I'm the Slime.

We knew it would be sickening, and apparently so did Mayor Greg Fischer's henchmen, seeing as they fought hard to keep the Amazon giveaway proposal under wraps.

Has Fischer resigned yet?

'Camp Alexa' and $2.5 billion over 20 years: What Louisville offered Amazon in HQ2 pitch, by Darcy Costello and Ben Tobin (Louisville Courier Journal)

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — If Amazon brought its second headquarters to Louisville, city officials pitched the company, it could settle its employees on a riverfront campus spanning both sides of the Ohio River, retire to a "Camp Alexa" retreat location at General Butler State Park and enjoy $2.5 billion in incentives over 20 years "based on the sharing of future revenues."

The 137-page bid for Amazon's "HQ2" project, which Mayor Greg Fischer's adfarm-near-me/">ministration has refused to release for two years, offers city-owned land and facilities downtown for an urban headquarters and sells the city's affordability, spirit of "exploration" and ability to serve as a regional talent magnet.

"Louisville is THE place to live, work, create and innovate," officials write in the document. "Swinging for the fences? Invented here. We believe that the homestretch is just the beginning. Just like our hometown hero Muhammad Ali, Louisville is the Greatest of All Time."

Fact-checking Deaf Gahan: He hasn't spent one penny of his own money to welcome another business to New Albany. Taxpayer-financed subsidies? Those are another matter entirely.

It's an election year, so take note of the lead sentence in the propaganda commissariat's latest blurb:

I'm sure he's sufficiently welcoming. After all, Gahan's not the one who paid for the sewer tap-in waivers he graciously awarded Flaherty and Collins in his capacity as sewer board president (that's a paid position, by the way) during the opening stages of the Breakwater development.

From January of 2017:

Flaherty and Collins apparently is offering to lease this (restaurant) space at the low bargain rate and provide something like $50,000 in cash for the build-out (the Green Mouse was told by the restaurateur that it wasn't enough of an enticement to interest him), but the dollars-per-square-foot price fairly skyrockets if the building's owner must finish the space.

Always be aware that as City Hall touts the many restaurants and bars downtown, as though it had anything whatever to do with their founding and operation -- and you can ask virtually any eatery owner to explain where the bulk of the start-up capital originates, this being with them, and not a magical bunkerside ATM -- the fact that the city subsidized the entirety of the Break Wind development means that the city also is subsidizing the eatery or bar that eventually comes to rest in the rough unfinished space. The city might as well be the one writing the check for $50K, right?

I'm not making this point owing to my antipathy for the current occupant, which is real, but rather because it's absolutely true. With Break Wind, the city's been picking winners with your money -- and is picking winners with your money the sort of thing you want Jeff Gahan doing?

Two years and an insurance fire have passed; Breakwater has residents, and now the restaurant space is to be filled. It's all good, or at least as good as it can be, because the same question awaits Gahan's attention -- and the next attempt he makes to answer it will be his first.

To what extent (if any) should City Hall subsidize private, for-profit development with an array of sewer tap-in waivers, tax abatements and other incentives -- enticements generally unavailable to smaller business entities, who must sink or swim by their own merits?

That's because it is perfectly legitimate to continue to ask questions about the applicability of taxpayer subsidies, the precedent of sewer tap-in waivers, the quality of construction techniques, the use of union versus non-union labor, the applicability of giveaways in the cause of "economic development" -- to name only a few issues.

The problem is Gahan is deaf.

8:39 p.m. update:

Given the money the City borrowed to help subsidize Breakwater and the 20-year TIF plan to pay it back, the development being two years old means only 18 more years to go before it contributes a single dime in property taxes to schools and the city general fund -- Jeff Gillenwater

#FireGahan2019

CM Blair's bank, the State Street exurb, commercial dereliction, corporate welfare and non-transparency.

Lightning Food Mart is an excellent example of the durability of locally-owned independent small business.

Conversely, most of State Street between the hospital and I-265 long ago was given over to chains and franchises of varying stripes, with a handful of locally-owned businesses scattered randomly through the vicinity.

It's several blocks of exurban sprawl logic crammed inelegantly between neighborhoods where people actually live, with perpetually renewing auto-intensive development, traffic problems, more car-driven development and the ensuing hamster wheel of futility in trying to balance conflicting interests.

Meanwhile, on Sunday this posting racked up huge numbers.

Let's go Krogering?: Does CM Blair's fixation with a boarded-up Hardee's have to do with gas pumps and corporate welfare?

As pointed out to me subsequently, Kroger's ongoing machinations aren't the only reason to pretend that discussions of how to seize and demolish "derelict" commercial properties should occupy council time when other factors are involved.

