Lowell's

What presenting to LFUCG is like

Prologue
It all started with a testy weekend exchange on Twitter with LFUCG council member Doug Martin.

That Twitter exchange started with me posting multiple sarcastic complaints about traffic and then morphed into a conversation on leadership. 

Throughout the day on Friday, I saw a series of 'tweets' on how bogged down Lexington's traffic had become.  As new street closures on West Main Street and Old Frankfort Pike were added to the long-term closure on South Limestone, traffic in many parts of the city came to a standstill.  This was exacerbated by a multi-vehicle wreck on Versailles Road Friday night.  Essentially, the entire west and south side of Lexington was impassable.

I then made my sarcastic assessment of the chaotic state of our streets.

Without going into details, CM Martin objected to my flippant tone, and urged me to complain less and lead more.  It was a point that he reiterated as other folks jumped into the conversation throughout the weekend.  I pulled back from the discussion - stewing a little that CM Martin felt I wasn't leading already. 

I should clarify that Doug Martin is one of my favorite council members.  He's engaged and approachable - by far the most active Twitterer in LFUCG - and he genuinely wants more citizen participation and a better city.  Although he and I frequently disagree on specific tactics that we should use as we approach the important issues in Lexington, I feel that we're on the same team. 

But as the weekend progressed I couldn't get over how he seemed to think I wasn't a leader.

::

Preparation
As I stewed about the conversation with CM Martin, I was simultaneously stewing about the state of our city's traffic.

I have written a few times about the streetscape project and the resulting impacts to downtown.   Most recently, I wrote about the "true costs" of the South Limestone project - lost customers, lost productivity, lost services - and estimated the total loss of business to be between $84 and $92 million, far in excess of the approximately $17 million being spent on construction.

Meanwhile, there seemed to be no sense of urgency at LFUCG about accelerating the project.

On Monday, I learned that the next LFUCG work session included a "Downtown Streetscape Update" on the agenda.  I decided that I would make a presentation on my findings - and perhaps demonstrate some "leadership".

Trouble is, I had never even been to council chambers, let alone participated in a meeting.  I asked my informal network of friends on Twitter, email, and South Limestone what I needed to do to make a presentation at the beginning of the session. 

And the responses I got were great, but a bit intimidating.  I only had about 24 hours to get my act together.

Citizens are only allowed 3 minutes to comment on issues on the agenda.  But other citizens can donate their time.  I figured that I had at least 10 minutes worth of material, which would mean that I needed 3 (or more) other folks to donate their time to me.  Everyone has to sign in before the 3 PM meeting starts.  Getting 3 other people to come to council chambers at 3 PM on a Tuesday is a daunting task.  

At the same time as I was searching for supporters, I was also trying to throw together a presentation.  I am a presentation perfectionist - I like to have every slide "just so", and I want to know precisely what I'm going to say with each slide.  (I'm the same way with writing, by the way.)  Normally, crafting a presentation that I am happy and comfortable with takes a week or more.

But I had one day.  Time to buckle down.

By early Tuesday, I had only one other person committed to showing up, giving me a grand total of 6 minutes.  I was beginning to think I'd have to miss this opportunity to present to council.  As I was preparing the presentation, I was also mentally noting the parts I'd have to slash if I didn't have enough supporters donating their time. 

But as my network kicked in on Tuesday afternoon, I saw that I'd have at least 12 minutes.

With that, I "locked in" the content of my presentation, and downloaded a few different versions of it to a thumb drive.  I didn't know which version of PowerPoint to bring (PP 2003 is the best bet).  I also didn't know if I'd have control of the 'clicker' to transition between slides (it turns out that I did).

::

Presentation
I showed up to city hall at about 2:45 PM, hoping to see my "supporters".  I checked in at the front desk by giving them my driver's license and getting a visitor's badge (a sticker, really).  Then, one by one, I started to see the other folks who were donating their time to my presentation.  There were 4 others, which should have given me 15 minutes - more than enough time for what I had to say.

I gave my thumb drive to the LFUCG's technical coordinator, and had a moment of panic - the thumb drive had an "autorun" file on it which the LFUCG computers saw as malware.  I was starting to look like I couldn't even load up the presentation.  After a reboot, we were able to transfer it, and the coordinator showed me the way to navigate through my presentation while up at the podium.

Mayor Newberry started the work session at 3 PM (sharp!), and public comment (for items that are on the agenda) is usually the first item.  But Tuesday was also the day that council recognized Lexington's Junior Fire Chief, and so council made time for that first.

Then, it was time for public comment.  Mayor Newberry called my name and, as I approached the podium, he mentioned that I had 12 minutes.  My mind scrambled a bit, as I tried to figure out where the other 3 minutes went.  Did someone not sign up?  Did they do so incorrectly?  Since I didn't know, and since I designed the presentation for about 10 minutes, I decided to go ahead without making a big scene.

I was atypically nervous as I approached the podium.  I'm normally a pretty confident public speaker, but I was shaking.  What was that all about? 

I've been suffering from a cold for the past few weeks, and the constant coughing has meant that I haven't been sleeping well.  On top of that, I didn't feel fully prepared - I didn't have every detail down pat.  Then, there was minute-gate.  And, finally, when my presentation showed on screen, it jumped ahead a couple of slides.

Streetscapes

View more documents from Rob Morris.

Then, I started talking.  My voice wavered a bit.  As I got a couple of slides in, I started to feel my normal presentation rhythm.  I usually flip through 6 to 10 slides per minute, and I was starting to get into the flow of the presentation.  And, yet, I was still shaking...

For the most part, the presentation flowed as I planned.  For the most part.  The least well-thought-out section (the one where I shared my Twitter conversation with CM Martin) was where I temporarily lost track.  I struggled for what seemed like an eternity, and then finally got control of the presentation again.

In the process of bungling that one section, I fear I may have given the unfortunate impression that CM Martin was some sort of "bad guy" in the South Limestone closure.  He most certainly isn't.  (Sorry, Doug.)

As I approached the end of my presentation, Mayor Newberry interrupted me.  "You have 30 seconds."  I felt like asking if I got more time because of his interruption.  But I knew that I had only 9 more rapid-fire slides, and I knew what I was going to say, so I charged ahead, wrapping up the presentation before he could interrupt again.

GTV3 Video of Presentation (My presentation starts to 6m 30s).

::

Post Mortem
As I sat down, a few of those around me quietly praised the presentation.  Mayor Newberry called the next speaker - who was actually one of my "supporters".  So I could have had 15 minutes after all.

As the council transitioned to their business, it wasn't at all clear that my presentation had any impact.  After I finished, there was no further discussion of South Lime, and no questions for me.

I knew I had some good points, but it wasn't clear that any of them had connected with the council members.  Then, several minutes after my presentation, CM Diane Lawless came by and told me how well I did.  But Diane is such a nice person that I wasn't sure her sentiments reflected the council as a whole. 

When the "Downtown Streetscape" item finally came up on the agenda, CM Lawless ripped into the way in which the South Lime portion was executed.  And then, an amazing thing happened.  One by one, previously staid council members chimed in with comments about the urgency of accelerating South Limestone.

First, CM Kevin Stinnett made a motion for getting an update on what it takes to speed things along.  Seconded (loudly) by CM Lawless, I then watched as CMs Jay McChord and Julian Beard reiterated their support for the motion.  

In the end, the presentation did connect with a large portion of the council, and - next Tuesday - the issue of jump-starting the South Limestone project is back on the docket.

GTV3 Video of Presentation (Council discussion starts at 1h 33m.  Takes a while, but it gets interesting).

The True Cost of South Limestone

The South Limestone streetscape project began with the closure of South Lime two months ago today, and the project is slated to continue for another 10 months.  Meant to better connect downtown with the University of Kentucky campus, the project includes the widening of sidewalks, the installation of bike lanes, and the underground placement of utilities.

When the project started, we wrote about the chaotic process of closing the street and about the need for practical planning and design on South Lime and other urban development projects.  How has the project evolved since then?

Not well.

Severed Artery
The closure dramatically impacted traffic patterns between downtown Lexington and the south side of our city, resulting in gnarled traffic on a number of alternative routes to downtown.  At various points in the project, intersections with cross-streets (High, Maxwell, and Euclid) have also closed with little notice, adding to confusion and gridlock for downtown commuters and shoppers.  In effect, the closure of South Limestone has walled off downtown from Lexington's south side.

Several businesses along South Lime have struggled to cope with the substantial loss of customers and the physical disruption of their businesses.  Last week, Joe Graviss, the owner of the McDonald's on South Lime, pleaded with Lexington's Mayor and Urban County Council to add extra shifts or more workers to speed the project.  

City officials responded that extra shifts will not accelerate the project.  The project's manager noted that the city's concrete supplier closed in the evenings and that local utilities were already providing personnel to assist with the location and relocation of utility lines.  At one point, he admitted that he had no ideas for speeding the South Lime project along.

Vice Mayor Jim Gray - the CEO of Gray Construction and the only councilmember to oppose the project - countered the project manager's claims.  "It would be wise of us not to be extravagant in describing the difficulties of this project...  With 2000 projects under my belt, I've never seen a project that couldn't be improved or accelerated."

At this point, most elected leaders and city bureaucrats seem unprepared to take significant action to accelerate the South Limestone streetscape project.

That's because they have been thinking about the impacts of South Lime on the wrong scale.

Estimates on the price of the South Lime project vary, but the early $5.2 million estimate has ballooned to somewhere between $13.1 and $17 million.  The newer, higher price was partly meant to help expedite the project. 

But, as we'll see in a moment, that price far underestimates the true cost of the project to our city, our economy, and to our future. 

South Limestone's closure is not a mere inconvenience - it is a severed artery that is bleeding the life from downtown.  It demands an urgent response from our leaders.  The cost to the city is too dear to delay action, especially in this difficult economy.

Disruption: Anecdotes and Hard Data
A number of weeks ago, on the first day that the High Street intersection with South Lime was closed, I worked in my office and overheard two different customers from the south side of Lexington talk about the enormous problem of getting to our downtown shop - the confusion from suddenly closing the High Street intersection had made traffic especially difficult to decipher.

Then, we had an elderly customer from Nicholasville make an appointment for the next day, asking for directions on how to get to the shop with all of the construction.  Concerned about getting lost, she decided to do a dry run the day before.  After experiencing the jams, diversions, and delays, she called back and canceled her appointment.

Last month, I talked with another downtown business who is in our same industry.  They were scratching their heads about why their August business "fell off a cliff".  I talked with them again last week, and their business was still much slower than usual.

Yesterday, a regular customer who owns a shop in Festival Market came into Lowell's and opened the discussion with a flat "Business sucks".

When I started hearing these anecdotes, I began to think that the impacts of the South Limestone closure extended far beyond South Lime.  I wondered about the effects of South Lime as a customer deterrent for our business:

• How many of our customers come from the south side of Lexington?
• How many of those south-siders might have chosen to stay away from "the mess" downtown?
• What could that data tell us about the impacts to all of downtown Lexington?

