So Mayor Fenty wants the City Council to spend another $200,000,000.00 of city money to help pay for a billion dollar project to revitalize the Southwest Waterfront. I've never been to Southwest. I hear it's where concrete goes to die. Whatever. I doubt SW needs the money anymore than anything across the Anacostia, but, hey, if it ends up being a profitable venture for the city, so be it.
But it won't be. Because there is no entity I trust less than the District of Columbia when it comes to being careful with money and neighborhood development. Lord knows how they're going to fuck this up but they inevitably will.
"This thing only comes around maybe once in a lifetime. In fact, it's beyond our lifetime. The imprint that we make will be well beyond the next several generations," said Monty Hoffman, CEO of PN Hoffman Development.
I'm sure that's exactly what people were saying when the city decided to level the quadrant and start from scratch. I'm sure city planners and Congress thought that this bold move would last several generations. It lasted two (three if your mom and grandma were slutty).
This Hoffman guy though. He has some nerve. Look at him wax retarded here:
The waterfront is one of several major development projects in the city, which city officials said is not yet feeling the impact of a declining national economy.
"We are the envy of the nation," Hoffman said.
I know Hoffman is speaking in terms of economics, but calling DC the envy of the nation is some kind of stupid. Who would envy us? We're a city that wastes money, has a rising crime rate, has severe economic and unemployment issues, and deals with intense segregation within the city limits. Oh, and the schools suck. And four girls got murdered at least six months ago and we're just now finding about it.
But, hey! Soon we'll have a sweet new hotel on the Potomac. Problems solved!
1.16.2008
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Why do I have the feeling that $200million will morph into $400 million, then into $800 million. And is it really "redevelopment" if the new building burn to the ground because our fire hydrants still don't work?
ReplyDeleteWhere the hell does this money keep coming from??!?!?!?!
ReplyDeleteWhy can't the get the boilers fixed in the schools or air conditioning for the kids (adults) during the summer.
Instead we want to build a waterfront that no one in the city that lives here can afford to use, cause they did not finish high school.
I am starting to hate DC too. It's criminal what they are doing to the people here.
I live in Waterfront, and I think the redevelopment is pretty stupid. We keep losing our basic services (dry cleaners, liquor stores, etc) in favor of "redevelopment" for fatcats who can afford waterfront view condos.
ReplyDelete"I've never been to Southwest. I hear it's where concrete goes to die. Whatever. "
ReplyDeleteSo you are qualified to comment on an entire quadrant of the city you've never fucking bothered to step foot in?
If you'd like we could Mapquest it for you so you could go down there and see how pathetic the current development is down there.