Comment on City Supervisors still moving along on the Nugget Project by Dave Morgan
That’s a very fair question. The idea is like that old baseball movie…”If you build it, they will come.” The question is who is “they?” Thus far city hall boosters of the idea seem to have a great deal of faith that Carson City can build it’s way to prosperity. Build a library, library visits will go up. Build an economic incubator, jobs will be created. Build office buildings and “loft” apartments, they will move in. Build a high rise parking garage, they will park. And build a transit hub, they will ride. But will it really, REALLY happen? Will they REALLY come? Beyond that, what’s the amount of “city capital” justifiably put at risk? Thus far, the only involvement by the Nugget is that they will charge land leases for each building project going forward. And the amount of money they “give back” to the community will be completely up to them. Their call. In short, public money up front, private discretion down the road.
But supporters argue that as the projects get built, both public and private, they will produce additional property and sales taxes that will flow into the city treasury. And, as a general expectation, rising downtown land values will produce additional property taxes too.
An possible downside to all this is that as State Government offices move into these new downtown office buildings, it will leave already built office complexes empty. The creation of new “business ghettos” as someone put it. Is that fair to those who have made their lives and their living boosting the town economy without city redevelopment help? And what if “the City-Nugget plan” doesn’t work? Will the city be left with a big tab that may take years to pay off? What about city workers facing pay cuts, furloughs or layoffs? Will this project cause more employees to be axed and city services levels to fall all because city hall wants to “go for broke” on the green felt of a big downtown gamble?
City Redevelopment, the Nugget Team, and the Board of Supervisors are supposed to be discussing all these issues and more in the coming weeks. Mr. and Mrs. Carson City, are you paying attention?
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