Open Space. I Get It.
Now that my Recreation Center is becoming a reality, I want to tell you about something else that is exciting. Over the past months you have expressed your interest in open space. This expression has been overwhelming. It has been everywhere. It has been universal. It is consistent with our General Plan and with all of our zoning. It is something I ran on. That it is a paramount value to this community is obvious to everyone, and it always has been. And it is something that I, as your mayor, have always been dedicated to as my number one priority. I wanted you to know that I am today creating an official, Open Space Initiative.
I ask you to consider why we have the open space we do. I offer it is, precisely, because of carefully planned years of economic stagnation. The careful, consistent strangulation of business by Ogden City government through high taxes to pay for government projects is the only thing that has kept our open spaces as the undeveloped places that they are.
Perhaps the greatest threat to open space was when DDO fell into the city’s lap. In spite of the heroic efforts of my mayoral predecessor to flip the whole thing into the pocket of the Boyer Corporation, still there were substantial streams of money coming in from the re-named, BDO. Through my careful leadership, these remaining streams have been carefully spent for the next 30 years to underwrite enterprises such as the Recreation Center. Even now while many of these projects are still shiny new or just beginning, the city is already beginning to feel serious budget pressures. In terms of creating an economic environment conducive to the preservation of open space I ask: What more could I have done?
And what of Chris Peterson, you ask? You attended my pitch meetings. I ask what greater picture of horrendousness could I have presented? What greater sense of loathing could I have achieved? In bringing his goals to a stop I have succeeded totally. Indeed, it has been pure genius.
And I never even had to use my “ace in the hole”, that was missed by everyone! To service 600 new homes, our sewer and water systems would have required entirely new lines to be laid for miles at a cost of at least $100 million! Yet even without this “silver bullet”, my skills have been such that I have maneuvered this project to a position of total public scorn. Even eschewing the vast tools at my disposal, I still succeed! And as I continue to try to kill this proposal by vigorously supporting it, I will continue to succeed.
And now I ask you as you prepare to go to the polls this fall, how could I have done more to preserve open space than to bring the city and its businesses to an overtaxed, over-obligated financial state? As you make your choices at the polls, ask, do many of you not love to hate me? And what better reason is there to do anything in life, than love?
Think about it, my dear friends. And watch as my plans continue to unfold, with my new crown jewel, the Open Space Initiative.
Now that my Recreation Center is becoming a reality, I want to tell you about something else that is exciting. Over the past months you have expressed your interest in open space. This expression has been overwhelming. It has been everywhere. It has been universal. It is consistent with our General Plan and with all of our zoning. It is something I ran on. That it is a paramount value to this community is obvious to everyone, and it always has been. And it is something that I, as your mayor, have always been dedicated to as my number one priority. I wanted you to know that I am today creating an official, Open Space Initiative.
I ask you to consider why we have the open space we do. I offer it is, precisely, because of carefully planned years of economic stagnation. The careful, consistent strangulation of business by Ogden City government through high taxes to pay for government projects is the only thing that has kept our open spaces as the undeveloped places that they are.
Perhaps the greatest threat to open space was when DDO fell into the city’s lap. In spite of the heroic efforts of my mayoral predecessor to flip the whole thing into the pocket of the Boyer Corporation, still there were substantial streams of money coming in from the re-named, BDO. Through my careful leadership, these remaining streams have been carefully spent for the next 30 years to underwrite enterprises such as the Recreation Center. Even now while many of these projects are still shiny new or just beginning, the city is already beginning to feel serious budget pressures. In terms of creating an economic environment conducive to the preservation of open space I ask: What more could I have done?
And what of Chris Peterson, you ask? You attended my pitch meetings. I ask what greater picture of horrendousness could I have presented? What greater sense of loathing could I have achieved? In bringing his goals to a stop I have succeeded totally. Indeed, it has been pure genius.
And I never even had to use my “ace in the hole”, that was missed by everyone! To service 600 new homes, our sewer and water systems would have required entirely new lines to be laid for miles at a cost of at least $100 million! Yet even without this “silver bullet”, my skills have been such that I have maneuvered this project to a position of total public scorn. Even eschewing the vast tools at my disposal, I still succeed! And as I continue to try to kill this proposal by vigorously supporting it, I will continue to succeed.
And now I ask you as you prepare to go to the polls this fall, how could I have done more to preserve open space than to bring the city and its businesses to an overtaxed, over-obligated financial state? As you make your choices at the polls, ask, do many of you not love to hate me? And what better reason is there to do anything in life, than love?
Think about it, my dear friends. And watch as my plans continue to unfold, with my new crown jewel, the Open Space Initiative.
posted by Mayor Matthew Godfrey Parody at 2/13/2007 11:08:00 AM
1 comments
