I spoke to the assistant city manager that seems to be the point guy for the project. Super nice dude. I asked him if they had done anything analogous to an economic impact study on this. He indicated that they were using "dynamic models" from one of their consultants. But they didn't have anything that they want to show the public. That indicates to me that they are playing around with different assumptions, plugging them into a spreadsheet, and have not come up with anything that is both reasonable and justifies spending anywhere near this kind of money.
Toss that in with the super-vague talk from the city and the wide range of very high numbers being thrown out: this but an embryo of a ridiculous idea. No indication there is a vision or an idea of how this is supposed to snowball into anything.
The only private buy-in I have seen so far are the consultants they are hiring in to try to come up with something that they can sell to the public. And they are going to be getting in some new consultants to come up with a design along with an impact projection to sell this thing. If I am looking at the right firm's website, these new guys are slick. It is going to be ridiculous. The decision makers are playing with other people's money so they just want to make it spectacular. Money is no object. I can't wait. SUPERPARK!
Brian Alg
Brazos Coalition for Responsible Government