Your Guess Is As Good As Mine.

Over the weekend, I read the news that CVS has finally pulled the plug on their plans to build a Columbia location at Broadway and Providence (or anywhere else in the city for probably oh, forever).  And now that the proposed site of CVS is now available, I'm betting it will be three months before it becomes luxury student housing, or Columbia's other unmitigated favorite...a mattress store.

Without question, CVS spent about a year longer and $100,000 more in legal fees to argue over a proposed location for the Columbia store than I ever would have.  Knowing my personality, I would have packed up my bags by the second proposal rejection and opened a store in Boonville, Fulton, or Jefferson City while holding a long-term grudge against the Columbia City Council.  And minus the grudge part, that is probably exactly what CVS plans to do, allowing another city - a smarter city - to benefit from the jobs available and the guaranteed tax base.  Meanwhile, Columbia will just be hanging out here having pointless conversations about whether or not proposed pharmacies should have  second story architecture, all while rubber stamping every single application to build multi-story student housing complexes on each downtown city block.  Sounds about right.

None of my soapbox rants on this subject are triggered by a deep love of CVS...I can count on one hand the number of times I've been to one.  I've never visited the Walgreens on the opposite corner, so it isn't like the new CVS would have an immediate impact on my daily life (unlike the many people who live downtown and nearby).  But I'm so hung up on CVS because it is the perfect illustration of how our city council maintains zero consistency in city planning.  I just read that a portion of the courthouse square will soon be removed (along with the patio at Bleu) to make way for a multi-story office building.  In the process, a number of the commemorative bricks that people bought for a couple hundred bucks each in the 1990s will be dug up and relocated.  The entire landscape of the courthouse square will be altered by this new construction and seemingly, the city council takes no exception to that plan.  But move four blocks east to an intersection that SORELY needs some beautification and the council throws up every roadblock possible.  Which makes anyone contemplating a new business wonder...what is my treatment if I decide to move downtown?

Your guess is as good as mine.