As I’ve reported here before, the City is currently in the midst of wasting $120,000.00 on a ‘consulting contract’ with Halff Associates to ’empower the community’ and ‘give everyone a voice’ in the future of Lampasas.
This is a fool’s errand, as I have ALSO pointed out before….but I offer more proof here today.
A recent article in The Dispatch details the demolition of an old locker plant and ice house at 707 Pecan Street for possible retail and upscale apartment development.
The response on Facebook was swift and diverse: a bunch of people complained that a six-story building is turning us into Austin and is no good for the city. Another group thought it was a great idea because we need more housing here. Yet another group bitched that we don’t need more retail space since there are TONS of empty storefronts on Key Ave AND Town Square (good point, I might add).
In short, you can’t get 50 Lampassholes to agree on anything, let alone 6,000 of them. It would be like herding cats. Throw in the fact that probably 35% of the ‘cats’ fall into the “retarded” section of an IQ Bell curve, and you can see my point.
Already people are arguing about the upcoming Burger King: either it sucks and we don’t need more fast food places OR it’s awesome because they love Burger King and it provides jobs. You will NEVER get a consensus asking a thousand dummies what is “best” for the future of Lampasas, so why are you wasting $120,000 trying to do so?
I don’t care what Mike Irvin (the developer) does. Frankly, I don’t think another 10,000 square feet of retail is needed in this town, but it’s his nickel and not mine. Maybe he’s right. However, I WILL have a BIG problem if he goes hat-in-hand to City council begging for money like the last several developers have (successfully) done.
The Halff Associates survey and consulting is also a waste of time for another reason: the Seven Goldfish have ALREADY decided which way we will be going in the future and that is obviously growth at any cost. This is evident by the hundreds of thousands of dollars they give away to developers and waste on dumb shit like a ‘business park’.
The smart thing to do is stop trying to steer the local economy like some third-world communist politburo. The free market works just fine. Disband the idiotic LEDC and stop wasting money on this crap. Either way, soon enough you will have a wave of liberal asswipes moving here from Austin and Georgetown and Liberty Hill and it will have NOTHING to do with the work of Mandy Walsh and the LEDC or the wisdom of The Seven Goldfish. It’s going to happen naturally as people try to escape the traffic and regulations of the “big city” for greener pastures.
Of course, none of this logic and truth will stop The Seven Goldfish from throwing money at idiotic ‘planning’ efforts. Halff will walk off into the sunset $120,000 richer while the LEDC chases their tail for another year.