Today at our weekly Friday pachyderm luncheon we had two successful developers speak. They have had successful real estate projects all over the country as well as here in Wichita. The biggest yet and most notable is the project at 13th st. and Webb rd., The Water Front.

The Water Front was built on an idea that Wichita was going to expand east and fill in that gap between Andover and Wichita. It was a correct and a good idea as the development filled up fast.

Johnny Stevens and Steve Clark made  this project work with no money from the taxpayers. They had an idea, pursued it and were successful. The way free markets were meant to work in this great country.

The problem for these two developers and any others is the fact that now they are competing against the City. When Government chooses to subsidize one project or another it goes into direct competition with the private sector, the private sector that pays taxes.

The Waterfront project contributes  more than three million dollars in taxes annually. That’s good for the City. If developers like these guys are forced into direct competition with Government, they’ll be driven out of business, and that’s bad for the city.

Many of these public/private partnerships end up costing taxpayers by taking the place of tax paying businesses.

I too want downtown Wichita to thrive and come to life. I want it to thrive and come to life on it’s own and if that’s truly what the people want then that is what will happen. Development and business will flock to where ever the money is being spent. Build it and they will come was Hollywood. What came were ghosts and ghosts don’t spend money. Ghosts make ghost towns.

It’s a simple matter of supplying a demand. If the citizens demand an area to be developed by spending money there, business will follow. Simple economics.