Monday, August 27

Trolley follies


Loveland has rebuffed McWhinney's request to rework a finance agreement that would have allowed the company to use public improvement tax dollars for a trolley running through its Grand Station project. I can't help but think Mr. Rogers never ran into similar problems when he constructed his trolley to his own Neighborhood of Make Believe.

McWhinney withdrew its request last Friday and folks over at LovelandPolitics.com claim the decision was strictly a political one. With some council members up for election in November, they wanted to distance themselves from McWhinney, and the blog also takes City Manager Don Williams to task for "acting more like a publicist for McWhinney than a city manager."

A recent Chronicle article inspected this issue, including the council's closed-door executive session to discuss the matter. The potential for some fallout in the upcoming elections over the council's relations with McWhinney and other developers should make for the most intriguing campaign season in Loveland in a long time.

But don't blame me either way: I'm voting for King Friday XIII, the ruler of Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood of Make-Believe. According to the PBS website, "He demands—and often gets—respect from everyone, but underneath his stern and sometimes unreasonable exterior is a caring person who wants the best for his family and his neighbors." Sounds great, huh, and he doesn't mind a trolley running by his castle either.


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