And what I saw in the data was astounding and troubling:

• About 30% of our customers come from ZIP codes which would use Nicholasville Road (which turns into South Limestone) as the primary corridor to downtown
• Since July 22nd - the date of the closure - we have lost one third of the business we'd normally expect from those ZIP codes.  By comparison, the rest of Lexington is relatively flat or growing.
• The net of this was a loss of 10% of our sales (and a much bigger hit to our profitability) directly attributable to the South Lime closure.

I disclose these facts not as a woe-are-we pity party, but as a fact-based assessment of how "the mess downtown" affects one downtown business.  Our business is a relatively healthy, well-respected business with incredibly loyal customers (Last week, we won "Best Honest Mechanic" from Ace Weekly readers).  And, still, the closure of South Limestone accounted for a loss of a full third of south-side customers.

Ripple Effects
Can we extrapolate from just one business to the whole of downtown?  Not with any degree of certainty.  But my conversations with other business owners make me believe that my business' experience with the South Lime closure is not exceptional.  Admittedly, not every downtown business is as impacted by traffic disruptions, but most are impacted in some fashion: lost customers, lost productivity, supply chain delays, etc.

Hard data for downtown Lexington is difficult to come by.

• Just how much of Lexington's $11 billion economy takes place downtown?
• Which businesses depend upon the smooth flow of traffic?  To what degree?
• How many of their customers / employees / suppliers come from the south side?

Depending on the assumptions used, the estimate of impacts to downtown can vary wildly.  Our best "conservative" estimate?  Downtown Lexington loses about $360,000 each business day that South Limestone is closed.  (Depending on our assumptions, the estimates ranged between $275,000 and $600,000 each day.)

That translates to between $7.0 to $7.7 million in lost business every month, or between $84 and $92 million for the year-long duration of the South Limestone project.  That's around 700 to 1000 jobs which could evaporate from downtown Lexington, especially as the closure drags on.

Are these numbers absolute?  Not by any means.  But they do provide a ballpark idea of the true cost of the South Limestone project. 

Much of the focus on the costs of South Lime have focused on either a) the direct taxpayer costs ($17 million) or b) the costs to businesses on South Lime.  And while those South Limestone businesses deserve special attention for the degree this project impacts them, our estimates suggest that our leaders and our community have been thinking about 'cost' on the wrong scale.  There is a much bigger, much more urgent cost which must be addressed.

The irony of South Limestone - as the cycle of lost customers, declining businesses, lower employment, and more lost customers continues - is that the project may well end up strangling the very downtown that the streetscape is meant to connect with.

Our leaders frequently assert the necessity of a vibrant, livable downtown.  It is time for them to live up to their words. 

With the South Limestone closure, they must now choose: Will they continue to choke off downtown from a significant portion of the city, or will they act with urgency and extraordinary effort to accelerate and improve the project?

Their actions now will determine whether the prediction from our Chaos post will come true:

"And the results of the chaos are easy to predict.  Confused commuters and shoppers stay away from 'the mess' downtown.  Downtown businesses die.  And, after fits and starts, Lexington ends up with a beautiful street.  To nowhere."

Time to choose.

The Spotlight Effect

There's an old saw in business: "That which gets measured gets results". 

I have to admit I've always been a bit dismissive of that saying (usually attributed to the late business guru Peter Drucker).  In corporate life, I saw plenty of things that were measured which didn't get results.  The mere act of measuring something accomplishes nothing if effort doesn't also go into improving that 'something'.

But a couple of events over the past few weeks has me thinking about what does get results. 

Newtown Pike Extension
The first event was the much-acclaimed burial of utility lines along Lexington's Newtown Pike extension.  After Graham and Clive Pohl (of Pohl Rosa Pohl Architects) highlighted the discrepancy between the pretty artists' renderings of the extension and the actual plans for the construction that was about to begin.  Instead of the beautiful, pristine streets promised in the renderings, the extension would have been littered with utility poles and power lines.

LFUCG engineers cited the high relative cost of burying the utilities, estimating that putting them underground would add nearly $900,000 to the project's cost.

Since the extension will be a kind of "gateway" into Lexington, there was an outcry from many on the Urban County Council about how important it was for us to look good for visitors.  Our Vice Mayor was quoted as saying "We'll never get a second chance to make a first impression."  Local columnists and Lexington's online community jumped on the issue as well, and it snowballed.

Within a couple of weeks, city leaders lined up with Kentucky's Governor to announce that they had found the extra funds to put the utilities underground in the Governor's contingency fund.

I have to admit, I support putting utilities underground, but am dubious of the "first impression" argument.  The utilities are currently slated to go underground only on the Newtown Pike Extension.  The existing stretch of Newtown will still have above-ground utilities.  So a visitor's true first impression will still be filled with wires and poles from I-75 to Main Street, as seen in this shot of Newtown from this afternoon.

The Treeds Experiment
The second event was a little closer to home.  In the Treeds Experiment, I decided take up a challenge from an Urban County Councilmember to see how long it took to get a response from LFUCG's Division of Code Enforcement.  So, last Friday - just before the holiday weekend - I sent an email to Code Enforcement about a lot next to our main building which had become overgrown with tree-weeds, or "treeds".  

At the same time I sent the email, I posted an outline of the experiment on my blog, along with pictures of the overgrowth.  And I pledged to chronicle the responses I got from the city. 

This past Tuesday, the city's contractors showed up to clear the lot - less than one business day after my email and post.  Pretty impressive by any measure.  Code Enforcement hasn't addressed all of the concerns I outlined (the main drain in the lot is still clogged).  But, to be fair, they have addressed most of the public safety issues which accompanied the blight in that lot.

On Twitter, a couple of folks brought up valid points.  Russell and Ann both pointed out that Treeds had an unfair advantage - because I talked about it publicly, that may have helped artificially accelerate the responsiveness of the city.  (Indeed, within hours of my initial Treeds post, a city employee commented that the experiment would 'fail'.)

The Spotlight Effect
These two events both benefited from the "spotlight effect": When the public's spotlight turns to a particular issue, and that spotlight begins burning intensely, 'normal' reactions and 'normal' timelines are no longer acceptable.

Russell and Ann were right: my experiment wasn't 'normal', and the average citizen shouldn't expect that kind of responsiveness.

And others would point out that the Newtown Pike Extension wasn't 'normal' either - it was a one-time event which utilized one-time funds.  We shouldn't expect city officials to move that quickly to fix an oversight or mistake.

But we should. 

Everyone should get prompt action on valid complaints.  Everyone should expect city leaders to fix their mistakes, to do the right things, and to do them quickly.

But we can't wait for our leaders to do the right thing.  We need to push them.  We need to build bigger, brighter spotlights, and we need to shine those spotlights on the things that matter. 

It is up to us.

Building a Spotlight
What does it take to build an effective spotlight?  I can't claim to be an expert, but here are some of my thoughts culled from the past few days and weeks (feel free to contribute your own in the comments below):

• We must be more vocal.  We tend to be indirect folks here in Lexington.  It is awkward and impolite to complain; it is much better for the other person to do what they should.  But they don't.  And we stew.  And nothing much changes.  

It is time for that to change.  As out-of-character as it may be for many of us, we need to become much more vocal about what is wrong and what we expect.  Only then can things improve.

• We must join our voices.  When one person calls a city department, they are a complainer.  When several people call - and are joined by bloggers, columnists, and media - that's a movement. 

And a movement is what dislodged the status quo of the Newtown Pike Extension.  We need more movements in Lexington with more voices working in concert.  We need to utilize our public platforms - Twitter, Facebook, blogs, and papers - to draw others to our cause.

• We must be more visible.  When one person calls one other person at LFUCG, there's no spotlight.  No one else knows about the call, and no one else can amplify the sentiments expressed there. 

One of the reasons that Treeds got such a rapid response was probably the 'publicness' of the experiment.  That visibility helped the amplify the spotlight and, in all likelihood, accelerated the response.

• We must measure.  This statement isn't about micro-measuring every detail of every issue.  It is about documenting who we talked with and what they said, and holding them accountable for their actions (or lack thereof). 

Any regular reader of my posts knows that I'm not shy.  They know that I'm not afraid to use my platforms to try to build a movement.  In the past few months, my blogging and writing has become fairly visible.  (And, for what it is worth, I've got some like-minded friends.) 

So if you need a spotlight, let me help you.  If you see blight around campus or around downtown, let me know.  If your business is suffering from the South Limestone road closure, let me know.  If you have a great idea for our city, let me know.  If you see a problem which needs fixing, let me know.

Together, let's be more vocal.  Let's join our voices with others who agree.  Let's be more visible.  And, then, let's hold people accountable.

I want a better Lexington.  One where businesses aren't squeezed out of their locations by poorly-planned year-long road closures.  One where our government operates much more transparently.  One where blight is quickly and effectively addressed.  One which has a real (and realistic) urban development plan for downtown.  One which has a thriving arts and business community.  One which leverages its past to build a brighter future.  One which will make my son homesick if he ever leaves.

If you want that too, then join me - or rather, have me join you.  Tell me what matters. 

And I'll do my best to help you build a spotlight.  Let's make a better, faster Lexington.

The Treeds Experiment

Back in May, I blogged about the abandoned properties next to our shop, and about what to do about blight in our city. 

In this week's Urban County Council meetings, residents of several neighborhoods surrounding the University of Kentucky campus registered their concerns about the changes taking place in their communities. 

The biggest concerns surrounded how some property owners were effectively converting single-family homes into makeshift dormitories / frat houses / flop houses to take advantage of the burgeoning student population at UK.  The complaints centered not only on the creation of multi-unit apartments and the paving of lawns for parking, but also on the often-destructive behavior of the residents who move in.

Some on the council wished to impose a moratorium on these kinds of conversions while the city figures out how to accommodate growth at UK. 

Last night, the council rejected the proposed moratorium, to the disappointment of many of the residents.  At one point, Councilmember Lane suggested that neighbors should simply "file a complaint on property owners you feel are in violation of zoning ordinance, see if our government can apply the laws we have on the books," to which citizen Janet Cowan responded "I know all of the numbers, Mr. Lane.  I have them on speed dial." 

So, how well can the government apply the laws we have on the books?  It is time to see. 

The Treeds Experiment
What happened after openly blogging about the properties surrounding Lowell's back in May? 

Nothing.

Well, not nothing, exactly..  The 8-foot tall tree-weeds ("treeds") I talked about then have now grown to some 16- to 18-feet tall, dwarfing the hedges that they have grown through.

The treeds now spill out over the sidewalks, making them impossible to navigate without a machete.  Some pedestrians step into the street rather than navigate the mess on the sidewalks.

The grass growing next to our building has now grown to 7 1/2 feet tall (That's me back there earlier this afternoon, risking chiggers and other man-eating varmints. I'm 6 1/2 feet tall...). 

And, finally, the only drain on the lot is completely crusted over.  So, during heavy rains, the lot drains straight into Mechanic Street, contributing to an occasional "Lake Mechanic".

All of which sets the stage for what I'm calling "The Treeds Experiment".  The Treeds Experiment is a test -- wherein I plan to take up Councilmember Lane's suggestion -- and learn just how long and how well our government takes to apply the laws that we already have on the books.

Simultaneous with this blog post on the afternoon before a holiday weekend, I am sending an email to code_enforcement@lfucg.com requesting that they take remedial action upon this lot and its owners.

