09-09-2010, 02:10 PM
Selling the lakefront to the Waukegan Park District will only move the tax burden from one pocket to the other. The Park District will finance the 'purchase' by selling...you guessed it: bonds, paid for by taxes. If you sell it to the Lake County Forest Preserve District, you still will have the taxpayers footing the bill. Just that it'll be all of Lake County paying for it and not just Waukegan citizens.
A more profitable vendor in the train station will require some changes to the Metra station. Its operating hours prevent a vendor from taking advantage of all incoming and outgoing travelers. Either the operating hours will need to be expanded (and Metra would not be willing to do this.) or perform some remodeling to the station so that a vendor could have direct outside access. (I'd rather implode the ugly thing and put up a decent looking building; but the city would have to work 'outside the box' to get it designed, built and paid for.)
Privatizing the theatre: They should have sold it years ago instead of keeping it as a city-owned and maintained property. There may be buyers, but it's a buyers market (for those with the money to buy) and the City better beware about who they sell it too. Do they want another 'Fiesta Palace'? If they sell it, sell it to a nationally or regionally recognized organization; not some unknown outfit. Remember 'Revolution Partners'? They were unknown but got their pick of downtown properties which have basically gone nowhere. They got a writeoff and the City got empty space. We still don't know who is behind this outfit and how they managed to get these properties without competitive bidding.
Raising liquor taxes,.. why stop there? Why not have a city tax on food? Oh yeah, those people who need their booze are a fairly reliable source of cash. Tax something that a majority of voters need and you'll be out of office in no time.
Improving and leasing the garage retail space. Well goodness gracious...how long did that take to figure out? Five years? But like with the theatre proposal, they can't be overly picky. There are fast food companies that still want to franchise. The courthouse and CLC both have the ability to provide a customer base to make this location profitable. Tell the Business Development Czars to stop sitting and collecting a city paycheck and aggressively work with franchisors and potential franchisees.
A more profitable vendor in the train station will require some changes to the Metra station. Its operating hours prevent a vendor from taking advantage of all incoming and outgoing travelers. Either the operating hours will need to be expanded (and Metra would not be willing to do this.) or perform some remodeling to the station so that a vendor could have direct outside access. (I'd rather implode the ugly thing and put up a decent looking building; but the city would have to work 'outside the box' to get it designed, built and paid for.)
Privatizing the theatre: They should have sold it years ago instead of keeping it as a city-owned and maintained property. There may be buyers, but it's a buyers market (for those with the money to buy) and the City better beware about who they sell it too. Do they want another 'Fiesta Palace'? If they sell it, sell it to a nationally or regionally recognized organization; not some unknown outfit. Remember 'Revolution Partners'? They were unknown but got their pick of downtown properties which have basically gone nowhere. They got a writeoff and the City got empty space. We still don't know who is behind this outfit and how they managed to get these properties without competitive bidding.
Raising liquor taxes,.. why stop there? Why not have a city tax on food? Oh yeah, those people who need their booze are a fairly reliable source of cash. Tax something that a majority of voters need and you'll be out of office in no time.
Improving and leasing the garage retail space. Well goodness gracious...how long did that take to figure out? Five years? But like with the theatre proposal, they can't be overly picky. There are fast food companies that still want to franchise. The courthouse and CLC both have the ability to provide a customer base to make this location profitable. Tell the Business Development Czars to stop sitting and collecting a city paycheck and aggressively work with franchisors and potential franchisees.