Question is why does the JDA not intervene in Ponte’s upgrade?

The JDA is a city agency, their focus is upgrading the public environment. The thinking is often that if investors, developers and communities see investment and care going into the city the JDA will respond and add to that investment. They call it a ripple pond effect. But they have difficulty with a private property. They are not entitled to invest public money and resources into a private development. This is a huge one and the understanding is that there is private investment going in Ponte, so the JDA would support it in certain ways, as they are doing in a lot of work within the vicinity but they wouldn’t directly upgrade Ponte. The other thing to consider is that the city owns a vast amount of properties and it has a responsibility to maintain those – which is their primary mandate. There are 66 000 stands, not individual properties but stands, under city ownership which is a huge maintenance burden. Thus their focus are those stands and properties.