yourdailylocal
City Council is on a roll.
After already deciding that a prime piece of realty in downtown Warren should be used for low-income senior housing, City Council compounded that bad decision Monday by sending a clear message to the business already in that area – businesses that bring people with disposable income to the City and businesses that help make the City a destination.
We don’t respect you.
We don’t care about you.
We do care about the low-income senior housing project though.
City Council made the ill-conceived decision to lease one parcel of land between the parking garage and businesses on Clark Street including Bent Run Brewing Co. and Allegheny Outfitters, a second parcel of land farther down Clark Street near Goat Fort Indoor Climbing, and a third along the Allegheny River, to Hudson Companies, the company putting in the low-income senior housing project, for the purpose of staging for the Eagles Crest construction project on the corner of Pennsylvania Avenue and Liberty Street.
This land had become vital overflow parking places for the businesses on Clark Street, not that council cares.
We understand that construction vehicles and supplies need to be put somewhere during a project and we understand that City Council and City Manager Mike Holtz believe the plan they came up with, utilizing the three parcels for staging during the Eagles Crest senior housing construction, was the best and “least intrusive” option available.
What we can’t fathom is why no one thought it would be prudent to at least give businesses that stand to be adversely affected by this plan even a heads-up that it was coming. No one on city staff or council made an effort to reach out to those businesses prior to adding it to Monday’s meeting agenda.
And spare us the notion that the meeting agenda was sufficient information for them to understand the project. A single sentence among a litany of other bullet points is not informative. But we digress.
Even if this plan is essentially the only option, and MAYBE it is, a competent body would have at least taken a moment to head down to Clark Street (a mere 7-minute walk from the Municipal Building) and say, “Hey, we have to stage these vehicles somewhere. We’re open to suggestions, but this is the best option we could come up with.”
And that’s the LEAST that should have been done.
A properly functioning council would have included those business owners in the planning process, taken their input along with city staff and Hudson Companies, and found a solution that works for everyone.
Instead, these businesses were made aware through happenstance, a chance encounter at a grocery store. They weren’t even told what lots would be utilized until Allegheny Outfitters’ Piper VanOrd asked if she could see Exhibit A (the map indicated which parcels will be leased) during Monday’s meeting.
Limited time was allotted for VanOrd and Bent Run Brewing Co.’s Denise Caudill to make statements and ask questions about the information they were literally seeing for the first time. Less than an hour after providing that documentation, council voted to approve the lease agreement.
Council members couldn’t even be bothered to give these owners an hour of their time, even after they were told that tabling the vote for a month would have zero impact on the agreement according to Hudson Companies representative Kelley Coey, who is on the phone with Holtz “at least once a week.”
That’s a slap in the face to every small business owner in the city.
How much time has council or city staff spent talking to small businesses and their owners about how the city can help them? Or if they have ideas or suggestions to help the city grow?
That’s what a competent, fully functional body does. That’s why we look at our neighbors in Kane and Corry and see them thriving while Warren continues its steady decline.
These are people who pour their lives into not just their business, but the community as well. They act as cheerleaders and ambassadors for the City. Now, they’re “exhausted” and unsure if they can “in good conscience” express to other entrepreneurs that they should put roots in Warren.
The City has to find a way to be more communicative with its residents and businesses. Will that cause extra time and effort for staff and council? Most likely, but that’s part of the job, or at least it should be if we want the city to reverse its downward trend. If that’s too much to ask, then anyone unwilling to put in that effort should resign.
It’s time to put up or shut up. Paying lip service about how “supportive” the city is of its businesses won’t cut it anymore.
Actions speak louder than words.
