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Mt. Washington stairs idea faces tough climb
by Mountain Girl ~ August 13th, 2008. Filed under: Blight, Development, Infrastructure.
The last thing I want to do is criticize a writer on the angle s/he chose for a story, but I’m a bit confused about Sam Spatter’s decision to lead an article about The Edge development with the Grand Staircase. I wasn’t at the interview with Mr. Desmone though and maybe he was the one fixated on this aspect of the project.
While the Staircase would be something to behold and could potentially draw more tourists, let’s not lose site of the most important aspect of this project…. demolishing an unsafe and unsightly structure and building something useful and sustainable (like what Mr. B and Desmone are proposing).
As far as tourist attractions go, we already have one in the view, yet that hasn’t yielded meaningful development in the adjacent business district. I remain optimistic that the community, developer and architects will come to a consensus on what will ultimately sit at One Grandview. Let’s focus on that first. If not, we may end up with a beautiful staircase to nowhere.
August 13th, 2008 at 3:10 pm
MG, reporters often lead a story with the odd or quirky or unusual to draw the reader in. He’s not necessarily indicating it’s the most important part of the project.
August 14th, 2008 at 10:56 am
Let’s get construction approved and started before we talk about tourist attractions. The development with which the residents must live must be our major concern. We’ve looked at that eyesore for so many years it would be wonderful to see improvement take place there. Once accomplished, then we can look at building a stairway to the view. Also, with the proposed construction, maybe Shiloh and Virginia Avenues will begin to develop appropriately to fill the needs of the new tenants. Let’s hope so ayway!
August 14th, 2008 at 10:59 am
Well said MG! I couldnt agree with you more. The inclines themselves and the view are perhaps the city’s biggest tourist attraction, but has done little to effect development into the heart of the community. The focus should be on developing the project first and foremost and then thinking about how to give it an edge…no pun intended.
August 18th, 2008 at 1:45 pm
I’m new to the site so I dont know anything about this proposed staircase. I’d like to hear the pitch on what they want to do.
August 18th, 2008 at 2:20 pm
Hey Mike,
There is a community forum about the whole edge project this thursday at 7pm at the senior center on Virginia ave.
August 22nd, 2008 at 8:17 am
Edge Project - UPDATE
Wanted to give a quick update to all those would could not attend the MWCDC membership forum meeting last night (Thurs 8/21).
First of all - there were a TON of people there, easily 60-70 people. The list of included: Chelsa Wagner, Michael Lamb, A rep from Mayor luke’s office, a rep from Bruce Kraus’s office, a rep from another city council member (Motznik I think) as well as some local media folks. I apoligize in advance if I may be forgetting someone….bur I’m sure someone else will correct me
We also had Mr Beemsterboer (and of course Mr. Desmone) there and he addressed the group directly about his intentions. For those of you that have seen the pitch before, there wasn’t alot of new info… but the presentation was a little nicer as Luke used a projector for this version - which made everything a little easier to see.
And then there was the usual crowd of community folks (myself included) many of whom were there to help highlight many of the details of the project that would be important to our community - just in case Luke forgot to mention them (Thank you Georgia
The Outcome - a UNANIMOUS vote to give conditional support to this project at the current phase of proposal. So obviuosly there are more details to come, and the community will continue to be involved in the process - but it was nice to see some many people get behind the “concept.”
There was only one person with a less than positive comment about this and can anyone guess what that comment was about? —– yup, you guessed it - PARKING. But the comment was a little off base - relating to the lack of employee parking, and something about a plan to bus people from the north side. The commenter was referring to something from years ago that he thought Luke had mentioned - or maybe someone had mentioned, but there was a little confusion there…
But Luke and Mr. B were quick to shoot that down as there is room for PLENTY of on-site parking for every need. In fact, you could tell that Luke was almost a little insulted that this gentleman was testifying that Luke himself had said these things int he past. But again, this was quickly shot down as old news, water under the bridge and frankly - JUST UNTRUE.
All in All the meetnig was a HUGE SUCESS and everyone was excited and supportive. Many of the “comments” we really more along the lines of “This is Awesome” and “we’re with you 100%”
I dont know about the rest of yinz guys ….. but I’m pumped about this!!!
JT