This morning's Standard-Examiner presents a remarkable Don Porter editorial, hammering Riverfront Project developer Gadi Leshem about the dilapidated condition of his scores of boarded-up residential properties bordering the Ogden River. The editorial also contrasts the lax code enforcement by Ogden City officials with respect to these obviously blighted Leshem properties (Gadi is a Friend of Matt [FOM] after all), with the harsh and heavy-handed treatment of another home owner elsewhere in the city. Here's the setup, as provided in Don's lead paragraphs:
The vision thing. That’s what Ogden’s economic redevelopment gurus are hanging the city’s hat on: that Ogden can be something. A place to go. A place to live. A place to play. A place to succeed.Read the full Std-Ex Digital Edition editorial here.
The city’s on its way. Good things are happening. But it’s a work in progress, and that forward motion won’t persist if obstacles remain in the way.
Some of those hurdles are invisible: the financial markets, the local, state and national economies, things like that.
Others are more obvious. They jump out at you, in fact. And the best example of that kind of economic impediment is along the Ogden River between Washington Boulevard and Lincoln Avenue. There are almost two blocks of mostly boardedup homes that scream: Stay away! Dead zone here!
These buildings, accord ing to Richard McConkie, Ogden’s community and economic development deputy director, are owned by California real estate developer Gadi Leshem, who has been buying up land and buildings in Ogden, and placing options to purchase on other pieces of real estate within the city, for two or three years now. McConkie says the city has contacted Leshem about bulldozing the properties, but without luck so far.
Here’s the problem, as we see it. The RiverFront Project — an effort to redevelop the banks of the Ogden River and for blocks beyond between Washington Boulevard and Wall Avenue — is an aggressive but necessary component of Ogden’s downtown-revitalization plans. Already, a new bicycle shop and popular sandwich shop are located in the budding development. But for prospective developers looking to relocate or give birth to new housing and/or businesses in the area, the blighted properties might as well be the setting for a documentary film titled “Urban Decay: The No-Way-Am-I-Investing-In-Ogden Story.”
And for a truly special added bonus, be sure to check out the video version of this editorial from the "Std-Ex Live" website. It which takes us on a seeing-is-believing cyber walk-through of Gadi's plainly blighted River Front neighborhood, along with a dramatic Don Porter voice-over, all to the delightful accompaniment of a Louisiana Bayou-style gee-tahr pickin' blues soundtrack. This video is a genuinely well-produced piece, in our not-so-humble opinion, demonstrating that the Standard-Examiner does have the potential to become the local web-based multimedia news source that it aspires to be. Trust us. This is a video piece you don't want to miss:
After you've checked it all out, don't forget to come back with your comments.
21 comments:
It was indeed a fine editorial, and for me, the most telling point was the picture of a nicely kept split level home, landscaped and clean, which received a warning from the city's compliance office to remove a tire leaning up against the side of the house, while Mr. Lesham... remember him? He was the one who was all over Green and Civic Spirited when Mr. Kennedy came to town for the Mayor's Ogden River extravaganza... allows his properties to be awash in trash, and the Mayor's compliance office looks the other way. It's good to be an FOM.
If there was any residual remaining doubt that the Godfrey Administration provides special treatment and consideration to its cronies, unavailable to the rest of us, the two pictures accompanying the SE editorial today in the print edition should remove it.
Damn fine editorial. This is a home town daily hitting on all eight cylinders.
It was a good editorial. But here in Ogden we need to remember that we dont pick on Godfreys croneys, only the nay sayers will be harrasses and ticketed until they conform.
I was watching some of the propaganda on channel 17 Godfreys' blow horn tv channel. The segment was promoting all of the great things in Ogden, which is a good thing, then during the piece one of the ladies on the piece started talking about naysayers,when will they give up and try to get along?
Doesnt Godfrey realize that people have a right to voice their opinion, and to question government? I suppose he never will.
Who was the lady?
Jeanette Ballentyne?
It was Jo Packhams daughter, her name slips my mind. She is the wcvb director.
