{"id":62854,"date":"2017-04-25T12:00:17","date_gmt":"2017-04-25T17:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=62854"},"modified":"2017-04-24T20:11:41","modified_gmt":"2017-04-25T01:11:41","slug":"pounding-a-square-peg-into-a-round-hole-on-your-dime","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=62854","title":{"rendered":"Pounding A Square Peg Into A Round Hole – On Your Dime"},"content":{"rendered":"

Joe Doakes from Como Park emails:<\/p>\n

Ramsey County tore down the old jail and West publishing buildings on Kellogg Boulevard, now the county is ready to negotiate with a developer for new buildings on that site.\u00a0 When government \u201cnegotiates\u201d with developers, I fear the only question will be \u201chow much are Joe Doakes\u2019 taxes going up to pay this developer to take this white elephant off our hands?\u201d<\/p>\n

The part that kills me is this: \u201cOne of Saint Paul\u2019s greatest assets is the Mississippi River,\u201d said Jonathan Sage-Martinson, director of the Department of Planning and Economic Development for the City of Saint Paul. \u201cRedevelopment on this site will play an important role in further enhancing downtown vibrancy and embracing our position as a river city. This site allows us to connect our downtown community to one of Saint Paul\u2019s most incredible natural landmarks, and I applaud Ramsey County for entering negotiations with a developer who shares that vision.\u201d<\/p>\n

No, Jonathan, you\u2019re dead wrong and your council knows it, which is why the City isn\u2019t jumping into this briar patch, they\u2019re letting the County do it.\u00a0 The river is nothing in St. Paul as presently situated \u2013 that\u2019s why the initial colony was located to the East of the present downtown and was called Pig\u2019s Eye \u2013 because that\u2019s where the land slopes down to the river so you can get out of your canoe.<\/p>\n

San Antonio has a riverfront development.\u00a0 Tours, shops, restaurants, a wonderful natural resource to exploit.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Here is a photo of the West building, nearly demolished.\u00a0 This is the view from Kellogg Boulevard, the major street that runs past the Xcel Center where the Wild play hockey.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Fine, an ugly three story building gone, right?\u00a0 Not quite.\u00a0\u00a0 Here\u2019s the view of the building from the bridge over the river.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

There were three stories ABOVE Kellogg Boulevard and six stories BELOW Kellogg Boulevard, then a railroad track that cannot be relocated, and then a four-lane road (Shepherd Road) before you get to the riverbank.\u00a0 You won\u2019t be sipping your latte on the bank of the river or strolling along the waterway, you\u2019ll be looking at it from 200 yards away, right about where the yellow crane is sitting in this photo.<\/p>\n

Minnesota doesn\u2019t have riverfront developments, mostly because the river bank is a flood zone.\u00a0 Even St. Anthony Main isn\u2019t on the river \u2013 it\u2019s separated by a road.\u00a0 It\u2019s not a \u201criverfront\u201d development, it\u2019s a \u201criver view\u201d development, and if you\u2019ve ever priced homes you know that distinction is incredibly important.<\/p>\n

This whole thing is idiotic.\u00a0 Which means nobody would build it on their own, they\u2019ll build it only if they can get a big enough bribe.\u00a0 I\u2019m already paying for a better Minnesota; I\u2019m not looking forward to paying for a nicer riverfront.<\/p>\n

Joe Doakes<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But pay you shall.<\/p>\n

The Twin Cities are \u00a0noted as two river cities whose downtowns turned their backs on their riverfronts, literally and symbolically. \u00a0 And in Saint Paul’s case, it’s happened in ways that’ll take a generation or two and an exquisite amount of money to fix.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Joe Doakes from Como Park emails: Ramsey County tore down the old jail and West publishing buildings on Kellogg Boulevard, now the county is ready to negotiate with a developer for new buildings on that site.\u00a0 When government \u201cnegotiates\u201d with developers, I fear the only question will be \u201chow much are Joe Doakes\u2019 taxes going […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-62854","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-st-paul"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62854","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=62854"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62854\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":62858,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62854\/revisions\/62858"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=62854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=62854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=62854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}