ABC News’ Alex Stone was at Liz Cheney’s election night party. Hear his thoughts.
DIB Executive Director Walker Wilson explains how the fund for the the Downtown Improvement Board works.
Escambia County Sheriff Chip Simmons covers the Female Blazer Academy, Baker Act dilemma and other programs.
And the full show:
Interesting comment Talon.
Funny satire on the video for gallery night protest.
There’s a reason the DIB was invented with the mission to reduce blight.
First, by continuing to develop in such a way, they exist to serve economic growth for a very select group of business owners. But they wield, formally and informally, governmental power. This, combined with outsourcing blight, guarantees them a place at the top of our city’s pyramid scheme. That’s not removing blight. When you continue to exercise and accumulate power with no real responsibilities other than pressure washing and being salespeople, you contribute nothing to the vast majority of the city. Not even to most of the people who work in your district. In fact, for the most vulnerable among us, the DIB is a disciplinary organization. Why do you think most of the people who protest the DIB have to remain anonymous?
They have unconditional permission to accumulate wealth and power at the expense of the rest of the city.
Second, rather than reduce blight, they relocate and outsource blight to poorer parts of the city. They personally wield police officers to move hungry and houseless people from their district.
They justify this by saying the homeless are disruptive. Even if you morally agree with this reasoning, even if you take their exaggerations as truth, they are simply handing off disruptions to other parts of the city. Parts that have no money to spend. And if they did have money, it’d only be through commercial investment. Just like the DIB’s district. Which just means more outsourcing of social problems. This cold “it’s not our responsibility” thing is ridiculous. If your city can’t afford or otherwise manage to address social and economic issues, yet you can secure endless capital for middle and upper class luxuries, where does that leave us?
These are the reasons people hate the DIB. They can do their press rounds and try to justify their existence to businesses owners and the city, but everyday people don’t care about the economic blessings of the wealthiest class in Pensacola. Only those in a position to profit do. Everyone else says, “help our city or step down.”