Most of the time Government is in the business of wasting time, money and effort. A great deal of energy is put into studies, planning and all kinds of meaningless efforts that end either badly or in the hands of yet another agency of government.
That “odd moment” when Government actually wants to move forward with some sort of improvement to the society or the citizenry has at times been “rarer than hens teeth”. Years of developing “Redevelopment Districts” with gargantuan funds, taken from State, Federal and Local taxpayers has resulted in not only “Mixed Uses”, but seriously distracting “Mixed Results”.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redevelopment
In Newport Beach, we don’t have much of a “Redevelopment” “Battle of the Bands”. We have those that want parks and open space and those that want to development the bottom of the bay, if need be! Forgetting for the moment, the expansion of Newport Beach after it acquired the Newport Coast into our city borders: Irvine has been and is becoming more and more a severe “Thorn in our side!” With all due apologies to the Lord and Savior!
Irvine has created some Russian look-a-like living quarters all along Jamboree Blvd. In five years, these are going to look like tenements! Irvine, is trying to plug the holes in their big-local government budgets by cramming more people into their borders…to get ever more Government Grants and hand-outs. What they have done is burying Jamboree Blvd. with traffic that could and has choked a dinosaur! Jamboree needs to be widened, especially at the intersection of the 73 Freeway. We have needed this road altered and fixed for just about 20 years.
The widening of Jamboree is going to require an incursion into the strip mall that borders Jamboree and will include the government taking of the Conroy’s Flower shop and perhaps a few more shops. Well, Conroy’s is fighting “Eminent Domain” proceedings. Conroy’s wants big bucks to move!
What happens when Government actually has a necessary reason to take Private Property? What happens when Private Owners just want to make a killing on the Government taking their land? Well, sounds like a lawsuit doesn’t it? The Kelo decision aside, in this case – we need the road fixed. Someone is going to get hurt and in these tough budget times – a reasonable price should be paid and the owner should go down the road to next location. When can a Flower Shop stop 20,000 cars a day – making it to their next destination in a normal travel time?
Your comments are welcomed!
Tiger Woods is still a very, very bad man! I bet he uses hundreds of plastic bags every week and throws them into the ocean.
Yes, of course! Tiger didn’t even get invited to marriage of the Princess Saturday! His golf
sucks too! Speaking of old plastic bags…..how are you?
rw
The city government itself did not create that housing along jamboree; rather a private corporation, for profit. Not everything is a government conspiracy.