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On the Blog Post Perhaps Stanton and Burns Should be a Comedy Team — They Keep Me Laughing!
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On the article Stanton: Former U.S. Bank Building Should Be Offices
Terry Flanagan
1:04 am on Monday, May 13, 2013
ReplyThe former US Bank building is already marketed as office space according to our downtown inventory. Former drive-through banks are a tough sell as office space though. We have over 100,000 square feet of office space in the downtown area listed in the first few pages of available property, including the DuPage Library Building, Dodson Place, Geneva on the Dam and others. We need to fill those spaces before creating more. Offices also need parking for tenants and clients. We need to address parking, which has been near the top of complaint list for as long as I've lived here. It might also be a good idea to survey office workers in the downtown area about how often they eat and shop in Geneva. I contend that many of the restaurants downtown are geared toward leisurely meals that may appeal to shoppers and retirees, but don't necessarily appeal to office workers on a budget and with limited time for lunch. And some restaurants have decided not to even open during the lunch hour.
High density housing might help the downtown area become more self-supporting. However, the people that might live in these units may not be working in Geneva, which won't improve lunch sales and won't help shopping if stores close before they return from work. We also have unanswered questions about whether high density residences would even be approved in the downtown area, given the dispute that arose between a developer and staff over this issue last year. It's a complicated issue.
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On the article Stanton: Geneva Downtown Alive and Well
Terry Flanagan
11:17 pm on Sunday, May 12, 2013
Jeff,
Really? With Bien Trucha, A Toda Madre, Atwater's, Fiora's, Villa Verone, Stockholm's, Foxfire, Wildwood, Nosh, Niche, El Molcajete, Gratto, Chianti, Sergio's, Gen Hoe, and Riganato's to name a few others, I think we have a range of very good to excellent restaurants in the downtown area and many of them have a lot of good reviews. Gen Hoe and Riganato's may be on the fringe of the downtown area, but may be close enough to be considered part of the area. It would help to have more entertainment venues and higher density residential in the downtown area. But it's far from hopeless.
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On the article Stanton Makes a Bid for the Mill Race Inn Property
Terry Flanagan
10:51 am on Thursday, May 9, 2013
ReplyThe redevelopment expense probably precludes a restaurant from being built here, although a small riverfront café, or something similar to the Gazebo, as part of a larger development, might make sense. I have to believe that the Kane County plan for the Fabyan property is going to make this parcel more valuable as a high density residential development or possibly a hotel. However, a hotel has been mentioned as part of the Fabyan development, which probably makes residential a more likely and more financially rewarding prospect here. I assume that any development will likely be required to save some portion of the blacksmith shop and/or plaque it, meaning they'd need to also provide some sort of public access to the historical marker. The Mayor mentioned that there were something like a dozen suitors for this property. It would be interesting to know who they are and what their plans are, but we should know soon enough.
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On the Blog Post Finally a Tax I Could Learn to Love
Terry Flanagan
9:23 pm on Monday, May 6, 2013
Jim, most people I talk to see themselves as fiscal conservatives and social liberals with socialism in the eye of the beholder. If someone doesn't like a handout to one group, they call it socialism and wealth redistribution. When the handout is to them it's a deserved entitlement. Everyone wants everything to be fair, but no one can agree on a definition of fair. So we're left to muddle through it and hope we don't screw too many things up trying to achieve the impossible. The best we can do is to keep talking and exchanging ideas, civilly of course, and hopefully once in a while we'll actually get it right, even if only by accident.
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On the Blog Post Finally a Tax I Could Learn to Love
Terry Flanagan
3:10 pm on Monday, May 6, 2013
You're right, Colin, but those things are beyond our control. All we can do is to project potential revenues from various taxes. How business and consumers deal with the effects of a tax is strictly up to them, as it should be. Although government may not fully realize the economic impact of imposing a tax, it should be ready to eliminate taxes that prove to harmful to the economy. We seldom see a tax repealed once it has been enacted. But we should always keep that option open.
A banker tax may help us recover some lost retail tax revenue opportunities. It may also discourage banks from building in retail shopping districts. We can't really say without further discussion and analysis. But it's probably a discussion worth having.
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On the Blog Post Finally a Tax I Could Learn to Love
Terry Flanagan
2:33 pm on Monday, May 6, 2013
Jim,
Although taxing professional services is being discussed by the states, this is not about taxing professional services. I believe that may happen one day, since we are essentially a service-based economy.
This is not about wealth distribution and socialism versus a free market economy. Those issues don’t really come into play at this level of government, which as you know, is mainly a balancing act between the demand for more services and the demand for lower property taxes. The question is not about a free market determining the number of banks or whether banks contribute to the common good. The question is whether or not we can recover some potential lost retail tax revenue in our commercial districts. Our alternative may be to cut services, increase fees, find other revenue sources, and/or raise property taxes. Surely as a taxpayer who helped bail out the banks, you would expect them to pay taxes.
I agree that ending waste and corruption in government is an important goal. We should also work to end waste and corruption in business. As consumers, investors, and taxpayers we wind up paying for those abuses anyway. But I’m not naïve enough to believe that leaving either government or business to their own devices will solve all of our problems. These arguments about the merits of socialism versus capitalism only distract us from solving the real problems, especially since the solutions to most problems often lie between two ideological extremes.
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On the Blog Post Finally a Tax I Could Learn to Love
Terry Flanagan
8:54 am on Monday, May 6, 2013
Although banks can and do charge a number of fees, banking is a highly regulated and competitive business. Customers have a number of options when choosing a bank and online banking means customers don't even need to choose a local bank. With banks being required to disclose fees and customer backlash to recent attempts to impose fees like teller fees and debit card fees, banks have to think carefully before adding fees, tax or no tax. Still, that's a decision that we have no control of just as we had no control of how retailers would react when we recently increased the sales tax.
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On the Blog Post Mulch Madness
Terry Flanagan
8:25 pm on Sunday, May 5, 2013
Thanks for the tip, Colin. By the time you factor in the chiropractor and the physical therapy, do it yourself is doesn't' work out any cheaper either.
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On the Blog Post Mulch Madness
Terry Flanagan
10:28 pm on Wednesday, May 15, 2013
Gee, Jeff, do you really think Joe Stanton wields that much influence? See the results of West Suburban Living Magazine’s Best of the West 2013 survey under Most Influential West Suburbanite here http://www.westsuburbanliving.net/March-April-2013/West-Suburban-Living-Magazines-17th-Annual-Best-of-the-West/.