By Curmudgeon
The Standard-Examiner this morning has three stories, all involving, in one way or another, Ogden's downtown [or close] revitalization.
The first is headlined "Ogden To Offer Three Business Grants." From Scott Schwebke's story:
OGDEN -- The city will shell out $20,000 [via a contest] to find the three best business plans for new and unique retail establishments downtown....Sounds like a reasonably good idea to me. There's considerably more detail in Mr. Schwebke's story.
The contest that runs through Aug. 25 will help revitalize the city's downtown business district extending from Wall Avenue to Adams Avenue between 20th and 27th streets, said Godfrey. "We want to re-establish retail in the downtown core," he said....
The contest calls for the city's administration to award a $10,000 prize to the entrepreneur who submits the best retail business plan and $5,000 each to second- and third-place finishers. The contest is open to existing businesses that want to expand and new start-up companies.
The second Std-Ex item reports that Ogden's High Adventure Recreation Committee wants to build a BMX bike track just west of the Weber River. From the story:
OGDEN -- The city's High Adventure Recreation Committee will seek a conditional-use permit Wednesday from the Ogden Planning Commission to establish a 4-acre BMX bike track at a former landfill site. The track would be located at 2599 "A" Ave....And who will pay for the track? Well, that's a tad fuzzy, as the funding for Godfrey Administration backed projects often is. Here's what John Patterson told the Std-Ex:
The track would be operated by a nonprofit BMX organization, said John Patterson, the city's chief administrative officer. The High Adventure Recreation Committee and Weber-Ogden Bicycle Advisory Committee are working together to construct the track, which would be sanctioned by the American Bicycle Association, Simpson said....
Exact cost estimates to develop the track haven't been finalized, Patterson said. The city may provide some in-kind labor to build the facility, and other costs could be covered by the operator, he said.This strikes me as another good idea. The more popular recreational opportunities Ogden can offer, particularly those attractive to young people, the better. [And before the caterwauling starts, yes, I know BMX racing isn't what most folk mean by "High Adventure." I don't care. If it's a good idea, and I think it is, I don't think it matters a hill of beans if it's backed by Ogden's "High Adventure Recreation Committee" or Ogden's "Medium Elevation Adventure Recreation Committee" or Ogden's "Just A Little Bit of Adventure Around the Edges Recreation Committee." It's a good idea... provided the funding can be worked out.
And finally, Charles Trentelman's "Wasatch Rambler" column this morning describes Habitat For Humanity's work rehabbing two dilapidated family homes on lower Doxey Street, and on a family that hopes to get to own one of them, a family that has no hope in hell of qualifying for a regular mortgage on a home in a non-trouble neighborhood. Good story. Good on Habitat for Humanity. And good on the Godfrey administration for making the properties available to Habitat for Humanity for a song [comparatively speaking]. These projects too are part of the process of making downtown Ogden... all of Ogden... a better place to live.
