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South Bend Redevelopment Commission <br />Regular Meeting November 10, 2014 <br />6. NEW BUSINESS (CONT.) <br />A. Public Hearings <br />(5) continued... <br />there is a lot of oversight now, much more than there has been. We're trying to create more <br />transparency so you can see all the requests out there. I appreciate that comment. <br />Mr. Rudy Vegh: I own a business on Western Avenue, between Walnut and Olive St. I <br />grew up on the corner of Western and Kosiusko. South Bend is on the right track. You <br />guys are doing a great job on this program. Where the money is coming from is awesome. <br />It's coming from the new business. It's great to see all this new business coming to the west <br />side and to South Bend. But here's my big problem with all this. We're going to spend a lot <br />of money on lighting Western Avenue, Lincolnway, and new curbs, new stuff, but it's not <br />going to look very good having all this new stuff right up against vacant buildings. You go <br />up Western Avenue and count up buildings that are boarded up. It's a nightmare. Now, <br />when I say these buildings are boarded up, it's not just a year, two years. There are <br />buildings that have been boarded up for twenty -five to thirty years. For example, next to <br />Patricia Ann's there's a bicycle shop that closed up when the gentleman got ill twenty -five <br />years ago. Somebody needs to step up from Council when you guys are at the meetings and <br />put pressure on other departments that go around and regulate what these buildings look <br />like. If we're going to have businesses on Western Avenue and Lincolnway, we have to <br />have them look like businesses, so when people drive down Western Avenue and into the <br />corridors of our city, they don't see what they are seeing. My business is a good business <br />and we do real well, but sitting next to stuff that is abandoned, looking that bad, what good <br />is spending money on all this stuff, new curbs, new sidewalks, new plants, if what it is <br />sitting up against is the same old, same old, that the city has allowed for twenty -five or thirty <br />years. We need to get the departments that have to regulate ... if it's supposed to look like a <br />store, make it look like a store. The deadbeat business owners, property owners, have to get <br />off their tushes and make your properties look better. That's the only thing that's a big <br />problem with this. You guys are on the right track, but we also have to look behind what <br />you guys are doing and link it all together and make it right. Thank you. <br />Ms. Charlotte Bridges: I live at 222 Dundee. Another lady asked about the area acquisition <br />along Western Avenue. It said 405 acres, was it acres? So is that the whole TIF district? <br />Or where is the 405 acres? I want you to tell me, because I'm not a map reader. <br />Mr. Ford: No, I'll walk through it. So, you've got from Mayflower all the way in to the city <br />by the Cove. Mostly this is one or two parcels off of Western on either side. There's a little <br />larger area around LaSalle Park. But that's the area that's being added. <br />Ms. Bridges: So, you could acquire property in any of that area? <br />Mr. Ford: We could, and we could invite the homeowner to a conversation about acquiring <br />property, yes, but we can't just go in and acquire property. <br />21 <br />