No Clear Date for Sala Opening
— by Jeffrey Wisniewski — 22 March 2010 — 2 comments below »
December, January and February have come and gone, and March is almost over. Despite statements to the contrary from the City Council, and specifically Mayor Kris Valstad, Sala has not opened its doors at the recently restored historic Civic Arts Building. Sources tell me that a date closer to mid-June is likely for the delayed opening of the Thai fusion restaurant. (If you hear anything different, please let me know in the comments.)
Of course, Valstad and the other councilmembers probably didn’t know when the opening would actually take place (a firm date was never established by the restaurateurs), and they may have possibly not been familiar with the amount of work necessary to get the restored facility ready (the Council approved $230k in tenant improvements in January), but why say anything at all if that is the case?
It reminds me of Councilmember Ed Balico’s blanket promise in December 2007 — not even a promise; it was stated as fact — that construction of the Amtrak station would begin in August… 2008. “The Amtrak station will break ground next year. [...] That will happen because of the work of this body,” Balico said in his farewell remarks as mayor, and he may have been the only person in the room that believed what he was saying. Well, Valstad probably did too. (Note: The station has not yet broken ground as of the writing of this post.)
I saw the sign that said Sala was opening in August 2009. But then again, I saw the billboard on the waterfront that said construction would begin spring 2007. Earlier, I bought my house from salespeople with a model constructed of the waterfront development that said that ten-of-thousands of spaces for retail, office, and housing would be finished on the waterfront by 2006. I’ve been to yearly proclamations by city officials that all of our dreams are just a year away for the last eight years. It’s a challenge to resist becoming cynical about such statements.
Mr. Boore makes painfully clear what is now obvious to so many of us. We are at 2010 and the Waterfront has been placed on the back burner in favor of other pet projects. Many promises have been made and broken. As Boore alludes to, the most egregious being the prominent use by developers in their sales offices of Official Statements and various Official Publications, Maps and Scale Models touting the soon-to-be-built Wonders of the Waterfront, all used to con homeowners into paying top dollar for the privilege of buying Waterfront property . We might have taken the developers claims with a grain of salt, but when the city went to such great efforts to actively back up the claims, many of us believed it. I certainly would not have purchased here, if I had known it was smoke and mirrors.
Perhaps we should collectively sue the city for colluding with the developers to defraud us. Toyota is being sued by shareholders and owners for the loss of value resulting from their recent problems, why should a well orchestrated con involving top city officials go unpunished?