I will chronicle the communication (and, I anticipate, the non-communication) I get from the Code Enforcement folks and other city officials in updates to this post and on Twitter.  I will not tell them that I am doing so (so that they will not artificially accelerate their actions).

But I am telling you.

Should be interesting.  Look for updates here as the weeks and months progress.

::

Note: Many thanks to AceWeekly for chronicling the LFUCG meetings and civic discussions.  Ace captured the quotes I used above.

Pat Gerhard at Third Street Stuff has recently contacted the Downtown Development Authority about the lot.  We agreed a month or so ago that I would contact Code Enforcement.  (Sorry for the delay, Pat.)

9/4/2009, 3:46 PM: Sent initial email to LFUCG Code Enforcement, while publishing this post.

To whom it may concern:

I am the owner of Lowell's, an auto repair shop at 111 Mechanic Street.  There is a lot at the North corner of North Limestone and Mechanic which appears to be abandoned, as no maintenance has been done by the owners for over 2 years. 

There are now large tree-weeds growing through the hedges surrounding the lot, making progress on sidewalks very difficult.  The only drain on the lot is clogged, and the lot drains into Mechanic Street, contributing to flooding during heavy rains.  There is a large clump of grass which is now approaching 8 feet in height which is growing next to our main building.  Many customers assume that the lot is ours (since it borders our building), and a few have asked us to clean it up.

Can you take remedial action on this property and update me on your progress in addressing these issues? 

Thank you,
Rob Morris

9/4/2009, 6:18 PM: Blog comment from the Lexington Streetweeper (written by an LFUCG employee) on how the Treeds Experiment is "destined to fail".

9/4/2009, 9:28 PM: I reply that failure really isn't possible.

9/7/2009, 10:50 AM: During torrential downpours, Lake Mechanic forms again as Mechanic Street is completely flooded, due in part to runoff from the Treeds lot with a clogged drain.

9/8/2009, 10:45 AM: I receive an email from David Jarvis, Director of Code Enforcement:

I will have Calvin Powell assign an Inspector.  Thank You.

9/8/2009, 1:25 PM: I respond:

Thank you.  I look forward to your updates.

Rob

9/8/2009, 2:19 PM: David Jarvis sends me another email:

Property will be cited (14 day time limit) and the limbs will be cleared back off the sidewalk as soon as we can get our contractor there.

As I read that email (and post this update) the contractors arrive with weed-eaters and loppers in hand:

 

Buh-bye treeds!  But where will the varmints live now?

9/8/2009, 2:45 PM: Taylor Shelton and 10th District Councilmember Doug Martin post responses on the blog.  Councilmember Martin mentions that Code Enforcement is particularly short-handed and suggests that citizens use LexCall 311 with details of their similar complaints.

9/8/2009, 6:31 PM: I came back to Lowell's after being out since about 3:30 PM, and most of the debris was removed.  Still a couple of piles which couldn't fit into the contractor's truck.

9/9/2009, 9:15 AM: Contractors cleaning up remaining debris from lot next to Lowell's main building.

 

9/9/2009, 10:14 AM: The lot's only drain is still clogged.  Not sure whether that is a Code Enforcement issue or not.  Sent a response to David Jarvis and Calvin Powell:

Thank you for your quick actions in getting this lot cleared. 

Is the clogged drain in the lot something under the purview of Code Enforcement, or would there be another department which handles that drainage issue?

Thanks,
Rob

LexMob: Final Schedule

When we started LexMob on July 22nd, the idea was to keep patronizing businesses affected by the closure of South Limestone for a month. It has been extremely rewarding to meet fellow LexMobbers and to meet owners and workers in the targeted businesses.

It has also been very time-consuming.  I've decided to stop organizing LexMobs after Monday, August 31st, so that I can better tend to my business.

This doesn't mean that LexMobs have to stop.  In fact, we'd be thrilled if LexMob continues into the fall.  And anyone can organize a LexMob for South Limestone: The idea is to 'show up' with our feet and our wallets to help out these businesses.  Whether it is a mob of 1 or a mob of 100, simply show up and ask others to show up as well.

The easiest way to organize a LexMob: Send out a notice on Twitter with the hashtag phrase "#LexMob for #SoLime".  In my experience, it is good to send out a few tweets at different times of the morning to let different people know when and where the LexMob will be.  Then, after your LexMob, tell the twitterverse how it was and thank those who came.  That's all it takes. 

I've had a number of suggestions for how LexMob could continue:

• LexMobs could be weekly (or a couple of times a week) instead of each day
• Perhaps the businesses on South Limestone could organize LexMobs themselves
• We could just see what happens; Hopefully, other LexMobbers could continue to organize mobs without a central planner

We support any or all of these options. 

In any case, here is our 'final' schedule for LexMob:

• Wednesday 8/19, Lunch: Sav's Grill
• Thursday 8/20, Lunch: Hanna's, Zag's, & Failte Irish Imports
• Thursday 8/20, 7 PM: Social Event at Pazzo's Pizza Pub (sponsored by the Lexington Fashion Collaborative)

• Monday 8/24, Lunch: Banana Leaf
• Tuesday 8/25, Lunch: Tolly Ho
• Wednesday 8/26, Lunch: Cloud 9
• Thursday 8/27, Lunch: Han Woo Ri, The Album, Sqecial Media, and ReBelle
• Friday 8/28, Lunch: Sav's Grill and Oneness

• Monday 8/31, Lunch: Pazzo's Pizza Pub and CD Central

We hope to see you there!  Who's in?

LexMob Schedule

We like (and encourage) the loose, spontaneous organization of LexMob (an initiative to patronize businesses affected by the closure of South Limestone). 

But several folks have encouraged us to put together a LexMob schedule so that they can plan their attendance.  We think that's a good idea.  As always, feel free to organize or propose your own LexMobs.

Here's our tentative schedule for the next week (also published in this week's Ace Weekly on page 5).  Look for updates and schedule changes on Twitter (look for the #LexMob or #SoLime hashtags).

Friday 8/7, Lunch: Tolly Ho
Friday 8/7, 5:30PM: (OFF Lime) Front Porch Friday, Ace Weekly, 185 Jefferson
Saturday 8/8, 6-9 South Limestone 'Street Party' near High Street

Monday 8/10, Lunch: Banana Leaf
Tuesday 8/11, Lunch: Hanna's, Zag's, & Failte Irish Imports
Tuesday 8/11, Dinner: SoundBar
Wednesday 8/12, Lunch: Sav's Grill and Oneness
Thursday 8/13, Lunch: Cloud 9 and Kennedy's Bookstore
Friday 8/14, Lunch: Tin Roof

Please join us as we support businesses on South Limestone.  Also, if you are up for a hike (7 to 8 blocks) you can park in the Lowell's parking lot on the south corner of North Limestone and Mechanic Streets.

LexMob Update: Who's in?

It's been two weeks since South Limestone closed and since I suggested the idea to LexMob businesses up and down SoLime.  So how is the LexMob idea faring?  Have we made a huge difference to the bottom lines of the affected businesses?

In a word: No.

In two words: Not yet.

As an ad hoc effort, we usually decide the spot we'll mob for lunch that morning.  I usually send out a tweet proposing a time and place, and ask "Who's in?" 

So far in a typical LexMob, just three or four people show up.  A couple of times, the mob swelled to about a dozen or more.  And yesterday, I was the lone LexMobber.

These weren't really the overwhelming numbers I had hoped for, but are about what I expected as we get the idea of LexMob off the ground. 

Still, the LexMob experience has already been rewarding in a number of ways:

• I have gotten to meet a lot of great new people while LexMobbing.
• I have gotten a lot of exercise marching up and down Limestone (except in yesterday's monsoon).
• I have gotten a lot of encouragement from the local Twitter community and from the affected businesses.
• Lexmobbers (including me) have gotten exposure to great restaurants and stores that we would never have patronized if the closure hadn't happened.
• A few times, I've seen folks organize their own LexMobs
• I have gotten an inspiring, up-close look at how resilient and innovative other business owners are in the face of profound challenges.

And those rewards will keep me going back to SoLime businesses during the closure.

Where have we been?  Here's our list so far:

7/22, Lunch: Pazzo's Pizza Pub (4 LexMobbers)
7/23, Lunch: Sav's West African Grill (3 LexMobbers)
7/24, Lunch: Tolly Ho (14 LexMobbers)

7/27, Lunch: Tin Roof (3 LexMobbers)
7/28, Lunch: Han Woo Ri (Korean - 11 LexMobbers)
7/29, Lunch: Hanna's on Lime and Failte Irish Imports (8 LexMobbers)
7/29, Dinner: Pint Night at Pazzo's Pizza Pub (~4 LexMobbers)
7/30, Lunch: Pita Pit (2 LexMobbers)
7/31, Lunch: Sav's West African Grill (4 LexMobbers)

8/3, Lunch: Banana Leaf (Indian & Malaysian - 2 LexMobbers)
8/4, Lunch: Cloud 9 (1 LexMobber)

While I think all of these businesses need our help, I worry less about the popular campus hangouts (Pazzo's, Tolly Ho, Tin Roof) than I do the lesser-known and more out-of-the-way spots.

At Cloud 9 yesterday, I wasn't just the only LexMobber there - I was the only patron.  During what should have been their busiest hour, I was the only customer in the whole place. 

And - given its former 'dive' incarnation as the original Tolly-Ho and Wok 'n' Go (tucked behind Kennedy's Book Store) - it was a surprisingly great place.  Very clean.  Really nice ambience.  A very tasty special burger blend from Critchfield Meats.  Deep-fried hot dogs.  Beer-battered fries.  Unique and delicious 'flavor-blasted' soft serve ice cream.  Home-made mix-ins for ice cream treats.  Home-made frozen cheesecake.  I already want to go back.

Being the only customer gave me a chance to have a long conversation with the owner (Kurt Henning) about a variety of topics, including the South Lime closure.  He had no communication from the city about the closure - he heard details mainly through rumor.  He didn't know that the digging would go as far south on South Lime as it has.  He had no warning that the Euclid / Winslow / Avenue of Champions intersection with South Limestone would be completely closed.  And, he was surprised that the road in front of his shop (on Winslow, well off of South Lime) was being dug up as well.

And yet, Kurt was surprisingly resilient in the face of such a disruptive interruption to his business.  He's looking forward to when students get back on campus and business picks back up.  He's working to ensure good word-of-mouth (he does no advertising) about his business. 

And, sitting there as the only lunchtime customer in a great local establishment, I decided then and there to give him some good word-of-mouth.  (Did it work?) 

Don't go there - or to other South Lime places - because you feel sorry for them.  Go because they really are that good and because they deserve our business.

And, despite the extra inconvenience, time, and cost - I decided to continue LexMobbing South Limestone.

Who's in?

Pretty to Gritty: Thoughts on Lexington Streetscapes

Last week, Lexington's Downtown Development Authority held a "Downtown Improvements Public Forum" to share plans for renovating streetscapes along Limestone, Cheapside, Vine, and Main Streets.  (Controversial renovations on South Limestone are already underway.)  More 'open house' than 'forum', the lead agency for DDA's plans, Kinzelman Kline Gossman, had ringed the room with posters showing artists' renderings of what the streetscapes would look like and detailing guidelines for street and sidewalk construction. (Large PDF of the DDA streetscape plan here.)

