As is typical as we approach the holiday season, local red-meat news seems to have trickled to a standstill this week. Undaunted by this, your blogmeister has scoured the northern Utah media (and other places), and dredged up at least three items worthy of Emerald City topical discussion this morning:
First, we turn to this earthtimes.org press release, which we post as a reminder of Friday's (December 7) Blockbuster Event, wherein Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will be in town as the featured speaker to kick off Gadi Leshem's River Restoration Celebration Day. With the assistance of the Boss Godfrey administration, Mr. Leshem has been madly scrambling since August of 2006 to snatch up every available property within the Ogden River Project Area. Although Mr. Leshem's "actual plans" admittedly remain in the "conceptual stage" (scribbled on a cocktail napkin, perhaps?) we are sure that no Weber County Forum reader worth his or her salt will want to miss this gala event, in the hope that they'll catch some glimpse of what's in store for the northern portion of our downtown area.
Within the press release we find this interesting information:
The Ogden Riverfront Development Company [ORDC] is a real estate development firm specializing in municipal planning and urban development. The company is currently involved in projects in downtown Ogden, with the emphasis on building communities around the river.Being the curious type, we did a quick Department of Commerce search on ORDC, and came up with this filing, indicating that this company was formed only in July of 2007, and thus has no apparent history of successful real estate development. Once again the question arises: Does Gadi or his real estate development company actually have any experience with large projects of this sort?
ORDC strives to create commercial and residential neighborhoods of superior quality while capitalizing on the beauty of Ogden and solidifying the city's position as a hub for outdoor recreation industries.
Next, we'll highlight this morning's Salt Lake Tribune article, in which Cathy McKitrick reports that Utah's property tax reform movement is gaining traction. For readers following this issue, we incorporate Ms. McKitrick's lead paragraphs:
Three grass-roots organizations have banded together to lean on lawmakers to overhaul the state's property-tax system.We've added live links to the aforementioned organizations where available, for those readers who'd like to follow up on this story.
"We hope to accomplish significant tax reform, not the Band-Aid proposals that we've heard," says Donald Bell of Huntsville. "The balancing act is to assess all types of properties fairly and equitably across the board."
The new statewide coalition is called Citizens Coalition for Tax Fairness.
To form it, Bell's Weber County organization, Wingmen for Property Tax Reform, recently joined forces with Davis County's CitizensForTaxFairness.org and Washington County's Fair Property Tax Committee.
Finally, we'll direct our readers attention to yesterday's Salt Lake Tribune editorial, revealing the latest plot twist in the Build Your Own Utah World Class Resort Movement. It appears from a reading of this article, that our state legislature has, inadvertently or not, carved out a giant loophole for resort developers in Utah... a loophole which stands in dire need of being plugged. We were first alerted to this story by one of our alert readers in a lower article comments section in mid-November, BTW. A Weber County Forum Tip O' the Hat to the Salt Lake Tribune for helping connect the dots.
That's it from us this morning, gentle readers. We'll rely upon you to carry the discussion from here.
31 comments:
Re the company town story:
"HB 466 flew through the Legislature under the radar. The measure was approved 66-0 in the House and 28-0 in the Senate. Nary a word was written; not a voice was raised in dissent. But people are talking now, especially after it was revealed that a double-dipping lobbyist for the League of Cities and Towns was also working for another private developer who hopes to form his own resort town."
Inadvertant error? I don't think so.
Rudi:
I think the "gala event" --- at least the Kennedy speech part of it --- is admission by ticket. The tickets are free, but you have to find a person or group that has them to get one. [Convenient way to insure the crowd has the proper number of appreciative supporters.] I don't know how many are being distributed.
It's a little disconcerting from the press release to see that Mr. Kennedy's appearance is being spun not merely as an appearance in support of river clean up [and God knows the lower Ogden River needs one], but as support for the entire Gadi Lesham river project development --- all three phases of it, the specifics of which are [as usual for Godfrey-endorsed development projects] left gloriously vague. He might in fact be planning a well-designed and marketed and likely-to-succeed mixed use development for the river project area. Or it might all end up as a quick-in, quick-out exploitive development. I hope it's the former, but we can't know for sure until the promised plans are made public. The wait-time on the last Godfrey promised set of plans for a major development was, remember, two years and counting [the oft-rumored to be coming but never actually seen "Peterson Proposal."]
At this point, Mr. Lesham's brand spanking new development company is entitled to, from the public, cautious optimism, but nothing more until the plans appear for public scrutiny.
