The Standard-Examiner carries this morning a couple of items worthy of note:
First, Scott Schwebke announces, seemingly out of the blue, that the Godfrey administration is hot on the trail of a new project for The Junction... What else? A national flagship hotel:
• Ogden considers Junction hotelIn the comments section under the above story, gentle reader Dan S. speculates about the timing of this announcement:
The picture is becoming more clear. Next week the city will again ask the Taxing Entity Committee to extend the city's collection of tax increment from the Junction for another 12 years, until 2026. The reason they're asking now (rather than in 5 years when the tax increment is due to expire) is so the city can borrow against this anticipated income. And the reason the city wants to borrow more money is so it can "participate" in the hotel project, perhaps by building another parking garage.Bingo, Dan! We do believe you may have connected the dots. Check the comments section under the above linked article for Dan's full analysis.
Secondly, Std-Ex reporter Di Lewis proves herself true to her word, and provides a followup story to the "biker brawl" story which we wrote about on Sunday. Ms. Lewis has done some interviews with witnesses and participants in the Friday night Ogden melee, and offers more balance than Trent Toone's previous Std-Ex story, which had the tone of a regurgitated police report:
• Incident frustrates cyclists / Critical Mass riders, Ogden officials, police meetAs an added bonus, Ms. Lewis provides this fascinating tidbit:
A group consisting of law enforcement, city officials and Critical Mass riders met Monday morning to discuss the incident and talk about cycling in Ogden.So the Mayor wants to ride with Critical Mass...
John Patterson, Ogden’s chief administrative officer, said the city regrets what happened, as it is trying to build a friendly cycling environment.
Patterson said the city is going to start a campaign to bring about civility between motorists and cyclists. He and the mayor will ride with Critical Mass next month, and they are considering starting regular rides with the mayor.
Query: Does Critical Mass want to ride with the mayor?
That's it for now, Gentle Readers.
Don't let the cat get your tongues.
11 comments:
"John Patterson, Ogden’s chief administrative officer, said the city is going to start a campaign to bring about civility between motorists and cyclists. He and the mayor will ride with Critical Mass next month, and they are considering starting regular rides with the mayor."
Rides with the mayor...Bwah HAHAHhahBWahaha..snort..chuckles and a guffaw...hum. Oh please, do this do this. Just tell when and where.
Query - I think that this could be a good thing for the Mayor to experience.
Perhaps this will result in more Bike lanes in Ogden - but I won't hold my breath.
I going to try and make it - I think the sight of the Mayor on a bike will start the month of September off right.
I think he will need to start out with the Junior model ...
BB
Woe betide anyone who tries to steal that bike.
I wonder if I can get the Mayor to come run with the Hash House Harriers, a "drinking club with a running problem."
...or Far Flung, a local drinking club with a terminal Frisbee golf problem.
We would love to show him why Fort Buenaventura could use a Frisbee Golf course.
Godfrey doesn't care about the little people, he just cares about his rich friends and he won't put bike lanes in Ogden lanes in Ogden because he's too busy trying to get an ice tower no one can afford just like everything else at the junction, and trying to take away Mt Ogden golf course so his rich friends can prosper as he will. He just took a trip to Colorado to see how the homeless live, maybe he should live like the homeless here, and see how the homeless live here. The Ogden area is full of crime and looks getto. Let him work on cleaning it up or no one will feel safe to want to come to Ogden to spend money on Godfreys playhouse at the Junction. Get to work on the peoples needs, not your own selfish dreams. Your picture in the paper should be for something for the people not for your arrogence. Earn your vote, don't disapoint us again.
About that hotel and its tax increment subsidy:
The city says a parking garage would cost $4-5 million. If the city bonds for that amount, the annual payment would be under half a million. Yet the tax increment on the Junction will be more than $1 million this year and is likely to be closer to $1.5 million for the long term.
Therefore, if the reason to go to the TEC now is to enable the city to build a parking garage to lure a hotel developer, there's actually no need for the TEC to agree now to give up 100% of the tax increment for 12 years. It could agree to a lower percentage, or better, it could agree to 100% but only for the hotel parcel itself (not the entire district). And of course, it could stop short of giving final approval until we've actually seen the hotel plans and know who the developer is.
Anonymous:
Although I don't really give much of the credit to Godfrey, Ogden looks better, right now, than it has in 60 some years. Now the bill for performing the sprucing up irresponsibly is coming due, and it is past time to put the brakes on tax-payer funded projects.
More business will come without million dollar parking garages and trams to Malans Basin.
i say if a hotel wants to come to ogden fine but the hotel developer should plan on having to build all of their own required infrastructures including parking.
the city must first though find out what the current hotel occupancy rate is on an daily basis and not based their conclusion for the need of an additional hotel based on a few conventions per year that would book here and only cause the local downtown hotels to be full for say 10 to 30 days a year. having enough hotel for a few conventions sounds like an immediate necessity per the article in the paper but not if it ends up causing them all of the hotels to under perform the rest of the year due to the added competition in the local downtown market. otherwise the city could end up with more than one shuttered hotel and the other hotels struggling. one has to ask how many times the various hotels in ogden have changed ownership. i can assure you it wasn’t because the previous owner had a operation that was meeting their expectations.
in the numbers of rooms available for conventions presented in the newspaper article seems to have only looked at the downtown hotels. there are several other hotels in the ogden area that currently could be used if needed for conventions. believe me ive been to enough conventions to know that there are always those attendees that would rather stay some distance for the heart of the convention for various reasons. two reasons that come to mind are the cost of convention convenient hotels and another being access to free parking where some attendees or vendors bring trailers filled with supplies or displays for the convention. this article is totally leaving out these other available hotels that are convenient and available to meet our convention facility needs.
had the administration truly wanted to make the convention center downtown more appealing to convention planners he would never have given away the 4 story parking facility that is right behind and right next to the convention facility. what a terribly costly and terribly strategic move by the administration. the administration is once again trying to justify to residents why they should pony up for something he wants rather than for something the residents need.
Comment moved to the front page
Disgusted, how silly. What hotel chain in their right mind is looking to spend their own money to construct a hotel that includes an urban gondola port next to a bowling ally/penney arcade, movie theatre in the middle of a HUD project, in a completely over saturated market? Oh I forgot the religious bookstore, that may be the producer of international draw.
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