Walking through the door, there was a telling moment.  There was an artist's rendering of what South Limestone would look like after the streetscape project was finished.  It was beautiful.  Except that it wasn't South Limestone.  The lone rendering of a South Limestone streetscape, while pretty, included non-existent buildings and storefronts.

Throughout my career, I've had the opportunity to manage relationships and to interact with numerous creative agencies: design firms, ad agencies, industrial designers, consultants, and the like.  I've had many opportunities to witness their creative processes at work.  I've also seen the common pitfalls of such creativity.  And Wednesday's open house struck a familiar chord. 

One of the most common pitfalls of creative work is to focus disproportionately on 'the pretty'.  'Pretty' is creative work in its purest, most idealistic form.  Pretty designs are often, as their name would imply, beautiful and inspiring.  And as long as inspiration is their primary goal, pretty designs can be useful.

But too often, pretty designs are seen as some kind of end point in the creative work.  After producing a a creative product, the agency - or, worse, their clients - see the work as complete.  They frequently choose not to get 'dirty' with the unglamorous implementation of the project.  Many design firms see implementation as too mundane, too pedestrian.  In their view, they should focus on the pure 'art' of their creativity; it is then up to the engineer, the website coder, or the construction foreman to do the arduous task of making the project match the pretty design.

And that is precisely the problem with pretty designs.

When the pretty design meets schedule constraints or cost constraints or other real-world constraints, it can fall apart.  When the engineer or construction worker runs up against physical realities, the pretty design often gets severely compromised, and becomes something considerably less pretty.

While pretty creativity gets accolades and awards, it usually only accounts for a small fraction (I'd guess 5 to 10%, based on my experience) of the real creative work on a project.  And that real creative work is what I would characterize as 'gritty' creativity: the practical, streetwise, action-oriented creativity which actually drives the project forward and finds creative solutions to real-world problems.  The success or failure of complex projects depends in great measure on how much 'gritty' creativity is employed within those projects.

The disconnect between pretty and gritty is the most common cause of failure in creative projects.

What I saw at the DDA's forum was an abundance of stylistic and architectural details.  They had detailed guidelines for how to design intersections and sidewalks.  They had beautiful renderings of what downtown streets could look like after the designs were applied.  They had very pretty designs for the future of our downtown.

But what was missing from the forum was any substantial gritty design work for the actual execution of the project.

In the wake of the uncoordinated and under-publicized closure of South Limestone for streetscape improvements, I - and many others in attendance - expected many more practical, gritty details about how the rest of 'Phase I' (Cheapside, Vine, and Main Streets) would be implemented.  Indeed, I had also hoped to find out more about how future phases would affect my business and those of my neighbors on North Limestone. 

The disconnect between ideal ("the pretty") and implementation ("the gritty") was troubling: Could we be headed for another South Limestone? 

In the South Limestone closure, many businesses seemed to have little time to prepare for losing a big chunk of customers for a year or more.  Commuters had little time to adapt to drastically altered traffic patterns.  While the city made some public parking available, that parking was a pedestrian-unfriendly 4 to 5 blocks away from some of the affected businesses.  In short, South Limestone needed some gritty design for the implementation and coordination of the project.

The pretty planning for downtown streetscapes has been underway for years.  But real-world work on Main, Vine, and Cheapside is slated to begin in just 3 to 4 months.  This short timeframe creates added urgency for understanding how the rest of the streetscape project will really work.  And the utter lack of gritty planning details in last week's meeting makes answers to the following questions even more important.

• Could all three streets, as with South Limestone, be completely closed?
• Which sections of which streets will be closed?  For what periods?  What is the planned sequence of closures?
• When can each business on the affected streets expect their businesses to be interrupted?
• How long will such business interruptions last?  What will those interruptions look like?  Where will they be most severe?
• How can we accelerate the project where business interruptions will be most profound?
• Can we sequence closures around business cycles?  Could retailers be least affected during the holiday shopping season?  Could work near outdoor cafés be completed by spring?
• How will the city or DDA assist businesses during the closures?  How will such assistance be more effective than what was done for South Limestone?  Targeted ad campaigns?  Special events?  Shuttle services from parking garages? 
• Will drivers need to find alternate routes (as with South Limestone)?
• What are the likely sources of project delay?  How will those be mitigated?
• What, precisely, are the future phases?  When are they slated?

To avoid the chaos that accompanied the South Limestone closure, the DDA and the city must begin mapping out the gritty planning of how this project gets executed.  And simply throwing such vital details to a construction contractor isn't acceptable. 

The streetscape project is certainly a pretty design.  But, if it is to be a successful urban development project - if it is to help us build a better, more vibrant city - then it must get much more gritty as well.

Chaos: South Limestone Closure Lawsuit Details

When we initiated LexMobs to help businesses on South Limestone on Wednesday, we noted that the closure of the street seemed hasty and poorly-planned.  Well, now we've obtained the Fayette Circuit Court filing from a lawsuit intended to stop the work on South Limestone (first reported by Jake at Page One Kentucky).

And that filing reveals just how chaotic the closure process actually was.

Filed by the owners of several businesses and properties lining the route, the lawsuit seeks an immediate injunction to halt the roadwork and to reopen South Limestone to traffic.  It also seeks damages for the interruptions to business operations along the street.  The suit names the Mayor, LFUCG Urban County Council, and ATS Construction (the firm contracted to renovate SoLime) as defendants. 

And the filing tells a story of a poorly-communicated, hastily-assembled, highly-inconsistent project with an escalating price tag:

• Communication.  Initial letters from the LFUCG Public Works Commissioner to the affected businesses invited them to a open house to discuss "a streetscape design" and "utility needs", but didn't indicate a complete road closure was immanent. The actual details of the project (and of the changes to the project) were usually disclosed to owners through rumors or media accounts.
• Timing.  Owners had six days' notice before the first open house (May 18th), and there was no mention of a road closure.  A second "utility needs" meeting was held on June 3rd, and the full closure of South Limestone was disclosed.  But some owners didn't learn of the possibility of closing SoLime until the day before; The letter announcing that meeting didn't mention closing the street.
• Consistency.  In June 3rd discussions, South Limestone was to be closed from Euclid to High.  After voicing opposition, property owners were told on July 10th that SoLime would initially be closed from Euclid to Maxwell, opening up a full block between Maxwell and High Streets.  On July 21st - the day before the project began - owners learned from media accounts that SoLime was now to be closed all the way to High Street again.  That day, owners met with the Mayor and others from LFUCG to learn that ATS and LFUCG won't know what they're dealing with until they dig up the street.
• Price.  The "Downtown Streetscape Master Plan" proposed improvements to South Limestone costing more than $5.2 million.  The LFUCG council approved the streetscape plan in August 2008.  On July 7th, 2009, the council approved the $13.1 million contract with ATS.  Two weeks later, media accounts put the total at $17 million.

The patterns emerging from this (admittedly one-sided) account of the closure of South Limestone parallels with what we've seen recently from LFUCG on urban development projects:

• Projects languish for years, then are suddenly initiated.
• Decisionmakers seem to have little sense of the full scope or true impacts of their decisions.
• The true impacts of the project are only understood, if ever, after it is long underway.
• Communication with citizens is unclear, intermittent, and/or non-existent.
• The project changes direction suddenly.
• It is unclear who is accountable for the success or failure of such projects
• Because they are so committed to the (frequently noble) idea of the project, decisionmakers accept a series of concessions which cause the project's price to balloon to multiples of original estimates.

We've seen some or all of these elements in numerous recent urban development projects: CentrePointe, Tax Increment Financing (TIF), the Lyric Theatre, the Newtown Pike extension and, now, the South Limestone Streetscape.  

What results is chaos.

Business owners on South Limestone had 2 months to prepare to lose customers for 12 months.  Many owners had one day to figure out how to get customers and suppliers to their door.  The cost of the project is 3 times what was initially approved. 

And the results of the chaos are easy to predict.  Confused commuters and shoppers stay away from "the mess" downtown.  Downtown businesses die.  And, after fits and starts, Lexington ends up with a beautiful street.  To nowhere.

Chaos is no way to run a business.  And chaos is no way to run the business of our city.

LexMobs on South Limestone?

The South Limestone streetscape project gets underway this morning.  Using Twitter, Lexington's Mayor announced that the closure will result in traffic delays of up to 45 minutes. 

From a public point of view, the closure seems hastily and poorly planned, although the promised streetscapes look wonderful.  The project stems from a noble goal: to better connect the University of Kentucky campus with downtown Lexington. 

But businesses lining South Limestone (SoLime) had little time to adapt to the closure, and I wonder how many can survive being starved of traffic for so long.  When Lexingtonians realize that there is a "mess" surrounding SoLime, they will stay away in droves.  (With a business just off of North Limestone, I'm concerned about the disruptions to our southside Lexington customers making it in to Lowell's.) 

There are a lot of great businesses along SoLime that would be a shame to lose: Sav's, Pazzo's, Tolly Ho, Failte, Sqecial Media, and many, many others.  Some (maybe all) of these are Lexington institutions.

How long could they operate without significant customer patronage?  How long could they retain employees?  How long can they make debt / rent payments?  How long can they pay bills?  How long can they survive?

So, here's a challenge for our readers: Let's go out of our way to demonstrate that we care about those businesses.

Beginning today, and continuing through the next month, let's pick one or two businesses to "flash mob" each day.  Let's get together to show, with our feet and our wallets, that we want those businesses to survive.  Let's show up.  And eat.  Or buy.  Or drink.  Let's refuse to let these businesses fail.

If our LexMobs get too big, that's OK - I'm sure that the plentiful nearby businesses would also love some of our overflow business.

Will this effort be well-organized and well-thought-out in advance?  Not a chance.  Will it be messy?  Yes.  Will it be chaotic?  Absolutely.  Will it be inconvenient?  Certainly.  Will you be too busy to interrupt your day?  Undoubtedly.

But that is precisely the point: to go out of our way to demonstrate we care for these businesses.

So... Let's LexMob South Limestone.  Look for more details on Twitter with the hashtags #LexMob and #SoLime.  See you there!

Update: The inaugural LexMob will be Wednesday, July 22nd @ Pazzo's Pizza Pub at 11:30 AM near Euclid on SoLime.  Can't make it?  We'll try for other times and places with future LexMobs!

Toward a Better Lexington

"It has taken five years on Council to understand what we can and cannot control."
Lexington-Fayette Urban County Council Member Kevin Stinnett, 7/2/2009

How do we make Lexington a better city?  Really better?  I have some ideas, but first we need to understand some of Lexington's fatal flaws in order to design something better...

A Broken City
As a relative newcomer to the inner machinery of our city (but a lifelong resident), I have spent a few months trying to figure out how Lexington 'works'.  As a downtown business owner, my focus has been on how we craft a functioning, vibrant, and livable city: How do we create a better Lexington?  And it has been a maddening exercise.  The more I delve into how decisions are made in Lexington - the more I understand what is actually going on - the more perplexed I become.  I am forced to conclude that our city is deeply, systemically, and utterly broken.

