2railjon wrote:
Sarge, I know the Walmart deal died. Just teasing. Hard to believe it was even a thought, though. Shame on corporate America.
While we're on a good wobble:
Funny how the media twisted this one to sell hate and anger.
The new Walmart was to replace an existing small one, anchoring a strip with other retailers. It wasn't to be on the park itself or even in the park's skyline. The fight over it here (where it really mattered) was over the taxing authorities' invoking a financing scheme where some initial portion of the potential tax revenue increase of the developed property would be used to fund the project in part. Its a scheme used for renewal, so the various commissions would have to declare the area to be renewed as blighted.
One side of the controversy wanted this to go forward since this was to be built on the retail strip of Rt. 30 amongst the two odd miles of Giant supermarket, U-Haul, Dairy Queen, MacDonalds, CVS, &c. and would be convenient for the people who live here the other nine months of the year after the tourists have gone home, keep the revenue in G'burg, employment, and all that goes with that side of the argument.
The opponents were mostly the property taxpayer's who viewed the use of TIF as an inappropriate venue to finance the enterprise (I sympathise with this camp, myself) rather than the developer going to the bank like everyone else (and it turned out he had and was turned down). The scheme was intended for and actually had been used to rejuvenate businesses in actual blight, a good example was the Gettysburg Hotel. This was a nice old hotel in the middle of town on the square which burned, so the shell was all restored to a lovely working hotel again using TIF. Beautiful job and what was a blighted eyesore was renovated into a working concern that also had historical merit.
In this case, the councils (both township and school-board) were under suspicion for their motivations to declare what was open ground at the far end of the RT30 strip somehow a blighted eyesore and thus make the project eligible for TIF, and then put the bill on the property taxpayer never to be recovered and engage in speculative use of public monies. Indeed the last primary here saw a slate of potential commissioners discovered to be financed in part by the very same developer.
In and of itself then, it was a matter for those who live and work here, and how they make their lives. What we don't need and what inevitably happens in these cases of internal debate here, due to the area's special circumstance, is the card that the opposition usually plays. They (even though I was against the use of TIF as inappropriate, this pisses me off too) went the the Civil War Trust and the reenactors and the tourists and painted a picture of neon light casting its horrid glare on the sanctified grounds of the battlefield. Off to the press go these self-annointed gods of historical preservation with their usual lack of facts and assumed mandate over how the people who live here and maintain the place for their annual five-day vacation must live the other 360 days.
They and a gleeful press turn it into a story about the evil Walmart selling their Chinese shit on hallowed ground made so by the blood of heroic Americans, made to look bad in the papers and upset civilians at their breakfast; that's how you got the twisted story you and the rest of the country got. At that point Walmart understandably bailed their participation in the project, in a rather dignified manner really, and the developer withdrew the project as the anchor retailer was no longer in.
Me, I see graft and inappropriate use of public funds heaped on the back of the property-taxpayer on the one side. On the other I see outsiders telling those who make their way here how they must live.
No winner here, other than the press who trade on hate and anger. God what a hateful institution, the American press.
So, Jon me good mate. Tell me about these MGs in the family!
