{"id":18836,"date":"2016-12-26T02:22:30","date_gmt":"2016-12-26T02:22:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=18836"},"modified":"2016-12-26T02:22:30","modified_gmt":"2016-12-26T02:22:30","slug":"here-is-my-wish-for-my-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=18836","title":{"rendered":"Here is my wish for my city"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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A truly crappy year is moving into its final week.<\/p>\n

Americans have elected a seriously deficient individual as president of the United States; we lost a lot of iconic celebrities in the arts, sports, pop culture and politics. I’m going to hope for the best as it regards the new president and, of course, I can’t do a thing about those we lost.<\/p>\n

Here at home, Amarillo is in the midst of a serious municipal makeover. Since we’re heading into down the stretch of a tumultuous year, I don’t believe it’s too early to offer a wish or two for 2017 for the city I’ve called home for the past 22 years.<\/p>\n

Here goes …<\/p>\n

They’ve knocked down a Coca-Cola warehouse and distribution center downtown. They’ve relocated it at a new business park on the north side of the city. What happens next to the now-vacant site depends on what happens in San Antonio and whether our local government authorities can negotiate a good deal for the downtown business and entertainment district.<\/p>\n

The old Coke site is slated to become home for a ballpark. Its cost now sits at about $45 million. It\u00a0is supposed to be the home field for a Class AA minor-league baseball franchise currently plays hardball in San Antonio. That team’s owners want to bring the Missions to Amarillo.<\/p>\n

However, San Antonio has to lure a Class AAA team to fill the void. If the Alamo City can’t consummate that deal, then the Missions won’t leave. At least that’s my understanding.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the Amarillo Local Government Corporation, which the City Council has tasked with negotiating the deal to bring the Missions here, says it needs a signed agreement before it will agree to start construction on the multipurpose event venue at the former Coke site.<\/p>\n

My hope is that the city can bring the Missions here; that it can start work on the MPEV; that all the other construction projects now underway — the Embassy Suites Hotel and the parking garage — get completed; that retail outlets lease space in the parking garage.<\/p>\n

The Chase Tower is going to see a lot of floors go dark in 2017. Xcel Energy is moving into a new office complex on Buchanan Street and will leave the Chase Tower. And … West Texas A&M University also will vacate the Tower by 2018 when it opens a new downtown campus at the totally made-over structure formerly known as the Commerce Building.<\/p>\n

A partner in the Gaut Wittenberg Emerson commercial real estate firm has given me rock-solid assurance that the Chase Tower vacancies will be filled. We’ll be watching, man.<\/p>\n

Polk Street is witnessing a serious construction boom at the moment. New restaurants and bistros are being built. The city has just been awarded a Cultural District designation by Texas Arts Commission with the hope of boosting interest in the arts and cultural amenities offered in Amarillo.<\/p>\n

So …<\/p>\n

The city is undergoing\u00a0in the midst of a\u00a0serious makeover. We’ll have an election in 2017 that could be as dramatic and consequential as the 2015 municipal election that brought us three new City Council members.<\/p>\n

Oh, and the council is now poring over the qualifications of five competent individuals seeking to become the next city manager.<\/p>\n

You want change? It’s here folks.<\/p>\n

My hope for the city is that we steer it in the right direction.<\/p>\n\n

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A truly crappy year is moving into its final week. Americans have elected a seriously deficient individual as president of the United States; we lost a lot of iconic celebrities in the arts, sports, pop culture and politics. I’m going to hope for the best as it regards the new president and, of course, I … Continue reading Here is my wish for my city<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[290,934,1436,3153],"class_list":["post-18836","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","tag-amarillo-city-hall","tag-chase-tower","tag-downtown-amarillo","tag-mpev"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18836","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18836"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18836\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18838,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18836\/revisions\/18838"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18836"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}