As we bemoan the never never land of K Street renewal, which this article posted on Prosper Online details in too-grim-too-remember fashion, balanced by this article from today’s Bee, we might also take a peek at what has been going in New York at the site of the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center and the difficulty in getting the replacement buildings actually built at ground zero, as this article from the Wall Street Journal reveals.
An excerpt from each:
1) The K Street article (David Townshend: Blow Up K Street or Move On) first:
“Sacramento city leaders have two options downtown.
“No. 1, blow up K Street. Again. OK, not with dynamite but with the same fearlessness and bulldozers that didn't work the last two times they tried it. Maybe they'll get lucky this time.
“Or they can take option two, which may actually hold more promise. They can move on. Lift their collective heads out of another vacant downtown lot and make something happen elsewhere.
“In fairness to our current mayor and city council, city leaders have been struggling with what to do with downtown -- especially K Street -- for more than 70 years. Old-timers will tell you that as far back as the 1940s their parents forbade them to go west of 7th Street on K.”
2) Second, this from the Bee article (Downtown’s projects rise in face of downturn)
“Standing at the corner of 10th and K streets, in the heart of downtown Sacramento, there's little sign of the real estate free fall slamming the suburbs.
“On one corner, dust rises from the construction site of a musical theater, restaurant and bar complex – The Cosmopolitan – scheduled to open in September in a former Woolworth's store. Across the street, crews are renovating another old department store into "office condos."
“Corner by corner, the gradual metamorphosis of Sacramento's core continues to unfold, much as it has for the past decade.
"We're just percolating right along," said Leslie Fritzsche, city downtown development manager.”
3) Third, this from the Wall Street Journal article (The Politics of Can’t-Possibly-Do):
“This week the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey issued a stunning document to explain why Ground Zero has remained nothing but a hole for some seven years.
“It is arguably the greatest political and bureaucratic fiasco in the history of the world. Remember the line about how if we don't rebuild the towers "the terrorists will win"? The terrorists will be dead of old age before this project is finished…
“Ground Zero is a perfect storm of contemporary American politics. The report cites "19 different governmental entities from every level of government each laying claim to some component of the overall project." And, "Each entity makes daily decisions about their individual projects, but no streamlined process or authority is in place to . . . ensure that each decision is in the best interest of the overall project." This sounds eerily like the 9/11 Commission's assessment of our dis-coordinated national security agencies…
“That is because productive decision making has fallen as a public value below "being heard." Even being heard is no longer enough. The "stakeholders" have to prevail, somehow assuming that the process – or a complex project like this – will endure endless blows. Meanwhile, construction of the wholly private, 52-story 7 World Trade Center building was done in 2006.”
Oh well, life does goes on...Have a Wonderful 4th!!!...it's a beautiful day in Sacramento!
