Gee, Lewis got Neil Diamond? Maybe he wasn't so bad, after all.... No. He really was that bad, in no small part because he shoved boating down to the bottom of the list. Face it, the marina is getting done last. He exemplifies the politicians who think the waterfront should be "pristine", without messy things like docks.
And as for the concept that dock expenditures should be paid for from dockage receipts, every privately run marina in the Delta does it that way. Only by starting with an assumption of total incompetence at marina management do you get to the point where you think dockage rates need to be tax-subsidized. Stockton could easily have found several marina companies willing to long term lease, build, and run a downtown marina with a net positive cash flow to the city. But no, these arrogant [you know whats] insisted on doing it themselves--and spent a decade, and lost two economic booms, in the process!
I may seem harsh, but I'm tired of politicians who make political hay by attacking and inconveniencing those recreational activities which they think represent the "affluent", particularly boating and golf. In both of these areas, we routinely see private enterprises compete with public facilities. The private entities survive, while the politicians loot the funds of the public facilities, hire their dumb cronies to run them, and complain that they are supporting the rich. It won't be long until the Stockton pols start complaining about the marina they already wrecked in the design process. (And BTW, large marinas are more efficient than small marinas--shrinking the marina size didn't make the situation better, it made it worse.)
BTG