Lexington is an uncoordinated tangle of overlapping agencies, boards, task forces, committees, departments, rules, and processes.  Within this messy system, each organization is charged with its own distinctive - but often overlapping or conflicting - mission, mandate, authority, ability, accountability, and expertise.  Some of the organizations consist of long-term government administrators, some of elected officials, some of volunteers, others are quasi-governmental public/private agencies, and still others are fusions of all of these.

This highly fragmented machinery yields a city which fosters turf battles, redundant effort, convoluted processes, secrecy, uncertainty, and, as we have seen most recently, corruption.

The ultimate result is a profoundly inefficient city with an effectively paralyzed government. 

Scandalous
Lately, our local news has been rife with scandals and poorly-conceived, -designed, and -executed projects:

• Out of control spending sprees at the Airport, the Library, the Kentucky League of Cities, and the Kentucky Association of Counties.
• The scar of CentrePointe's failure with its phantom financier, phantom tower, phantom business model, and phantom jobs.
• The seemingly hasty and disorganized pending closure of South Limestone.

All of these scandals fit a disturbingly regular pattern: Inadequate oversight which leads to lax controls which permits gross mismanagement and/or outright waste of taxpayer dollars. 

Behind this pattern of scandal and appalling inefficiency lies Lexington's deeply flawed governing apparatus.  And when we observe that apparatus in action, we can begin to understand the root of the scandals.

Laurel and Hardy
Many Urban County Council meetings bear an astounding and troubling resemblance to a Laurel and Hardy "Who's on First?" sketch.  A prime example of this was last Thursday's Economic Development Task Force meeting (See Ace Weekly's wonderful reality-show spoof here for further examples).  A central question of last week's meeting was "Who is (really) responsible for economic development in Lexington?" 

At the outset, one councilmember stated, "It has taken five years on Council to understand what we can and cannot control."  Re-read that statement, because it is a profound indictment of our city's overcomplicated decisionmaking infrastructure.  Five years.  It takes five years for a councilmember to "get it" when they are steeped in it day-to-day?  How long will it take for an ordinary citizen? 

And by the way, despite the councilmember's assertion, I don't think the Council yet understands what they can and cannot control, as the ensuing conversation demonstrated.

The Task Force (Consisting of Urban County Council members) debated the Council's role in economic development relative to Commerce Lexington ("CLex", Lexington's semi-private chamber of commerce) and the Downtown Development Authority ("DDA", a corporation commissioned by the city and charged with helping redevelop downtown).  Both CLex and DDA have a board of directors and a staff of professionals.

What emerged from the discussion (chronicled best by Debbie Hildreth on her new blog about acclimating back to Lexington) is that the councilmembers have little clarity and little agreement on the respective roles, responsibilities, plans, and accountability of the Council, CLex, DDA, and the CLex and DDA boards.  Reading through Debbie's transcript, the councilmembers' statements are filled with stale bromides, helpless complaints, quick answers and utter confusion.  It all becomes tragically comic when you see how our elected officials are not even remotely on the same page.

And it is no wonder that our Council is befuddled.  The situation is actually far more complicated than just the Council, CLex, and DDA.  Within the Council itself, there are a bewildering array of committees and task forces, all of which could lay legitimate claim to economic development.  There is, of course, the Economic Development Task Force.  But there is also the Infill and Redevelopment Task Force.  There is the Planning Committee.  But there is also the Budget and Finance Committee.  And the Outside Agency Oversight Committee.  And the Corridors Committee.  (But wait, there's more!)  There are staff professionals within Lexington's Division of Planning.  There are volunteers who serve on the Planning Commission.  And with CentrePointe, there is the Courthouse Area Design Review Board, which issues the building permits for the site.

Within this ridiculous balkanization of our government, who has the jurisdiction, the responsibility, and the accountability for building a better Lexington?  Everyone and no one at once.  And therein lies the problem.

All of these organizations can claim they spearhead Lexington's development into a better city.  All of them "own" a piece.  But ultimately, none appear truly accountable for actual on-the-ground progress. 

The Lyric
With a noble project like the restoration of the Lyric Theater, who is in charge?  Who takes the lead on coordinating and executing the Lyric's redevelopment?

The Lyric could plausibly fall under the auspices of the DDA.  Or CLex.  Or the Infill and Redevelopment Task Force.  Or the Economic Development Task Force.  Or the Planning Commission.  Or, even, the Corridors Committee.  Ultimately, though, responsibility fell to another shard in the splintered machine: the Lyric Theater Task Force (who, by the way, appeared to do a great job).

And while the Lyric task force optimized the project for the theater's redevelopment, it isn't at all clear where this project falls within the wide array of potential development opportunities in our city.  It isn't clear how the Lyric was connected to our other urban initiatives.  In a fiscally-strapped economic environment, was the Lyric the best possible allocation of public funds?  We can't really tell, because we haven't really prioritized such development projects by return on our public investment.

Destination 2040: Destined to Fail
Some councilmembers have pointed to the Destination 2040 report as a roadmap for Lexington to follow in its development endeavors.  Destination 2040 is an admirable vision of the future constructed by our citizens.  It is filled with interesting ideas and initiatives to help improve our city.  But it is most certainly not a roadmap. 

Destination 2040 lacks clear prioritization of the initiatives it proposes.  It fails to identify adequate operational details of how to fund, structure, and execute the components of the Destination 2040 vision.  And, most of all, it fails to address the profound structural inefficiencies within Lexington which have long hampered such well-intentioned visions.

::

Toward a Better Lexington

What kinds of structural changes are needed in Lexington?  I have a few ideas.  I hope that you will add more. 

Transparency
When I began to look at how our city works, I quickly joined the chorus of advocates for greater transparency in how decisions get made in Lexington and throughout Kentucky. 

And that advocacy has begun to pay dividends (whether the results of our actions or not).  As local officials take their first baby steps on Twitter, and as more of our citizens engage in local decisionmaking through attending meetings in person, watching them on public access television (GTV3), or following vibrant discussions on Twitter, one fact has become abundantly clear to me: Transparency is not enough.  Not nearly enough.

While transparency has helped reveal the scandals and issues facing our city, transparency alone won't really solve them.  Don't get me wrong - we're now starting to see into the machine.  It's just that we're learning that the machine is completely dysfunctional.

Comprehensive Urban Development
Whatever 'system' we have in place today, it isn't one which promotes sustained urban development.  I use the term urban development purposefully here: It is more than mere city planning; It is more than simply promoting our city; It is more than just economic development.  Urban development looks at our city as a functioning engine of economic and social progress, and strategically deploys our city's 'fabric' - spaces, corridors, amenities, people, businesses, buildings - to maximize sustainable advancement in our economy, in our social lives, in our physical environment, and in our aesthetic surroundings.

In short, it looks at how we intentionally design a better-functioning, vibrant, and livable city.

Simplification
It is clear that the splintered approach to bettering our city is failing.  Our continuous scandals and perpetual lack of progress cement that conclusion, as does the bewildering overlap of dozens of separate well-intentioned but poorly-conceived organizations.

My proposal: Eliminate today's governmental tangle by collapsing the DDA, Planning Commission, the Division of Planning, and the LFUCG Economic Development Office (for starters) into a single, centralized, and well-staffed organization with the clear mandate, clear authority, and clear accountability for successfully implementing our city's urban development initiatives.  

Focus
Concentrating urban development authority in a single organization will only work if we provide them with crystal-clear priorities on what is important.  With dozens of possible initiatives, visions like the Destination 2040 report lack clear priorities.  In essence, it declares that everything is important.  And in trying to do everything, we'd fail to accomplish anything.

We need to provide such an organization with guiding principles on what's important (and what isn't).  Is the organization designed to maximize tax revenue, jobs, infill, downtown density, or something else? 

From out of these principles, we should set realistic and quantifiable goals: "3000 new jobs by the end of 2010"; "$30 million in new tax revenues by 2012"; "10% higher residential density in downtown by 2014"; etc. 

My initial thoughts are that the core principles and the goals attached to them should be outlined by the Urban County Council.  That said, I'd like to see a way to balance continuity and change: As a city, we probably don't want long-term initiatives derailed by short-term political changes.  But we also don't want to 'lock in' failing projects merely for the sake of continuity.

From these principles and goals, staff professionals should derive the best 4 or 5 initiatives for achieving the established goals.  Would the Lyric Theater have emerged as one of the 4 or 5 best possible urban development projects?  I don't know, but I have my doubts.  It doesn't appear to scale very well on "jobs" or "revenues" dimensions.  But, of course, neither does CentrePointe at present.  Would we risk destroying surrounding businesses to "beautify" South Limestone's streetscapes?  I don't know, but I have my doubts.

Accountability
When the Economic Development Task Force met last week, councilmembers bemoaned the $400,000 provided to Commerce Lexington to bring new business to the area.  To date, there's little proof that this 'investment' has paid dividends.  How much business?  How many jobs?  What new tax revenue?  CLex really isn't accountable to the Council, so there's no real penalty for not delivering.  Where'd the $400,000 go?  The Council would like to know, too...

When we make the transformation to a simplified and focused urban development authority, we must have accountability for progress on these development initiatives.  Do they adhere to our principles?  Are they meeting our goals?  Are they successful?  If so, who gets rewarded?  If not, who gets fired?

::

Do I expect my proposed system to be adopted?  Not really.  But I would like for our leaders to begin to discuss seriously reforming how our city's decisionmaking machinery functions.  And the system which emerges must be more transparent, more simplified, more focused, and more accountable. It must help us build a better Lexington.

Tangled Webb

At the Lexington Forum last week, CentrePointe's developer spun a dazzling and dizzying tale about the history and the future of the pit in the middle of our city. 

His presentation resonated with the receptive Forum audience.  Looking around the room, filled with many of Lexington's other business and civic leaders, I was a bit confounded.  While many in the audience seemed familiar with the ongoing controversy of CentrePointe, few seemed knowledgeable about the actual details.

I then began to realize the scope of the challenge for CentrePointe critics: How do we effectively demonstrate the full extent of our skepticism and concern to the uninitiated or uninvolved (in other words, to the majority of our citizens)?  CentrePointe is an elaborate project with an equally elaborate backstory.  It is a complex web which is difficult for newcomers to disentangle.

Even so, there are at least 5 distinct patterns which lie within the web: 1) Secrecy, 2) Runaway Optimism, 3) Loss of Credibility, 4) Contingency, and 5) Victimhood.  These patterns form the basis of our critique of the project, and should raise important questions about CentrePointe for any public official, business associate, or concerned citizen.  

Secrecy.  From the beginning, CentrePointe was shrouded in secrecy, and the developers have been hostile to reasonable inquiry into the details of the project.  While seeking public commitments for tax increment financing (TIF), they refused to disclose the name of their secret financier.  They failed to disclose that their financier had been dead for six months.  On Thursday, the developer announced two new financial backers, but wouldn't disclose their names either.

The developer claims that private property rights let him maintain secrecy, even as he publicly sought specialized TIF tax status.  The premise of tax increment financing is that today's public debt would be paid for by future tax increases (the "tax increment") which arise from property improvements (increased property values, increased commercial activity, etc.).  While the developer maintains his right to secrecy, the special status which the public granted to his property should require him to be more forthright and more detailed about the project's timing, financing, and business model.  Or, the special TIF status should be removed.

