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REGULAR MEETING JULY 22, 2013
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<br />and he has gotten the two best people to come before this Council and is willing to invest 500
<br />hundred thousand dollars. I would rather see an investment right now up front that all these flags
<br />aren’t coming up with the neighborhood groups. You look around at some of the really good
<br />businesses we don’t have those kinds of conversations. We don’t have neighbors saying no, no,
<br />no. Henry Davis brought up healthy food options. We are not stopping Rick’s mart from not
<br />selling healthy options. Obviously there is some money there, there are ways to make the
<br />business better, but there aren’t always all these red flags. With that said, I cannot be supportive.
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<br />Councilmember Henry Davis: This has to be, first of all I want to thank everyone for coming
<br />out, to have the courage to come out and actually speak to the Council. We don’t necessarily see
<br />a lot of you on a regular and consistent basis. I implore you to continue to show up because a lot
<br />of things that we do down here are pass policy on a day to day basis. So please keep coming out,
<br />just not for this one issue that affects you just this one time. My concerns have been said and I
<br />have already taken my stance on which side I was going to be on. But I want to add comments
<br />to why I feel the way I do. What we are asking Rick to do in my opinion can be deemed
<br />obnoxious. He is a business owner his job is to make profit, why would I want to go into
<br />business if I don’t make a profit, that doesn’t make any sense. So, what is the real issue behind
<br />what we are talking about? Is it the single cigarette sales; the gas pumps, is it the community
<br />meetings that he doesn’t want to show up to, is it the name change; is it that kind of business that
<br />we are talking about; are those the real issues that we are facing right now? I am going to
<br />probably say no that is not the issue; the issue is the lack of investment by the city in an area
<br />where investment needs to be at. We have a community that has come out and we call ourselves
<br />the Lakeside. Raised on Sheridan Street, this is my area; this is where I am from. My biggest
<br />issue as of right now is that these types of situations divide this community, strong community,
<br />and my issue at this point is that we have asked the administration for a plan, well before this
<br />came up back in November, we are here again to ask Community Investment for a plan. My
<br />opinion has turned into a political football game, how does this play out later on, which gets the
<br />votes, who doesn’t get the votes etc. We still have people living in those areas who need certain
<br />services. For instance, where do we pick up a bag of socks at? Where do we get t-shirts from?
<br />Where do we get the things that are called retail from a certain area in that area, we don’t, so that
<br />is why Rick is able to do what he does, because there is nothing else over there. So, while we are
<br />debating on whether he should spend 500 hundred thousand dollars of his own money on one
<br />area or not, I mean that is crazy. He should have the ability to spend 500 hundred thousand
<br />dollars of his own money in a given area if that is what he wants to do. If he wants to take it and
<br />burn it up, then he should be allowed to do that himself. My issue is that we have not as a City
<br />Council nor as a City Administration, Mayor’s Office and Community Investment have actually
<br />set down to make sure that this could be a potential win/win for the business owner as well as for
<br />the residents that are in that particular area. And, as a result you are going have a divided
<br />community over a store that is there to make profit. Makes no sense to me, so my strongest issue
<br />about this is that this Council needs to get in line, our Council leadership needs to get in line, the
<br />Mayor’s Office needs to get in line to make sure that these residents are served properly. Is there
<br />an enforcement issue, you better believe it, there has always been an enforcement issue over in
<br />that area. The police have to be called at least two to three different times. Or if they are over
<br />there, there is four or five of them and it’s an issue of harassment. So we have to look at these
<br />things for what they are, Code Enforcement, how often does Code Enforcement visit these areas,
<br />they don’t. I just telling you what goes on over on the Westside and Lakeside. This is the reason
<br />that I ran for office, because these things need to go to a higher level and need to be intentionally
<br />done and we need to be a priority on the City’s list for investment, period. I don’t have anything
<br />else to say, thank you so much, again, I vote with my folks from the LaSalle Park Neighborhood
<br />Association, they stated that they didn’t want it, that’s the way I was going to sway back in
<br />November and I’m still there, and I’m implore folks that came out here, if you want to be a part
<br />of a larger way of getting these things done, please join the neighborhood association, join it and
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<br />we can get more together than we can apart. My question to Mike Danch is thereany way
<br />possible that he can still make this investment without the gas pumps. I see some healthy
<br />conversation that supports the expansion of the store but not the gas pumps.
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<br />Chairperson White stated to Councilmember Davis that after the Council comment portion, we
<br />can go back and have the petitioner address that question.
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