How Unpredictable.

One year ago, the talk of the town was Lew Wolff's proposal to get land rezoned to finance construction of a soccer stadium. This awesome deal would rezone some of Lew's land to residential (despite Chuck's long-standing hatred of sacrificing industrial land for such a purpose) to increase its value. Yeah, Chuck hates doing that, but for a guy like Lew, no sweat. And, hey, what could go wrong?

Will economy tank stadium plans for A's, 49ers, Earthquakes? - El Mercurito

Lew Wolff, the multimillionaire developer who owns both the Quakes and the A's, has told the Mercury News he's no longer planning to immediately fund his projects — in San Jose and Fremont, respectively — with proceeds from planned residential developments.

He's also scaled back plans for the new Quakes stadium.

Wolff, whose past projects include San Jose's Fairmont and Hilton Hotels, said his financing group could probably still fund the 18,000-seat soccer stadium even without a hoped-for infusion of cash from a separate land deal that would need city approval.

Emphasis added.

That, my friends, is called a "hustle." So now, even though the economy is worse, you don't need the rezoning to make this work? That sure as hell wasn't the tune you were singing last year, Lew. So why, exactly, was that re-zoning so urgent? Why was it the right thing to do?

In our hastily crafted QuakesVote.com (motto: Now relevant again!), voters strongly supported the re-zoning, often articulating the need for this cash infusion to get the job done.

But few were advocating as strongly as our beloved Mayor. So what's the good word today, Chuck?

"Edenvale could be iffy," said San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed, noting that Wolff has nonetheless made an option payment on the stadium site. "Lew is a very creative, resourceful guy, and he'll probably figure something out."

Let me translate from down-home-Kansan: "Never mind!"

Let's not underestimate how much political capital Reed invested in this swap. It was his back-handed way of skipping a vote yet still delivering something of value to Wolff to make the stadium happen. And now we see that it wasn't needed.

Honesty and integrity has returned to City Hall, folks. Breathe that fresh air.