Runaway Optimism.  The few details which have emerged have shown that the developers frequently engage in runaway optimism.  They bank on the flimsiest of commitments, and lean on them to demonstrate the viability of the project.  They are willing to mislead people to believe these commitments are real.  

In last week's presentation, the developer stated that one of the first calls he got upon announcing the project was from Hard Rock Cafe, who wanted to locate in CentrePointe.  This was met with murmurs of approval from his audience.  

Trouble is, it wasn't Hard Rock.  And they didn't initiate contact with the developers.  And they aren't coming to CentrePointe.  As Dr. Nick Kouns chronicles, Kouns initiated contact with House of Blues, who felt that Lexington wasn't a sufficient market for their brand, but met with the developers out of courtesy.  So the 'commitment' was never much more than an exploratory discussion.

Alas, such optimism pervades CentrePointe.  On Thursday, the developer announced that he had 65 'almost-certain' prospects for his 91 condominiums which will sell for an average price of $1.2 million.  Trouble is, only 10 million-dollar properties sold in all of Fayette County in all of 2008.  In today's even-more-depressed market, what would enable the developers to attract 6 times more luxury property commitments, just for an unbuilt CentrePointe alone?  Runaway optimism.

Loss of Credibility.  The trouble with runaway optimism is that, eventually, reality sets in.  And as the developer's gossamer threads of optimism unravel, they reveal his profound credibility problem.  

For the better part of a year now, the developer has continually decommitted from prior public statements.  These decommitments have been on videotape, in print, and to the Urban County Council, and have touched on all major dimensions of the project: its financing, its business model, and its timing.  The pattern which emerges is one in which the developer continually bends facts (and history) in the attempt to prop up his faltering story.

The developer rushed to create the pit in the center of our city last July, and was scheduled to begin construction on CentrePointe in 60 to 90 days.  As the months dragged on, he claimed that the permitting process was holding him back from doing anything else with the property, but that he expected the permitting issue to be resolved in 60 to 90 days.  Only later was it revealed that, even as he made such statements, he knew that his primary financier was dead.  But even though the financier was dead, the developer told the Urban County Council he was certain that construction would begin in 60 to 90 days.  Last week - some 60 days after he announced the death of his financier - the developer expected the financing to be resolved in 60 to 90 days.  

Contingency.  CentrePointe is a complex $250 million development with several intertwined components: over $100 million from 91 condos, a $100 million 250-room hotel, and some $50 million from retail and office functions in lower floors.  There has been a year-long delay in securing financing.  Construction has been delayed many times.  Every piece is contingent on the others, and it all has to come together flawlessly for CentrePointe's business model to 'work'.  And there are enough doubts about every single component that public officials, business associates, and concerned citizens should be worried.

As outlined above, the condo plans seem over-ambitious.  While Marriott has expressed interest in and support for the hotel, they aren't actually financing it, and the higher-than-average occupancy at higher-than-average room rates assumptions used in the CentrePointe business model are far from viable. The fact that the developer is willing to mislead a prominent audience about a major retail tenant raises questions about the rest of the project's business model.  The continual delays in securing financing and beginning construction - coupled with the secrecy of every major aspect of the project - have contributed to the mounting skepticism about whether CentrePointe is truly viable.

Victimhood.  In his public addresses, the developer often adopts a persecuted posture, which often positions him as a blameless victim of the sinister agendas of press, of bloggers, and of ambitious politicians.  He claims not to understand all of the fuss.  He just "wants to shut these people up".  

Let's take a look at the explanations the developer has provided for us:

• The financier was secret because he feared public backlash.  When he died, that was kept secret because it wasn't going to affect financing.  But when the financier's heirs wanted to know whether he had sufficient assets to cover obligations like CentrePointe, the assets were tied up in numbered Swiss bank accounts.  They couldn't get access to the accounts unless they also took on the obligations, which creates a Catch-22: the heirs can't see the assets without accepting the obligations, but won't accept the obligations without seeing the assets.  But even though the heirs can't be certain of the dead financier's assets, the developer somehow is...
• Last week, the developer introduced two new financing sources.  But both sources - an individual and an investment bank - also demanded anonymity.
• Even though the developer has always claimed the financing was rock-solid, last week he introduced three additional contingency plans.
• When challenged on the viability of CentrePointe's condominium assumptions, he claims that 65 of the 91 condos are 'spoken for' through undocumentable 'handshake deals'.  He also names vague tenants for the properties - horse farms in Ireland and Dubai and vintners in Napa Valley.
• He claims that people are lining up for the retail and restaurant spaces, but the one deal he has detailed to the public was both wrong and unconsummated.
• Every time he provides an update on the project, the projected start date is 60 to 90 days hence.  Unfortunately, '60 days from now' never arrives. 

To the extent he is a victim, he is the victim of his own machinations.  If he really wanted to shut these people up, he would simply provide some proof that his critics are wrong.  But the proof which would silence his growing list of critics never arrives.  

* * *

Looking through the tangle of explanations and the patterns outlined above, one is forced to make one of two conclusions about the developer's ability to silence his critics:

1. That he is the unluckiest man alive (every opportunity to exonerate himself is confounded by another unfortunate twist in his story);
2. That he is simply lying (every opportunity to exonerate himself is confounded by another convenient twist in his story).

Until we get a full and clear accounting for CentrePointe's real-world status, I, for one, choose not to be silenced.

An update on CentrePointe

At the Lexington Forum this morning, CentrePointe's developer updated the public on the status of the faltering project in the center of our city.  As he has done in other venues, he laid much of the blame for any CentrePointe controversy at the feet of bloggers and the media.

In his presentation, he revealed a few new details about the secretive project, along with several layers of backup plans.  In this post, I'll outline some of my notes and some questions which arise from the developer's presentation.  In a future post, I'll share more of my thoughts on the development in the wake of this morning's presentation.

Plan A

• The dead financier (call him Mystery Investor 'A' - or MIA, for short) was introduced to the developers by a pre-eminent, distinguished American who was heavily involved in the Justice Department.
• MIA was committed to 5 such projects around the world involving some $800 million, including 3 in the US worth some $550 million.
• He went into some detail on the reason that MIA's estate was held up.  He characterized it as a chicken-and-egg problem.  The heirs aren't sure they wanted access to the 'numbered Swiss bank accounts' until they knew whether those accounts had enough to cover the estate's liabilities (like CentrePointe).  The accounts and the liabilities seem to be a package deal, but the heirs are blind to the numbered accounts: They can't know what the actual assets of the estate are unless they also accept the liabilities.
• Question: If MIA's heirs don't have confidence that MIA had enough assets to cover these deals, then what makes CentrePointe's developers so confident that the money is there?

Plan A Minus

• If the developer's 'Plan A' falls through, he has an intermediate plan ('Plan A Minus'?).  In the last couple of days, he has talked with someone who happens to have 20 to 30 thousand cubic yards of dirt for free, so filling in the site is an option if the current plans fall through.  He also mentioned that he had talked with someone who hydroseeded strip mine sites who might be willing to help seed the place.
• The developer claimed "It is not our intent to embarrass the community" for the World Equestrian Games.  He hates to do it, but is tempted to backfill the pit and plant seed "even for 60 to 90 days, just to shut those people up".  The friendly crowd roared with laughter.  Later he said he thought about "putting in a liner and turning it into a lake".  More laughter.

Plan B

• CentrePointe now has a 'Plan B', complete with a Mystery Investor 'B' (MIB) who has recently come forward to express interest in the project (should 'Plan A' with MIA's estate fall through). They are "ready to go" if 'Plan A' does fall apart.
• Question: If MIB is so "ready to go", then why not relieve the heirs of MIA's estate of their burden and allow MIB to take over financing for the deal? 

Plan C

• Even though MIB is ready to go, there is also CentrePointe 'Plan C' involving a Mystery Investment Bank 'C' (MIC) who will put up $30 million, and the developer briefly mentioned some sort of 'bond arrangement' to finance the rest of it.
• Question: If Plans A and B are really viable, then why does CentrePointe need a Plan C?
• Question: What kind of bond issue supplies the other $220 million needed to build the project, if the investment bank is only ponying up $30 million?

Other notes

• If one of the financing options lines up today, CentrePointe would begin construction in the fall.  15 months after the initial demolition began.
• The developer claimed that 65 of the 91 condominiums at the top of CentrePointe had been committed to by many people, including horse farms in Ireland and Dubai.  (He didn't mention Napa Valley wineries this time.)
• He took pains to correct Herald-Leader writer Beverly Fortune for reporting that the 91 units had an average price of $1.2 million.  "That's just the average... The units will start at $600,000 and go up from there."
• "Hard Rock Café was one of the first to call us" when they heard about the project, strongly implying that they were lined up.  (Since the meeting, I have learned that the developer really talked with 'House of Blues' - not Hard Rock - and that they are anything but 'lined up'.)

The plethora of mystery investors and backup plans might have been intended to reassure his audience.  But they actually raise troubling questions about the future of the project, the developers' ability to obtain financing, and the financial viability of the development's business model.

A modest proposal to end blight

Comprehensive Care Parking Lot

Every morning when I walk into work at Lowell's, I see 8-foot-tall tree-weeds growing through unkempt hedges and spilling over into the public sidewalk.  I see a planter adjoining our building, burgeoning with weeds and grass and the massive stump of a long-dead tree.  I see a pitted, crumbling parking lot with clogged drainage.

Many customers assume it is our lot.  It does adjoin our building.  And they can't see the sign declaring "Comprehensive Care Center Parking Only".

116 Mechanic Street

Across the street I see a tiny old shotgun house with a gigantic half-rotted tree looming ominously over both the house and the main Lowell's parking lot.  After the ice storm and other storms this spring, downed branches lay in the asphalt front yard of the house.  For over two months.

Absentee owners neglect both properties.  Neighboring businesses have conducted the most of the maintenance on the properties over the past couple of years.  In effect, they are abandoned.

As a business owner, I worry about the effect it has on Lowell's famously loyal customers.  Even if they cherish us and the service we provide, I'm genuinely concerned about the ability of such eyesores to repel visitors to the shop.

I often talk with nearby business owners, who share my concern for the negative effects of these properties on our neighborhood.

* * *

Many folks have wondered why I have been so vocal on the CentrePointe mess.  There are many reasons, but one of the biggest is that the abandoned properties surrounding Lowell's have given me firsthand experience the negative effects of blight like the CentrePointe scar.

There are many such highly-visible, blighted, non-productive and apparently abandoned properties in Lexington: CentrePointe in Downtown, Lexington Mall on Richmond Road, and Continental Inn on New Circle at Winchester are some of the most apparent.  But there are numerous smaller examples littering our city.

Just like the properties surrounding our shop, the absentee owners seek to avoid any and all expenses.  They avoid capital gains taxes by refusing to sell their properties.  They avoid maintenance expenses by refusing to invest to make their properties economic contributors to the community.  They avoid property taxes by refusing to improve their decrepit real estate.

Such abandoned properties generate near-zero direct contributions to the economy.  Moreover, they generate negative economic effects for surrounding properties and businesses: They drive away business and drive down property values.

