Home Sweet Ogden -- the "Smell" of Success

The Standard-Examiner put its two "top gun" reporters on the front page today, under the delightfully enigmatic headline, "Home Sweet Ogden?"

John Wright writes on the "troubled" Union Square condo project, and Lynze Wardle reports on three other Ogden sluggishly-selling and city-subsidized real estate residential "projects" in our inner city "frontier land." Rather than go into my normally hyper-detailed analysis, I'll just cut through the "happy talk" and set forth the salient details here:

• Union Square: Only 23 of the 44 Union Square units have sold, since the project's "Phase One" completion in 2004;
  
• Jefferson Townhomes: Only 3 of the 7 "pricey"($126,900 and up) townhomes have sold since their completion in 2004;
  
• Lincoln Townhomes: It only took eight years to sell all the units;
  
• Legacy Park: Only 16 of the 23 lots have sold since the project was first put on the market in 2001. Seven lots remain unsold, even to this day. The rest of the neighborhood continues to deteriorate while the project residents hole-up in their downtown fortress.

Keep in mind, gentle readers, all this has been happening during a period when mortgage interest rates have been at 45-year lows, in a general Utah real estate market which has generally been very "hot." And not only that, the city has provided additional incentives, such as $5,000 "Own in Ogden" grants, and free horse-stalls under the Ogden Stadium, about a mile north-east. For the life of me, I can't understand why people aren't standing in line to snatch up these wonderful properties, in downtown Ogden's historic "hood."

Lynze Wardle offers this interesting tidbit:

Unfortunately, not everyone has the "urban pioneering spirit" to buy a home in one of Ogden's older neighborhoods, said Terra Venture Realtor Sue Wilkerson.

You said a mouthful, Sue. Our gentle readers should take note that these are the words of a real-estate professional. She works in the business of real estate, and knows what she's talking about. I think she hits the nail on the head when she brings up the "frontier" analogy.

The problem here is plain and simple. These projects are entirely inappropriate for the neighborhoods in which they're situated. No real estate developer or investor in their right mind would build such projects themselves on their own dime, because very little market for such properties exists. What they're after is the public money.

It's the same old story every time the government central planners take charge of things. Being entirely oblivious to real-world market forces, and having no personal stake in weighing the risk against the reward, they throw millions of dollars of public money into the hands of construction contractors, architects, lawyers, bond-dealers and the whole motley group, and build residential taj mahals on 28th and Lincoln Avenue -- and lower 25th Street. Undeterred by their present failures, they nevertheless blindly persevere. Phase two of the Union Square project is scheduled on Wall Avenue in the near future, we're told, and the Lincoln Townhomes second phase is on the drawing board, too. The problem, of course, is that it's the taxpayers who are left holding the bag.

Now I know I'll be catching some flak about this article. Some folks will say, "Well, at least they're doing something!" And to that I would just say, "If you're speeding along at top speed in the wrong direction, just exactly where do you end up?"

And to those who ask whether I have a better plan to offer, I'll invoke the old cowboy proverb: "If you're standing in a hole...first, quit digging." What we're doing now is plainly not working.

My complements go out to reporters Wright and Wardle for their two excellent articles. It was a tough task your editors gave you, my friends, trying to put a positive slant on what any sensible person would see as abject failure.

And to those gentle Weber County Forum readers who are eligible to vote, I'll just say this: We have a city council that's turned a deaf ear to the citizens of Ogden. There's a "wisdom of the crowd" that's entirely ignored. There are two council incumbent candidates who rubber-stamp every administration proposal that lands on their desk, including some of the above-mentioned projects. They've been putty in the developers' hands. They've abdicated their duties as citizen watchdogs. They will continue blunder along, unless summarily turned out of office. I don't care who you vote for; just don't vote for Tweedle-dum and Tweedle-dee.

And if you have any doubt about what to do when you get into the voting booth -- think about Ogden city's downtown mudhole.

Comments?