Last week, as I stood at the groundbreaking for the exciting new development project at Westgate, I felt a deep sense of pride in the work it took to get those shovels in the ground.
In early 2020, days after being sworn into my first term on City Council, I voted against a redevelopment project in my own district involving the old Elder-Beerman building. At the time we were being asked to incentivize discount retail through a property tax abatement. Offering an incentive in our most attractive retail corridor to bring discount retail didn’t sit well with me. And, while I knew this would mean a longer delay in the site’s redevelopment, I knew we shouldn’t just take the deal in front of us; we could do better. Our “no” to this proposal, was actually our “yes” to something better that we knew was possible.
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