Illitch to build another Parking Garage, this time at Park/Henry

[emu steve]

The only person that can move goalposts would be goalpost creator. That's not Ilitch. If goalposts are moving, blame the City/State/Authority/etc.

While I'm at it... the taxpayers placed themselves on the hook, by their representatives. If the City doesn't want to be in the business of subsidizing business, then they shouldn't be creating goalposts where business gets subsidies.

But if there are goalposts, you'd have to be a fool to believe that applicants for subsidy don't game the system, as much as legally possible.

Should Trump pay taxes he doesn't owe, just because it feels good? If the Times is right, he paid exactly what he owed. Seems he's constantly audited, so there's little reason to believe he did anything but his patriotic duty to pay what is owed.

Again, don't blame the player for the goalposts being moved. Blame the goalpost creator.

I think my comments about moving the goal posts were directed at posters here in this thread.

Ilitches and the city have an agreement.

Folks here want to on this board at least change how dollars and projects should be counted.

Kind of like "this doesn't count", "that doesn't count" etc.

To the best of my knowledge NEITHER the city NOR Ilitch are complaining about the agreement.

The complaining is coming from posters on this forum. Never liked the agreement and never will...

[southen]

To the best of my knowledge NEITHER the city NOR Ilitch are complaining about the agreement.

Duh, they made the deal... It goes beyond the posters on this site and has been documented by national media sources as a misuse of funds. Hell even the President is trying to prevent taxpayer funded stadiums in the future. Perhaps he is on this forum though...

[bust]

It goes beyond the posters on this site and has been documented by national media sources as a misuse of funds.

Yep. Here's some of what Bloomberg Business Week had to say in their article titled "Detroit Billionaires Get Arena Help as Bankrupt City Suffers":

"Meaningless Pursuit

Snyder, who has dubbed Michigan the Comeback State because of auto industry’s post-recession revival, may find that his projections collide with reality.

A 2002 study looking at whether construction jobs rose in St. Louis as a result of downtown arenas for the St. Louis Blues hockey team and Rams football team found they didn’t significantly affect construction employment.

Another study by economics professors Dennis Coates of the University of Maryland in Baltimore and Professor Brad Humphreys of the University of Alberta found that income per capita in metropolitan areas didn’t fall during player strikes, supporting an “emerging consensus” that professional sports don’t have an impact on local economies.

“There’s always a debate about does this really pan out?” Orr, the emergency manager, said in a July 25 interview. “The reality is we are so needy of some economic development, I can’t see how we don’t pursue it because if we don’t, what’s left?”

Tapping Schools

Almost 60 percent of the funds to pay for the arena would come from taxpayers. Bonds would be backed by a combination of about $15 million in annual payments from Detroit’s Downtown Development Authority and $11.5 million from Olympia. Wayne County may also provide support, according to a July 24 memo.

In December, Michigan’s legislature revived the ability of the development authority to take a portion of school-tax revenue generated by property on 615 downtown acres. The money, which had gone toward economic-development bonds, would be used for debt service on a project meeting the characteristics of a new Red Wings arena.

The levy generates about $13 million, said Bob Rossbach, a spokesman for the authority.

The money otherwise would have reverted to public schools and the state’s school-aid fund, according to a legislative analysis. The state will reimburse the district to make up shortfalls, just as did before 2011, said Rossbach.

“It’s not taking money from Detroit Public Schools and putting it into economic development,” Rossbach said.

Bipartisan Scorn

However, the state still must take money from programs to make up for cash benefiting the Iliches, said Shikha Dalmia, a senior analyst for the Los Angeles-based Reason Foundation, which describes itself as a public-policy think tank promoting free-market economics.

“The left should be crying bloody murder,” Dalmia said. “Why are you diverting money that’s meant for Detroit school children to this guy’s pocket? And the right should be crying about crony capitalism. They could easily have passed another state law which allowed this money to go to fighting crime, or a bazillion other things.”"

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articl...t-city-suffers

I'm sickened by all the ridiculous fantasies we hear from the Ilitch family about the benefits their developments will bring. It's insulting they think we'd believe them. And it's sad if anyone does. If they didn't lay the b.s. on so thick they'd get less of my ire. But the majority would remain due to all the damage they've done destroying the CBD and letting it rot.

In any case I wish this project the best. There's no turning it back.

Just let's learn from our mistakes, please. The mistake was to take the Ilitch family at their word that the spin-off benefits would materialize, and to make it so easy for them to surpass the threshold to collect even more taxpayer money before it happened. They build what's in their financial interest and find a way to avoid absolutely everything else. Yeah, just like Trump. I'll be very happy if they prove me wrong. Here's yet another chance.

[casscorridor]

The "District Detroit" is an utter farce and anyone who thinks it will live up to its stated aspirations is delusional.

It has and will continue to be a sports and events arena with parking, paid for by tax dollars.

This is not proper economic development, and study after study has shown zero to even negative net impact for cities who subsidize sports stadiums.

Michigan and Detroit would be much better off investing in infrastructure, arts, education, etc. The list of things that would be more worthy of investment could go on and on.

It is excused because cities are so desperate for redevelopment, but will be an overall negative in the end as compared with an alternative, more reasoned economic development investment scheme.