The $3.5 Million Sidewalk: How Kirkwood’s SS4A Grant Lost the Plot

• Last Wednesday's City Council meeting was an eventful one, and luckily the news seems to be all good:
  • The Council passed the first reading of the modest FAR reform proposal by a vote of 6-0 (CM Zimmer was absent). There is some talk amongst the Council of exempting some of Kirkwood's larger lot single-family R-1, R-2, and R-3 zones from the change. I really hope that does not come to pass, as it would 1) further complicate the zoning code instead of simplifying it, 2) exempt some of the city's wealthiest, most sprawling neighborhoods from a change that's supposed to spur affordability, and 3) would lead to more teardowns in those neighborhoods. We can't keep perpetuating this rules-for-thee-but-not-for-me regime, it's fundamentally unfair.
  • The Council also granted unanimous first-reading approval to the city's third ADU, on Forest Ave. The Council didn't offer any comments on the project, which further indicates to me that the need for Council approval has run its course and is a waste of everyone's time and money, including the Council's. If the Council changed ADUs from a special use to a permitted use, it'd be a huge credit towards their attainable housing legacy
• Last week's Webster-Kirkwood Times was pretty light, but here are a few highlights:
  • For my Glendale readers, there's an excellent opportunity to get to know your elected officials over coffee tomorrow morning from 8-10am at Glendale City Hall. Mayor Wilcox, and aldermen Stewart, Fiordelisi, and Volk will all be in attendance.
  • I also really enjoyed this write-up on pg. 13 of Kirkwood Library's Memory Cafe program to help facilitate socialization amongst those experiencing memory loss. The next event is tomorrow (Friday) from 10:30am to noon.
• Finally, I'm hearing some rumors that some folks may be getting cold feet on the South Kirkwood Road lane reduction plan under the guise that the Republican administration/our state Senators are opposed. We've already been awarded the grant for this project so there isn't any way that the feds to take back this money without it being clearly arbitrary and capricious (the federal government has been blocked from reneging on their approval of New York's congestion pricing under this exact logic), so I don't think this excuse has any merit whatsoever. I'm especially confident that we can get this done since our Mayor and Council have strong ties to the Republican party. If this doesn't get done, it was the decision of our elected leaders. Everything else is obfuscation.