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How I saved the citizens of Columbia Heights millions of dollars History The city has wanted to build an activity center for 20 years. The citizens of the city have never wanted it. The reason the city wanted to build it was to tear down Heritage Heights. The city has also wanted to tear down Heritage Heights for 18 years. In 1990 a list of items the city could do to reduce crime in Heritage Heights was developed. Not one item has ever been completed. The city needed an excuse to tear down the housing. Without crime, what excuse would they use? Activity In the 2006 election I ran for city council. I handed out campaign literature only to Heritage Heights citizens. The activity center was designed to obliterate 3 city blocks, with one of the larger activity center parking lots I have seen. I called it gentrification in the literature. Heritage Heights disappeared as a site location for the activity center. Result Time spent on my part: 20 hours over two weekends, 10% of the vote Savings: Millions in TIF redevelopment and lawsuits Activity After the citizens voted down the activity center, the City Council came back and said the citizens did not realize all the amenities the facility would have. The council developed a special citizen task force to help develop plans for the activity center. The activity center plans developed by the citizens committee over 18 months was presented to the public in the city council chamber on December 12, 2007. I attended and found out that the council was going around the referendum process by doing the project lease to own. Beside ridiculing the activity center on public cable TV, I wrote an editorial to warn citizens about how the city was going to get around the voters. Result Time spent on my part: 10 hours. The citizens committee had 36 members working for 18 months. That was 18 months that they could not use to plan something else expensive. Savings: $100/household for 30 years A private company might now come in and build their own activity center without fear of competition from the City. Achievement With very little time with almost no money spent on my part, I blocked tens of millions of dollars in city spending that would have greatly increased taxes in the City. |