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April 14, 2008

On The Chattanooga Waterfront

Explaining why something is simply political BS & spin is never very simple. Regardless, here goes:

It's my suspicion that only a handful of people are paying attention to the attempts by the Mayor to cast the previous administration (and by extension River City Company and a host of other urban renewal/redevelopment organizations, companies, and individuals) in a negative light through suggestions of irresponsibility on their part due to current maintenance needs for The Passage & the Waterfront.

Additionally, the Mayor mentioned "financial discrepancies" with the 21st Century Waterfront Plan, which specifically was an expenditure of $7,390 more than the $10,000 budget/cap for Cultural Analysis & Legal Services ($17,390 total).

I'll address the second issue first. Isn't there something oxymoronic for an "independent auditor" to be "working for" anyone? Call it polymoronic. The 21st Century Waterfront cost $120 Million, and out of the *independent* audit of the dozens of contractors, numerous architecture & planning firms, City agencies, and thousands of individual donors the single monetary issue (as opposed to paperwork) found amounts to less than 1/100000 ($7,390) of a percent of the total price? If anything, I don't believe there wasn't more corruption.

On to the maintenance and repairs of the Waterfront. What the newspapers aren't reporting is that the Mayor's Administration effectively killed the necessary & funded repairs for The Passage over a year ago. And boy, is it a story:

The City (Departments of Public Works and Parks and Rec) was involved (with River City Company, the architect, general contractors and others) in developing a recommendation that went before the CDRC (Chattanooga Downtown Redevelopment Corporation – a non-profit city agency responsible for building the waterfront among other things) for approval. The CDRC approved the expenditure of $74,000 of waterfront contingency funds as part of the $108,000 repair to the cladding in the Passage in November, 2007. The balance of funding was to come from the general contractor and architect. The CDRC approval was contingent upon signoff by the Department of Public Works. The D of PW would not sign off on the expenditure and soon thereafter released a RFQ (request for qualifications) for services to evaluate the passage and recommend repairs.

So, the city never approved the expenditure. Rather, the city dismissed the proposal by refusing to ratify the very solution that it was part of creating. And now, with repairs needs greater & more expensive, the Mayor is passing the buck.

The "why" of all this I can't speak to. But I'm inclined to agree with this guy.