Chief
07-27-2007, 10:59 AM
http://columbian.com/opinion/news/07272007news174167.cfm
Friday, July 27, 2007
By Gregg Herrington, Editorial writer
Three unconnected column components this week: Confinement, Curious Computations and Cooper (Gary).
CONFINEMENT: After a week's vacation in Chicago, via a delightful outgoing ride on Amtrak's Empire Builder and a miserable flight home in an American Airlines sardine can, the scariest thing I saw in the accumulated Columbians was this: A drawing on Page 1 last Saturday of how the Vancouver waterfront might look once the Boise Cascade property is developed.
To me, the city's vaunted new look is on track to be as confining as those airline seats, with pedestrians dwarfed by high-rises. Behind them will be even higher buildings, all jammed between the river and the railroad tracks. Certainly we'll have nothing even vaguely suggestive of Chicago's Lake Michigan Waterfront Trail, which not only is long (20 miles) but wide, with no buildings looming over the walkers, joggers, bikers, skaters and strollers.
The plan is for Gramor Development Inc. of Tualatin, Ore., to build more than 3,000 condo units in the project.
I shared my confinement fear with Mayor Royce Pollard. He gave me a verbal pat on the head and suggested I not sweat it. The drawings, he said, don't necessarily have any relationship to what the waterfront eventually will look like. We'll all be mighty proud of it when it's done, he assured me.
City Councilman Tim Leavitt was even more positive, saying, "I thought the renderings looked very exciting. I don't have issues with the buildings being tall right at the waterfront. We're talking about dense development. That's the typical urban development, if we follow the pattern set by Vancouver, B.C."
Ahh, now I get it. Canada's Vancouver is our model.
I'd feel better if a citizen's committee was riding shotgun on this whole thing, as is the case with the Port of Camas-Washougal's RiverWalk development.
**SCHNIPP**
yah. Now we wanna be more like Vancouver BC...
While it's reassuring to me that the citizenry are not the only ones that are blown off by the City on this, I am still concerned about what happens if Gramor is alowed to build those 3,000 condos, and in five years 70% of them remain vacant. What then??
Greg Herrington is absolutely right about this project; but I'm not sure that a citizen's committee would do much good, because the City won't listen to them, either.
Friday, July 27, 2007
By Gregg Herrington, Editorial writer
Three unconnected column components this week: Confinement, Curious Computations and Cooper (Gary).
CONFINEMENT: After a week's vacation in Chicago, via a delightful outgoing ride on Amtrak's Empire Builder and a miserable flight home in an American Airlines sardine can, the scariest thing I saw in the accumulated Columbians was this: A drawing on Page 1 last Saturday of how the Vancouver waterfront might look once the Boise Cascade property is developed.
To me, the city's vaunted new look is on track to be as confining as those airline seats, with pedestrians dwarfed by high-rises. Behind them will be even higher buildings, all jammed between the river and the railroad tracks. Certainly we'll have nothing even vaguely suggestive of Chicago's Lake Michigan Waterfront Trail, which not only is long (20 miles) but wide, with no buildings looming over the walkers, joggers, bikers, skaters and strollers.
The plan is for Gramor Development Inc. of Tualatin, Ore., to build more than 3,000 condo units in the project.
I shared my confinement fear with Mayor Royce Pollard. He gave me a verbal pat on the head and suggested I not sweat it. The drawings, he said, don't necessarily have any relationship to what the waterfront eventually will look like. We'll all be mighty proud of it when it's done, he assured me.
City Councilman Tim Leavitt was even more positive, saying, "I thought the renderings looked very exciting. I don't have issues with the buildings being tall right at the waterfront. We're talking about dense development. That's the typical urban development, if we follow the pattern set by Vancouver, B.C."
Ahh, now I get it. Canada's Vancouver is our model.
I'd feel better if a citizen's committee was riding shotgun on this whole thing, as is the case with the Port of Camas-Washougal's RiverWalk development.
**SCHNIPP**
yah. Now we wanna be more like Vancouver BC...
While it's reassuring to me that the citizenry are not the only ones that are blown off by the City on this, I am still concerned about what happens if Gramor is alowed to build those 3,000 condos, and in five years 70% of them remain vacant. What then??
Greg Herrington is absolutely right about this project; but I'm not sure that a citizen's committee would do much good, because the City won't listen to them, either.