Thursday, February 2, 2012
Little Rock Government City of Little Rock moving to block VA center
Posted by Max Brantley on Thu, Feb 2, 2012 at 4:23 PM
We love our veterans in Little Rock, just so long as those who come back from wars with problems go where nobody can see them.
The latest in Little Rock Mayor Mark Stodola's crusade to keep a VA service center for vets off Main Street is a hurryup revision in Little Rock ordinances set for consideration next week. In short, it would require a conditional use permit from the City Board for a community health or welfare center, an establishment to care for alcoholic, narcotic or psychiatric patients, an establishment for religious, charitable or philanthropic organizations or for liquor stores.
Over the long haul, this has implications for dozens of organizations new and existing. In the short run, it would require a conditional use permit, not now required, for the VA day center, which has outgrown its space at 2nd and Ringo and has a lease and construction plans in hand for a new center at 10th and Main in an abandoned car dealership. Mayor Stodola has called the location idiotic. The neighborhood has been split on the issue. The VA has explained that all its clients are not homeless and all have agreed to rules of use in a facility that will be well regulated and secured.
The city will face no new obstacles in turning an aging homeless shelter on Confederate Boulevard into a city day homeless center. Mayor Stodola has already made it clear that he deems that neighborhood, with a nearby magnet school, suitable for dumping people, from the general homeless to military veterans enrolled in therapeutic, educational and vocational programs. U.S. Rep. Tim Griffin, likewise, has joined those trying to force military veterans into the boondocks at a decrepit facility not yet up to code, not handicap accessible and otherwise an insult to the people Griffin and others invoke solemnly as political foils on Memorial Day.
There was a time when city legal minds said you couldn't simply set a NIMBY standard on treatment facilities, which this conditional use process will institutionalize. No neighborhood will want a treatment center. They will be awarded depending on how loud neighbors scream or how much clout neighborhoods have before the City Board. Confederate Boulevard? Not so much. Main Street? More. The Heights and Chenal? No need to ask. A rational, non-arbitrary standard for making these calls won't be possible, as they were under previous zoning.
VA officials said they just learned of the proposed ordinance today and weren't prepared to comment. They are still waiting to hear from the secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs, who was asked to review the Main Street proposal by Congressman Griffin. City officials believe the VA can cancel its lease without financial obligations because, even before this ordinance, Board of Adjustment approval was necessary for parking, landscaping and other aspects of the redevelopment plan. The city attorney thinks the lease cannot be enforced at cost to federal taxpayers if the VA hasn't obtained city approval. I don't know what the developer holding the contract thinks about that.
There's another looming problem in this hurryup lawmaking from the people at City Hall who once helped earn Little Rock the title of the meanest city in America in treatment of homeless. Removing liquor stores from by-right approval in all zoning categories essentially puts the city in control of where permits are granted in the city. That is a power reserved by law to the state. The city sees it differently. That's what courts are for, I guess.
PS — City claims, with utter lack of credibility, that this ordinance wasn't designed to stop the vets' center. Even if you give them that, you can't ignore the emergency that requires adoption next week before VA can get its building permit. The lying liars of City Hall are at it again. A proud day for the strong mayor.
PPS — Homeless advocate and downtown resident Robert Johnston poses some questions:
1. DG story quotes City Attorney Tom Carpenter ‘ This ordinance came about when we were looking at the complaints we were getting about lack of notification and community discussion…’Perhaps you could/ should ask in an FOIA for those complaints?
2.. Perhaps you should/ could ask ‘ What is the emergency?’
3. Perhaps you should/ could ask a constitutional scholar at UALR Law about constituitionality of city requiring a church to seek conditional use permit before starting [or expanding? ] a church facility or outreach mission?
4. Bruce Moore has sent a memo that the Fiscal Impact is ‘None’ and that Citizen Participation is ‘ N/a’
a.If dozens of such permits are required how can fiscal impact be ‘none’?
b. If the city is sued by Fed Govt and/or religious groups how can fiscal impact be ‘none’?
c. Why no ‘Citizen participation’ in this 'emergency' move?
Speaking of...
-
Pedestrian and bike safety campaign downtown
May 7, 2012The City of Little Rock and the Downtown Partnership kick off a new pedestrian safety campaign. /more/
-
City of Little Rock sets May 16 end to Occupy Little Rock camp
April 23, 2012Little Rock Police Chief Stuart Thomas personally delivered word to the Occupy Little Rock encampment at 4th and Ferry Streets this evening that a city permit for the occupation, previously open-ended would not be extended past May 16. /more/
-
Money swap to benefit legislator's employment
April 22, 2012The Democrat-Gazette's Michael Wickline has a good "gotcha" story in the Sunday newspaper. UALR advertised for and hired a person to run the Central Little Rock Promise Neighborhood project and put that person on payroll last September. /more/
-
The Catch-up Edition
March 9, 2012A settlement in a legislative expense lawsuit, the historic election of a new Speaker of the Arkansas House, the end of the fiscal session, the latest on the VA Center's planned move to Main Street and more covered this week. /more/
- More »
Comments (17)
Showing 1-17 of 17
So the city retroactively trieto solve an issue that could have been prevented if their "homeless coordinator" did his/her job. Has that person been relieved of their responsibilities? Where is the accountability of the mayor to not read the required legal notices in the only "state-wide" paper (published by his BFF) as the ADG likes to remind us every time they have an open ad space? Isn't there a legal position about retroactively creating a law? I think the feds need to require that the city pay any lease cancellation costs since they have this pool of exce$$ money they were gifted in that last election.
like
dislike
I have an idea, and we'd be killing two birds with one stone: Deed the old Job Corps Building that everyone's been complaining about to the VA for the day center. It would then be renovated and I think the facility would be large enough.
