Maybe, says Dan Walters.
Stockton needs it. Its downtown is blighted to Third-World levels, it has the last undeveloped urban waterfront in the state and numerous neighborhoods with crying needs for new infrastructure.
The fact that Stockotn’s redevelopment agency alientated the public through bonehead mismanagement doesn’t change the need.
Unfortunately, it seems unlikely that the bills reviving redevelopment, or reasonable facsimiles thereof, will be signed into law. When Brown sought to eliminate redevelopment, state redevelopment agencies sued him in court to oppose his plan. Their self-serving and obstructionist contention that redevelopment agencies had the right to perpetual existence probably angered Brown. A betting man would wager he’ll veto redevelopment’s resurrection.
