Dan or Lioneld - Who understands good development policies better?

[wmr]

Its time to pick the course for the next four years in Fayetteville. I think I've seen that most of the UP NWA forum has a higher opinion of Dan Coody as far as a mayor who understands good, sustainable, and urban development.

I just look at all that Fayetteville accomplished under Dan's leadership, the trail system, City Plan 2025, better development standards, etc and I can't see anything comparable in the Jordan administration. To me, its an easy choice.

I'm curious to know what other anonymous UP NWA forum posters think about the two candidates.

[zman9810]

I think Jordan has gotten a mostly free ride the last 4 years because of the economic downturn. He has been able to avoid making many development related decisions because development has been at a standstill. When he did have the opportunity to make a decision concerning the sale barn rezoning he was able to get out of it by not showing leadership. He presided over some questionable city projects such as Dickson Street parking and the redo of Block Avenue. It has been on his watch that the Walton Arts Center moved their largest theater out of Fayetteville and went back on their plans to build a 600 seat theater on Dickson. I think Coody would have handled all these issues better than Jordan has done. I haven't agreed with Coody all the time but I think he did a much better job in his terms in office than Jordan has done.

[aerotive]

We have one middle-aged middle-class white male liberalish technocrat who's the current mayor, and one middle-aged middle-class white male liberalish technocrat who's the former mayor. Not much between them to me...I like paid parking so +1 for Jordan, and I also like the trails so +1 for Coody.

I'm also cynical about local politics, too often it degrades into nepotism/graft/patronage etc. Most of all I want competence and basic services to be both efficient and high quality. Don't see much of a difference there with these two...

[wmr]

I think there are actually pretty striking differences.

Dan is a big advocate of improving College Avenue, making the development pattern more pedestrian-friendly, and reinvesting in the area in a similar manner to how Dickson was improved.

He also has pointed to proposals for parking facilities downtown that are public-private partnerships and specificially include new commercial space and less of a burden financially for citizens.

I also like his Marlon Blackwell-designed plan for the old Tyson facility that the city owns. He has some very progressive ideas about development, and I really can't say I've heard a lot of good ideas come from Jordan. The pay parking was needed, but I like Coody's proposals for garages and how to implement and continue the program better.

A lot of his stuff is on this site:

[Mith242]

Yeah I'd have to say I'm more in favor of Coody. But I think I'm also open minded enough to realize Coody had the benefit of being mayor while the economy was good. While that has obviously not been a benefit Jordan has had. But it just seems to me that Coody has more of a vision for Fayetteville. If Coody is re-elected I hope people don't expect too much and for everything to return to the boom days like it was when Coody was office before. I don't think Jordan is a bad guy. I just think over all Coody has a better overall plan for the city.