The city's homeless coordinator suffered a mild stroke about a week ago and underwent some surgery from which he is now recovering. He has been on sick leave while this latest move on the part of the Mayor and City Board has been developing.
Please lay off of him, cbb. Asking a question like, "Has that person been relieved of their responsibilities?" indicates that you have not thought through the situation. The "their" in your question must (and should) mean the Mayor's and the City Boards. Knowing the homeless coordinator, I can assure you that he would do all he can to get provided the human needs of the homeless and anybody else in need. But if the Mayor and City Board will not allow any facility that actually meets the needs of those in need to be near downtown (where the service facilities of federal, state, and local government are all located) because that would attract more needy people, the homeless coordinator's putative function cannot possibly be fulfilled.
If the coordinator has a fault related to these shameful developments, it is being unrealistic enough to think that he could do some good in that job under those elected officials.
Stodola is far out on this. He's an embarrassment to the city, and making the city an embarrassment to the state. For years I've observed cars with the yellow ribbons to support the troops violate traffic laws and wondered about the disrespect one did to the other. Now we're learning how too many feel toward the returned troops and the hypocrisy is overwhelming.
The mayor may want to rethink that $200,000 donation to the Chamber since it's another black eye for the city to maintain it's "meanest" rankings. Hey mayor, we are #1 in something. Wow!
Snapback, thanks for the comeback. I do not know the person but there were reports that he didn't attend the meetings when the VA was discussing it. Maybe, he was told not to get involved. Shirley, there are some progressive cities that can use his skills better than LR.
Not in my neighborhood. We love soldiers when they are serving in Iraq or Afghanistan, and getting their butts shot at, and witnessing all sorts of horrors, but when they come home as basket cases, we don't want them around. Isn't that enough to just make you disgusted at Americans--and I think the reaction of the people is this case is an American reaction? Those who oppose this center are people you associate with every day and who consider themselves the salt of the earth? What is this country coming to? I won't even attempt to answer that question.
cbb, thanks for looking at another view of this sorry mess. My understanding is that the article in the ADG was in error -- that the homeless coordinator did attend the meeting at which VA officials were said to have revealed their planned move to the old Jones Jeep dealership building on Main Street, that no such item was on the agenda, and that, if any open discussion of it occurred, it was after the agenda had been covered and the coordinator left at 2:00 P.M.
My own suspicion is that VA officials, reasonably enough, thought it wise not to let City officials know their plans until they had to.
tell me if mayor stodola has ever been enlisted. then tell me what his problem is.
This action is underhanded, sleazy,etc. I ask, once again, is our city better off with a full time mayor? Hmmmm....
Where was the city's quick action when other neighborhoods came out to oppose treatment centers near them? Oh, but put it on empty Main Street and the fat cats jump to it!
When I lived in Little Rock, I voted against electing Stodola and having a hybrid Mayor-City Manager government, which didn't and still doesn't seem like a realistic use of resources or funds.
However, I moved south and have watched from South Arkansas. Now, I am curious. How long are the voters in Little Rock going to continue to put up with the hybrid city government and the antics of Mayor Stodola, who seems to be causing way more problems than he is solving?
ex post facto ?
Another great President needs to send Federal Troops to Little Rock to again enforce "the right thing"
You didn't love the Vietnam Vets. I should know. I was one of them. Where were you when we came home? Where were you when we needed a helping hand? Where were you when people called us 'baby killers'? This newly found loyalty to Vets is a little late for many of us.
Some of us did, Holmes. Don't hold the vast majority of us responsible for what a few may have said or done.
It was hardly a 'few'. The leftists led the revolt against the war and against us. I am not speaking hypothetically. That anti-war movement led by the left condoned the hatred of Vietnam Vets and the abuse leveled against them. Now they wash their hands like Pilate and claim no responsibility. I personally experienced that abuse and witnessed it being leveled against my buddies. You can't change the truth because you now realize it was a PR mistake.
Please sign my petition on change.org...
http://www.change.org/petitions/stop-playi…
Maybe he would prefer a liquor store be put there! That should help everyone out!
Glad I do not live in Little Rock any longer!
More by Author
-
State Police to update Petrino crash details
I raised a series of questions this morning about how State Police Capt. Lance King came to be involved in helping Hog coach Bobby Petrino to the hospital, including questions aimed at determining whether he knew Petrino had company and whether King had counseled Good Samaritan motorists about giving information to reporters.
- Apr 6, 2012
-
Black students receive harsher discipline
New data from the U.S. Education Department shows that black students, particularly boys, face harsher discipline in school than other students.
- Mar 6, 2012
- More »
Event Calendar
-
Re: The Long Weekend, Post-Election Edition
Yes, Roberts played them well. Said one misleading thing after another and many, including Ark's…
- on May 25, 2012
-
Re: The Long Weekend, Post-Election Edition
-
Re: Jackpot? State college spending and the lottery
Straw man gylippus, there are any number of solutions that have nothing to do with…
- on May 25, 2012
Top Commenters
Blogroll
Slideshows
-
Police close the Occupy Little Rock camp, perhaps the last Occupy encampment on public land.
Site Index
News
Cover Story / Arkansas Reporter / The Week That Was / Smart Talk / The Insider / The Observer / Editorial / Max Brantley / Ernest Dumas / Gene Lyons / Bob Lancaster / Words / Guest Writer / Letters
Entertainment
A&E Feature / To-Do List / In Brief / Movie Reviews / Music Reviews / Theater Reviews / A&E News / Art Notes / Graham Gordy / Books / Media / Dining Reviews / Dining Guide / What's Cookin' / Calendar / The Televisionist / Movie Listings / Gallery Listings
This Week's Cover
Quick Links
Special Publications
RSS
Facebook
Twitter