* * *

It is time for such neglect to end.  It is time to make sure that lazy landowners are motivated 1) to improve their holdings and 2) to transform their properties into contributors to our community's economic engine.

My modest proposal: Implement a 'blight tax'.  Lexington landownders whose property qualifies as 'blighted' would have to pay a moderately severe annual blight tax.

The definition of 'blighted' would need to be worked out, but should include an assessment of the property condition, as well as proof of substantial progress on needed improvements.  We could start with Division of Code Enforcement standards.

To overcome their avoidance of maintenance expenses, property taxes, and/or capital gains taxes, I'd propose that the blight tax have some teeth: Say, 35% to 50% of assessed property value per year.

In the CentrePointe case, the blight tax would generate $8 to $12 million per year of revenue to the city until the developers improve their land.  When historical buildings were demolished to make way for CentrePointe, many rationalized that the old buildings were greater eyesores than the pit which remains today.  I disagree.  But a blight tax may also have helped prevent the demolition-by-neglect which occurred on that block over the years.

I would imagine the former Lexington Mall and Continental Inn properties would generate amounts similar to CentrePointe, given their sizes and their locations on busy thoroughfares.

Such tax revenue could be specifically allocated to offsetting the effects of blight: community improvements to sidewalks, bike paths, streetscapes, parks, community centers, business incubators, community ventures, and the like.  If property owners avoid the blight tax by making their properties more valuable (i.e., by improving them), then all the better.

To create a vibrant city, we need to ensure that Lexington doesn't have the economic scars that blight leaves behind: dead spots which contribute little (or which actually destroy) monetary value in our community.

My proposal is the blight tax.  What's yours?

Unfortunately. Private.

There were two common refrains at Tuesday's Urban County Council confrontation between our vice mayor and the developers of CentrePointe. 

One was the word "Unfortunately" continuously invoked by the developers.  While "unfortunately" led some 6 sentences in the developers' prepared statement, it also led nearly every response from the developers to difficult questions from the Council.  Unfortunately, the developers didn't foresee the economic downturn.  Unfortunately, things change in projects like these.  Unfortunately, bloggers and the press and rumor-mongers have pointed out immense and inconvenient flaws in our business case.  Unfortunately, it is apparently their free-speech right to do so.  Unfortunately, people die.

Well, um, unfortunately, REAL businesspeople are supposed to anticipate and overcome such circumstances (not be paralyzed by them).  Anything less amounts to sheer speculation.  Which is what Lexington has encountered with CentrePointe.

The second refrain was actually more worrisome and more puzzling.  It came from members of the Council who acted as apologists for the developers (developers whose actions can only be characterized as bumbling).  These same councilmembers - Lane, Stinnett, Myers, McChord, and Beard - felt compelled to offer apologies for forcing the developers to account for their continuous inaction.

The refrain they used was "private".  Councilmember Myers asserted that this is private property assembled by private developers with private funds, that the developers could do whatever they wish with it, and that the council had no business forcing CentrePointe's developers to explain their incompetence.

Balderdash.

Before more libertarian readers resort to labeling me a socialist, let me assert my firm belief in property rights.  Unlike some of my more radical friends, I believe that property and capital and money have driven the vast majority of improvements in our living conditions and overall social well-being.  To be sure (and as we have seen quite clearly of late), capitalism often has an ugly downside driven by unrestrained greed.  But the long term gains have far outweighed that downside.

The crater created by CenterPointe's developers is certainly private property.  It belongs to them. 

But here's where the stalwart defenders of property rights are wrong: Private property always comes with civic responsibility.  Owners of private property cannot use their property in ways which destroy value for surrounding properties or surrounding businesses.

Let me illustrate this principle with a recent and vivid example:  A year and a half ago, in the Andover neighborhood, there was a private home that was infested with rats.  The community and the Health Department mobilized to eradicate the rats and eradicate the problem.  Nearby property owners (including yours truly) were rightly concerned for both our safety and our property values. 

Apparently, these same councilmembers would claim that the rat-infested house was private property, and, thus, the community had no right to defend their health or their property values.  Would councilmember Myers sit on his hands if a rat-infested house was next door to his house?  Apparently so.  Would councilmember Lane approve of a neighbor's right to spread pig manure (and noxious fumes) to fertilize their lawn in his Hartland Gardens?  Apparently so.  After all, it is their property, and they can do what they wish with it.  Right?

Of course not.  Private property comes with civic responsibility. 

* * *

With CentrePointe, we have a rathole downtown.  The rats, while not physical, are more insidious and more destructive:

• There's the bulldozer rat that razed buildings, jobs, businesses, and revenue last July.  The rathole has produced no jobs, no revenue, no businesses, and no buildings.
• There's the ugly-city rat that an out-of-town visitor takes back to their home as tourism dollars and tourists mysteriously disappear from downtown.  I suspect there will be many of this breed of rats available for the World Equestrian Games next year.
• There's the blight rat which drains surrounding property values and sucks patrons out of surrounding businesses.  
• And, finally, there's the developer rat, who repeatedly fails to deliver on public statements about CentrePointe's timing, funding, and business model. 

Councilmembers Stinnett, McChord, Myers, Lane, and Beard appear to sympathize with both the rats and with the rathole.

I do not.  And I don't appreciate our representatives who do.  And I'm not alone.

Private property comes with civic responsibility.  We need leaders who recognize that fact.

Sayre presents Kilowatt Ours at the Kentucky Theatre

Our friends and neighbors on Sayre School's Green Council are presenting a free showing of the documentary Kilowatt Ours: A Plan to Re-Energize America at the Kentucky Theatre at Noon on Wednesday 22 April.  The film is open to the public, runs at about 55 minutes, and there will be a question-and-answer session with Jeff Barrie, the film's director, afterward.

Find out more about Wednesday's showing here, and see a short preview on the film's website here.

So bring your lunch down to the Kentucky, and see Kilowatt Ours with us on Wednesday.

[where: 214 E Main St, Lexington, KY 40507]

The UnTower Manifesto: 1. Truth

[Note: The UnTower Manifesto is a three-part series about responding to the failure of CentrePointe.  You can read the full story of that failure here.]

As the CentrePointe project becomes the UnTower scandal, a general consensus has developed which agrees that CentrePointe will never be built on the crater that its developers rushed to create. 

A critical question, then, is this: If CentrePointe will not be successfully constructed, how should Lexington move forward in the wake of the UnTower scandal?

There is the obvious question of how to proceed with the colossal scar in the middle of our city.  But there is also the less obvious - but, ultimately, more important - issue of changing how Lexington works in order to prevent the next UnTower catastrophe.  Let me start there, and we'll return to the issue of what to do with the site.

Toward a Better Lexington
The details of how UnTower happened have slooowly trickled out from the developers.  Their secrecy, lack of candor, intimidation, outright deception, and possible fraud have sharpened questions about how decisions have been made throughout the project's approval process.  UnTower has exposed how opaque and how ill-informed our mayor's and our Urban County Council's decision-making processes have been.  And, if you look closely enough, the scandal shows us how Lexington should improve.

So, how did this fiasco happen?  The details have been covered many times from many, many, many quarters, so I'll simply summarize the key themes:

• Throughout UnTower, the developers have maintained great secrecy about the financing and the business model behind their development.  As details have emerged, neither looks viable.
• The developers claim their project is 'private', but have pressured the public to provide approvals and special Tax Increment Financing (TIF) for the project, with much of the TIF dependent upon a vibrant long-term business model which they don't have.
• The developers, the mayor, and some council members have not shared how and when they learned about key elements of and issues with UnTower which led to its ultimate demise.
• The developers, the mayor, and much of the council have responded to pointed and informed questions about the project with vague, non-responsive answers.  Often, they refused to respond at all.
• While there was public discussion about the decisions our government was making, the conversation was muffled by their timing and format.

In the end, the whole affair had a distinct 'backroom deal' flavor to it which left more questions than answers: How were these decisions made?  What information went into the decisions?  What information was withheld?  What information was fabricated? Who talked with whom about the project?  When did they talk? 

All of the questions have raised a bigger question: How is it possible that our community doesn't have absolute clarity into how decisions are made by our elected representatives?

In my business, if we failed to clearly explain how a vehicle was repaired, we'd lose customers.  If we came across as less-than-honest, our loyal customers would fire us.  If we refused to meet with a customer to address their complaints, they would tell their friends and family.  If we didn't make things right when we screwed up (and, yes, that does happen occasionally), our reputation would suffer.  In the end, our business would fail.

With UnTower, our community's 'business' failed us.

Clarity.  Explanation.  Honesty.  Availability.  Accountability.  These are the pillars of a transparent business that customers can believe 'does things right'.  A healthy, vibrant business which grows and prospers.

We wouldn't accept anything less than these qualities from a business.  And we shouldn't accept anything less from Lexington.

In an age of websites, blogs, Twitter, and Facebook, every business has had to engage in conversations with customers on the customers' terms.  The ubiquity of the internet means that these tools are available to nearly everyone, nearly everywhere.  The latency of the internet means that the conversations don't have to happen at the same time - they can build over time.  The internet's ubiquity and latency forms the foundation of a new and better town hall.

Why should we all have to cram into a room at the same time?  Why should we have to play 'beat the clock' when talking about issues which are complex and nuanced?  Why should we have to forgo pressing business or personal matters to attend a meeting which is designed to be convenient for our representatives?

The internet provides the perfect public forum for every citizen to express his or her public policy views, ideas, and thinking.  Even better, our ideas can build on one another as we tinker with and improve the ideas of our neighbors.  Plus, conducting civic conversations on the internet can happen around the clock.  Citizens can participate in the public discussion when and where it is convenient for them, not for the elected representatives who serve them.  Isn't that the way it should be?

Further, every single representative should publish their conversations, thinking, dilemmas, trade-offs, beliefs and positions (and the transactions between them and other interested parties - like developers or investors or campaign contributors).  These records should be posted online for all citizens to see, comment on, debate, and improve.

The council members' emails are listed on the city's website, as are the mayor's newsletters.  But these are old, closed, one-way forms of communication.  They aren't vibrant community discussions.

So, do I want to see tweets that the mayor's advisor is picking up eggs?  Or a Facebook entry featuring the halloween costumes of the councilwoman's children?  Not particularly.  But we deserve to see real-time updates of their thinking on critical community issues.  We should know why they have changed their minds at the last minute.  They should tell us who they talked with and what they said.  After all, they are public officials.  We should see into a transparent civic machine which serves all of us.

What is clear is that a 19th-century civic apparatus has hamstrung our 21st-century community. The ancient contraption allows far too many secrets to hide within.  Whether our representatives and our governments use blogs, Twitter, Facebook, or some other platform matters far less than whether they start participating in open conversations with the people they serve.

The technology already exists.  Millions of people already use it.  Thousands of your constituents use it every day.  It's easy.  It's free.  And it will make Lexington better.  What are you waiting for?

[Continued in: The UnTower Manifesto: 2. Consequences]

[where: E Main St & N Limestone St, Lexington, KY 40507]

The UnTower Manifesto: 2. Consequences

[Note: The UnTower Manifesto is a three-part series about responding to the failure of CentrePointe.  You can read the full story of that failure here.]