"The tickets are free, but you have to find a person or group that has them to get one."
Bummer. Guess I won't worry about getting my tux out of the cleaners by Friday.
Quoting Yogi Berra," Dejavu, all over again". Grandiose plans? Lots of fan fair and hype, totally inexperienced developer. I wonder how complicated this lying little matty- gadi puzzle will be.
This time around will they disclose any specifics? What will the public be asked to sacrifice?Have we all ready unknowingly paid?
How gadi got some of these properties is suspect, some claim the Ogden City Economic Development Department worked overtime securing properties for gadi, and used undue pressure by threatening eminant domain.
Typical lying little matty, any answers spawn a whole new bunch of questions. I hope for Kennedy's sake he's not being duped and used to promote a sham of major proportions.
We'll just have to wait and see.
It's probably unrelated, but the Google ads engine that runs the ORDC "press release" page features links known to be favorable to Jay Asquith Tom Moore Cavendish. Bizzare. And I, for one, am really wondering what kind of lanyards the Ogden Community Foundation will provide to some esteemed OTown attendees, those "private citizens" who face politically motivated harassment (love the irony, Short-deck!), and those luminaries from such great "ski" companies as Goodie! Goodie two, Goodie two, Goodie Goodie two shoes!
Bacon.
It seems pretty sad that the Kennedy name - known for compassion, honesty, integrity, Democratic priciples is being used by an indicted multi million dollar fraud suspect and a mayor with such a horrible record as Godfrey in minority affairs, looking out for the little guy, sordid behind closed door dealings with insider cronies - and that's just the tip of the ice berg.
You would think that Robert Kennedy Jr. would have a staff that vetted this sort of appearance more closely. Surely they don't know this about Gadi and Matt - do they?
Surely the great scion of the Kennedy clan would not associate their luster with the NeoCon Republican mayor and his money grubbing accused fraud artist pal who are kicking people off their property to supposedly clean up this river - would he?
Incidentally, as rivers go, the Ogden river is not that bad of shape, in this specific area or any other. We are not talking pollution you see in places like New Jersey, New York, Philly, etc. A few junk cars and other junk, but not the real nasty oil, chemical, and tons of refuse you see back east.
I wonder if Kennedy thinks that this is the kind of deal the Mayor and his con buddy are into?
Wasn't someone on here awhile back going to email Kennedy and apprise him of the shady dealings with Lesham, mayor and the roundup of Riverfront Properties?
Anything come of that? Not too late!
Maybe it's time for a Utah version of Proposition 13. I wonder what its chances would be.
Many other States have a Homestead Exemption for real estate taxes.
Each year a form is sent to your residence (and not forwarded if you have moved). You fill it out and send it back. This gives a significant break on taxes for that property. It means that each family has one home with reasonable taxes while those who own second homes or rental property do not get a break.
It has worked elsewhere, why not here?
OL:
It can help, provided there is a cap on it, a set maximum for the exemption. Otherwise, Hard Working Joe Democrat gets say 100K exemption on his modest home, and Corrupt Greedy Republican [that's redundant, isn't it?] gets a $6 million dollar exemption on his palace. So he benefits sixty times more than Joe Democrat. I'd set it at 50% of the median price for homes in the state [not the mean, the median], revised every ten years like the census. So if the median price of homes in your state is [for the sake of argument] $150K, every homeowner gets $75K of his home's value exempted from the property tax.
There are problems, though. That means you have to raise the money lost by the exemptions some other way. Income taxes, sales taxes, or a higher property tax rate... and if the latter is chosen, it wipes out some of the the advantage of the exemption. Sales taxes are particularly regressive, so it would probably have to be an increase in income taxes... which would be politically the most difficult to arrange.
Nothin' comes easy where taxes are concerned.
Curm...you and your poor democrats....have you listened to your flipflopping socialist hillary lately? it's the republicans who need to saved from your sorry crop of president hopefuls.
not a smart one in the bunch...no experience...just raw ego and ambition. Hilary could step into Godfrey's shoes and keep on walkin and talkin. No integrity needed.
Not to change the subject...but this bores me. I'm only interested in my career.
Does anyone know if Rupie will be here Fri? I think he likes me! I want to go to Hollywood and be a star.
I've been invited to the Kennedy stuff on Fri. So, I really hope Rupie is there too. Of course, John Kennedy was interested in Marilyn Monroe.....so If Rupie doesn't show up maybe Mr. Kennedy will take an interest in my career too.
