Gill DEMOLISHES LSU

He's just not going to stand for it anymore either.

Kudos to James Gill:

LSU is secretive, mean-spirited and focused only on the aggrandizement of the institution.

Wow.

The public will view LSU's pronouncements with the gravest suspicion from now on. LSU claimed it could save googobs of money by building adjacent to a new VA hospital, and sharing various services. Every developer seems to try the old "synergy" spiel these days, but this time it was more or less a con.

LSU was still bragging about all the money to be saved when architectural plans were released in January, showing two separate and independent buildings. In any case, the VA hospital is due to open in 2012, and cannot be designed to share anything with what is currently no more than a figment of LSU's imagination.

Even before LSU admitted as much a few days ago, it was well aware that its high-handed approach was not winning any hearts. But that was just too bad. "We are frankly sick and tired of people trying to define us as secretive, mean-spirited and focused only on the aggrandizement of the institution. We're simply not going to stand for it any more, " spokesman Charles Zewe said.

Well, what are you going to do about it, Charlie?

Charlie's going to continue to get upset. But he's going to continue to be on the wrong side of the issue and the wrong side of history. Big urban renewal projects that destroy historic neighborhoods in favor of huge parking lot-centric complexes are rarely judged as successes.