Blue Ribbon Commission?
This entry was posted on 10/17/2006 4:26 PM and is filed under uncategorized.
At a recent meeting of Arcadia First! it was clear that many of the attendees favored the pursuit of an alternative use of the parking lot at Santa Anita Park race track, something that sparked a call by Arcadia First! earlier this year for a so-called Blue Ribbon Commission.
This whole concept strikes me as very odd because we are talking about a piece of privately-owned property. Why would you or I or any city leaders presume to make recommendations to a private property owner for what he should do with his property?
I wonder why Westfield isn't calling for a Blue Ribbon Commission to offer suggestions about what Westfield should do with their property? Why not form a Blue Ribbon Commission to make recommendations to Denny's about what else they could do with their land?
This would seem to be something that would only be appropriate if Santa Anita owner Magna requested such help or if the land were to become blighted and the property and concern of the city.
A Blue Ribbon Commission can spend all the time it wants discussing options on behalf of Magna (and AF! members seemed to acknowledge that such a process would take a long time), and when they complete that lengthy process they could present their ideas to Magna and get the following response: "Hmmm, interesting. Uh, no thanks."
And then what?
What am I missing here?
Scott Hettrick
founder, Arcadia Wins!
