Local bailouts

Wow.

Ben doesn't mince words ...

The irony is that the present Commission most likely wouldn’t have approved the original planned development for Oak Grove in 2000, and absolutely wouldn’t have approved the partial rezone to Commercial-Neighborhood in 2004. Now commissioners feel stuck, like they have to grant the developers’ requests because of what came before. But why not see Oak Grove for what it is? The present owners’ purchase was a bad investment in a community that values its greenbelt. And in Athens, at least, bad investments don’t deserve bailouts.