The city is a big part of the reason why the building is rotting. The owner of the building made a reasonable proposal almost two years ago for Beer Works and Crunch Gym to go into that space. Alderman Gewirtz and the ZBA (at her urging I suspect) launched some astroturfed opposition to the proposal and made it clear that nothing aside from an organic/locally sourced grocery store would be acceptable. During this whole process the owner of the building has had to maintain and pay taxes on a building not generating any income due to the city's stonewalling.
It finally looked like the city was going to get its wish, but now that has fallen through and we're back to square one.
Nobody is clean here, but the city has got to stop trying to dictate exactly how every piece of private property in the city is going to be used. This whole situation is precisely what happens when local governments try to do this.
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Date: 2015-06-23 05:50 pm (UTC)It finally looked like the city was going to get its wish, but now that has fallen through and we're back to square one.
Nobody is clean here, but the city has got to stop trying to dictate exactly how every piece of private property in the city is going to be used. This whole situation is precisely what happens when local governments try to do this.