My Riverfront Landing Rant

In any other city, the riverfront landing area would have been developed ten years ago and the money garnered used to pay for much needed infrastructure development. The land is located right downtown, it's on prime waterfront, and it's worth a fortune. But oh, how I overestimate this place. Here, they wait until the last couple years to start development (okay great, the land is worth more now… ka-CHING!)…. but then what do they do? Put in two theatres and turn the rest into park. They should have sold this prime real estate to developers and put in some high rises and MADE SOME MONEY… maybe even build some condos to alleviate the rental housing shortage. Hell they could have built some low income apartments there with partial proceeds. How on earth they managed to think up the idea of putting the Galaxy theatre where they did is beyond me. They might as well have put a fricking Walmart in there. Then again, they probably tried.

Yeah, yeah, I know what you’re going to say: big buildings aren’t as pretty as parks. Well, no one seems to notice that there already ARE huge parks on each side of the riverfront property AND across the river. But what about the theatre you say? What about the local arts scene? Well in case you’ve never been to a theatre, it involves being INSIDE so it doesn’t really matter where it is. Call me crazy but it’s a little hard to enjoy the riverfront view when you’re looking at a stage or screen, surrounded by concrete walls. The fact is: the land could have been better utilized. PERIOD.

City Hall does nothing but bitch about how little money they have… Gee, I wonder why? Maybe it’s because they don’t know a damn thing about urban planning and development. They think that the only place to get money is to nickel and dime residents to death. They missed the boat on this one folks. I hope everyone enjoys the kiddie waterpark but do try to ignore the crater sized potholes, no parking spaces, and crumbling streets on the way there.