Yesterday the Common Council and the Redevelopment Authority met with Akcess to discuss the latter's progress on where they are as regards The Waterfront proposal. Given that Fred and Tim Rikkers had been speaking to the press on a fairly regular basis before this meeting, there really were no surprises. I appreciated their enthusiasm for the project, the fact that they use [and seem to appreciate] green building principles, and what seems to be a genuine desire to bring something worthwhile here.
I was disappointed by the fact that when you cut through the optimism and public relations, there's really no guarantee that anything other than an office complex will be developed. Add to that the fact that 95% of the potential tenants will simply be relocated from other Oshkosh buildings (meaning we will be creating even MORE vacant office space) and all of a sudden the proposal looks quite thin indeed. The Rikkers' kept coming back to the point that the office building has to be done before anything else can happen, which may or may not be true but which got me thinking that we are right back to Faith Based River Development again.
At one point Tim Rikkers said, "I know this is going to work." Great, but we've heard that before (can you say "100 Block"?).
But what do I know? I'm just a one-term Tony.
I can't say at this point whether I will vote for or against whatever Akcess brings forward, but I can say this: before any meeting at which the Council must vote on an Akcess proposal, I will call a Town Hall Forum and ask for citizen feedback. You can also respond here, email me at the city email address tpalmeri@ci.oshkosh.wi.us or call me at 235-1116.
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Just a moment of weakness here - I should be staying completely away from politics, but as a hook ya gotta admit "One Term Tony" is pretty catchy. Maybe you should change your blog title. Get some t-shirts.
This sidewalk thing is older than dirt. It doesn't matter what income level the 'hood is, who proposes it, what their relationships to other people or businesses are, or if it is smack in the middle of town or out in some semi-rural fringe -
when a council says "sidewalks" the residents all crap. Loudly.
Some of the highest attended meetings are due to people protesting sidewalks. You wanna see a neighborhood organize fast and neighbor begin to talk to neighbor? Threaten sidewalks. You can torture people, up-end the constitution and rape children - people change the channel. But sidewalks, now THAT'S serious stuff.
If it were up to individual neighborhoods alone there would be no sidewalks anywhere. Residents never want them ever.
Not long ago we had Uprising Number 3567 because the council here said "sidewalks" to some people. Not at all an upscale neighborhood. But they got a packed meeting out of it, and for some reason people wore weird orange shirts?? Who knows. A mobilized person is a strange person. One council guy wore an orange shrit to show his "solidarity" with the masses of downtrodden in attendance. Gag. (Vote for me! vote for me!)
There were poetic and heartwrenching soliloquys about how utopian the neighborhood was without sidewalks, and the ruination that sidewalks would bring to their Way of Life - it's all old.
Nobody wants to pay for 'em, nobody wants to shovel 'em. And your yard isn't as big as you could pretend it was before. Pretty poetic stuff there.
Threats of non-re-election due to Terminal Cases of Sidewalk Wrongness are older than dirt too. Councils back off of this frequently, bug-eyed sidewalk rage can be scary.
In fact, I've had enough. I'm going to get a jack-hammer first thing tomorrow and bust up all the damn sidewalks in Eau Claire. I'm not taking this sh*t anymore - who do they think they are. Death to Sidewalks! If we don't fight them there, we'll be fighting them here!Or something.
p.s. Ha ha, you're on YouTube.
p.p.s. I thought that guy was a pal of yours, WTF that worm sure turned in a hurry, dinnit?
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