RE: A Vision for the URA

["Shahab Mesbah" <meteor2@moscow.com>]

Well… if you consider the conversation about our youth and parenting lack of vision I am sorry! Perhaps we should rethink what vision means.

 

"Your brother in arms"

 

Shahab...

 

-----Original Message-----
From: Priscilla Salant [mailto:psalant@moscow.com]
Sent: Saturday, April 21, 2001 7:53 AM
To: vision2020@moscow.com
Subject: A Vision for the URA

 

Visionaries,

 

Someone recently posted a message decrying our lack of vision in this forum.  Good point. Too much petty complaining of late.  Too little constructive, imaginative thinking about Moscow's future. 

 

Among Vision 2020's original goals were these: 

 

1) to ensure that all parts of our community have an opportunity to take part in visualizing and planning for the communities future; and

 

2) to strengthen citizens' sense of community by promoting awareness, ownership, and investment in the future.

 

Heady stuff.  What might those goals mean for a vision of Moscow's Urban Renewal Agency, one that didn't have the appearance of impropriety, as Bill London has argued?

 

The URA's five commissioners are currently considering whether to undertake a convention center / hotel project in the South Couplet area.  Idaho statutes give the URA authority to use tax increment financing on such a project, whereby increased tax revenues from the development are temporarily diverted to pay off the bond.  To some people (including Ron Rankin), this is corporate welfare; to others, it's a short term sacrifice for long term gain.

 

My vision for the URA is that it give all parts of the community an opportunity to visualize and plan for the proposed development.  For that to happen, many more people would need to understand how the project might be financed, and to think through its potential impact on the community.  For his part, Mayor Comstock would need to encourage the URA to be open in its deliberations, reaching out to the community throughout the process. 

 

But if the mayor had wanted to do THAT, he would have filled the vacant commissioner position with someone who wasn't a developer. Someone who had no financial interest in development.  Maybe someone who had a history of volunteer work in the community and a commitment to open processes and public welfare.

 

Oh well.  So much for visioning.  Should we go back to our petty complaining?

 

Priscilla Salant