Saturday, August 30, 2008

VILLARAIGOSA UPDATE: AEG "LA LIVE" PROJECT: The Mayor's Attempt To Save Los Angeles with Five Star International Convention Center

The Big Picture Game Plan for Downtown Los Angeles Development
How the city is going to try and buy its’ way to the head of the convention business line/Corner the convention market by any means necessary!

by Zuma Dogg
Zuma's Blog

I guess if you raise enough money, or promise to raise enough money (and can convince the politicians you have a shot at doing so) you can just about build anything in this city, at any cost. (And I mean socially and economically, not the final price tag to developers and un-willing residents who end up paying for it, one way, or the other. (See tax hikes, fees, and skyrocketing property owner costs to help pay for what is ahead in the CRA/LA “Billion Dollar Plus” development club. (I’m not even gonna consider anything going on in this town with less than a billion dollar starting price. And all these projected costs are starting prices, because not only are the pueblos expenses skyrocketing, so are construction costs. And with all the planning, financing and construction delays; by the time you actually get the steamrollers rolling, and the developers start piling the cement 50 stories high anywhere they can get away with it, zoning and EIR restrictions, or not (and you think traffic is bad now), the cost has already jumped by at least a couple hundred million dollars; and the developer usually ends up running to the city for some kind of financial bail-out, claiming the project cannot carry on, otherwise.

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