Washington School Update
Mar 11th, 2008 by contributor
Contributor Shawn Coleman reports - So what has happened this year so far:
Objectively: Almost nothing. The school district still has not sold it’s asset; the private entity has not finalized a financially viable project that provides a community benefit; the neighborhood does not feel secure in the future of their neighborhood character. But the historic school building is still standing, so the city’s objective of historic preservation has so far been satisfied.
Subjectively: Quite a lot has happened. Through numerous meetings between various groups we have learned that: people on all sides of this debate are by and large, reasonable, intelligent, thoughtful and fun individuals with several valid points; as well, folks on all sides of this debate have made assumptions about which they are completely wrong.
Actually that’s all that has happened. Editorially I commend the citizen effort. Whenever people get mobilized and organized to protect their community it is a net gain for the public process. It is my hope that these citizens retain the activist spirit beyond this issue and continue to be informed and voice their opinions on city matters.
I also commend Jim Leach, his staff and the co-housing community. Whether you like the proposed project or not, it is wrong to lay blame at Mr. Leach’s feet. He is a developer, that is true. But first as a progressive community we are supposed to be above assumptions and name-calling. Being a developer, like being a teacher, politician, doctor, etc. is simply a description of employment. NOT a specific qualitative personality judgment. All professions have good and bad characters, and it is only fair to judge each individual on their merits. That said, Mr. Leach has been responsible for some of the most forward thinking, environmentally responsible residential development in the state.
You don’t have to like new urbanism or high density, and you don’t have to like it in your city or backyard. But you must remember that Mr. Leach dotted every “i” and crossed every “t” and by right should be breaking ground as we speak. So yes Mr. Leach is to be commended for his patience for this flawed city process, and commitment to his investors. Yes investors are people too. Besides Mr. Leach is not building a strip mall on wetlands. As far as developers go, Mr. Leach is “one of the good ones.” If we chase him out of town, he will be replaced; careful what you wish for.
If you still need someone to blame, well, let’s look at the only entity that has so far gotten their way. The City of Boulder entered this coal mine with several competing goals and one of them is clearly the most important, historic preservation. Boulder’s future is dependent on retaining important parts of Boulder’s past. However this pursuit must be made from a posture of practicality and rational trade offs, not borderline religious zealotry. It is still the position of this writer that the city’s role served to only handicap the dialogue between the true stakeholders, the Developer, The Neighborhood, and BVSD.
So stay tuned, and get a good book, because patience will be required to see an outcome in this process.
For more information about the Washington School: Washington Village by Shawn Coleman
Spoken like a true politician, Shawn. If everyone were as great as you say, would hundreds of neighbors have spent 3 weeks pounding the pavement in the cold to get over 9000 people from every neighborhood in town to sign a petition to stop the steamroller?
Here’s an example of how ridiculous 1 of the 8 members of the new Review Group can be: at their first meeting on 3/7 at Washington School I attended, co-houser Ryan Farmer said that the neighborhood was “trying to redesign my home.” ACTUALLY, the co-housers and Jim Leach are trying to redesign the neighborhood, which actually exists, unlike Farmer’s future house. The 2 co-housers also tried to insist that ANY plan coming from the Review Group MUST have a co-housing element. The neutral facilitator told them that they would sabotage the Group by issuing demands.
There is plenty of blame to go around. First and foremost is BVSD, which shut down a popular bilingual school in their inane pursuit of economies of scale, which means that kids no longer can walk or bike safely to mega-schools. Why not have go all the way, and ship our kids to China to be educated by serfs in really giant education factories? BVSD also asks for far too much $, which meant that Leach has to jam in lots of huge expensive mansions and “units” to make money on the deal.
People who want to understand what actually happened should go to http://www.washingtonneighborhood.org/