Saw the TDR headline and almost ran into a light pole: Judge Handy has effectively* squashed the State Center project, after more than seven years of legal wrangling. You may recall, State Center was a $1.5 billion proposed government-office complex for downtown, conceived by Ehrlich in 2005 and all set to roll out on taxpayers' dime. But then, one of the two developers, Doracon, had to drop off the project after it was revealed that their CEO, Ronald Lipscomb* literally whored himself out to the mayor. The other developer, Streuver, went tits-up (financially), and all along the project was pelted with lawsuits from two dozen neighbors and landlords* claiming violations of all sorts of procurement laws. Rather outrageously, the state-- personified by Attorney GD Gansler's office-- SLAPPed back with lawsuits against the plaintiffs, and refused to release any documents to the media in response to FOIA requests, claiming that the Attorney General's office couldn't afford to make copies. The Attorney General's office, by the way, was due to get the largest chunk of space-- 111,000 square feet -- in the new complex.
So, seven years of taxpayer dollars were wasted on lawsuits, but that still beats getting hosed for $1.5 billion. And now there's four candidates set to run against Gansler next year, so hopefully after this shameful exercise he'll retire and go smoke a fatty with ol' token Snowden* and his sex offender friend*-- all's well that ends well. The end!
So, seven years of taxpayer dollars were wasted on lawsuits, but that still beats getting hosed for $1.5 billion. And now there's four candidates set to run against Gansler next year, so hopefully after this shameful exercise he'll retire and go smoke a fatty with ol' token Snowden* and his sex offender friend*-- all's well that ends well. The end!
