At the last city council meeting, the Sebastopol Library Staffing and Facilities Ad Hoc Committee made its pitch for a broader community commons development with the library as an anchor tenant
Perhaps the City Council should work on running the City - you know…providing essential services and balancing the budget for more than one year out of every 7, stuff like that - before we go off on another dream quest.
Two big issues: the site and who pays? Karnac predicts that site selected will be the parking lot by the wonderful historic Hopmonk, the best music venue in West Coounty with great food too. He further predicts the Chamber of Commerce will have lavish new offices in the new building and maybe the city will as well. Removing the parking lot will hurt the Hopmonk and remove our free parking while replacing it with a big beautiful for-pay parking deck. The hope being that killing Hopmonk and downtown may drive more traffic to the dying Barlow with its empty restaurants.
How about redevelopiing Chain Link Plaza where no hotel will ever be built without major tax abatements? How about redeveloping the Rite Aid site that will never be occupied again?
The game plan will be to say "No decisions have been made", hire a very expensive consultant to come up with a plan outlining the approach as above, hold some public meetings (where are the results from the public meeting on the two way street issue?) and there we have it, a plan with no connection to noble goals or public input that benefits a few developers.
Laura, thank you for the additional context and background.
The report reads like a menu sourced from many chefs. It's a good thing that are many appealing main courses, sides, and beverages. Yet, no diner orders the entire menu, so the new committee has an interesting task to pick and perhaps special order an affordable, relatively satisfying meal. Of course, like any meal, we will always be hungry for another after finishing the last.
There are a number of interesting needs, dynamics, and collaborative funding scenarios happening right now. There is no one solution for everyone, meaning there is no one ultimate answer. As important as any project is, the way the it sets the stage for future projects is just as important. I hope the committee is able to explicitly state the larger road map when recommending the next destination.
Perhaps the City Council should work on running the City - you know…providing essential services and balancing the budget for more than one year out of every 7, stuff like that - before we go off on another dream quest.
Two big issues: the site and who pays? Karnac predicts that site selected will be the parking lot by the wonderful historic Hopmonk, the best music venue in West Coounty with great food too. He further predicts the Chamber of Commerce will have lavish new offices in the new building and maybe the city will as well. Removing the parking lot will hurt the Hopmonk and remove our free parking while replacing it with a big beautiful for-pay parking deck. The hope being that killing Hopmonk and downtown may drive more traffic to the dying Barlow with its empty restaurants.
How about redevelopiing Chain Link Plaza where no hotel will ever be built without major tax abatements? How about redeveloping the Rite Aid site that will never be occupied again?
The game plan will be to say "No decisions have been made", hire a very expensive consultant to come up with a plan outlining the approach as above, hold some public meetings (where are the results from the public meeting on the two way street issue?) and there we have it, a plan with no connection to noble goals or public input that benefits a few developers.
Laura, thank you for the additional context and background.
The report reads like a menu sourced from many chefs. It's a good thing that are many appealing main courses, sides, and beverages. Yet, no diner orders the entire menu, so the new committee has an interesting task to pick and perhaps special order an affordable, relatively satisfying meal. Of course, like any meal, we will always be hungry for another after finishing the last.
There are a number of interesting needs, dynamics, and collaborative funding scenarios happening right now. There is no one solution for everyone, meaning there is no one ultimate answer. As important as any project is, the way the it sets the stage for future projects is just as important. I hope the committee is able to explicitly state the larger road map when recommending the next destination.
Yay! So glad to hear this.