Chronicle: Vote "no" on Proposition 2

See the Chronicle's thoughtful non-endorsement.  (It's thoughtful, of course, because it precisely matches the arguments I've raised.) 

Comments

[trza]

That's a very thoughtful endorsement. Personally, I'm leaning "no", but it's still a tough call. I generally don't like subsidies for retail, and the Domain subsidies seem especially problematic. In addition, two former professors of mine who know a lot about planning and local economic development and who I respect, Bill Spellman and Michael Oden, have expressed a level support for the ban. Actually, I think their comments have been skepticism toward retail subsidies in general, rather than specifically endorsing this amendment, although I'm not sure. There may be unintended consequences if this thing passes, so I'm probably going to vote no. Still, I think that the SDS people brought this amendment in good faith, and if it doesn't pass I hope they have made their point.

[AC]

I'm also skeptical of retail subsidies in general (manufacturing subsidies, too). Cities aren't good at industrial policy, and the benefits are often wildly overstated.

But I've concluded the amendment won't really "ban" future Domain-like projects. The city could simply set up a TIF and award every incentive it has awarded to the Domain developer (TIFs are excluded). The charter amendment _will_ affect small projects that can't be shoehorned into a TIF, such as affordable housing buy-downs in mixed-use projects. And it _will_ affect Mueller, despite SDS's claims otherwise.

[M1EK]

I don't think the whole Chron can fit into the echo chamber.

I'm a bit disappointed in Spelman. He seemed so much more level-headed when he was on the council, but the stuff I heard from him in Wells Dunbar's interview was standard boilerplate ANC stuff.

I'm whole-heartedly behind the Domain subsidies as said here before. There's a lot of value in showing an example "urban" development out there in the suburbs to counteract the bad example (so far) of Mueller. Neither one is great, of course, but the faux-urban in the Domain is a better introduction to urban living for suburbanites than what's currently on the ground at Mueller.