Gorillas in the Room

You know that one about the 500 pound gorilla in the room. Well the Downtown Complete Streets Improvement Project Advisory Committee has two of them in the room.

One is the timeline and the other is the concern that based on the grant to the U.S. Department of Transportation that no or very limited changes can be made to this project. I’ve been saying it all along, that regardless of the Mayor Jim Bouley's promise, that nothing has been decided and everything is open for discussion, the facts appear to indicate otherwise. 

Last night at the committee’s meeting, they invited New Hampshire Listens to talk to them about the value of having a public listening session that NH Listens would moderate. Think of a charette. Everyone in a big room, break out sessions, ideas being written down and not a consensus but a list of opinions at the end of the meeting. Here’s the problem, that first 500 pound gorilla. There isn’t time. This committee has to decide on underground infrastructure and above ground improvements and the future costs to the city; vehicular, bicycle and pedestrian safety concerns; economic development and  livability; and opportunities for the future of Main Street. All in a little over six weeks. 

While the committee has made an honest effort to hear public comment, one has to wonder if 30 minutes at the end of each meeting will be enough to discuss all the issues the committee is tasked with and the nuances of each issue. So when the mayor tells us this is probably the most important project the  city will take on for the next 50 years, wouldn’t it make sense to try and get it right the first time. Mark Ciborowski reiterated his concerns from the first meeting and hoped there would be some flexibility in the timeline to test out new lane configurations before money is spent on making them permanent. Remember the Downing Street chicanes.

Onto gorilla number two.

Dick Lemieux stated as quoted from the Concord Monitor: “There’s no point in turning the public loose with questions we already know the answer to.” Meaning that if better ideas are brought forward during the next six weeks, there is no degree of certainty that the U.S. DOT will approve the changes. So as I said when the city council accepted the Re-Thinking Main Street Report last year, it was a done deal. Let’s hope I’m wrong and when the administration contacts DOT they will offer a degree of flexibility that will allow this project to be the first project Concord gets right the first time.

On Oct. 4, the committee will decide on whether they will utilize the services of New Hampshire Listens, discuss underground utilities and infrastructure, the construction timeline and how to finance the 20 percent that comes from the private sector. That’s a lot to cover in two hours.

You know that last item is of particular interest to me. It appears that it has already been decide that you and I will be paying for 20 percent of this project through a general obligation bond. That means if you pay property taxes you are paying for 20 percent of this project. The question they will be discussing on Thursday is where the last 20 percent comes from. Let’s hope that in addition to the already 11.5 acres of the downtown whose future taxes are sequestered to pay for the Capitol Commons project that the city doesn’t decide to sequester the rest of Main Street from Storrs Street to Storrs Street.

And I’m wondering why the committee continues to use a consensus format when deciding issues contrary to the city council dictated Robert’s Rules of Order?

On the city’s website there is now a link for the Downtown Complete Streets Project. 

http://www.ci.concord.nh.us/cdadmin/MainStreetProject/concordv2.asp?siteindx=C50,96