The River Project Graduates From Firetrap to "No-Fee Landfill" (aka "Boss Godfrey's Unofficial Downtown City Dump")

That's how it works (and will continue to work) with Ogden City government, so long as Boss Godfrey remains at the mayoral helm

Eye popping front page story in this morning's Standard-Examiner, reporting that Boss Godfrey's once ballyhooed Ogden River Project, which the administration brokered into the hands of the now missing-in-action Gadi Leshem (Boss Godfrey's #1 2007 election campaign donor), has now descended from the status of Ogden's most ignominious firetrap, to Ogden City's unofficial no-fee landfill, aka Boss Godfrey's Downtown Garbage Dump:

• Desolate Ogden River Project area becoming a dumping ground

It's quite a long downward road we've travelled since December of 2007, when Leshem was treading the trail alongside the Ogden River with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in tow, boasting of his pie-in-the-sky Renaissance Village project, which "envisioned" that trendy 200-unit development, featuring trendy lofts, trendy restaurants and trendy boutiques. The idea of course was to repopulate the riverfront area with new residents; and in that respect we suppose we can concede that this goal has been at least partially achieved, inasmuch as this morning's story does report the the area is now the home of an apparently thriving population of feral cats.

It's been six long months since we reported that Ogden City appeared to be on the verge of calling out the code enforcement dogs. And where exactly have we gotten in the interim? Exactly nowhere, according to this morning's Scott Schwebke story:

The city's Building Inspection Department recently completed an inventory to determine the condition of properties and boarded-up homes in the project area, Morey said.
Efforts to keep the area free of litter have been hampered because Ogden Riverfront Development has had four property maintenance companies quit in the last two years, said John Patterson, the city's chief administrative officer.
"You would think someone who has a contract would want to keep it because there isn't an overabundance of work out there," Patterson said Friday.
It would cost the city $142 per house just to mow each lawn, making it far too expensive for the city to clean up the entire project area, Evans said. "If the city had to pay, it couldn't do it."
Morey said the city hasn't levied any code enforcement penalties against Ogden Riverfront Development because the company plans to hire a new property maintenance firm in the next few weeks.

That's right, folks... after all this time, Ogden City's code enforcement folks haven't even gotten as far as issuing a single citation.

And that's how it works (and will continue to work) with Ogden City government, so long as Boss Godfrey remains at the mayoral helm.

And the beat goes on... as the situation continues to deteriorate on the Ogden Riverfront... and Boss Godfrey persists in dreaming about more numbskull "visionary projects," like icicles, velodromes and bulldozers on Ogden's East Bench... and so on and so forth, ad nauseum.

Take it away, O Gentle Ones.