Just before the city council voted to approve the hotel Ms. Kane set forth her views in an opt-ed in the News & Observer.

Unlike the politicians – like Mayor Meeker – who criticized the hotel (but then voted for it) Ms. Kane did not pussy-foot around. She said flat out in her view the hotel should be built downtown: “Landmark buildings, including any extraordinarily tall ones, should be located downtown.” And she added even more bluntly that downtown “will suffer if the Glen-Tree Tower is approved” at Crabtree Valley.

Now, why is it ‘landmark buildings’ can’t be built in North, West, South, or anywhere else in Raleigh? Why are they only to be built downtown?

I’m afraid what Ms. Kane had the honesty to say – right out loud – is, in fact, pretty close to exactly how Mayor Meeker and some of his close allies on the City Council really feel. That downtown merits special treatment.

If not, why are they spending a billion dollars – as the city boasts – of taxpayers’ money on downtown rehab? And $190 million on a downtown convention center that appears ready to join a long list of convention centers across the nation that lose money? And $20 million to build a hotel downtown? It also looks like we may spend close to a billion dollars if the Triangle Transit Authority ever gets its Light Rail project (that goes downtown but not, say, to North Raleigh) off the launching pad.

No doubt a booming downtown would be fine. But what sense does it make to subsidize building a hotel with taxpayers’ money because it apparently can’t make enough money to pay for itself?

Mayor Meeker’s law firm received $75,000 in legal fees for work related to the new convention center but I suspect the mayor’s focus on downtown goes deeper than that. I suspect Mayor Meeker – and Ms. Kane – with all their talk of promotion and investment downtown have the best of intentions.

But it’s the taxpayers’ money they’re spending and they’re spending a lot of it. They wouldn’t be the first people to make a mistake with good intentions.