Anyways, if anyone knows about Rupie, please tell me. I'm just dying to get out of this one-horse town.
Rudi, you state in your "lead-in" article that "With the assistance of the Boss Godfrey administration, Mr. Leshem has been madly scrambling since August of 2006 to snatch up every available property within the Ogden River Project Area." You hit the nail on the head and if that isn't enough, the City has sold the OPTIONS it bought with taxpayer money in the River project area to Leshem. Is the Council aware of this? They can't be that blind, they at least should have suspected it! They sure need to get on the ball and review all the City's ordinances concerning the disposal of City property and plug some huge loop holes!
Looks like we're in for another four years of more cronyism, back-room deals and leaving the council in the dark! Oh, JOY!!
True rebublican, I 've never seen a worse field than what your party is offering, including the phony plastic wind up mormon Ken Doll imitation Romney, what a joke.
True Republican:
Back to civics class for you, I'm afraid. OgLover and I were discussing the possibility of homestead exemptions as a way of mitigating the impact of rising property taxes in Utah towns. The national candidates of either party will have exactly zero impact on this, Republican or Democrat since there is no national property tax. Property taxes are exclusively the province of such states and communities as choose to impose them. WSU has some good courses in PoliSci you might want to look into, just to brush up so you can stay current in the discussions.
Little Mouse:
You wrote: the City has sold the OPTIONS it bought with taxpayer money in the River project area to Leshem. Is the Council aware of this? They can't be that blind, they at least should have suspected it! They sure need to get on the ball and review all the City's ordinances concerning the disposal of City property and plug some huge loop holes!
I've heard lots of rumors about city owned options and who and how they've been transferred to Mr. Lesham. But only rumors. Be nice if someone produced some checkable fact or cite-able sources. But in any case, your comment above doesn't address in any way the question of whether the sale of the options to Mr. Lesham by the city [presuming they occurred] were perfectly legal, and perhaps wise moves. If the RDA authority --- which includes the Council --- determined that the Lesham group had the best development plan for the River Project, then I see nothing wrong with their assisting him in putting together the properties necessary to make that development happen. [Leave aside for the moment the question of whether the RDA Board/aka Council chose wisely in deciding that.]
Now, if the city RDA owned options on parcels in the project zone, or outright title to them, and they were sold to Mr. Lesham's group without the knowledge of the RDA Board, that might be another matter entirely.
The most disturbing part about all this [at this point] for me is that, once again, rumors are flying and no one seems to know, or certainly no one in a position of authority has made known to the public that I'm aware of, what has happened or is happening... if anything is... with respect to property within the River Project area. It does seem clear that Mr. Lesham's plans, as hazily [but grandly, in almost Tuscan fashion --- sorry, couldn't resist] laid out in the Kennedy event press release presumes that he has acquired either title or options to buy the land necessary for this three phases of development.
Perhaps it's time... yet again... for our very own hometown newspaper to get off the dime and report what is happening [if anything] with the River Project development. Be nice to know if all the rumors are hot air or have some substance behind them, and if the latter, what is happening. The RDA is after all a public body.
Furthermore, seems to me, that if nothing untoward is afoot, Hizzonah, Mayor Godfrey, would want the public fully informed of River Project developments and so should be eager to fill the SE in, with corroborating documents, on what's under way. Que no? If the administration is not forthcoming to the SE, then that should, I would think start any real journalist's ED [excrement detector] twitching.
Living on 18th St, across the street from what will be yet another of Godfrey's monolithic failures, I can't summarize within the amount of time I have the irritations that I've experienced because of this administration.
But of most recent note, is that if you go down Grant Ave between the river and 20th St, you'll see the new development brings the curb six feet further INTO the road, effectively leaving pedestrians/bicyclists sitting ducks at the mercy of auto drivers who will hopefully be kind enough to swerve into the shared left-hand turn lane TO GET AROUND them..
Could someone please explain what possible reason we could have for making the street narrower than it already is? It would seem to me beneficial to, if anything, widen the damned thing.
Sorry for the rant.. I just see this project as mindlessly absurd. Our neighborhood is far from the worst in town. But we can't go after the worst areas, because of one of the following:
A. Mayor or his cronies probably own the slum properties;
B. The crime is getting bad enough that it would be dangerous to work with those areas; (erhm, I mean, crime has gotten so LOW that it's *too* safe to do anything. I should work for Gawdfrey!)
