Lubbock Left

The Pratt-less week of Robert Pratt’s show followed up yesterday’s Gary Boren co-host with another co-host who is also not the current District 3 Councilman but wishes he were: Kevin Glasheen.

The big news of the day is that the ListenLubbock PAC released (most of) its findings from group meetings and a poll of past voters (pdf). Glasheen spoke in favor of the findings of the group; i.e., Lubbock citizens will not support the current bond package. I find that interesting, because it’s almost a complete reversal of his position on downtown development from his campaign.

Indeed, Glasheen was on the Lubbock Arts and Entertainment Task Force Performing Arts Venues Subcommittee, and their March 2007 report (pdf) to the Mayor and City Council advocated for pretty much everything that’s on the current bond proposal that has anything to do with downtown. It’s basically a total flip-flop for Glasheen now to come out against the bond proposal that he had a direct hand in shaping earlier this year.

I also believe it’s a temporary and strategic flip-flop, because Glasheen owns property downtown.

As a downtown developer, Glasheen is sitting on property that currently does nothing while he waits for it to become valuable (say, through actions taken by the City). We have the problem in Lubbock of nearly every single downtown developer having this same behavior. That’s why downtown looks like a ghost town.

So, who blinks first: the developers or the City? If the City blinks first, then we will have higher taxes, or, much more likely due to the rabid “don’t you dare tax me for anything” voting bloc, we would see a cut in essential services.

I’m betting with Lubbock’s history: a majority of developers will not blink first, and some other entity will have to act while the developers profit from doing nothing.

In the meantime, the current bond proposal is likely to go “back to the drawing board” while its proponents think of new strategies based on the marketing study just performed by the ListenLubbock PAC.

We’ll see what happens at the City Council tomorrow morning, anyway.