From 2013 ...

First Savings Bank nearly finished with Wesley Commons project, by Kevin Eigelbach (Louisville Business First)

Clarksville-based First Savings Financial Group Inc., the holding company for First Savings Bank, has nearly finished developing a 4-acre retail center in New Albany. The bank held a grand opening for a new bank branch there, its first in New Albany, last month.

And this:

Tenants: A Bob Evans restaurant, a Tire Discounters store, a Visionworks eyewear store, a Qdoba Mexican Grill restaurant, Bella Nails manicurist, Fantastic Sam’s hair care, Woodside Dental Center, the First Savings branch and a Starbucks coffee shop with a drive-through lane.

Ooh, a drive-thru?

And this:

The bank’s total investment: $7.55 million.

As a friend notes, $7.55 million for all of Wesley Commons makes the $9 million for River Run seem even more inflated, but the point is transparency.

Granted, just because CM Blair is a banker, it doesn't mean he's to be vocationally vilified (even if the temptation always will be strong for me), but the fact that his bank is a player in the immediate vicinity, and Kroger's redevelopment designs were not clearly delineated by Blair or anyone else at last Thursday's council meeting (the razing of  the fire station at a loss to the city to suit Kroger on the other side of the plaza is a different but no less annoying topic), and the city council itself typically participates in decisions pertaining to zoning, traffic and land use on the State Street corridor -- look, all these factors demand more, not less, transparency from elected officials.

Although it does prove that "independent" means different things to different people ... and I like my definition better than his.

Let's go Krogering?: Does CM Blair's fixation with a boarded-up Hardee's have to do with gas pumps and corporate welfare?

On Friday, I emitted a rant.

Council meeting recap 1: State's a trashy chain-ridden asphalt nightmare, and this sole derelict Hardee's must go!

There was this interesting comment ...

Did we overhear Kroger managers talking about the company's plans to move the Kroger gas station to the Hardee's site?

If so, shouldn't Kroger pay for the demolition and site remediation?

Even though the city sold a relatively new fire station for much less than the replacement cost to allow Kroger to expand?

This morning over coffee, it was time for some research, prompted by this timely report from another helpful friend who agreed to hit the Internet for me. Let's have a look at the properties involved ...

The Hardees lot is a separate parcel cut from the large State Street Plaza lot. Both are owned by "New Albany Plaza LLC" using Kevin Schreiber as their listed agent. Kevin Schreiber is part of "The Shopping Center Group" - see: http://theshoppingcentergroup.com/people/kevin-schreiber/

Kroger is now listed as the owner of the former fire house lot using their holding company used for retail land purchases:

"Kroger Limited Partnership 1, through its General Partner KRGP, Inc., doing business as Kroger."

The Principal Officers are as follows:

President/COO: David B. Dillon of 1050 East Rookwood Drive, Cincinnati, OH 45208

Sr. Vice President/Secretary: Paul W. Heldman of 1135 Edwards Road, Cincinnati, OH 45208

Vice President/Treasurer: Scott M. Henderson of 10548 Secretariat Drive, Union, KY 41091.

And a bit more:

The existing Kroger store lot is currently owned by an entity named "B B W T, Inc." - I can't find out any information about that group, and I don't know what the initials represent.

Interestingly, supposedly the Penn Station (former 1st National bank building) comes down, and the Long John Silvers/A & W combo becomes part of the Kroger footprint to the west. When the project was announced, the plans were shown to the front line people, who talked about it for a few days. Now, if you ask any of them about it, all they'll say is that it's in the hands of the higher ups.

Here's a late update from yet another friend:

The Kroger on State Street owns the building that now holds Long John Silver and A & W. The owner of that franchise is looking to build where the Hardees buildig is now. He tried to get it in the contract for Kroger to remove that building and build a new one, but did not. However, the first stage of the Kroger expansion is to tear down the Long John Silver building in order to expand the gas station. Hope this helps.

Thanks to the three of you. Bankers seldom bother containing their enthusiasm for down-low deals of this nature, so it makes me wonder: Just how many deals are going to be cut for Kroger?

As an aside:

Almost from the moment the Kroger store opened on Grant Line Road, just across University Woods Drive from my pizzeria and public house business, the rumors began: Eventually, Kroger would buy Elliott Phillips's parking area (bounded by University Woods and Plaza Drive) and build a gas station there.

It never happened, but the rumors have not ceased.

Phillips no longer owns the property in question. It was purchased a couple years ago by ... the Blairs, from whom NABC leases parking spaces.