Burlington Libertarian blogger Jeremy Ryan has a post today describing his reasons for voting against the ballot question in Burlington on March 4th concerning the much-debated fate of the Moran plant on Burlington’s waterfront. The city’s proposal is to create a facility that would house:
… a world-class indoor ice and rock climbing facility, restaurant and café, children’s museum and expanded community sailing center. Year-round, public access to the building (including observation deck) and all activities within the building are targeted at public enjoyment and enrichment. This would create a variety of recreation and education opportunities and amenities to the people of Burlington in a public facility that ensures access and enjoyment of Lake Champlain. Also proposed are upgrades to the bike path, increased green space and park amenities, children’s splash park, seasonal refrigerated skating rink and a rebuilt skate park.
Ryan says he has practical concerns about the financing of the project and more general concerns about governments getting involved in business. Here’s a snip from his post…
My concern with the project is the financing and government management of the project. It appears that the financing is shaky. Bill Keogh, who has opposed the project, has cited that the federal government doesn’t intend to provide around 7 million that would be needed from them in order to complete the project. Nothing is set in stone regarding who pays if goals are not met and we are talking about a lot of money here and now is really not the time for the city to be risking more of our money in big development schemes. We already have Burlington Telecom and Burlington Electric that are on shaky financial ground and need to be managed to sustainability.
Then, there’s the fact that the government really shouldn’t be in the business of starting and running businesses. It is simply not there place in my mind. I do not believe that the council is qualified enough to manage big real estate development deals such as this as the last I knew, no one on the city council is currently a real estate developer or in the hospitality, entertainment or property management industries.
For more opinions on the Moran Plant development question in Burlington, see Charity Tensel’s page on Burlington Politics at She’s Right.
There will also be a live call-in TV show on CCTV Channel 17 this Thursday evening from 6pm to 7pm with proponents of both Moran Plant ballot initiatives taking questions from the audience. The show will be moderated by Mark Johnson.
What do you think? Feel free to let us know in the comments.
I like and respect Jeremy, but I couldn’t disagree more. The waterfront as we know it today exists precisely because the city took an active role in its clean up and redevelopment. When I was on the city council in the 90s, I supported the creation of a Tax Incremental Financing (TIF) district on the waterfront, a mechanism which paid for improvements to Lake Street that helped attract some of the businesses there today. The Moran Plant is a historic treasure and its retofitting and reuse would be a wise investment that would generate jobs and tax revenue for the city into the forseeable future. As a parent I especially look forward to the possibility of a new children’s museum. As an environmentalist, I know any new construction consumes a massive amounts of energy, so we should always look to reuse existing structures whenever possible. I plan to vote YES to the mayor’s Moran Plant redevelopment plan, and I urge Exit Voices readers who vote in Burlington to do the same.
Left by Haik Bedrosian on February 27th, 2008