Quote Originally Posted by Detroitnerd View Post
I know I'm always the downer around here, but I'll say it anyway.

Isn't there something strange about this?

A developer buys all these downtown buildings, each of which likely gets a tax abatement attached to it. This is a way of transferring the money from a poor city to a rich landowner.

The city lacks the wealth to come up with an ambitious plan for downtown, largely because of tax abatements and subsidies to going concerns and developers.

And then the private developer unveils the plan he'd prefer for downtown, which will enrich him further, with no public input into the design.

Bless or damn Gilbert's intentions, doesn't this seem a little too Delta City?
The scary thing is, Nerd, that I am finding myself in your corner on this one. it looks almost like a Potemkin village. Lets leave this stuff for Walt Disney and concentrate on commerce. Stores will come if it is profitable and they won't come if shrinkage, government corruption, and lack of traffic discourage them.