Inside UDJ by Editor K.C. Meadows

Well here I am again in the blogosphere. We had to take this blog
down for a bit while we got some new software that would - it is
hoped - block all the blogspam getting in.
This blog will have some new features. We are encouraging our
reporters and other editors to blog as well on topics they're
familiar with.
As you can guess, reporters and editors are out and about in the
community hearing and seeing things that don't always make it into
news stories but are interesting nonetheless. This will be a place
where they can pass that stuff on.
We hope it will be a good interactive way for our readers to get the
inside scoop on things while simultaneously reporting interesting
stuff back to us as well.
If you don't want to blog, you can always email anyone on our
editorial staff directly.

So if you're wondering what happened to Costco and have read our
story by Katie Mintz, here's my take: I think Costco was never really
happy with the land on offer but thought the Redwood Business Park
was the only place where a Costco would get a spot in Ukiah. Now they
have heard abut Diversified Developers Real Estate, or DDR, who own
the Masonite land and want to build a huge regional shopping mall,
and Costco is seeing a much better deal. I have heard that DDR and
Costco are already talking but I don't know if that's true.
As for that land, it's just one many conversations going on right now
about planning in the valley.
We have the Ukiah Valley Area Plan, where the Masonite land future
will be decided.
We just had the city's charrettes (I hate that term, it sounds so if-
you-don't-know-what-it-means-you-shouldn't-come) on the Perkins
Street corridor and the downtown.
We have the county general plan revisions finally getting under way.
We have the planning for the county criminal justice center under
consultation.
(And by the by, what if the county decides to build some government
monstrosity right along Perkins Street? Look around at any county
building in town. Would you want that to represent our downtown?)
All in all it's a lot of talk.
I've only been in this county since 1989 so I'm still considered a
newbie, but I was a reporter when the city planned its spanking new
redevelopment agency and asked the citizens for their input on how to
spend the bond money. As I remember it, Perkins and State street
beautification was at the top of the list.. But a new city manager
decided he knew better and talked the City Council into spending it
on a conference center that still has not fulfilled its mission and a
plaza that no one hangs out in.
We'll see where this round of talking takes us.