The consequences for UnTower should rest on the people who perpetrated the scandal: The mayor, some council members, and the developers.  Let's start with the mayor.

In other venues, I've seen the mayor talk with his skeptics with apparent openness and graciousness.  He was quite articulate.  He listened to their concerns and seemed to hear them.

But the last several months have shown a repeated abdication of his duties in the face of scandal.  This pattern first emerged with the airport staff's misappropriation of public funds in their credit-card-and-travel scandal, where the mayor displayed a perplexing tendency to drag his feet.  Now, as CentrePointe devolves into the UnTower scandal, the mayor has shown a similar lack of initiative to lead on his citizens' behalf.  Instead, he has resorted to 'happytalk' to defend what is clearly a failed project.

Meanwhile, the vice mayor has been active and vocal in challenging both scandals.  The effect: a grassroots effort to draft him to run for mayor in 2010, complete with its own Facebook fan page and glowing coverage in local media.  The current mayor seems to have no such dialog with the citizens he serves, and seems to have generated little enthusiasm for a 2010 run.

The mayor needs to begin to lead with candor, action, and transparency - beginning with complete clarity around what happened to create UnTower - or his constituency will chase him from office.

The same can be said for the members of the Urban County Council - especially those who rubber-stamped the UnTower project without adequate scrutiny or analysis.  They must assume a more actively transparent posture - including using the tools and technologies to have conversations with the people they serve - or they, too, will be removed from office by their increasingly-informed electorate. Their citizens will no longer tolerate the kinds of hijinks and misdirection that characterized UnTower.

Finally, there are UnTower's developers.  What should happen to them?

The scar in the middle of town is their property.  But the destruction of the block and the special tax status endowed on the block were public events, with public investments and public impacts.  If anyone doubts the public impacts, just talk with businesses bordering the UnTower eyesore about its effects as a customer-repellent.

So here's my modest proposal for penalizing their deception.

First, the council should explore all options for rescinding the block's special Tax Increment Financing (TIF) status.  TIF was granted under conditions which no longer seem to apply, and the developers no longer appear to have earned that special status.

Second, the council should - to the extent it is able - strictly re-define acceptable future uses of the property in light of the UnTower scandal.  Given that the developers contributed to the scandal with their hollow promises and continual lack of disclosure, I would hope that our council would be particularly stringent with requirements for how the property functions as part of our community and that they would set a strict timetable for the developers to act.

The developers misled us to gain advantage; now they should pay the price.

[Continued in: The UnTower Manifesto: 3. Beyond UnTower]

[where: E Main St & N Limestone St, Lexington, KY 40507]

The UnTower Manifesto: 3. Beyond UnTower

[Note: The UnTower Manifesto is a three-part series about responding to the failure of CentrePointe.  You can read the full story of that failure here.]

The final piece of the UnTower puzzle is what to do with the pit now that the historic buildings are gone and the promised tower cannot be built. 

Up front, let me declare that I don't have all of the answers regarding what needs to be done with the block.

But I do have some general principles which we might start to apply to the site.

• Create a vibrant destination which attracts in-town residents, weekday workers, other folks from throughout the Bluegrass, and tourists.
• Make that destination a distinctive place which no other city has (and this doesn't need to be a towering monument to ego)
• Create public and private spaces within the destination which allow the community to create shared experiences while also providing a much needed economic boost
• Balance the types of uses within the development to include an attractive mix of retail, nightlife, dining, and lodging options
• Ensure local businesses have significant presence within the development to help supercharge the local economy
• Ensure that the space is well-integrated with the surrounding community and that its design promotes circulation throughout surrounding businesses and public spaces
• Build it soon.  Remove the eyesore that the UnTower scandal left behind.

So lets look at these principles in more detail.

Destination.  If we want the UnTower block to directly feed the local economy, we need it to function as a destination for both our visitors and our community.  The previous imposing design did not encourage local residents to participate in the space.

Distinctive Place.  The new development should, to the extent possible, function as a signature place for Lexington.  Much like Keeneland and our horse farms showcase Lexington as a city like no other, the new development should showcase our city, our region, and our people.  Portland, Austin, Miami, Chattanooga, Denver, and even Louisville have these memorable and distinctive signature places.  Lexington should, too.  A distinctive place will draw people (and dollars) into our community; A forgettable one will not.

Public and Private Spaces.  The most effective places (like those in the cities above) combine public spaces with private enterprise.  Thus, memorable shared experiences can also feed the local economy.

Balanced Use.  Others have proposed using the block for a single kind of use - say, a new basketball arena.  Such dedicated uses of the property would be counterproductive to our economic engine.  To get the biggest economic bang for the buck, we should encourage a unique and balanced mix of stores, restaurants, attractions, clubs, and perhaps a unique 'boutique' hotel.  (My best-ever customer experience was at a Kimpton Hotel, which made for a hugely positive impression of Portland in general.  What if Lexington could wow its visitors like that instead of giving them a bland cookie-cutter hotel?)

Local Businesses.  To supercharge the impacts of the dollars spent within the new development, we should try to ensure that many of the businesses located there (30%? 50%?) are local businesses.  This will yield two big benefits.  First, it would contribute to the distinctive character of the place.  Second, it would keep a significant portion of that money in Lexington.

Integration.  When CentrePointe was proposed, many derided the design as too fortress-like and too disconnected from the city fabric.  The UnTower scandal offers an opportunity to correct that mistake.  The new development could more thoroughly integrate with several aspects of downtown development.  The site borders Phoenix Park, Courthouse Plaza, and the History Museum / old Courthouse / Cheapside complex.  An 'open' design would promote circulation through those spaces (and into surrounding businesses) and would better integrate with our other urban initiatives (such as our street improvement plans).

Build Soon.  Regardless of the type of development we ultimately put on the UnTower block, we probably have missed our window for using it to improve our city's appearance for the World Equestrian Games in 2010.  Nonetheless, we cannot allow the crater left by UnTower to remain. 

Is this list comprehensive enough (or even correct)?  Probably not.  Feel free to point out what I got wrong or what I missed.

In any case, this is the kind of civic discussion that the citizens of Lexington must engage in if we are to build a better community - and if we are to heal the scar in the middle of our city.

[where: E Main St & N Limestone St, Lexington, KY 40507]

Why CentrePointe will fail

A few months back, I openly wondered about the viability of the CentrePointe project, which thus far has only managed to crater an entire city block of historical buildings.

Since our post (which came long after the controversy started), there has been a continued flurry of discussion around CentrePointe in the community.  But nothing has happened on the construction site. 

In all of this turmoil, one fact has become crystal clear: CentrePointe will fail.

The project will fail in one of two ways:

1. The project will fail to be constructed, or
2. The project will be constructed, and then fail financially

I say this not out of emotion or disgust aimed at the project, the developers, the mayor, or their conduct (although all may be worthy of disgust) - but because the justifications for the project fail to stand up to basic business logic.

Instead of acknowledging the flaws in their business plans, CentrePointe's developers have continually invoked wishful thinking to rationalize their actions. 

I've seen this kind of fatal optimism in business many times before.  Business executives often think they can make a project succeed by just wanting it badly enough.  (Unfortunately, optimism isn't a viable business strategy.)  In their blind pursuit of their goal, they disregard the facts. 

So, lets explore the facts around CentrePointe ('CP' from now on), which really can't be ignored any longer.  (Read more from the Herald-Leader here, here, and here.)

• CP has had an unnamed international financier who committed $250 million to the project.  This week, we learned that the mystery investor died.  Without a will.  The project certainly won't commence until a) the financier's estate goes through probate court, and b) the heirs agree to continue support for CP.  Odds the financier ever existed: Iffy.  Odds heirs will support CP: Doubtful.

• CP is supposed to house a J.W. Marriott luxury hotel.  Meanwhile, Marriott's CFO (who is their soon-to-be CEO President and COO [correction]) has repeatedly announced that even the best projects - a group that CP cannot possibly belong to (see more below) - are stopped in their tracks.  Odds Marriott will end up in CP: Doubtful.

• The Marriott would have 250 rooms going at $190 per night.  The price is 50% higher than competing hotels, yet the developers' analysts estimate occupancy rates at startup which are better than those (less expensive, more established) hotels.  Odds of getting higher occupancy at a much higher price: Very slim.

• There are 91 luxury condos at the top of CP, which would sell for $1.2 million each and which would generate over $100 million for the project.  The analysts estimated that 45 of those would sell before construction starts.  And all 91 condos would be sold in 3 years.  In all of Lexington, there were 31 million-dollar properties on the market at the end of 2008, and only 10 such properties sold during the entire year.  So... CP's developers would flood the market with luxury properties -- essentially quadrupling the number that are on the market -- and expect to sell them faster than historical rates.  Odds that Lexington could absorb a 300% increase in ultra-luxury properties in only 3 years: Zero.

• CP's developers have to sell 4.5 years (45 condos at 10 condos per year) worth of luxury property inventory before construction starts.  And that assumes that every million-dollar prospect would prefer to live in a 2700-foot high-rise condo instead of a country estate. Odds that CP's developers can sell 45 million-dollar condos before construction starts: Zero.  (Note: This week, CP's developer claimed that 61 of the 91 condos were 'spoken for'.  This is patently false, and reveals a worrisome desperation from the developers.  Unless 'spoken for' means that someone said "I wish that I could live in a place like that..."  Which is also worrisome.)

• CP's analysts assumed that the $1.2 million condo buyers would have an average income of $220,000.  That's an incredibly aggressive price-to-income ratio of nearly 6, which ranks with inflated San Francisco, New York, San Diego, and Los Angeles averages - before the real estate bubble burst.  Snakebitten banks are much more critical of an applicant's ability to pay in this economic environment.  Lexington's average price-to-income ratio: 2.35 - indicating an income of over $500,000 to afford the condos and drastically limiting the pool of eligible buyers.  Odds of finding enough eligible prospects in Lexington: Very slim.

So what are we to conclude about CentrePointe from these facts?

1. The developers' tendency toward secrecy and intrigue are unacceptable in light of the public investments in and public impacts from this project.  We deserve transparency.
   
2. The project is not financially viable.
3. The primary financing (if it even exists) is shaky at best.
4. The analysts' projections are unrealistic and misleading.
5. The project cannot generate the promised tax revenues.
6. The developers are prone to either fantasy and/or outright deception; either case bodes poorly for the feasibility of the project.
7. CentrePointe will fail.  Miserably.

Lexington must now accept the failure of CentrePointe and begin to move beyond the CentrePointe fallacy.  We must hold accountable those who recklessly ramrodded the flimsy development through our city council.  We must prevent future irresponsible allocations of our common wealth.  And our community and our public officials must begin carefully contemplating what's next for the block that CentrePointe obliterated.

Update 4/13: Crossposted to Ace Weekly as "Optimism is Not a Business Strategy"

Update 4/14: Tom Eblen did an excellent parody of the CentrePointe situation here.  Very cool.

Update 4/17: OK.  Let's just get the whole story out on the table.  The UnTower Manifesto: What went wrong, what to do about it, and what to do about the scar it left on our city.

[where: E Main St & N Limestone St, Lexington, KY 40507]