What is the status on Lesham's CA indictment for defrauding the State out of millions? Maybe he can't afford to hire a bulldozer.
Some points:
The article points out a problem - Leshem's property and its poor condition vis-a-vis other properties. The hillbilly music in the video was good too.
But it was a puff piece considering what it could have been.
It didn't even mention the fact that the homes USED to be occupied until the city forced the residents out to sell to Leshem, who boarded them up and left town.
Leshem is a hit and run artist. Godfrey is his lackey. What is Leshem waiting for? I'm guessing it's money Godfrey promised him that he hasn't found a way to con out of the council yet. Godfrey has exhausted most of his options. That's why all he can do on the ice tower is promise hot air about secret foundations ready to fund it. It's all a lie.
Imagine what the golf course would look like if Peterson had bought it. Same thing - weeds and trash waiting for the next infusion of public money into the pocket of a Godfrey crony.
Fraud, corruption, blight, cronyism, failed government. It could have been a great piece rather than another okay one.
This paper will never touch Godfrey with anything other than a gentle touch.
Leshem made the mess. He should clean it up now, or face immediate citation. Otherwise Ogden City should declare a moratorium on all code citations. How ridiculous. Fair is fair.
I see Leshem is paying taxes on the land, and the buildings (unlike Bootjack which isn't being assessed any taxes (why's that?), or the boys from Santa Rosa (Ogden Properties LLC) who are delinquent on theirs.)
What happens if he tears down the buildings: would he only be liable for taxes on the value of the land?
Anybody know how that works?
Danny:
Sorry, Danny, but I think you're wrong about the editorial. It was a good one and exactly the kind of thing a home town daily ought to be doing. The SE didn't have to include the photo of the nicely kept split level cited by the City's compliance office, and then contrast it with how Lesham's properties have gotten a pass on violations orders of magnitude worse. If it was as compliant a tool of the Administration as you imply, the editorial would have stopped with the Lesham properties, and not gone into, at all, the fact that the rules are being enforced to the tiniest dot and comma on the rest of us, but not on FOMs [Friends of Matt].
When the SE gets it right, and it did this time, we ought to say so, straight out.
Curm is absolutely right on this editorial's being one of the finest in ages. I was aghast. If the S-E could always be this hard-hitting, the revival of downtown might move at a faster pace. I've never seen an S-E editorial accompanied by pertinent illustrations before, and what a damning indictment it is of all that's rotten in Godfreyland.
The real strength of the editorial is that it takes a position that 99% of Weber County can agree on, whether in the Smart Growth or Lift Ogden camp.
Matthew Godfrey SUCKS!
Better write the SE and tell them how much they like them to be on point.
They may be just trialing the investigative posture to test ratings.
Let them know you notice the difference when they ask the hard questions. Let them know it is o.k. to analyze Godfrey's obsessions. We want to hear from a neutral observer or how about interviewing a refrigeration engineer for an opinion on the icetower.
MM:
You wrote: The real strength of the editorial is that it takes a position that 99% of Weber County can agree on, whether in the Smart Growth or Lift Ogden camp.
Hadn't thought of that, but you're right on point. Nice catch.
Dear Blessed Moroni:
The Gondola Examiner may have published a milquetoast editorial in which they (ed. board) take veiled shots at felon douchewads like (ham!) Leshem, but they consciously neglect the larger issue, that being the administration, whom they collectively endorsed: Lying Little Matty Gondola Godfrey. I may be a drunk, but I ran two newspapers and I would never be that blithely self-unaware that I could cheerlead a moron, gondola-loving dwarf in one breath, then praise his "work in progress" while simultaneously deriding his cronies: The Gondola Examiner is a pile of shit; Don Porter likes GONDOLAs; you are naive, at best.
THE SKI IS BEAUTIFUL BLUE
Shooting and publishing atrocity photos is a fun and easy form of journalism--even part-time amateurs like me can do it. I highly recommend this hobby which combines art, travel, and activism. Don, if you're reading this, welcome to the club!
