If the retail will not come to Ramsey Town Center, the Town Center should fire Landform and fund retail.
Look at Eden Prairie. It owns, runs, serves and I expect turns a suitable profit to offset burdensome taxation.
It is only a start, one line of consumer goods, but any path needs a first step.
Certainly in Ramsey there is Coborn's in this niche. Councilman Wise in that niche. But there is room.
If the vote years ago was for "shoppes and restaurants" then mayor and council - Do It.
Get out of land speculation. It's for pros, with know-how.
Twenty grand a month dumped into Darren could be reallocated to useful ends. Think what it could catalyze if well spent and not wasted on excuses about having to wait for rail and an Armstrong interchange, and wasted on Las Vegas junkets.
Get into retail. Learn what you need to know.
If you city savents are going to bond for something, we already living here get zippo from funding a mega-landlord's adventures. The Indiana people have their pile of wealth, and that's the wealth to risk in that sort of private-sector thing.
But if the referendum back in 2002 was a 60% vote clearly favoring shoppes and restaurants; City of Ramsey, open a few.
It would be public money spent for something the public of Ramsey WANTS, and NEEDS.
We don't need Flaherty. We don't need Collins.
We need retail and restaurants.
Stoppe diddling. Give us our shoppes. Restaurants.
_______________UPDATE______________
ALSO: City of Ramsey could get into printing political signs. I bet that's another area where a profit could be turned and property taxes lessened accordingly. And as a city thing it would be bipartisan. No one party being served to the near or total exclusion of the other. Indeed, IP signs could be printed too. Big Darren Highway 10 signs could be city public works projects, not private sector profiteering. Possibilities are endless - Once there has been a decision to compete with the private sector. If that's what the GOP dominated council wants, at least do it to meet existing resident wants and needs and who needs Darren?