Weinberger to Destroy Moran Plant

So the key points from the 09.01.17 news from Seven Days are:

Keeping the Moran Plant building has a democratic mandate...

"City voters in 2014 approved the use of $6.3 million in tax-increment financing towards redevelopment of the old power plant building, which shuttered in 1986."

But instead the city is likely to spend more than the approved 6.3 million to destroy it.

"Instead, the building will likely be demolished and the site remediated — at a price tag of at least $4 million and upwards of $10.7 million, according to city estimates"

The crux of the story is that mayor Miro Weinberger decided to pull the plug on negotiations with the redevelopment team.  He dumped them.  They didn't dump him.

"“What the New Moran team was trying to do was very hard,” he told reporters""

Hmmm... What did Kennedy say again?  Oh yeah... "We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept..." Something like that anyway.

"Weinberger attributed the failed deliberations to construction risks, environmental challenges and financial uncertainty. “There was a lot of potential for problems that would have required the city to go beyond its $6 million commitment,” Weinberger said."

I like Kennedy's ideas about doing hard things, but they don't appear to have been applied in this instance.  It will be interesting to see how well mayor Weinberger's justifications withstand scrutiny.  He says the redevelopment of Moran would potentially cost more than 6 million dollars, but we know that's also true of destroying it, don't we?

"Still, he acknowledged, “This was a difficult decision to make and not one I wanted to come to.”"

 I'm not sure that's true.  How hard did he really try to make the redevelopment of the Moran Plant work?  I've worried that he's always wanted to see it demolished and that this might have been a foregone conclusion when he first took office five years ago.  But that's just my gut feeling. 

"Weinberger said that he’d be looking into other options besides another city park, though he said he didn’t know what exactly the end result might look like. The city is bound by the state’s Public Trust Doctrine, which requires that the property serve a public purpose, while the moribund building itself is on the National Register of Historic Places. There will be a “significant public input and process” before a decision on reuse is made, Weinberger said."

 Um... Yeah.  He may not know exactly what it will look like, but I bet he's got a pretty good idea in his head.  (Hint: you don't want to land on Boardwalk with one of these on it.)

There was still hope for the building in January of this year when there was a proposal for...

"...redeveloping the facility with community space and venues for rent at a cost of $15.4 million dollars. They planned to break ground by the end of this year."

But...

"Friday’s announcement made clear that’s not going to happen.

“The city was just not confident that the project would succeed,” Weinberger said. “Without that confidence, we couldn’t move forward.”"

 So- Hope for something: $15.4 M, Cost of destroying: 4 to 10.7 million.  And since those are both estimates from parties interested in deflating the numbers, I consider the comparison between the two a virtual wash.

This is a soulless choice to take the path of least resistance, unbecoming of a true leader.