Downtown in Livonia?

http://www.hometownlife.com/article/20120219/NEWS10/202190475/Downtown-Livonia-Council-committee-looks-idea?odyssey=mod%7Cnewswell%7Ctext%7CLivonia%7Cs

So the Livonia City Council is looking at the idea of constructing an artificial downtown core. The fact that these people don't have a clear idea of what a downtown means in the 21st century or where to build one is just another example of how clueless the city council remains on matters of city planning and the future of Livonia.

The primary question we have to asked is what kind of downtown are we talking about? Detroit, Ann Arbor, or Northville or Plymouth? Do we mean a 19th or 20th century downtown? Or are we talking about a 21st century downtown which is more of a city center than an urban center. with out a clear definition of what we want, then any discussion of the matter is a moot point.When I was running for office, I mention that the 5 & Farmington concept would be too difficult in that you'd have to displace far too many existing residents and business. Plus eminent domain has lost a lot of support over the decades since it has been abused by too many govt's. If one would be built, the logical location would be the Plymouth / Middlebelt intersection. The Ford Admin bldg could be reclaimed and repurposed, the Ford assembly and GM assembly plants could be demolished, Wonderland could be reworked into something more appropriate than what Schostak built, which is horrible by the way, then you would have to muscle out the businesses and the homeowners that are near that intersection but it would be less of a hassle than anywhere else. Then the part of Plymouth at Old Rosedale would become the Old Rosedale district of "downtown" and the newly fabricated 'downtown' would become "new town" or "new center".

While I was campaigning the example I used was National Harbor in Washington DC as well as Cherry Hill Village in Canton. Everyone loved my ideas, what they balked at is the price tag. For demolition of existing property that would need to be cleared, at least 30 million dollars. Another 10 million for abatement. Probably 5 to 10 million for compensation to land owners. Then you are looking at a minimum of 50 million dollars to reshape, redevelop and reconstruction the area in to this artificial downtown area. Now, considering that the banks are barely lending anyone money for construction projects and those that are no longer are lending in the amounts they used to, Livonia would have to raise taxes, use a back door tax mileage, or take out a loan that would require the city to raise at least 60 to 70% of the capital ourselves. So, my question is this, if there is enough support for an artificial downtown in Livonia, how are we going to raise the 100+ million dollars to build it. People in Livonia will support a back door tax for police and fire, who have shown that they don't know how to spend their budget properly, they let the city council approve a 10 year tax credit for WalMart that has them paying ZERO taxes for that time frame, and the city continues to be wasteful with the money they do get from the citizens and the federal govt.

Bottomline, I like the idea but I also know that with the current version of city govt, it would become corrupted and end up being a failure... a money pit that sucks us all down with it. Livonia missed their opportunity to build something like that when they gave Schostak a free pass to build something that was an energy pig, outmoded and out of style for the last 20 years. They proposed a cruddy redevelopment option that was out of date 12 years ago and the city just gobbled it up.