Hold on to you hats, I'm about to say something nice about the Edgewater.. Actually, two things nice.
First, the old news. When I filed the complaint about their lobbying reports where they claimed to spend less than $1,000 on lobbying, they stepped up and reported a substantial amount of lobbying. First, in 2008, they admitted to spending over $25,920. And an additional $86,140 in the first half of 2009. And, they admitted who the investors were in the LLC and what they were lobbying for. Substantial progress.
Second, the new news. The part that is even more amazing if they are sincere. Putting the project on hold, to back up and work with the neighborhood and to work on the criticisms about the project they heard from the neighborhood, and just a few of the committees they have to go through. Quite the change from the attitude that they had support and didn't need to make any changes.
Kudos to Bob Dunn and the folks working on the Edgewater. This project has an opportunity to really be something special, if done right.
Kudos also to Dane101.com for their good reporting on this. And to Jay Rath at the Isthmus as well.
Yes, but what about the record-setting TIF for this project? Has "but for" been properly demonstrated?
ReplyDeleteGiggle. I didn't say anything about TIF. And of course you can't do a "but for" analysis if you don't even know what the project is . . .
ReplyDelete"but for" is the *second* sentence in Madison's "TIF objectives and policies" document. You would think it would carry more weight...
ReplyDeleteIf only the public knew how developers pony up to city council in the name of policy side-stepping.