HomeMy WebLinkAbout08-03-17 Public Comment - C. Shaida - Black Olive IIFrom:Chris Shaida
To:Agenda
Subject:Re: Black Olive II Site Plan and Certificate of Appropriateness for 202 South Black Avenue, Application 17265
Date:Thursday, August 03, 2017 1:09:10 PM
I am a citizen of Bozeman. I live on Bozeman Avenue and intend to live in Bozeman for the
rest of my life -- I’m hoping for decades not years. I have no other land, property, or
development interests. I do, however, have an interest in creating jobs in Bozeman.
Speaking both as a currrent resident and prospective job creator I am in favor of the Black
Olive project.
Density is good - I believe that towns are about people -- getting more people to live in
and use a concentrated place means density. I am in favor of this project not in and of itself
but as another step in the direction of a humanely denser Bozeman because I believe that
such a thing makes for a healthier, more vibrant, more sustainable and more diverse
Bozeman.
Good places to live support good jobs - I have a direct interest in creating jobs in
Bozeman as I have already done in a number of other places over the past 20 years. The
people my firm hires are engaged, energetic learners who are not afraid of change and can
help our clients face and solve problems in a changing world and shifting business
environment. Those people tend to want to live where the action is -- in Bozeman’s case
that is downtown. Right now there are not enough places to live downtown. This has a
chilling effect on job creation for my firm. Should it be made clear that the city of Bozeman
now intends reverse course and prevent more places to live downtown from being built that
chill would turn into a freeze.
Yes to getting more places to live on limited land - as such I am strongly in favor of
honoring years of formal statements of direction by the city and respecting decades of
zoning as regards density and I am in favor of approving this project.
…
I recognize that you’ve each got quite a lot to read so feel free to skip what’s below. But as
an interested, active and perhaps noisy participant in this particular process over the past
year I do also have some additional, more general observations:
Actually governing Bozeman is much, much harder than pretending to save it - I can
appreciate that in accepting the role of citizen-commissioner you are agreeing to do more
than just ‘say what’s on your mind’; you are agreeing to think harder, deeper and wider than
us individual citizens generally do. You’ve agreed to represent ALL of us -- the noisy
minority as well as the quiet majority. You’ve also agreed to represent not just the current
residents but also the future residents and workers as well -- and with those the challenge
is more acute since they have no voice but yours. You’ve also accepted that making real
decisions about real places involves real trade-offs as well as a multiplcity of consequences
beyond just the ones that might be hoped for. Doing all of that is hard. I don’t know why
you’ve agreed to do all of that on our behalf but I’m thankful, as an individual citizen, that
you have!
The right to speak my mind - one of the wonderful things about Bozeman is how clear it is
that the individual citizen has the right to speak his/her mind and how many forums and
venues exist in which to do that. Oddly, as commissioners you give up much of that ‘right’
in accepting the responsibility to speak for us all. For instance,
I, as a citizen, can gather all of my free-floating anxiety about changes in society,
changes to the role of our country in the world, changes to shifts in privacy and
individual rights and … hope that by agitating to say ‘no, no, no’ locally I might gain
some control over SOMETHING. You, as commissioners, can’t.
I can hope that by saying ‘we should push the pause button’ an actual ‘pause button’
might come into existence in contravention of common sense and the laws and
conventions of a free-market society. You can’t
I can feel free to use wild exageration and hyperbole -- call a building that closely
resembles a thousand other small apartment buildings in western cities (brick! glass!
variegated surfaces! balconies!) a ‘monstrosity’. You can’t.
I can blithely assert that the ‘context’ of the building is only the 30% (the area to the
immediate south) I choose to consider and ignore the 70% (north, east and west) that
confuses the issue. You can’t.
I can fib a bit and assert that the ‘zoning was changed’ to accomodate the project
when it, in fact, wasn’t. You can’t.
I can somehow believe that preventing more housing from being built will somehow
rewrite the basic economic axiom that constraining the supply of an in-demand good
will raise the price of that good and somehow...lower the cost of housing. You can’t.
I can say that preventing 5-story apartment building will make Bozeman more like
Paris -- a city chock-full to the brim of 4-6 story apartment buildings. You can’t.
I have the right to say, in brief, that even though a project supports the city’s strategic
plan in a number of ways and is in full compliance with zoning law, I don’t like it so it
shouldn’t happen. You don’t.
...doesn’t mean that what I say is right! - that is an awful lot that I can do and you, as
commissioners, can’t. I do believe, however, that what you are agreeing to and able to do -
- think beyond the ‘noise’ of the present in a more nuanced, connected, long-term way than
us indvidual citizens do -- is vital.
Bozeman is better than it has been sounding - I believe that doing that hard thinking on
our behalf is and will continue to be recognized by many of the quiet citizens as well as
even a few of us noisy ones. We will actively support you now and in the future for as long
as you continue to be willing to take that on.
Christopher Shaida 646-543-5505 | 406-282-1898