Owensboro Downtown Master Plan - Part two

While well over half of Daviess county and Owensboro sat without electricity, the most important issue for a combined City and County government meeting last night was to raise the taxes levied on my (and everyone elses) insurance policies by 4%, excluding crop and health insurance. Surely this new tax revenue will be utilized for a sound investment in the city, maybe infrastructure upgrades????. . .well. . .ehh. . .sorry. . .no.

This new tax revenue will be used to float a roughly 80 million dollar bond that will be invested in the downtown master plan. Surely there is a pool investors setting on the sidelines just waiting for a commitment from Owensboro before breaking out the shovels and starting the redevelopment of downtown. . . .well. . .no. . .but 27 other cities that have done this same thing have seen dumptruck-loads of money just pouring in.

Man, for the elected officials of a small city like Owensboro to make such a commitment, they must be looking at one heck of a rock-solid redevelopment plan. . .well. . .no. . .just a couple of pretty pictures put together by the Gateway Planning Group, a private developer.

So, you just doubled the amount of taxes you levy on me for protecting my house and my car in case of disaster so that you could dump $80 million into a project put together by a private developer which is only a couple of pretty pictures, probably to risky for investment from a banking institution, with no commitments from any other outside investors?

OK, so if this were Bowling Green, KY, a growing city with a young population and a vibrant economy . . .a city the same size as Owensboro that is kicking its rear-end in every way, I would have no problems with such a proposal. But this build-it-and-they-will-come thing only works for baseball fields in the middle of a corn field in Iowa or somewhere. In my opinion, the city leaders have not proven themselves capable of handling a project of this scope successfully.

The city wants to attract young successful people with families back to the area, so the next time you see a young successful person with a family (either here in Owensboro or out of town), ask them if they want to live in a fourth floor apartment above a bar in downtown Owensboro. I like to think of myself as young and successful and while the thought of living over a bar at first seems like a great idea, on second thought, I like the quite solitude and hangover-free Mondays that the county provides (that doesn't make me un-successful does it?)

Yeah on paper this type of project looks good and will attract the more successful hi-techy type, but I don't think jumping in feet first to a project like this is the way to go about it.

Just wait until the city starts using eminent domain to seize downtown properties just to hand it over to private developers to fulfill this plan.

More to come. . .