I have to agree with Jason that ober doesn’t really fit Godfrey except for the strong-willed, and I have some other adjectives that fit him better than that: bull-headed, myopic, single-minded, tunnel-vision, etc. As far as the super goes, it should proceed other nouns and adjectives like liar, deceiver, dictator, bully, unethical, depraved, demented, delusional, he’s a defected deficit, a jackass, a snake and unscrupulous. I’ve often heard him called a weasel,
I thought electioneering was against the law, like a misdemeanor. That is exactly what Jo Packham did sitting at the end of the election judges’ table with Godfrey’s brochure plainly visible on her lap and asking people what their name was! I had one voter tell me that he thought that she was an election judge. ALL THOSE VOTES IN THE MAYORAL RACE SHOULD HAVE BEEN DISQUALIFIED AT THE DEE EVENT CENTER!!
When people say that they don’t understand how he was re-elected, I just tell them that I strongly doubt that he was. He is Mayor because he doesn’t play by the rules and then let them know about what happened at the Dee Event Center. I am really disappointed that the ACLU didn’t have the courage to file charges against him because his poll watchers were guilty of electioneering and intimidation. Also the judges at Taylor gave voters PENCILS with which to fill the “provisional ballots.” When a voter protested and said that the instructions read to be completed in INK, they were told that they didn’t have any pens and a pencil would be OK. Well, those ballots were not counted! That definitely could have changed the At-large Council Seat A race as well as the mayoral race.
I will NEVER believe that Godfrey was elected mayor!
I am sorry for calling Moroni naive; he is not, far from it. I erred. I would like to write a Curmudgeon-esque take on a Godfreylike apology, but I don't have it in me. Will you do the honors, Good Old (?) Curmudgeon?
THE SKI IS BEAUTIFUL BLUE
Have they ever produced a tally of the properties that (ham) leshem has actually closed on? Many of the properties in that area are sill waiting after our crack developement team negotiated all those options for him. I wonder if there isn't a deal in place for the City, after closing, to provide the demolition on the taxpayers dime.
Afterall, lying little matty provided all the preliminary engineering and design for the failed(?) Peterson proposal.
Just thought it might be worth noting of the River Project overall, that it was authorized I think now six years ago? And so far, one [1] business has opened in the area: Bingham's Pave To The Bankside Bikery. That's it. In six years. One. The rest is bare vacant lots or deteriorating boarded up former homes. If the Administration triples the rate at which businesses open in the River RDA over the next six years, those Tooneville Trolley Buses he wants to buy with the transportation tax money will have four, count 'em four, businesses to haul the promised teeming throngs up from Salt Lake City on Frontrunner to. Four.
I have anaother expose' of the Godfrey inequitable and vile code enforcement program. A friend owns a rental property next door to one of Godfrey's rentals. One day when he visited his rental, he noticed a hose going from his rental to Godfrey's rental. Upon further investigation, he learned that the water had been turned off, and Godfrey's tenants were living in a neglected and an uninhabitable building. They desparately needed assistance. He called the Relief Society president, who also worked for Ogden City. When she reported to Godfrey the condition of the house, he told her to mind her business and keep her mouth shut if she liked her job. Of course that house has never received a citation for code violation. On the other hand I was told about a person who is constantly targeted every year and cited for infractions that he has been able to counter at the expense of time from work. A neighbor even video taped one of the code inspectors sitting in his truck looking for a violtion of the code. When one wasn't obvious, he got out of his truck and went snooping around the yeard until he found something.
There really needs to be an investigation into the code enforcement department! I am glad to see the SE expose the corruption that goes on in this department under Harmer.
Jason: No apology necessary. I almost always agree with what you write and I get a great deal of fun out of your colorful prose. (The S-E should replace Saal with you.)
You're quite right that the S-E's record of blind Godfrey worship is to be deplored. In the past month, however, both Schwebke and the editorial page have occasionally surprised us with long-overdue, hard-hitting journalism and commentary. I just want to praise them when they earn it, in hopes of persuading them to give us more of the same. I suspect that even the S-E grows weary of Godfrey's evil megalomania.
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