URDs: Shouldn't even be here

Really, CDA? An Urban Renewal District? URDs come from the late ’60s and the decaying cores of inner cities where vast tracts of abandoned industrial buildings and slums of barely habitable apartments (and here’s the important bit) had no one to clear the detritus and/or develop the areas for industrial or residential use. Then the city stepped in to make the redevelopment happen and they used funds in a URD to do so.

But CDA is not urban and does not have properties that no one wants to redevelop. What do they use URDs for up here in a non-urban environment? Post Falls builds an overpass. NIC wants to build some buildings. I’m stunned that nobody’s suggested using URD funds to build the new jail that the voters keep rejecting.

Face it. The URDs up here are just a way of giving a well connected political hack a cushy six-figure job to schmooze with his business buddies to spend taxpayer money on projects that would probably get done anyway if the voters wanted them done but which now can be done with little voter input and zero risk to the business community. Sweet. The real measure isn’t how much they spent on projects but how much they spent on projects that no private group had shown any interest in. They’re so busy that they have nothing better to do than dream up new names for themselves.

JEFFREY HARRISON

Worley