I was amused by John Austin's article regarding Urban Renewal in the Lifestyles section of the Press this past Sunday. Mr. Austin has, through his work with Panhandle Area Council, indeed created or advised a number of URA's in North Idaho, and has been a strong proponent of the art of "shoe-stringing" a practice used by many of those agencies to expand an urban renewal district by attaching it (by a narrow "shoestring" along a road) to an area that is experiencing growth, and taking the tax dollars created by that new growth to use to improve the original district.

Mr. Austin's article was certainly and unashamedly pro-urban renewal. He didn't mention that the "urban renewal" in Dover consisted primarily of providing reimbursement for the development of high-end homes and condos along the river and lake adjacent to Dover. Yes, there have been some improvements to Dover, but the majority of the tax dollars paid to the URA have been focused on infrastructure to support new homes and condos.

Indeed, in light of our current abundance of home and condo foreclosures, it is interesting to reflect that the majority of the property tax money we have contributed to the existing Urban Renewal Agencies has gone into residential and condominium development in Dover, along Sherman Street in Coeur d'Alene, in Riverstone, in Mill River (yes, we did get a call center . . .) and even in the East Post Falls district in Post Falls. Residential developments supplemented by tax dollars from homeowners who can't afford to purchase the high-end residential properties that they are subsidizing!

The recent announcement of the sale of almost $17 million in bonds by LCDC simply put means that YOUR tax dollars will be going to repay that money, including interest, over the next several years. Additionally, you should know that there is a small provision in the Urban Renewal Legislation, that allows a URA to EXTEND the life of any URA District to insure that all outstanding bonds or debt are fully repaid - so if your tax dollars aren't sufficient to make all of the required payments over the life of LCDC's two districts, they could extend those district lives for the period required to collect the amount of property taxes necessary to make full repayment. Perhaps Mr. Austin's article - rather than being called "A Tale of Two Cities," should be called the SALE of Two Cities.

LEN CROSBY

Post Falls