I had posted this as a comment on the original "Watt, Me Worry" post but Meg felt that it deserved a post of its own so people can better respond to it.
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As those who were at dba Wednesday night already know, I ended up not attending the Planning Commission meeting. At the mixer earlier, in talking with many of the chamber and downtown business types I learned that Watt didn't care if they got an extension at all. They weren't even going to show up (so why should I--bad idea? perhaps). I understand that they will go through the process all over again.
We really need to keep an eye on this so that any NEW plans for the area don't undo what was agreed to in the past. I have grave worries. Of course, one of the things they won't have to worry about is getting a demolition permit to tear down two blocks of buildings dating from the 1880s to 1920s. That one's been taken care of already. And Pomona gets vacant lots for at least the next couple of years.
I was told that they are planning an Iron Fence for around the 200 block "hole in the ground." that will include panels upon which local artists can paint murals (an idea that came out of the downtown business owners association (DPOA--better known to most of us as "Metro Pomona"). So Mickey Gallivan was right! We'll see years of vacant lots in exchange for destroying our history.
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4 comments:
Like so Watts new we got it in the shorts once again.
I guess thats the price you pay for trying to get people into a downtown rather than abandoned buildings.
Preservation is a great thing, but do we want to keep downtown Pomona as a museum, or would we rather have a thriving urban center?
Well if we keep going the way our city going is that we wont have any more buildings for people to come and rent soon were going to be back like it was back in the late 70`s and into the 80`s just another ghost town.
Wow, I'd far rather have dumpy old (historic!) buildings that rent for a song to budding entrepreneurs than a big shiny box that's so expensive only chains go in. Or, say, a great big hole in the ground, where nobody can put a business (maybe we can have a medical marijuana farm downtown?).
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