The Plaza Is Dead-Long Live The Plaza?

The plaza lives…for now.  No wait, that’s not quite right.  The Plaza as proposed is dead.   But the idea of a some kind of modified Plaza is on 60 days of life support.

It’s hard to describe how the process went down, it was a procedural mess that outraged councilman Lover, flummoxed others and basically left citizens out of the process.  Out of the gate on the Plaza agenda item, councilwoman Carmen Mendez moved to suspend any decisions on the Plaza for 60 days while the city’s original consultant, Crandall Arambula of Portland, works with the Plaza designers (Kathryn Gustafson) to come up with a modified design at a lesser cost and incorporating the  parking and potential economic benefits into the equation.

Whew.  So, the 11^th hour  execution reprieve comes at cost.  The cost is your involvement.  The original Plaza design was the result of a dozen public meetings with hundreds of community participants sharing their thoughts, ideas and opinions. And having that input incorporated into the final design decisions.

What happens now?  The consultants will meet with the designers and the council and they will chop and tweak and rearrange to come up with a plan that overcomes the objections.  What objections?  Great question!  Who knows???  Cost?  Great, how much?  Who knows???  When the Mayor says she needs changes but doesn’t indicate what changes, what is the public left to think?

I respect the designer and I trust the consultant so if they say they can work together  to make a unique Yakima design AND save money, I say two things.  1.) Why the heck didn’t they do that from the beginning and 2.) I have to believe there IS a quality Plaza that can accomplish all the expectations of economic driver, community living room, tourist destination, promoting racial unity and so much more.

So the clock starts ticking on a 60 day process that could lead to a Plaza --of some kind-- or not,  if in 60 days four members of the council vote no.

How can YOU the public be involved?  Stay tuned.