C. The really, really bad areas of town aren't in direct walking distance of the Temple.
-sigh-
-A
The only Doug Stephens I know is the nephew to former Republican Speaker of the House Marty Stephens that is a convicted felon for forgery, and by the way is openly gay.
Well, I spent a good part of the afternoon re-familiarizing myself with the lower portions of the Ogden River.For a river that runs right thru the heart of an urban area, not too bad.
Visually, the main things that need to be addressed are general litter and the amount of old cement it appears folks used in attempts to sure up the banks on their property.
There was only one old bumper from a car that was visible embedded in the bank just below Wall Ave. There are no old cars in the river at present.
A good litter pick up effort and removing a couple of deadfalls below Wall Ave. and this would be an amazingly clean urban waterway. I'm not ready to estimate the costs and scope of removing the cement slabs. I know of a few portions above Monroe have quite a bit of cement incorporated in the river banks as well.
I have no data on the non visable state of the river or bed, but I doubt Lesham has laid out the money for these studies.( toxins and such) If anyone has knowlege regarding any toxic studies or other significant data, please share it.
I know there are no official warnings from the DWR regarding toxicity of fish in the river, so if there exists any problems, they must be very localized.
So, my real question is, why all the fan fare and hoopla?
If I think back to the original strategy they used for justifying an urban gondola, it was touted as nessisary because things have gotten so bad. Gloom and Doom. Exaggerate the negative aspects to promote extreme and costly corrective measures involving public sacrifice. Is this whats going on here?
I heard rumors of possibly altering the course of the river, and channelling and diverting water for commercial gain. I hope thats not what these guys are really trying to do here. Guess we'll find out Friday.
Oh, I forgot to mention the two shopping carts, how many more would find their way into this river with a Wallmart just a stones throw away?
Here we go again.
For the past few months, the Bush Administration exploited the fears of Americans to make their case against Iran. Just a few weeks ago, the President said "I believe they want to have the capacity, the knowledge, in order to make a nuclear weapon."
This week, 16 U.S. intelligence agencies published a report that "in fall 2003, Tehran halted its nuclear weapons program." Turns out the White House was aware of this shocking assessment for a few months, but reportedly worked to delay its public release.
Distortions and manipulation to promote a narrow ideological agenda is nothing new to the Bush Administration -- it's how they misled us into Iraq. This is the worst kind of leadership: a dishonest appeal our base emotions.
Iran may pose a threat, but misleading the American people is not the way to deal with it. All of the Democratic candidates have said that we need to have all options on the table when dealing with Iran -- Republicans seem to only consider war.
After we elect a Democratic president in 2008, the American people will once again have a leader who will be open and honest with them. But until then, it's important that every Republican presidential candidate avoids the fear-mongering that George Bush has used to so profoundly divide this country.
In 2004 I couldn't walk ten feet without seeing a "Hope not Fear" slogan on a t-shirt or a sign. And now, four years later, it's never meant more to us.
Remind every Republican that all Americans want to be inspired by hope, not governed by fear. Tell them to listen to the intelligence community:
That sounds a lot like the way Godfrey like to run the eGovernment in Ogden, I dont suppose G.W is Mattys' idol.
See you all tomorrow. L'il Lola, and Sharon, are you ready for a reading?
See you on the banks of the beautiful river.
Bill:
On the lower Ogden River: well, we disagree. It's a shabby mess and does not reflect well on the city. I talked to someone who with a friend or two periodically removes what he can from the bank and shallows down there and last week he found a kitchen sink in the river. A kitchen sink! Periodic river clean ups organized by various civic organizations happen every year, and every year they pull lots out, and there is much they can't get out for safety reasons -large concrete blocks, etc.
That said, if Mr. Lesham wants to pay for a clean up of the lower Ogden River, he's welcome I say. But from the press release and news story [I have no insider information since Hizzonah has not invited me to lunch lately], it seems he's looking at more than just picking the rubbish up bankside and in the water. Seems he's hired a pro design a river cleanup and to plan effective use of the riverbank in the River Project area at least.
Some cities have, through good design and planning I gather, have made very good use of the rivers that run through downtown areas. I haven't been there, but I'm told the Truckee at Reno is a good example. People tell me good things about Boise in that regard as well. Good planning increases access, preserves the essence of a free-flowing river [i.e. doesn't convert it into a channelized concrete glorified storm drain], promotes walking, biking on the banks, encourages suitable riverside businesses [usually fern bars and restaurants, assorted boutiques and shoppes and such like]. We're just going to have to wait and see what he has in mind beyond simple clean up.
