Paramount Theatre
What Is Morrison's Exact Plan?
RECEIVED Fri., June 6, 2008
Dear Editor,
The reason so many people are assuming what Laura Morrison thinks about development in general is because she hasn't actually told us what she thinks [“Going Negative: Galindo vs. the 'Green Home Tax,'” News, June 6]. Her campaign site talks about how she'll approach developing a plan to manage growth, but she doesn't say what she thinks the best ideas are.
All we can do is reach a conclusion based on the effects her positions have had on the city so far. She has opposed density in Downtown (of all places), reduced the amount of affordable housing by making it more difficult to build in-law apartments, and supported the neighborhoods who tried to opt out of the Vertical Mixed Use ordinance. All of these actions contribute to more sprawl and more traffic, and I don't see any reason why a plan she comes up with when she is in office would be different. It doesn't even seem like she understands how density would improve our public transit, since she faults Cid Galindo for not addressing transportation issues in his plan. It is far easier to serve dense nodes with transit than it is to serve our existing sprawl.
Cid Galindo has helped put together a plan that looks like it could work pretty well, and balances our need for increased density with many people's desire that their existing neighborhoods don't change much. This is a plan that we need to start implementing today if we don't want to end up being as sprawled as Houston but with worse traffic.
The reason so many people are assuming what Laura Morrison thinks about development in general is because she hasn't actually told us what she thinks [“Going Negative: Galindo vs. the 'Green Home Tax,'” News, June 6]. Her campaign site talks about how she'll approach developing a plan to manage growth, but she doesn't say what she thinks the best ideas are.
All we can do is reach a conclusion based on the effects her positions have had on the city so far. She has opposed density in Downtown (of all places), reduced the amount of affordable housing by making it more difficult to build in-law apartments, and supported the neighborhoods who tried to opt out of the Vertical Mixed Use ordinance. All of these actions contribute to more sprawl and more traffic, and I don't see any reason why a plan she comes up with when she is in office would be different. It doesn't even seem like she understands how density would improve our public transit, since she faults Cid Galindo for not addressing transportation issues in his plan. It is far easier to serve dense nodes with transit than it is to serve our existing sprawl.
Cid Galindo has helped put together a plan that looks like it could work pretty well, and balances our need for increased density with many people's desire that their existing neighborhoods don't change much. This is a plan that we need to start implementing today if we don't want to end up being as sprawled as Houston but with worse traffic.
Niran Babalola
