OpenCDA Hyperventilates RE: McEuen

As I was walking out of the Team McEuen presentation last night, I joked with a member of the Lake City Development Corp. that I wondered what part Mary Souza or Bill McCrory were going to attack at OpenCDA.com today. It didn’t take me long to figure that out. OpenCDA’s hyperventilating about the cost of moving the parking into a double-deck structure that would include an underground level. OpenCDA sets the price tag at $82.2 million. Quoth: “An underground parking garage is a horrendous expense, even for a city that’s a dozen times larger than Coeur d’Alene. With the problems we have with the budget, a dearth of jobs, businesses closing, a high-tax/low-property-value economy, the reason for wanting such an expensive structure is not only illogical, it’s down-right foolhardy.” What? You expected OpenCDA to find any good in anything proposed by the Bloem administration? The blog’s right that the impressive proposal unveiled last night will come with a ha-huge price tag. But I’ve seen this community do many impressive things during my 27 years here (Kroc Center, Lake City Senior Center, Cancer Center, Riverstone, Coeur d’Alene Library, Centennial Trail), despite gail-wind opposition from the naysayers. Improving McEuen Field will be no exception. You can read the rest of OpenCDA’s screed here.

Question: Do you think proposed upgrades to McEuen Field can be financed without raising taxes?