Wanted: Anti- Redevelopment Candidates

Well, not really ANTI redevelopment. I think we do need some people in local government that aren't so enthusiastic about property being put under the control of local redevelopment agencies.

Local pundit and gadfly, Jerry Partain, wrote this nice piece on redevelopment that appeared in the Sunday issue of the Eureka Reporter. I've said before I'm not necessarily opposed to any government involvement in redevelopment. I'm just not sure how much it should be involved and what the limits should be. That seems to be the opposite of what many, if not most, of our local officeholders feel.

So, it would be nice in future races for city council or Board of Supervisors if we could have a few candidates in the race that want to put some limits on redevelopment agencies. Heck, it would be nice to have some candidates that are opposed to the formation of redevelopment agencies in the first place. I'm afraid that's unlikely to happen since the type of people that run for local office usually favor government involvement in just about everything. I suspect that if someone came out of the woodwork and ran specifically on an "anti- redevelopment" platform, he or she would likely lose. Most people probably either support the status quo in local redevelopment or don't really care enough about the issue to vote for someone because of it.