of the tax parcels in GIS format. Both aren’t quite current, but would work for your analysis. If you want them, for your research, I can provide.
Thanks, Silence. But I know the outcome of that.
I was just trying to raise a little interest in the problem. Columbia’ s biggest problem is complacency. That’s understandable; most of the Midland’s suffers from this even more.
Interest rates are pitifully low. How much could it lose?
A good portion of the principal. And all of the carrying costs.
It happens; often.
Why not view the “raid” as a prudent investment that will, in all likelihood, based on tons of data, pay far more than the current market pittance?
Kathryn, are you saying that this $7 million dollar “investment” will return a profit for the retirement fund when the building is sold? I doubt USC would be willing to pay anything close to what Columbia paid for it… it’s an unusable building next to railroad tracks.
USC may buy it, but many for-profit developers are very interested. The tax credits and EZ bonds make it very attractive. You can add a nonprofit piece, like, say Workshop Theater, and it can get a more or less free ride because of the additional tax benefits it brings.
Fred Delk knows his stuff. I just shopped at the Vista Publix tonight. It was packed.
Tax credits aren’t free. They are lost revenue.
If there were so many people waiting to buy it, why did it sit there until the city bought it?
The Vista Publix is also about the size of a corner neighborhood store. It’s the smallest Publix I’ve ever been in. Packed could mean a dozen shoppers.
I should have a copy of the housing study in the morning.
Yes, we should aim a lot higher. Minimally adequate is a crummy standard for education and housing….
Re: the mayor’s housing choices: maybe his wife wants a big house. Maybe his kids need the schools. Who knows? I know Steve has expressed some regret to me that they moved out there….but maybe that is just spin for my benefit.
The point is that per square foot, housing is most expensive in neighborhoods with DP designation.
“I know Steve has expressed some regret to me that they moved out there….but maybe that is just spin for my benefit.”
Ya think? I’m sure he regrets it every time he pulls into his driveway and doesn’t have to deal with bums asking him for 29 cents as he walks from the car to the house. I know people who live within a block of his old house, the block is lined with houses that aren’t selling otherwise they’d have their house on the market as well.
“neighborhoods with DP designation”
And what exactly is DP designation? Derelicts Prohibited?
Look, everyone can make his or her own calculation about house size and amenities. I know I’d really like a big yard for the dog to run in. I don’t want all the other stuff that comes with it, though. If I won the lottery (“make it easy; buy a ticket!”), I’d buy the adjoining properties and tear them down to make a big dog yard, but still live in my cool house at its cool location.
As I have said before, those of us who *choose* to live in the central city “get” for the most part why historic preservation is so important. All y’all who don’t, enjoy your space, extra bathrooms, brand new shopping centers, chain restaurants….
Kathryn – I hope the houses adjacent to yours aren’t historically significant. You’ll need to go before the D/DRC to get permission to demolish them, and their may be some outcry from local activists.
I would also like a bigger yard for my dog to run. Also room for a garage, and a swimming pool. Which I could have if I moved out of town.
If I won the lottery though, I honestly don’t think I’d stay in Columbia. Probably get a house in the mountains, and one at the beach. Maybe split my time between Switzerland and Bermuda….
They are 25 years old, part of the same PUD as mine.
I know all about the D/DRC….
Our lot is basically the drip line on one side, a deck and enough space to walk around the edges on the others. I’m not talking a lot even large enough to build on, outside the PUD.
You should be OK, knocking them down then.
Huh-huh. She said “pud.”
Shut up, Beavis.
Wow, 124 replies, and almost none of them about the original post…
Senator Glenn McConnell wanted for questioning:
http://www.postandcourier.com/article/20130604/PC16/130609717/1165/hicks-column-yankees-on-alert-as-hunley-surfaces-in-new-york
And the Brennan Building, that First Citizens wanted to demolish, is now the jewel in the block!
http://www.thestate.com/2013/06/03/2800491/first-citizens-brewing-up-coffee.html
You know what my first thought was, when I read that?
It was that, if you’re a bank robber, casing the bank has always been a challenge. Basically, you have to loiter, looking around, without arousing suspicion. After the first “May I help you, sir?” you sort of need to leave.
Sure, you have a cover story — you conduct some bank business — but does that give you enough time, and enough undistracted attention to take in the details you need to take in?
Now, with a coffee shop, you can sit there for hours with a laptop in front of you and headphones on, staring around you and nodding your head to the music. You can even take notes of security arrangements, routines, alternative exits, etc., without arousing suspicion.
Anyway, that’s what I thought of when I read that.
Maybe the shop will be sufficiently separate from the actual bank as to allay my concerns.
I think I was imagining people hanging out with their iPads between the teller windows and the desks of the people who make loans…
I expect the bank security has figured this out….
Wait, Juan cited a lawyer as more credible on climate change than scientists?
It is a bit ironic.
Brad, do you have plans to ever do a new post again, or should we just continue to battle amongst ourselves in last month’s comment threads?
Snort
That’s the second or third time you’ve snorted… might want to make an appointment with an ENT doctor.
Just very busy…
I get into these days sometimes when the only thing I can think of to post about is either:
a) Too trivial to post about without it being folded in among some more serious items, or
b) Way too heavy and involved to embark upon on a busy day.
So I end up not posting anything. As happened yesterday. I’ll get some stuff up there today.
Brad Frye – “Silence’ll keep calling me, he’ll keep calling me until I post new content. He’ll make me feel guilty. This is uh… This is ridiculous, ok I’ll post, I’ll post, I’ll post, I’ll post, I’ll post. What – I’LL POST.”
Silence Bueller- “Don’t worry about it, I don’t even have a blog. I have to envy yours.”
I love it!
A new post is up. It’s in category A.
Mark,
http://columbia.sc.gov/index.cfm/development-gateway/planning-and-development-services/property-maintenance/residential-structure-property-maintenance-assessment-2009/
I was wrong; it is even more depressing than I thought.
What is also striking is the number of vacant residential lots in the City, across all neighborhoods.Obviously, quite a few are undevelopable or owned by an adjacent homeowner. But many of them are just fallow.
I have often advocated stricter development controls in the county, which would assist with infill on vacant lots in the city. A few years ago the city raised the tap fee substantially, like from several hundred to several thousand dollars. I think a sewer tap is $1300 ($300 if you do it yourself) and a water meter tap is $2500 ($1062 if you do it yourself). A residential realtor friend told me that this increase really hurt the vacant lot market downtown. Not sure if true or not.
Or a real estate recession?
I wonder what deal the City has given to Hughes’ redevelopment of the Bull Street site? Not that he seems to want us to know – or certainly comment on – anyway. 3500 housing units at $3800 in tap fees, plus the commercial connections is a lot of cabbage. The City could recover about $20,000,000 of it’s investment via those charges – if they weren’t negotiated away.
I think the Palmetto Compress deal ended up emboldening the City Council to take the opportunity to ram through the big one as well. Whether or not the development deal struck with Hughes is a good one or not, the City’s handling of the public comment period is a crock, pure and simple. Given that, I have nothing but concerns about the future of the Bull Street redevelopment – from the City’s (taxpayer) perspective.
I have requested information on whether the inspections process has been changed, which I bet it has, since Hatcher is good, and whether there have been any improvements in housing condition measured.
Silence, we don’t get transient unsavory types down where I live, just fellow residents! LOL, sort of….
Cottontown is particularly well-placed for cutting through. For one thing, access to North Main from my part of town is easiest via Confederate Ave.
Brad, those aren’t people cutting through your neighborhood. It’s fellow residents. Same as on my block. It is two blocks long. No need to blast through at warp speed, even with the hill, but morons do it.