But I see no reason to dismiss out of hand and without seeing the plans the Lesham proposal [provided we actually get to see it in some detail this week, and see something beyond an "artist's conception" of what it all might look at in the end]. And I see absolutely no reason to oppose Mr. Lesham's paying for a basic trash-concrete-kitchen-sink clean up either. If Mr. Lesham's plan turns out to be a turkey, time enough to pile on then. But I see no reason, before we've seen anything, to dismiss it out of hand in advance.
The story the Standard Examiner should have written on land acquisitions in the River Project Area has appeared in the SL Trib. It can be found here. It quotes residents of the RDA area bitterly complaining that they did not know Mr. Lesham was behind city negotiators who finally, after years of waiting, convinced them [with veiled threats of going to eminent domain proceedings] to sell options on their properties to the city. They insist they have sold out way below market, and have lost hundreds of thousands of dollars they could have gotten for the land had the city negotiators told them a developer, namely Mr. Lesham, was interested in the properties. It's a very interesting story.
Wow. City Council not notified that apparently the City was buying up options on River Area projects for Mr. Lesham using Lesham funds. Even though the Council is the RDA Board [plus the Mayor].
I am not a commercial property attorney, and I have no idea what the law permits in such cases. But if the City's agents were negotiating with property owners in the RDA area [the "blight" area] on behalf of Mr. Lesham using Mr. Lesham's funds to pay for those properties or options on them, I think I see a whopper of an ethical problem. The administration agents [aka public employees] were negotiating with Ogden citizens, in many cases, to buy their homes and lands and businesses on behalf of, and for the benefit of, a third [and private] party, Mr. Lesham. That meant, seems to me, the city negotiators had acquired as de facto agents of Mr. Lesham, an interest in getting Ogden residents to sell their lands and homes for as little as they could possibly arrange. And the owners they were trying to get to sell were unaware that the public servants [people from Mr. Harmer's office] were in fact acting on behalf of a private developer.
Didn't those administration negotiators Mr. Harmer sent out have an ethical obligation to protect the interests of the city residents, taxpayers and citizens rather than putting first the interests of a private developer they were [secretly] acting as agents for? Seems so to me.
Yet another example of the Godfrey administration's penchant for acting in the dark, under cover, to benefit the mayor's cronies. Having been skunked on the story happening in its own back yard, it will be interesting to see if the SE editorial board will have anything to say about the Mayor's latest skulking-in-the-dark benefit-his-cronies caper. I wouldn't hold my breath on that....
Dear Producer Rupert,
My My My! You want to meet Sharon? So, you shall. I will be attending the Friday event also.
I'll be wearing a hat.
Will you be in purple? Wasn't that the color of shirt you were going to wear to the opening of teh Junction?
See you down by the river.
Wonder what l'll lola will be wearing?
Sharon:
I don't think you're talking to The Producer. The guy you're talking to seems to think the big Gaddi Lesham River Extravaganza is happening "tomorrow." Surely the real Producer would know it's coming off on Friday, not tomorrow... especially if he's intending to be there with a minicam.
Curm, I went to see for myself, I gather from your response that you have not.
Could it possibly be that the sink you refer to is of very recent origin, a byproduct of stupid uncaring people too lazy to dispose of their trash properly? Once removed, does it still contribute to the problem?
How people discard trash is disgustting indeed, and needs to be changed, but we're discussing the general condition of the river, which is not that bad.
I have no qualms with Lesham cleaning it up. My concern is that this event and discussion are setting the table for more drastic things. These include changing the course of the river to capitalize on his investment and getting the public to condone it and foot the bill.
Bill:
You wrote: These include changing the course of the river to capitalize on his investment.
First I've heard of this. You have a source?
Curm, pick up you phone and call some of you perceived nay-sayers, you'll find this is a major concern. Why do you suppose they've included Kennnnedy, to there presentation, given the state of most our national waterways? Here's a rather small urban river in the Great Basin. It would be nice if we could assume national concern for our abused river, but really?
Something has to be amiss for the fabled Kennedy name to be used by, and sullied through association with, an indicted con artist, who in league with crooked anti-poor people mayor is screwing common folks out of their properties by using the city recourses and personnel to intimidate those folks into selling on the cheap.
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