Way back in October, I wrote this, decrying the sudden rush to plant a high rise potentially up to 20 stories high on the edge of downtown and either I should stop writing these things or I need to get a pile of money like Marc Moen and start getting in on this action myself, because the City Council went all in and voted to accept the proposal for the 20 story monstrosity known as The Chauncey.
I hated this in October and I hate it even more now. 20 stories is just too damn high and it's complete with another swanky hotel, a bowling alley and what could be potentially pretentious and annoying but I'm desperately hoping will be really really cool, a movie theater- what it lacks, however, is the Co-Op.
Co-Op supporters are pretty pissed about this and I can't blame them. For a business that's been a staple of downtown for decades, who unlike for instance Von Maur didn't flee Iowa City for the potentially greener pastures of Coralville, you'd think the City Council would have done them a solid and found them a place in this new idiocy, but they didn't. They're all about 'mixed use' buildings and something called 'work force housing' whch is code for most of the City Council being driveling idiots again because no one in their right minds is going to want to live anywhere near downtown unless they're a student... and the Co-Op has been left out in the cold.
I hope they up and leave, I really do. Or maybe move into Von Maur's old space in Sycamore Mall (hey, that's an idea- there'd be TONS of parking then!) There's obviously no place for them in the shiny new steel and glass downtown that's being assembled, one gargantuan project at a time.
Now, leaving my luddite rant aside, let's get down to brass tacks: I don't hate high rises, provided they fit in and reflect the spirit of the community around them. This one doesn't- it's across my 'holy line of demarcation' (Gilbert Street) and is going to tower over the Rec Center and generally stick out like a sore thumb. The Plaza Towers? That fits into downtown. Whatever Moen's got going on in the Ped Mall? I dislike it- but that too fits into downtown. Whatever they're going to build in Hieronymous Square? Would also fit into downtown.
This doesn't. Period. It's too big, too huge and the City Council's track record on mixed use buildings and potential 'attractions' hasn't impressed me at all. (Remember Planet X in the Old Capitol Mall? That worked out well, didn't it?)
Then there's the matter of $13.5 million in TIF money to build this thing. Why? Why do we need it? Is there some desperate need for a 20 story ginormathon of a building downtown? No. There's not. While I don't want to argue about the ins and outs of TIF money I think it's incumbent on the City Council to get tax payers a good deal. We could have taken the 4 Zero 4 Proposal and probably been on the hook for less TIF money. Epic fail on that score as well.
I guess with age, I like to think I'm not becoming a bitter old townie but it might be inevitable (unless we move of course.) I'm not against development- in fact, I'd like more of it here and there with actual options for real live people like myself to shop downtown but it's becoming increasingly gentrified- and not the monocle wearing, caviar eating kind of gentry either, no it's the 'we should be driving Priuses' and 'don't you love this Faaaaaaaaaaaaabulous Beaujolais' and 'I liked that obscure indy band before they sold out and became famous' type of gentry and they're to a fault, fantastically, rage-inducingly annoying. I have less and less reason to go down there other than work, Prairie Lights, Daydreams and YoTopia.
I don't feel like I've got a downtown anymore sometimes and that annoys me. Guess there's nothing for it: I'll have to make a big-ass pile of cash and start building shit (though if my big-ass pile of cash is big enough, I'll make a point of doing it without TIF money) maybe the City Council will listen to me- because it seems like whatever Marc Moen wants, Moen gets.
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