The Continuing Adventures of the Bumbling Boss Godfrey

Emerald City administration shoots itself in the foot again

By Curmudgeon

The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight [aka The Godfrey Administration] draws its weapon yet again, and shoots itself in the foot yet again. The Standard Examiner reports this morning on yet another series of Administration bungles. Here is Mr. Schwebke's lede:

OGDEN -- The head of St. Anne's Center says she's been informed by a city official that the block housing the homeless shelter is being considered for a proposed $15.2 million velodrome. "I wasn't surprised," Jennifer Canter, executive director of St. Anne's, said Wednesday. She declined to identify the official.

How did we learn that the city is looking at St. Anne's and thinking "Velodrome!"? Good question. Mr. Schwebke answers it:

A clue that the city is considering property in the vicinity of St. Anne's for the velodrome is found in its Jan. 30 application for $2 million over four years in Weber County RAMP funds....
The city's original RAMP application lists the proposed location for the velodrome as 2675 Wall Ave., which Canter said is the block where St. Anne's is located.

Then we learn that the address the city included in its RAMP application... ah... well, it doesn't exist. From the story:

Patterson said the address doesn't exist and shouldn't have been included in the RAMP application, since the city is considering three locations for the velodrome within walking distance of the intermodal hub at 23rd Street and Wall Avenue. Some people have associated the address in the original RAMP grant application with St. Anne's Center even though it's different from the shelter's address, Patterson said.
"It's regrettable that there was a listing of any address before property was acquired," he said while declining to disclose whether St. Anne's land is being considered for the velodrome. "It makes it difficult to acquire property at a reasonable price."

And what has Hizzonah to say about hot the address [which doesn't exist but seems, his staff agrees, to target St. Anne's anyway], got into the RAMP application in the first place? Well, Hizzonah hasn't a clue, he says, what his staff did on the matter or why. Again from Mr. Schwebke's story:

Godfrey said he's unsure why the 2675 Wall Ave. address was included in the RAMP grant application.

The story is well worth reading in full. It calls to mind Casey Stengel's woeful lament as he tried to manage the hapless first year New York Mets: "Can't anybody here play this game?"

Good question.