Lubbock-Downtown Redevelopment

Here follows a series of my posts about Lubbock's planned redevelopment, still in the planning stages.

When I glanced at the newspaper article this morning, I was livid.

Did you notice this statement? "Tepper [the planner working for McDougal Companies] said there was still room for the Salvation Army’s complex, the size of a city block, at 16th Street between Avenues J and K."

Well [dad-burned, golnobbit, kerblasted] the Salvation Army is there right now and who the [heck]  is this Tepper to be telling property owners whether they have a right to remain there or not? To continue operations or not?????????????????

Time to load up the shotguns and go hunt some Tepper.

Hey you guys who mouth off about Obama being a socialist, does it bother you that a socialistically planned economy'development is on tap right here in Lubbock-city?

It is bad enough that we have the city authorizing McDougal Companies to come up with a plan while McDougal companies are involved in property ownership, property management, and realty activities, which is as clearly a conflict of interest as you will ever see in all your born days, but for those [so and sos] at McDougal to presume to be prescribing property usages in the downtown area is socialistic, communistic, and unAmerican. It is time to take a lesson from Egypt and Libya and points east and conduct an armed march on city hall.

There. Now I'm like to get one of those [illegal]  "criminal trespass" notices served on me....
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The North Overton project [a massive redevelopment project of a whole Lubbock neighborhood] was private. What is planned for downtown is not.

What is planned for downtown is authoritarian planning imposed by government. You get people like Tepper who want to call the tune that others dance to.

I notice no one except Roger has responded to the matter of the McDougals being in a position to dictate (with city council approval) the course of development while they are major property owners downtown.

For example, McDougal Companies has a major ownership stake in the Wells Fargo building, which they also manage.

For example, you see McDougal Realty signs all over downtown, and more nowadays.

For example, the McDougals are sitting on a property that was once the Lubbock Hotel, that they wish to sell as condominiums. At this time, they likely have no takers, and that is likely why the project sits stalled and incomplete. Well, by structuring downtown redevelopment in their preferred direction, the McDougals will, they hope, be able to make that a viable project. And remember...

Remember that the McDougals are being paid, by the city, by taxpayers, BY US, for their work in consulting/planning concerning the redevelopment! Which means that we are paying them to enhance their profit manyfold.

No one except Roger and I sees this as one huge conflict of interest?

And don't you think it's funny how folks who are quick to protest government involvement in private business have no object to the manipulation of zoning and code enforcement and the use of condemnation in order to effect a master plan for the downtown area?

My proposal was to accomplish redevelopment via tax incentives and assistance in finding loans and grants, not by compelling private land owners to comply with government planning. Not by mass bull-dozing of buildings.

And this Tepper quote buried in the newspaper story shows precisely how arrogant and doctatorial these planners are going to be.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Forgetting about government control and the tentacles of the McDougals, there was a entrepeneur who first put into practice entirely at his own risk the redevelopment of downtown.

His name was Kim Morris.

He successfully renovated the old Hester's/Draughan's and Welsh Plumbing buildings into living or mixed use space. He was the first to remodel downtown buildings for apartment space. Others followed with the abortive Anderson Jewelry building project and projects on Broadway just west of the underpass--which look good, btw.

Morris bought or optioned masses of downtown real estate, including the LubbockHotel/Caprock Retirement Center, the Myrick/Green building, Murphy's Dept. Store, the Townhouse Inn. He had great plans for Lubbock's downtown.

He was a partner in the remodeling of an old livestock-killing, meat-packing plant on the lip of the canyon into an entertainment venue. He was at odds with the city, who started another amphitheater project at the same time.

Unfortunately, Kim Morris did not have the financing or political influence of the McDougals. His little empire was highly leveraged and collapsed and he was sent to prison over some of his efforts to keep it going.

He was the first to have the vision and to bet his financial life on it.

Contrast that entrepeneurship with the bets being placed and guaranteed with our money in this new downtown redevelopment.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Advocate, it's not the wealth of the McDougals that I object to. It's the interweaving of their interests with government. And the power of government to control land uses and development projects in the downtown area, which according to that AJ article you quoted, is more and more looking like the McDougal Companies' control of land uses downtown.

I was delighted that the McDougals launched a renovation of the Lubbock Hotel. A private enterprise, privately financed. Great! I myself am cool with the North Overton redevelopment, to the extent that public monies and influence were not involved. But for McDougal companies to be awarded a city contract to plan and manage downtown redevelopment is a whole other animal.

And remember, most of the city council are friends/cronies/proteges of the McDougals. Which means minimal oversite or criticism of the redevelopment plan.