Good and Bad in Lafayette

The Lafayette City Council is mulling the SWOT analysis presented by Community Development Director Bonnie Star last week which identified a range of issues affecting the city from an economic point of view. I would add to the Threats/Weaknesses column a point regarding the specific debt items guaranteed to earmark X percentage of the budget going forward in the face of uncertain tax revenue income. (this may be covered under "weak general fund budget", but that's a bit vague).

I like the idea of a SWOT analysis being presented to a "new" Council, although only Alex Schatz is new to the Council, and he's actually up to speed on most issues anyway. So the SWOT analysis should be full of surprises to the Council, and I'm curious to see if any substantial changes in Council goals will result. Outside of Old Town merchants and possibly some eastern edge residents, I don't perceive much concern about the city's future. The election would have been different if there was a rising tide of discontent.